“We know only fragmentarily this extraordinary thing called life”
Vol. XI, p. 288
Posthumous publications, The Collected Works
Context: We know only fragmentarily this extraordinary thing called life; we have never looked at sorrow, except through the screen of escapes; we have never seen the beauty, the immensity of death, and we know it only through fear and sadness. There can be understanding of life, and of the significance and beauty of death, only when the mind on the instant perceives “what is”. You know, sirs, although we differentiate them, love, death, and sorrow are all the same; because, surely, love, death, and sorrow are the unknowable. The moment you know love, you have ceased to love. Love is beyond time; it has no beginning and no end, whereas knowledge has; and when you say, “I know what love is”, you don’t. You know only a sensation, a stimulus. You know the reaction to love, but that reaction is not love. In the same way, you don’t know what death is. You know only the reactions to death, and you will discover the full depth and significance of death only when the reactions have ceased.
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Jiddu Krishnamurti 233
Indian spiritual philosopher 1895–1986Related quotes
This has sometimes been paraphrased: "The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them."
Source: The Alchemist (1988), p. 15.
“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
Variant: simple things are the most valuable and only wise people appreciate them".
Source: The Alchemist
“The simplest things in life are the most extraordinary. Let them reveal themselves.”
Variant: It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary.
Source: Manuscript Found in Accra
The Fresno Bee interview (2015)
Context: I’ve always liked working on stories that combine people who are relatable with something insane. … The most exciting thing for me is crossing that bridge between something we know is real and something that is extraordinary. The thing for me has always been how you cross that bridge.
Prologue, Page 18
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2011)
Google this: Jean Vanier and what it means to be human http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-briggs/google-this-jean-vanier-a_b_7484702.html Huffington Post, 02/06/2015
From interviews and talks
Source: Community And Growth
Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running