So Nimm Denn Meine Hande...

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Something a little different than normal...

Some ponderings and quotations from one of my favorite poets:

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A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.

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Beauty is in the ideal of perfect harmony which is in the universal being; truth the perfect comprehension of the universal mind. We individuals approach it through our own mistakes and blunders, through our accumulated experience, through our illumined consciousness - how, otherwise, can we know truth?

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Beauty is truth's smile when she beholds her own face in a perfect mirror.

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Children are living beings - more living than grown-up people who have built shells of habit around themselves. Therefore it is absolutely necessary for their mental health and development that they should not have mere schools for their lessons, but a world whose guiding spirit is personal love.

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Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

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Facts are many, but the truth is one.

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He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.

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I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument while the song I came to sing remains unsung.

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I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

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Love is not a mere impulse, it must contain truth, which is law.

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Love is the only reality and it is not a mere sentiment. It is the ultimate truth that lies at the heart of creation.

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Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.

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Men are cruel, but Man is kind.

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Music fills the infinite between two souls. This has been muffled by the mist of our daily habits.

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Praise shames me, for I secretly beg for it.

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That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.

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The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

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The child learns so easily because he has a natural gift, but adults, because they are tyrants, ignore natural gifts and say that children must learn through the same process that they learned by. We insist upon forced mental feeding and our lessons become a form of torture. This is one of man's most cruel and wasteful mistakes.

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The fish in the water is silent, the animals on the earth is noisy, the bird in the air is singing. But man has in him the silence of the sea, the noise of the earth and the music of the air.

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The newer people, of this modern age, are more eager to amass than to realize.

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The question why there is evil in existence is the same as why there is imperfection... But this is the real question we ought to ask: Is this imperfection the final truth, is evil absolute and ultimate?

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The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.

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Time is a wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.

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To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.

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Truth cannot afford to be tolerant where it faces positive evil.

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We gain freedom when we have paid the full price for our right to live.

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Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations.

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In love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and are lost. Only in love are unity and duality not at variance.

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Nationality is respectable only when it is on the defence, when it is waging wars of liberation it is sacred; when those of domination it is accursed.

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While God waits for his kingdom to be built with love, men bring stones.

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Some random and insightful thoughts brought to you by an insightful man from long ago. Free lunch for the first person who figures out who it is! Until Next Time,

The Armchair Theologian

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tagore? hrmm looks like it... http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

/colin

12:02 PM

 
Blogger Andrew L said...

"TANSTAAFL: There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."

6:17 PM

 
Blogger Andrew L said...

I liked those quotes. Many of them seem to hold meaning that I do not yet fully comprehend and are written in the language of someone who has mastered the English tongue. I particularly liked "Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come."

6:20 PM

 
Blogger Phan Tom Lager said...

Was it J. Epp?

1:33 PM

 
Blogger The Armchair Geek said...

Word. Rabindranath Tagore it is. I'm almost tempted to consider wikipieda "cheating", but show up at Compie Trends for your free lunch!

9:34 AM

 
Blogger caro said...

Nice collection of quotes; I enjoyed it. Like Andrew, I don't fully comprehend many of them. Great food for thought!

2:28 PM

 

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