If you think a thing is impossible, you'll make it impossible. Pessimism blunts the tools you need to succeed.
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 121
Source: Striking Thoughts (2000), p. 121
Source: Exploring the Crack In the Cosmic Egg (1974), p. 100-101
“The harebrained chatter of irresponsible frivolity.”
Speech, Guildhall, London (1878-11-09).
1870s
“Silence is of the gods; only monkeys chatter.”
Varanasi 2nd Public Talk (22 November 1964)
1960s
Context: You know, in the case of most of us, the mind is noisy, everlastingly chattering to itself, soliloquizing or chattering about something, or trying to talk to itself, to convince itself of something; it is always moving, noisy. And from that noise, we act. Any action born of noise produces more noise, more confusion. But if you have observed and learnt what it means to communicate, the difficulty of communication, the non-verbalization of the mind — that is, that communicates and receives communication—, then, as life is a movement, you will, in your action, move on naturally, freely, easily, without any effort, to that state of communion. And in that state of communion, if you enquire more deeply, you will find that you are not only in communion with nature, with the world, with everything about you, but also in communion with yourself.
Foreword
A Night of Serious Drinking (1938)
“All true language
is incomprehensible,
Like the chatter
of a beggar’s teeth.”
Ci-Gît.
“Don’t go chattering to the stars if you’re going to do it with your eyes closed.”
Source: Nova (1968), Chapter 7 (p. 197)
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 23.
Context: To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The natural laziness of the mind tempts one to eschew authors who demand a continuous effort of intelligence. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.
People tell me that they must read the papers so as to know what is going on. In the first place, they could hardly find a worse guide. Most of what is printed turns out to be false, sooner or later. Even when there is no deliberate deception, the account must, from the nature of the case, be presented without adequate reflection and must seem to possess an importance which time shows to be absurdly exaggerated; or vice versa. No event can be fairly judged without background and perspective.
