“Everywhere we seek the Absolute, and always we find only things.”

Quoted in James Fadiman and Robert Frager, eds., Essential Sufism (Castle Books, 1998, ISBN 0-7858-0906-6, p. 37. <br class="br">Quoted earlier in &quot; Translations of Eastern Poetry and Prose https://archive.org/stream/translationsofea00nich#page/140/mode/2up/search/impossible&quot; by RA Nicholson (p.140) (Macmillan, 1922)

"Zenshu," Collected Works, vol. 15 (Tokyo: Daihorinkaku, 1966), p. 336

Source: Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks (posthumous), p. 30

Section 57
The True Believer (1951), Part Three: United Action and Self-Sacrifice
Context: We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength.

Source: The Secret History

The Humanist interview (2012)
Context: There were never that many women stand-up comics in the past because the power to make people laugh is also a power that gets people upset. But the ones who were performing were making jokes on themselves usually and now that’s changed. So there are no rules exactly but I think if you see a whole group of people only being self-deprecating, it’s a problem.
But I have always employed humor, and I think it’s absolutely crucial that we do because, among other things, humor is the only free emotion. I mean, you can compel fear, as we know. You can compel love, actually, if somebody is isolated and dependent — it’s like the Stockholm syndrome. But you can’t compel laughter. It happens when two things come together and make a third unexpectedly. It happens when you learn something, too. I think it was Einstein who said he had to be careful when he shaved because if he thought of something suddenly, he’d laugh and cut himself.
So I think laughter is crucial. Some of the original cultures, like the Dalit and the Native American, don’t separate laughter and seriousness. There’s none of this kind of false Episcopalian solemnity.

Source: Passion and Purity

Source: Rebel Angels