„You have to change your life if you’re not happy, and wake up if things aren’t going the way you want.“
— Keanu Reeves Canadian actor, director, producer and musician 1964
Quotes about life and people
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„Earlier in my life I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I've grown older I've become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can't see -- the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.“
— Jimmy Carter American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981) 1924
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„When faced with a decision, many people say they are waiting for God. But I understand, in most cases, God is waiting for me.“
— Andy Andrews author and corporate speaker 1959
„Chorus: O suitably attired in leather boots
Head of a traveller, wherefore seeking whom
Whence by what way how purposed art thou come
To this well-nightingaled vicinity?
My object in inquiring is to know.
But if you happen to be deaf and dumb
And do not understand a word I say,
Nod with your hand to signify as much.
Alcmaeon: I journeyed hither a Boeotian road.
Chorus: Sailing on horseback or with feet for oars?
Alcmaeon: Plying by turns my partnership of legs.
Chorus: Beneath a shining or a rainy Zeus?
Alcmaeon: Mud's sister, not himself, adorns my shoes.
Chorus: To learn your name would not displease me much.
Alcmaeon: Not all that men desire do they attain.“
— A.E. Housman English classical scholar and poet 1859 - 1936
"Fragment of a Greek Tragedy". This parody was first written in 1883, but quoted here from a revised version of 1927.
„She's mad, but she's magic. There's no lie in her fire.“
— Charles Bukowski American writer 1920 - 1994
„The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.“
— Horace Walpole English art historian, man of letters, antiquarian and Whig politician 1717 - 1797
As quoted in The Christian Leader, Vol. 37, Issue 7 (17 February 1934)
„All ancient philosophers, poets, and moralists agree that love is a striving, an aspiration of the “lower” toward the “higher,” the “unformed” toward the “formed,” … “appearance” towards “essence,” “ignorance” towards “knowledge,” a “mean between fullness and privation,” as Plato says in the Symposium. … The universe is a great chain of dynamic spiritual entities, of forms of being ranging from the “prima materia” up to man—a chain in which the lower always strives for and is attracted by the higher, which never turns back but aspires upward in its turn. This process continues up to the deity, which itself does not love, but represents the eternally unmoving and unifying goal of all these aspirations of love. Too little attention has been given to the peculiar relation between this idea of love and the principle of the “agon,” the ambitious contest for the goal, which dominated Greek life in all its aspects—from the Gymnasium and the games to dialectics and the political life of the Greek city states. Even the objects try to surpass each other in a race for victory, in a cosmic “agon” for the deity. Here the prize that will crown the victor is extreme: it is a participation in the essence, knowledge, and abundance of “being.” Love is only the dynamic principle, immanent in the universe, which sets in motion this great “agon” of all things for the deity.
Let us compare this with the Christian conception. In that conception there takes place what might be called a reversal in the movement of love. The Christian view boldly denies the Greek axiom that love is an aspiration of the lower towards the higher. On the contrary, now the criterion of love is that the nobler stoops to the vulgar, the healthy to the sick, the rich to the poor, the handsome to the ugly, the good and saintly to the bad and common, the Messiah to the sinners and publicans. The Christian is not afraid, like the ancient, that he might lose something by doing so, that he might impair his own nobility. He acts in the peculiarly pious conviction that through this “condescension,” through this self-abasement and “self-renunciation” he gains the highest good and becomes equal to God. …
There is no longer any “highest good” independent of and beyond the act and movement of love! Love itself is the highest of all goods! The summum bonum is no longer the value of a thing, but of an act, the value of love itself as love—not for its results and achievements. …
Thus the picture has shifted immensely. This is no longer a band of men and things that surpass each other in striving up to the deity. It is a band in which every member looks back toward those who are further removed from God and comes to resemble the deity by helping and serving them.“
— Max Scheler German philosopher 1874 - 1928
L. Coser, trans. (1961), pp. 85-88
„What is our life? A play of passion;
our mirth: the music of division;
our mother's wombs: the tiring houses be
where we are dressed for this short comedy.
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is
that sits and marks still who doth act amiss.
Our graves that hide us from the searching sun
are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus march we playing to our latest rest,
only we die in earnest, that's no jest.“
— Walter Raleigh English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer 1554 - 1618
"On the Life of Man" (1612)
„He that doth not as other men do, but endeavoureth that which ought to be done, shall thereby rather incur peril than preservation; for whoso laboureth to be sincerely perfect and good shall necessarily perish, living among men that are generally evil.“
— Walter Raleigh English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer 1554 - 1618
Chapter 25
„To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.“
— Reba McEntire American country music artist and actress 1955
„I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.“
— Solomon king of Israel and the son of David -1011 - -931 BC
Ecclesiastes, 1:13 http://bible.cc/ecclesiastes/1-13.htm, New American Standard Bible
„And also to the alien, who is not of Thy people Israel, but comes from a distant land on account of Thy fame; for hearing of Thy great name and Thy strong hand, and Thine outstretched arm, he comes to this house to pray... do Thou listen in the heavens, the place where Thou dwellest, and perform all that the alien begs of Thee, so that all the peoples of the earth may know Thy name, to fear Thee like Thine own people Israel, and to know that Thy name is proclaimed over this house that I have built.“
— Solomon king of Israel and the son of David -1011 - -931 BC
I Kings 8:41-43 on the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem
„It is better to be poor and walk in integrity than to be stupid and speak lies.“
— Solomon king of Israel and the son of David -1011 - -931 BC
Proverbs 19:1 http://www.jw.org/en/publications/bible/nwt/books/proverbs/19/
