Quotes about vision
page 15

“Idea or Vision, in its sensuous meaning, would be something that could be perceived only by the bodily eye and not by any other sense such as taste, hearing, etc.; it would be such a thing as a rainbow, or the forms which pass before us in dreams. Idea or Vision, in its supersensuous meaning, would denote, first of all, in conformity with the sphere in which the word is to be valid, something that cannot be perceived by the body at all, but only by the mind; and then, something that cannot, as many other things can, be perceived by the dim feeling of the mind, but only by the eye of the mind, by clear perception.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte book Address to the German Nation

The Chief Difference Between The Germans And The Other Peoples Of Teutonic Descent p. 59
Addresses to the German Nation (Reden an die deutsche Nation) 1808, Fourth Address

Sense, Idea, Dreams, Feeling

“This atmosphere of the Spirit-World, this creating and combining element, is Light—this originally: Warmth, if it do not again exhale, but bear within itself an element of duration, is but the first manifestation of this Light. In the Darkness of mere earthly vision, all things stand divided from each other; each individual thing isolated by means of the cold and unillumined Matter in which it is embraced. But in this Darkness there is no Unity. The Light of Religion arises!—and all things burst forth and rush towards each other in reciprocal order and dependence, and float on together, as a united Whole, in the One, Eternal, and All-embracing flood of Light. This Light is mild, silent, refreshing and wholesome to the eye. In the Twilight of mere Earthly vision the dim shapes which crowd in confusion around us are feared, and therefore hated. In the Light of Religion all things are pleasing, and shed around them calmness and peace. In it all unlovely shapes disappear, and all things float in the glowing Ether of Love.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) German philosopher

Source: The Characteristics of the Present Age (1806), p. 268

Peace, Religion, Hate, Dependency

“When Machiavelli came to the end of his life, he had a vision shortly before giving up the ghost. He saw a small company of poor scoundrels, all in rags, ill-favoured, famished, and, in short, in as bad plight as possible. He was told that these were the inhabitants of paradise, of whom it is written, Beati pauperes, quoniam ipsorum est regnum caelorum.”

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, Writer and Author

After they withdrew, innumerable serious and majestic personages appeared, who seemed to be sitting in a senate-house and dealing with the most important affairs of state. Among them he saw Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Plutarch, Tacitus, and others of similar character; but he was told at the same time that those venerable personages, notwithstanding their appearance, were the damned, and the souls rejected by heaven, for Sapientia huius saeculi, inimica est Dei.. After this, he was asked to which of the groups he would choose to belong; he answered that he would much rather be in Hell with those great geniuses, to converse with them about affairs of state, than be condemned to the company of the verminous scoundrels that he had first been shown.
This account of Machiavelli's "Dream" was not published until a century after his death, in Etienne Binet's Du salut d'Origene (1629).
There is an earlier but more oblique reference in a letter written by Giovambattista Busini in 1549: "Upon falling ill, [Machiavelli] took his usual pills and, becoming weaker as the illness grew worse, told his famous dream to Filippo [Strozzi], Francesco del Nero, Iacopo Nardi and others, and then reluctantly died, telling jokes to the last.".
The "Dream" is commonly condensed into a more pithy form, such as "I desire to go to hell, and not to heaven. In the former place I shall enjoy the company of popes, kings, and princes, while in the latter are only beggars, monks, hermits, and apostles".
Disputed
Source: Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
Source: The wisdom of this world is the enemy of God
Source: [Estienne, Binet, Du Salut D'Origene, 1629, Paris, Sebastien Cramoisy, 359-361, French, https://books.google.com/books?id=1yjDNfQatgQC&q=Plutarque&f=false]. Original French: On arrive à ce detestable poinct d'honneur, où arriva Machiauel sur la fin de sa vie: car il eut cette illusion peu deuant que rendre son esprit. II vit un tas de pauures gens, comme coquins, deschirez, affamez, contrefaits, fort mal en ordre, & en assez petit nombre, on luy dit que c'estoit ceux de Paradis, desquels il estoit ecrit: "Beati pauperes, quoniam ipsorum est regnum cælorum". Ceux-cy estans retirez, on fit paroistre vn nombre innombrable de personnages pleins de grauité & de majesté, on les voyoit comme un Senat, où on traitoit d'affaires d'estat, & fort serieuses, il entrevid Platon, Aristote, Seneque, Plutarque, Tacite, & d'autres de cette qualité. II demanda qui estoient ces Messieurs-là si venerables, on luy dit que c'estoient les damnez, & que c'estoient des ames reprouuées du Ciel, "Sapientia huius sæculi, inimica est Dei". Cela estant passé, on luy demanda desquels il vouloit estre. II respondit, qu'il aymoit beaucoup mieux estre en enfer auec ces grands esprits, pour deuiser auec eux des affaires d'Estat, que d'estre auec cette vermine de ces belistres qu'on luy auoit fait voir.
Source: [Lettere di Giovambattista Busini a Benedetto Varchi, Italian, Giovanni Battista, Busini, Gaetano Milanese (ed.), Florence, Felice le Monnier, 1860, 84-85, https://books.google.com/books?id=d5EKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22queste+pillole%22#v=snippet&q=%22queste%20pillole%22&f=false]. Original Italian: Ammalato cominciò a pigliar di queste pillole, ed a indebolire ed aggravar nel male; onde raccontò quel tanto celebrato sogno a Filippo, a Francesco del Nero ed a Iacopo Nardi, e ad altri, e cosi si morì malissimo contento, burlando.
Source: [The Last Words (real and Traditional) of Distinguished Men and Women, Frederic Rowland, Marvin, 178, Revell, 1902, https://books.google.com/books?id=SrEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA178&dq=Hell+Heaven+%22enjoy+the+company+of+popes%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7x9SZzdDJAhUE-2MKHaO_CBkQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q&f=false]

Bad luck, Life

“This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary market insights. Nor even is it about having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies.”

James C. Collins book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

What is a visionary company? Visionary companies are premier institutions -- the crown jewels -- in their industries, widely admired by their peers and having a long track record of making a significant impact on the world around them. The key point is that a visionary company is an organization -- an institution. All individual leaders, no matter how charismatic or visionary, eventually die; and all visionary products and services -- all "great ideas" -- eventually become obsolete. Indeed, entire markets can become obsolete and disappear. Yet visionary companies prosper over long periods of time, through multiple product life cycles and multiple generations of active leaders.
Book abstract, as cited in: Joe Kelly, ‎Louise Kelly (1998), An Existential-systems Approach to Managing Organizations. p. 256
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, 1994

Books

“Father, I am greatly disturbed by a vision which has appeared to me through divine revelation, a vision seen not with my fleshly eyes but only in my spirit. Wretched, and indeed more than wretched in my womanly condition, I have from earliest childhood seen great marvels which my tongue has no power to express but which the Spirit of God has taught me that I may believe.”

Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) Medieval saint, prophetise, mystic and Doctor of Church

Steadfast and gentle father, in your kindness respond to me, your unworthy servant, who has never, from her earliest childhood, lived one hour free from anxiety. In your piety and wisdom look in your spirit, as you have been taught by the Holy Spirit, and from your heart bring comfort to your handmaiden.
Letter to Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, 1146-47

Childhood, God, Appearance

“A quiet strength of character was his hallmark. He never looked back once he undertook a step, indeed as he did when he left Aligarh is response to Gandhiji’s call…Deeply inspired and influenced by Gandhiji, he was determined to translate into reality a dream of an educational institution which would give Swaraj a wholesome dimension in education and would nurture intellectual leadership for independent India. Thus was born Jamia Milia, a unique national institution and an innovative experiment in education. Today, as Central University, Jamia Milia is a thriving monument for his tireless and unprecedented vision.”

Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India

Khurshid Alam Khan in: Foreword.
About Zakir Hussain, Quest for Truth (1999)

Universe, Education, Reality, Dreams

“Basically a leader of peasant community in the north and had not tackled a broad vision. He cannot be called a true Gandhian because a true Gandhian cannot be for office only.”

Charan Singh (1902–1987) prime minister of India

Morarji Desai in: P.230
Profiles of Indian Prime Ministers

Communication

“Behind the the scenes of the fantastic success of Operation Flood is the nearly invisible skillful guding hand, vision and the brilliant mind and the unique management skill of Kurien.”

Verghese Kurien (1921–2012) Indian founder of dairy-cooperative Amul

By Norman Borlauge in "Our Leaders".

Success

“He produced, directed, processed and did everything to make the first Indian feature film Raja Harishchandra. Unlike most film makers of those days, Phalke did not have the westernized audience in mind. His vision was to use the medium to narrate an Indian story to the audience.”

Dadasaheb Phalke (1870–1944) Indian producer-director-screenwriter

In [Khandekar, Vanita Kohli-, The Indian Media Business, http://books.google.com/books?id=1C4nAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA176, 3 October 2013, SAGE Publications, 978-81-321-1788-9, 176]

Making love

“Narayana Murthy overcame many obstacles and demonstrated that is possible to create a world-class, values-driven company in India. Through his vision and leadership Murthy sparked a wave of innovation and entrepreneurship that changed the way we view ourselves and how the world views India.”

N. R. Narayana Murthy (1946) Indian businessman

Bill Gates in "Better India, A Better World".

World, Way, Change

“Every once in a blue moon, is born a person, who has the clarity of vision, and the greatness of deed, to make us all recognize the dizzying heights the human spirit can really achieveŠBaba Amte is one of those people.”

Baba Amte (1914–2008) Indian freedom fighter, social worker

By Neesha Mirchandani
Baba Amte's Words of Wisdom

Personality, Making love, People

“An Indian with a measure of European blood, she returned to India to shed her acquired skin…. She saw her country with new vision and has left a legacy of pictures simple and grand…as a tribute to the Indian countryside and its people.”

Amrita Sher-Gil (1913–1941) Hungarian Indian artist

Maic Casey in [Mitter, Partha, The Triumph of Modernism: India's Artists and the Avant-garde, 1922-1947, http://books.google.com/books?id=krdWkzVLSbkC&pg=PA236, 2007, Reaktion Books, 978-1-86189-318-5, 45]

People, Country

“You read a lot of crap about photographic craftsmanship in those days, and technique; but you didnt hear shit about vision. I knew that I had an eye, a gift for seeing where the ripped edges of the world begin to peel away and something else shows through.”

Elizabeth Hand book Generation Loss

Source: Generation Loss (2007), Ch. 1

World, Reading

“United always had many amazing players, but whenever we faced them we were always, always, always scared of what Paul Scholes could do. Ask anyone from that old Arsenal team, they will tell you the same. If you let him play, he can kill you, and for me he was so underrated. The way he plays: one touch, arriving late into the box, the way he strikes the ball, his vision, his passing. Incredible. I know people used to give him some stick for his tackling, but I liked that. He put his foot in, showed some character, had a go, but I liked that about him too. For me he is one of the best midfielders I have ever seen.”

Paul Scholes (1974) English footballer

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/henry-i-was-scared-of-incredible-scholes
Thierry Henry

Way, Box, People

“His book has the force of a mob-protest; an outcry from anonymous throats. The wheel turns and turns and it does not matter, one hardly notices that the captain of the company, killed on page 159, is alive again a hundred pages later. It does not matter that every stock situation of the war, suicide, the murder of an officer, the slaughter of prisoners, a vision of Christ, is apportioned to Company K, because the book is not written in any realistic convention. It is the only War-book I have read which has found a new form to fit the novelty of the protest. The prose is bare, lucid, without literary echoes, not an imitation but a development of eighteenth-century prose.”

William March (1893–1954) United States Marine, novelist, short story writer

In a Graham Greene review of the novel Company K for the newspaper The Spectator.

Reading, War, Books, Christ

“You’d be alone in the kitchen and twilight would be dwindling, and you could hear the far off cries of the other children playing nearby. You’d be alone in the kitchen because it was your special treat time, where the jelly would come out just for you, and your mother would appear at your side just as a vision of Laura Ashley print dress, smelling of magnolias and biscuits and put the jelly in front of you, and you would pull your chair in. Then the old fashioned bar of ice cream would come down, the one that had to be cut with a breadknife before the two sides were flanked with wafers. You would lift your little spoon up excitedly and winkle out that first divet of black jelly… AND THEN THE CAGE COMES DOWN! The cage with the Japanese fighting spiders inside, your mother strikes a match off her forearm and tells you to dance in the front room for money… You, you never forget that shit, I mean it never goes away.”

Dylan Moran (1971) Irish actor and comedian

Like, Totally (2006)

Money, Time, Forgetting, Children

“Ours is not only a fortunate people, but a very commonsensical people, with vision high, but their feet on the earth, with belief in themselves and faith in God. Whether enemies threaten from without or menaces arise from within, there is some indefinable voice saying, Have confidence in the Republic. America will go on.”

Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) American politician, 29th president of the United States (in office from 1921 to 1923)

Here is the sample of liberty no storms may shake. Here are the altars of freedom no factions shall destroy. It was American in conception, American in its building. It shall be American in the fulfillment. Factional once, we are all American now. And we mean to be all Americans to all the world.
1920s, The American Soldier (1920)

God, Confidence, Faith, People

“Images, memories, fragmentary shapes and forms — all those sensations, visions, half-thoughts that appear and disappear in the wink of an eye, as one sets forth to meet…. The path also disappears as I think of it, as I say it.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Source: The Monkey Grammarian (1974), Ch. 1

Thinking, Appearance, Memory

“Utopia is a meta-utopia: the environment in which Utopian experiments may be tried out; the environment in which people are free to do their own thing; the environment which must, to a great extent, be realized first if more particular Utopian visions are to be realized stably.”

Robert Nozick book Anarchy, State, and Utopia

Source: Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Ch. 10 : A Framework for Utopia; The Framework, p. 312

People

“A glimpse heavenward at a constellation or even at a single star only suggests infinity; actually our vision is limited. We cannot perceive unlimited space; it is immeasurable. The universe, as we know it through our visual experience, is limited. It first came into existence with the formation of matter, and will end with the complete dissolution of matter.”

Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) American artist

'Search for the Real in the Visual Arts', p. 43
Search for the Real and Other Essays (1948)

Universe, Star

“You are not here merely to prepare to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget this errand.”

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)

“Ideals of College” http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&pg=PA15&dq=%22You+are+not+here+merely%22, Swarthmore (25 October 1913) 1910s

World, Forgetting, Making love, Hope

“It is in the animal part of your nature to be most impressed by what you can see and hear in the present—the latest news reports and trends, the opinions and actions of the people around you, whatever seems the most dramatic. This is what makes you fall for alluring schemes that promise quick results and easy money. This is also what makes you overreact to present circumstances—becoming overly exhilarated or panicky as events turn one direction or the other. Learn to measure people by the narrowness or breadth of their vision; avoid entangling yourself with those who cannot see the consequences of their actions, who are in a continual reactive mode. They will infect you with this energy. Your eyes must be on the larger trends that govern events, on that which is not immediately visible. Never lose sight of your long-term goals. With an elevated perspective, you will have the patience and clarity to reach almost any objective.”

Robert Greene (1959) American author

Chap. 6 : Elevate Your Perspective
The Laws of Human Nature (2018)

Money, People, Learning, Nature

“America must get to work. In the chilled climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing winds. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred, and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that buried its head in the sand waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education, or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and timeless absence of moral leadership. We must dissent, because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.”

Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

Speech delivered on September 6, 1990, before the Annual Judicial Conference of the Second Circuit, quoted in Supreme Justice Speeches and Writings Thurgood Marshall. Edited by J. Clay Smith, Jr. (2002).

Waiting, Indifference, Hope, Education

“Art is an act of the soul, not of the intellect. When we are dealing with people's dreams — their visions, really — we are in the realm of the sacred. We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own. We invoke the Great Creator when we invoke our own creativity, and that creative force has the power to alter lives, fulfill destinies, and answer our dreams.”

Julia Cameron (1948) American writer

Inspirations : Meditations from The Artist's Way (2001), "Invocation"

Soul, Dreams, People, Art

“The artist, however faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an officious state. The great artist is thus a solitary figure. He has, as Frost said, a lover's quarrel with the world. In pursuing his perceptions of reality, he must often sail against the currents of his time. This is not a popular role. If Robert Frost was much honored in his lifetime, it was because a good many preferred to ignore his darker truths. Yet in retrospect, we see how the artist's fidelity has strengthened the fiber of our national life. If sometimes our great artist have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1963, Speech at Amherst College

Faith, Time, Justice, Country

“We are no longer ambitious for ourselves, but are rather inspired by the vision of a healed world. Inspiration rearranges our energies. It sources within us a new power and direction. We no longer feel like we’re trying to carry a football to the finish line, clutching it to our chest and surrounded by hostile forces. We feel instead as though angels are pushing us from behind and making straight our path as we go.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" (1992), Ch. 7 : Work, §9 : Sales to Service

Hostility, Angels, World, Football

“Woe to him who in passing should hurl an insult at this gentle and pensive head. He would be punished, as all vulgar souls are punished, by his very vulgarity, and by his incapacity to conceive what is divine. This man, from his granite pedestal, will point out to all men the way of blessedness which he found; and ages hence, the cultivated traveler, passing by this spot, will say in his heart, "The truest vision ever had of God came, perhaps, here."”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Ernest Renan, at the dedication of a statue to Spinoza in 1882, as quoted in The Story of Philosophy (1962) http://caute.net.ru/spinoza/aln/durant.htm by Will Durant M - R, Friedrich Nietzsche

Soul, God, Heart, Age

“Our ability to block our experience is an evolutionary dead end. Rather than experiencing and transforming pain, conflict, and fear, we often divert or dampen them with a kind of unwitting hypnosis. Over a lifetime, more and more stress accumulates. There is no release, and our consciousness narrows. The floodlight shrinks into the slender beam of a flashlight. We lose the vividness of colors, sensitivity to sounds, peripheral vision, sensitivity to others, emotional intensity. The spectrum of awareness becomes ever narrower.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Three, Brains Changing, Minds Changing

Fear, Pain, Color, Dead

“The capacity for denial is an example of the body's sometimes short-sighted vision. Some of the body's automatic responses hurt over the long run more than they help. The formation of scar tissue, for example, prevents the nerves in the spine from reconnecting after an accident. In many injuries, swelling causes more damage than the original trauma.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Three, Brains Changing, Minds Changing

Hurt, Help

“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands,
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.”

T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)

Question, Time, Indecision, Tea

“Who else is there to write for, as far as I’m concerned. I’d rather go ahead and tap into these kids, who still are malleable, but who also have insight into things that we don’t know, with vision that we no longer have; who have imaginations that have already been zapped from us.”

Jason Reynolds (1983) author of young adult novels

As quoted in [McKenzie, Joi-Marie, Why Author Jason Reynolds Writes For The Youngest Generation, https://www.essence.com/entertainment/author-jason-reynolds/, Essence, 10 March 2020, February 12, 2020]

Imagination

“We want Jesus as the visibly resurrected one, as the splendid, transfigured Jesus. We want his visible power and glory, and we no longer want to return to the cross, to believing against all appearances, to suffering in faith … it is good here... let us make dwellings. …
The disciples are not allowed to do this. God's glory comes quite near in the radiant cloud of God's presence, and the Father's voice says: "This is my beloved son; listen to him!" … There is no abiding in and enjoying his visible glory here. Whoever recognizes the transfigured Jesus, whoever recognizes Jesus as God, must also immediately recognize Him as the crucified human being, and should hear him, obey him. Luther's vision of Christ: "the crucified Lord!"”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

… Now the disciples are overcome by fear. Now they comprehend what is going on. They were, after all, still in the world, unable to bear such glory. They sinned against God's glory.

p. 3
Meditations on the Cross (1996), Back to the Cross

God, Faith, Suffering, Christ

“The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil. The "reasonable" people's failure is obvious. With the best intentions and a naive lack of realism, they think that with a little reason they can bend back into position the framework that has got out of joint. In their lack of vision they want to do justice to all sides, and so the conflicting forces wear them down with nothing achieved. Disappointed by the world's unreasonableness, they see themselves condemned to ineffectiveness; they step aside in resignation or collapse before the stronger party.
Still more pathetic is the total collapse of moral fanaticism. Fanatics think that their single-minded principles qualify them to do battle with the powers of evil; but like a bull they rush at the red cloak instead of the person who is holding it; they exhaust themselves and are beaten. They get entangled in non-essentials and fall into the trap set by cleverer people.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Letters and Papers from Prison (1967; 1997), Who Stands Fast?, p. 4

Justice, Light, Personality, People

“Always, the vision of evolution toward the light. Light is the oldest and most pervasive metaphor in spiritual experience. We speak of enlightenment, the city of light, the Light of the World, children of light, the "white-light experience."”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Eleven, Spiritual Adventure: Connection to the Source

Light, World, Children

“Whose American dream? The dream is a chameleon; it has changed again and again. For the first immigrants, America was a continent to explore and exploit, a haven for the unwanted and the dissenters—a new beginning. Gradually the dream became an ascetic and idealized image of democracy, bespeaking the age-old hope for justice and selfgovernance. All too quickly, that dream metamorphosed into an expansionist, materialist, nationalist, and even imperialist vision of wealth and domination—paternalism, Manifest Destiny. Yet even then, there was a competing Transcendentalist vision: excellence, spiritual riches, the unfolding of the latent gifts of the individual.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer

The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Five, The American Matrix for Transformation

Democracy, Justice, Wealth, Dreams

“In other words, gurus generalize from their own experience. Some gurus are inclined to believe that all humanity should accept their vision: others allege that, when the last trump sounds, their own followers will be saved, whilst the majority of mankind will remain unredeemed. This apparently arrogant assumption is closely connected with certain features of personality displayed by a variety of gurus.”

Anthony Storr (1920–2001) English psychiatrist

Introduction (p. XII–XIII)
Feet of Clay; Saints, Sinners, and Madmen: A Study of Gurus (1996, 1997)

Personality

“I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"... the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific... People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the "avatar" of all this.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

"The Origins of the Beat Generation" in Playboy (June 1959)

Childhood, People

“The actions that move the world have been prompted and inspired by dreams and visions. The search for the philosopher's stone laid the foundations of modern chemistry; modern travel and geography owe their chief advances to the search for the fabled realm of Cathay.”

Walter Raleigh (professor) (1861–1922) British academic

p. 15 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002032470974;view=1up;seq=31 English Voyages of the Sixteenth Century (1906)

World, Travel, Dreams, Search

“The early days of esto no tiene nombre were the happiest time in my life. I had a vision, I had hope, and I was not alone. There was a lot of love going around then — sexual love, spiritual love, friendship love, literature love, publishing love. Perfect love.”

Tatiana de la tierra (1961–2012) Latina writer and activist

On her time working for the lesbian magazine esto no tiene nombre (as quoted in “Celebrating Tatiana De La Tierra And The Latina Lesbian Zine Culture Of The '90s” https://bust.com/books/194419-tatiana-de-la-tierra-zine-culture.html in Bust Magazine)

Time, Friendship, Hope, Perfection

“If you think you see both
Destruction and becoming,
Then you see destruction and becoming
Through impaired vision.”

Nagarjuna Mūlamadhyamakakārikā

§ 20.11
Mūlamadhyamakakārikā

Thinking

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

(Proverbs 29:18) Christian transhumanists see science and technology as the key to bring lasting peace and hasten the Second Coming of Christ.
The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Leadership, People

“Emotional intelligence is the foundation of leadership. It balances flexibility with toughness, vision with passion, compassion with justice.”

Amit Ray (1960) Indian author

Mindfulness Meditation for Corporate Leadership and Management (2017)

Passion, Intelligence, Justice

“Socialism always begins with a universal vision for the brotherhood of man and ends with people having to eat their own pets.”

Toby Young (1963) British journalist

Twitter
Source: https://order-order.com/2019/06/14/toby-young-destroys-socialism-one-sentence/

Universe, People

“Technology revolutionaries succeeded not because of some collectivist vision that seeks to regulate “fairness”, “neutrality”, “privacy” or “competition” through coercive state actions, or that views the Internet and technology as a vast commons that must be freely available to all, but rather because of the same belief as America’s Founders who understood that private property is the foundation of prosperity and freedom itself. Technology revolutionaries succeed because of the decentralized nature of the Internet, which defies government control. As a consequence, decentralization has unlocked individual self-empowerment, entrepreneurialism, creativity, innovation and the creation of new markets in ways never before imagined in human history...Around the world, the real threat to Internet freedom comes not from bad people or inefficient markets -- we can and will always route around them -- but from governments' foolish attempts to manage and control innovation. And it is not just the tyrannies we must fear. The road away from freedom is paved with good intentions.”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

2012-07-06
Rand Paul Wants to Save the Internet, Conservative-Style
Alex
Fitzpatrick
Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/07/06/ron-rand-paul-internet-freedom/
2015-03-01

Imagination, History, Freedom, Bad luck

“Unless the intensity of our defense of life matches the ferocity of the assault against it, we allow a greater violence to grow exponentially until an earth once teeming with life becomes a mass graveyard, a battered wasteland, and a toxic cesspool. Then, when it is finally too late, the unfortunates who remain will grasp what the radicals tried to convey: what the logic of growth and capitalism finally wrought, the colossal failure of human vision and will, and the complicity of pacifism with the greatest violence of all.”

Steven Best (1955) American activist

Source: The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century (2014), Chapter 3 "The Paralysis of Pacifism: In Defense of Militant Direct Action" (p. 78)

Life, Failure

“Leadership requires two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate it.”

Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker

Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

World, Communication

“Our visions are the world we imagine, the tangible results of what the world would look like if we spent every day in pursuit of our WHY.”

Simon Sinek (1973) British/American author and motivational speaker

Source: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

World, Imagination

“Initiation leads to the mount whence vision can be had, a vision of the eternal Now, wherein past, present, and future exist as one.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Initiation, Human and Solar (1922), p. 13

Past, Future

“Out-of-body experiences aim to shed the senses, but they cannot. One may see from a new perspective, but it’s still an experience of vision.”

Diane Ackerman book A Natural History of the Senses

Postscript (p. 301)
A Natural History of the Senses (1990)

Sense

“The kingdom of music is not the kingdom of this world; it will accept those whom breeding and intellect and culture have alike rejected. The common place person begins to play, and shoots into the empyrean without effort, whilst we look up, marvelling how he has escaped us, and thinking how we could worship him and love him, would he but transalate his visions into human words, and his experiences into human actions.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View (1908), Ch. 3

Personality, Music, Thinking, World

“All groups involved in esoteric work have their own dharma or duty and all have their peculiar objective. In order that you may clearly vision what you, as aspirants to discipleship have to do, and so intelligently cooperate, I will concisely state the purpose:”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Glamour: A World Problem (1950), Certain Preliminary Clarifications

Intelligence

“Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost
Minute by minute, day by dragging day,
In all the thousand, small, uncaring ways,
The smooth appeasing compromises of time,
Which are King Herod and King Herod's men,
Always and always. Life can be
Lost without vision but not lost by death,
Lost by not caring, willing, going on
Beyond the ragged edge of fortitude
To something more — something no man has ever seen.
You who love money, you who love yourself,
You who love bitterness, and I who loved
and lost and thought I could not love again,
And all the people of this little town,
Rise up! The loves we had were not enough.
Something is loosed to change the shaken world,
And with it we must change!”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Innkeeper's wife
Source: A Child is Born (1942)

Money, Time, Death, People

“God pity us indeed, for we are human,
And do not always see
The vision when it comes, the shining change,
Or, if we see it, do not follow it,
Because it is too hard, too strange, too new,
Too unbelievable, too difficult,
Warring too much with common, easy ways,
And now I know this, standing in this light,
Who have been half alive these many years,
Brooding on my own sorrow, my own pain,
Saying "I am a barren bough. Expect
Nor fruit nor blossom from a barren bough."”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Innkeeper's wife
Source: A Child is Born (1942)

God, Pain, Light, War

“We will pick up the threads from the visit of the president of Pakistan. We will increasingly endeavor to revise the vision of the relationship of peace, friendship and cooperation with Pakistan.”

Jaswant Singh (1938–2020) Indian politician and retired army officer

As Minister of External Affairs, His career events [citation needed]

Peace, Friendship

“Study in one school of psychology came to what seemed a terrible conclusion. It was the school of Lombroso in Italy. He declared, and many others followed him, that the visions of the prophets, of the saints, of the seers, all their testimony to the existence of superphysical worlds, were the products of disordered brains, of diseased or over-strained nervous apparatus. He went further, and he declared that the manifestation known as genius was closely allied to insanity, that the brain of the genius and the brain of the madman were akin, until the phrase "genius is allied to madness," became the stock axiom of that school.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Essays and Addresses, Vol. III- Evolution and Occultism (1913)

School, Study, World, Madness

“Three times I have "gone" to a place that I cannot find words to describe accurately. Again, it is this vision, this interpretation, the temporary visitation to this "place" or state of being that brings the message we have heard so often throughout the history of man. I am sure that this may be part of the ultimate heaven as our religions conceive it It must also be the nirvana, the Samadhi, the supreme experience related to us by the mystics of the ages.”

Robert Monroe (1915–1995) American founder of The Monroe Institute

Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Chapter 8. Because the Bible Tells Me So

Religion, Time, History, Age

“Too much you've view'd, too poignantly you've felt,
Too long on human sufferings we've dwelt;
These woful visions shift, but scenes appear,
Which tho' less painful, cause the conscious tear.”

Isaac Gompertz (1774–1856)

"Time", Part IV, pp. 199–200
Time, or Light and Shade (1815)

Suffering, Pain, Appearance, Tear

“For more than three decades the Americans had been gradually sliding into isolationism and industrial decline. Space, he thought ruefully, they should have gone into space. He'd never understood the strange paralysis of will that had seemed to grip their brilliant early efforts. Or perhaps it was simply a failure of imagination, of vision.”

William Gibson Burning Chrome

"Red Star, Winter Orbit"
Burning Chrome (short story anthology, 1986)

Imagination, Failure, Effort

“Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit by which Nature herself is animated. It is the joy of the intellect which sees clearly into the Universe and which recreates it, with conscientious vision. Art is the most sublime mission of man, since it is the expression of thought seeking to understand the world and to make it understood.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

Preface, p. 7-8
1910s, Art, 1912

Understanding, Search, Art, Pleasure

“. We should nurture great minds of the future, not tunnel their vision.”

Kate Williams (historian) (1974) British historian

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-41777200
Historian Kate Williams on Tory and Labour policies
BBC
27 October 2017
2 May 2021

Future

“The industrial landscape is already littered with remains of once successful companies that could not adapt their strategic vision to altered conditions of competition.”

Ralph Abernathy (1926–1990) American Civil Rights Movement leader

Success

“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”

Denis Waitley (1933) American writer

Future, Dreams, Life

“Hope is the vision of God in His perfect Beauty.”

Al-Qushayri (986–1072) philosopher

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p. 104

Perfection, God, Beauty, Hope

“Whosoever by God's grace sees Him sees not creatures. He who attains to the vision of the Lord is lost to himself.”

Abu al-Hassan al-Kharaqani (963–1033) Iranian Sufi (963–1033)

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p. 93

God

“We must build strength and maintain vision. That requires inexorable efforts for reform and integration. Reform is a driving force behind growth, and integration is a stepping-stone for a take-off.”

Roh Moo-hyun (1946–2009) 9th President of the Republic of Korea

Excerpts from inaugural address (25 February 2003)

Effort

“I love anybody who's willing to stick to their own vision, their own voice, who's not easily swayed by money or by financiers who are going to tell them what they should do.”

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (1984) American actress and singer

"Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Honestly" in Interview Magazine (10 October 2012) https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/mary-elizabeth-winstead-smashed

Money, Love

“What we need to just connect all the dots is leadership that has that sense of bold aspiration, urgent action, and community-based vision.”

Michelle Wu (1985) City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts

28 September 2020 in "Michelle Wu’s personal path to politics" https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/michelle-wus-personal-path-to-politics/ in Commonwealth Magazine 2020

Communication, Sense

“Suicidal people have tunnel vision - no other choice seems possible. A counselor’s job is to put windows and doors in that tunnel.”

Diane Ackerman (1948) Author, poet, naturalist

People, Suicide

“I have a vision and not a mere dream.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Dreams

“But even the gods cannot see infinitely far ahead. Our free wills cloud Their vision, even though Their eyes are more piercing than ours. The gods do not plan, so much as take advantage.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book The Hallowed Hunt

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Hallowed Hunt (2005), Chapter 18 (p. 327)

God

“If faith is a mystery, it is because its nature is inexpressible in the measure that it is profound, for it is not possible to convey fully by words this vision which is still blind, and this blindness which already sees.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 97, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Spiritual life, Faith

Faith, Nature

“In making our blue-print of the coming new world, it will be advisable for us to proceed without the slightest regard... for what is apparently possible or for existing conditions, so that present habits of thought and inhibiting fears do not hamper our vision in any way.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

Way, World, Fear

“We will build up a vision of what the future could be like if humanity so chooses — for “without vision the people perish.””

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Introduction p. I - XII

Future, People

“Perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence.”

Thomas Aquinas book Summa Theologica

Source: Summa Theologica (1265–1274), I–II, q. 3, art. 8 co

Happiness, Perfection

“There is no doubt that we have a different vision of the past. What’s important is that I see no reasons for any kind of conflicts in the future. We have no interests that could be contradictory in the future.”

Ivica Dačić (1966) Serbian politician

Source: "Ivica Dacic: Forced solutions don’t lead to stability of the region" in The Srpska Times https://thesrpskatimes.com/ivica-dacic-forced-solutions-dont-lead-to-stability-of-the-region/ (18 September 2018)

Past, Future

“Of course, the vision of many works, such as the sense of picture and imagery, is actually unconscious by the writer. If the writer is conscious, he will write very artificial things.”

Geling Yan (1958) Chinese writer and screenwriter

Source: "Yan Geling: I Am Also A Person In The Cave" https://www.bannedbook.org/en/bnews/lifebaike/20211010/1635954.html (10 October 2021)

Sense

“Words, sentences, ideas, no matter how subtle or ingenious, the maddest flights of poetry, the most profound dreams, the most hallucinating visions, are but crude hieroglyphs chiseled in pain and sorrow to commemorate an event which is untransmissible.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

Source: Henry Miller on Writing (1964), p. 23

Pain, Idea, Dreams

“Have a vision of where you want your life to be.”

Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978) Nigerian actress and singer

https://fabwoman.ng/omotola-jalade-inspirational-quotes-for-women-fabwoman/

Life

“Love leads to knowledge of the Divine mysteries and those who love abide in God and look to Him only, and He is nearer to them than all else and to them in given a vision of Him unveiled and they see Him with the eye of certainty.”

Abu Talib al-Makki Scholar, mystic

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 86

God, Knowledge, Love

“Pure love of God illuminates the soul of the lover and the mysteries of His divinity are revealed by God when the vision of the Beloved is contemplated.”

Abu Talib al-Makki Scholar, mystic

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 86

Soul, God, Lovers, Love

“One thing I learned is that cinematography is not something you do by yourself. It’s a group [project]. You need to develop your own vision, but the key to a successful film is communication with your director and your team.”

Halyna Hutchins (1979–2021) Ukrainian-American cinematographer and investigative journalist

Source: Rising Stars of Cinematography (2019)

Communication, Learning, Success

“It's time to turn this debate around, drive out politics of despair and offer a vision for Britain in Europe.”

John McDonnell (1951) British politician (born 1951)

Source: John McDonnell criticises EU vote campaign 'negativity' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36310486 BBC News (17 May 2016)

Despair, Time

“If you have no clear vision of where you are going, you will end up in a different destination.”

- Goa

“As a film actor, my job is to facilitate the director’s vision. If there’s something I’m doing that they don’t agree with, I drop it.”

Nicolas Cage (1964) American actor

"Nicolas Cage on his legacy, his philosophy of acting and his metaphorical — and literal — search for the Holy Grail." in The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/07/magazine/nicolas-cage-interview.html (7 August 2019)

“[I]f it's just you, attempting to come up with a "good idea" before defining your purpose, creating a vision, and collecting lots of bad ideas is likely to give you a case of creative constipation.”

David Allen book Getting Things Done

Source: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (2001), Ch. 3

Idea

“A national election campaign is not a conflict of self-interest, with the prize going to the highest bidder. It is an occasion for a re-statement of faith, a renewal of zeal, and a clear vision of the future.”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

Election speech, Canterbury, Victoria, 29 October, 1958 https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1958-robert-menzies Second Term as Prime Minister (1949-1966)

Faith, Future

“That is my dream. But frankly, I do not know if Western feminists have the courage or clarity of vision to help me realize it.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali (1969) Dutch feminist, author

Source: 2010s, Nomad: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations (2010), Chapter 15, “Dishonor, Death, and Feminists” (p. 235)

Courage, Dreams, Help

“We need to see how dance, music, theater, art, poetry, are major arenas for alliance-building, especially among youth. Culture can usher in new visions”

Elizabeth Martinez (1925) American community organizer, activist, author, and educator

De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views for a Multi-Colored Century (2017)

Youth, Art, Music, Dance

“My fellow Americans, the people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory. A convincing victory. A victory for "We the People." We have won with the most votes ever cast for a presidential ticket in the history of this nation — 74 million. I am humbled by the trust and confidence you have placed in me. I pledge to be a President who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn't see Red and Blue states, but a United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people.For that is what America is about: The people. And that is what our Administration will be about.I sought this office to restore the soul of America. To rebuild the backbone of the nation — the middle class. To make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home. It is the honor of my lifetime that so many millions of Americans have voted for this vision. And now the work of making this vision real is the task of our time.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2020, November 2020, Victory speech as US President-elect

Home, Soul, History, Confidence

“Only Art and Religion can bring this new vision as reality to a nation.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Religion, Art, Reality

“Votes are counted. Yes—but vision can neither be counted nor discounted.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

“But first a hush of peace, a soundless calm descends;
The struggle of distress and fierce impatience ends
Mute music sooths my breast — unuttered harmony
That I could never dream till earth was lost to me.

Then dawns the Invisible; the Unseen its truth reveals;
My outward sense is gone, my inward essence feels —
Its wings are almost free, its home, its harbour found;
Measuring the gulf, it stoops and dares the final bound —

O, dreadful is the check — intense the agony
When the ear begins to hear and the eye begins to see;
When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again,
The soul to feel the flesh and the flesh to feel the chain.

Yet I would lose no sting, would wish no torture less;
The more that anguish racks the earlier it will bless;
And robed in fires of Hell, or bright with heavenly shine
If it but herald Death, the vision is divine —”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

The Prisoner (October 1845)

Home, Soul, Hell, Thinking

“I know that our efforts all come to nothing. Analyze life, tear its trappings off, lay it bare with thought, with logic, with philosophy, and its emptiness is revealed as a bottomless pit; its nothingness frankly confesses to nothingness, and Despair comes to perch in the soulI know the end of us all is nothing, I know that at the end of Time, the reward of our toil will be nothing — and again nothing. I know that all our handiwork and all our ideas will be destroyed. I know that not even ash will be left from the fires that consume us. I know that our ideals, even those we achieve, will vanish in the eternal darkness of oblivion and final non-being. There is no hope, none, in my heart. I know, No promise, none, can I make to myself and to others. No recompense can I expect for my labors. No fruit will be born of my thoughts. I know the time — eternal seducer of all men, eternal cause of all effects — offers me nothing but the blank prospect of annihilation. So, my dignity is broken and weak, in recognition of my impending defeat.

The man who is alone, who stands on his own feet, who is stripped bare, who asks for nothing and wants nothing, who has reached the apex of disinterestedness not through blind renunciation but through excess of clear vision, turns to the world which stretches out before him as a burned prairie, as a devastated city — a world in which no churches, asylums, refuges, ideals, are left — and says: «Though you promise me nothing I am still with you, I am still an atom of your energies, my work is part of your work; I am your companion and your mirror as you march on your merciless way. But I owe nothing to any one. I would be responsible to freedom alone.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://alexiskarpouzos.medium.com/at-the-end-of-time-alexis-karpouzos-0b5a34cfbbe9

Despair, Life, Men, World

“Liken your life to a movie, be among the best directors in the world and then enjoy it as a spectators: good vision.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Paragonate la vostra vita ad un film, siate tra i migliori registi al mondo e poi godetevela da spettatori: buona visione.
Source: prevale.net

World, Life

“Prioritize your vision.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Dai priorità alla tua visione.
Source: prevale.net

“Live by always daring to express your vision.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Vivi osando sempre esprimere la tua visione.
Source: prevale.net

Quotes about vision page 15

Quotes about vision
page 15