Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Source: 1860s, Interview with Alexander W. Randall and Joseph T. Mills (1864)
Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Source: 1860s, Interview with Alexander W. Randall and Joseph T. Mills (1864)
Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist
Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)
Context: There is a reality outside the world, that is to say, outside space and time, outside man's mental universe, outside any sphere whatsoever that is accessible to human faculties.
Corresponding to this reality, at the centre of the human heart, is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.
Another terrestrial manifestation of this reality lies in the absurd and insoluble contradictions which are always the terminus of human thought when it moves exclusively in this world.
Just as the reality of this world is the sole foundation of facts, so that other reality is the sole foundation of good.
That reality is the unique source of all the good that can exist in this world: that is to say, all beauty, all truth, all justice, all legitimacy, all order, and all human behaviour that is mindful of obligations.
Those minds whose attention and love are turned towards that reality are the sole intermediary through which good can descend from there and come among men.
Although it is beyond the reach of any human faculties, man has the power of turning his attention and love towards it.
Nothing can ever justify the assumption that any man, whoever he may be, has been deprived of this power.
It is a power which is only real in this world in so far as it is exercised. The sole condition for exercising it is consent.
This act of consent may be expressed, or it may not be, even tacitly; it may not be clearly conscious, although it has really taken place in the soul. Very often it is verbally expressed although it has not in fact taken place. But whether expressed or not, the one condition suffices: that it shall in fact have taken place.
To anyone who does actually consent to directing his attention and love beyond the world, towards the reality that exists outside the reach of all human faculties, it is given to succeed in doing so. In that case, sooner or later, there descends upon him a part of the good, which shines through him upon all that surrounds him.
Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American statesman, Massachusetts governor, and political philosopher
The Rights of the Colonists (1772)
David Seth Doggett (1810–1880) American bishop
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 77.
“The intangible represents the real power of the universe. It is the seed of the tangible.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Part 6 "Beyond System — The Ultimate Source of Jeet Kune Do"
Jeet Kune Do (1997)
Thomas Hardy book Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Phase the Third: The Rally, ch. XVIII
Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891)
“Faith in the Word of Life is the strongest power that exists in the universe.”
Elias Aslaksen (1888–1976) Norwegian clergyman
Large poster displayed by Aslaksen at Brunstad Christian Chruch's 1975-1976 New Year's conference at Brunstad Conference Center
Foreword