“Out of unmeasurable Complexities; one requires the ability to streamline and become Simple in Life…
In order to effectively and efficiently
address issues in our internal life
and ineluctably,
deal with
external forces that rip us open.”

Last update May 20, 2022. History

Related quotes

“Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“The U. S. has always insisted on its right to use force, whatever international law requires, and whatever international institutions decide.… The U. S., of course, is not alone in these practices. Other states commonly act in much the same way, if not constrained by external or internal forces.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

PBS, March 12, 1998 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/march98/intervention_3-12.html. <br class="br">Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999

“Pain that is not properly addressed, either becomes directed externally or internally or both. In the worst cases of all, this means suicide, murder or both.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

“Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life's pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways.”

Stephen Jay Gould book The Panda's Thumb

Prologue, p. 16
The Panda's Thumb (1980)

“Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1960s, The Quest for Peace and Justice (1964)
Context: Every man lives in two realms, the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live. Our problem today is that we have allowed the internal to become lost in the external. We have allowed the means by which we live to outdistance the ends for which we live. So much of modern life can be summarized in that arresting dictum of the poet Thoreau: "Improved means to an unimproved end". This is the serious predicament, the deep and haunting problem confronting modern man. If we are to survive today, our moral and spiritual "lag" must be eliminated. Enlarged material powers spell enlarged peril if there is not proportionate growth of the soul. When the "without" of man's nature subjugates the "within", dark storm clouds begin to form in the world.