Quotes on humor and truth

It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, aquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and selfinterest are the traits of sucess. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second.
Author: John Steinbeck

whisper wrote:

It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, aquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and selfinterest are the traits of sucess. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second.
Author: John Steinbeck

I used to love Steinbeck, one of the first authors I read in English at age 20 or so. Don't know exactly what I would think now, but have kept one of his books somewhere: the winter of our discontent...

tonnie_rocca wrote:

whisper wrote:

It always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, aquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and selfinterest are the traits of sucess. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second.
Author: John Steinbeck

I used to love Steinbeck, one of the first authors I read in English at age 20 or so. Don't know exactly what I would think now, but have kept one of his books somewhere: the winter of our discontent...

I used to read him too ....

What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul.
Author: Yiddish Proverb

Some one ought to do it, but why should I?" -- "Some one ought to do it, so why not I?" Between these two sentences lie whole centuries of moral evolution.
Author: Annie Besant

It’s not what you do, it’s how you do what you do!
Author: Jordan D. Ulmer

When all the trees have been cut down, when all the animals have been hunted, when all the waters are polluted, when all the air is unsafe to breathe, only then will you discover you cannot eat money.
Author: Cree prophesy

May you find serenity and tranquility
in a world you may not always understand.

May the pain you have known
and the conflict you have experienced
give you the strength to walk through life
facing each new situation with courage and optimism.

Always know that there are those
whose love and understanding will always be there,
even when you feel most alone.

May a kind word,
a reassuring touch,
and a warm smile
be yours every day of your life,
and may you give these gifts
as well as receive them.

May the teachings of those you admire
become part of you,
so that you may call upon them.

Remember, those whose lives you have touched
and who have touched yours
are always a part of you,
even if the encounters were less than you would have wished.
It is the content of the encounter
that is more important than its form.

May you not become too concerned with material matters,
but instead place immeasurable value
on the goodness in your heart.
Find time in each day to see beauty and love
in the world around you.

Realize that what you feel you lack in one regard
you may be more than compensated for in another.
What you feel you lack in the present
may become one of your strengths in the future.
May you see your future as one filled with promise and possibility.
Learn to view everything as a worthwhile experience.

May you find enough inner strength
to determine your own worth by yourself,
and not be dependent
on another's judgment of your accomplishments.

May you always feel loved.”
eslyssa
Sandra Sturtz Hauss quotes (English Poet, )

Justice Louis D. Brandeis quotes:
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.

fudgemeister wrote:

Justice Louis D. Brandeis quotes:
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.

Some food for thought.....

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A metronome is a windscreen wiper that started its own business...

(courtesy of J.T.B.)

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"When we get upset, it's not because life upsets us. We get upset because we're upsettable. With practice, everyone can develop a mind that's unupsettable. One of the best ways to do this is to give complete attention and respect to those around us - particularly when we differ."

- Eknath Easwaran, from "Strength in the Storm"

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Truth would be a lot easier to swallow if it didn't taste so bad.
- Anonymous

Sometimes the painful truth is better than the colorful fake dream.
- Anonymous

"And now let us believe in
a long year that is given to us,
new, untouched, full of things
that have never been."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

And as I've gotten older, I've had more of a tendency to look for people who live by kindness, tolerance, compassion, a gentler way of looking at things.
Martin Scorsese

Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one's own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.
John F. Kennedy

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"As long as we are conditioned by pleasure and pain, the Gita says, the mind has to keep going up and down; and as long as the mind is going up and down, we cannot see clearly.

"In order to see life as it really is, to see people as they really are, we need to view everything with complete equanimity. Then there is no question of vision being disturbed by something because I don’t like it, or distorted by some event because it doesn’t accord with my expectations."

- Eknath Easwaran, from "Essence of the Bhagavad Gita"

Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.
Author: Charles Bradlaugh

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
Sigmund Freud

whisper wrote:

Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
Sigmund Freud

For once Mr. Freud was right...

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“Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
- Buddha

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha

We frail humans are at one time capable of the greatest good and, at the same time, capable of the greatest evil. Change will only come about when each of us takes up the daily struggle ourselves to be more forgiving, compassionate, loving, and above all joyful in the knowledge that, by some miracle of grace, we can change as those around us can change too.
Author: Mairead Maguire

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.
Author: Martin Luther King, Jr

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
Author: Albert Schweitzer

Enveloped in Your Light, may I be a beacon to those in search of Light. Sheltered in Your Peace, may I offer shelter to those in need of peace. Embraced by Your Presence, so may I be present to others.
Author: Rami Shapiro, rabbi

Doing the good deeds is like the grass in the garden. You don't see its growth. But, it does by days. Doing the wicked deeds is like the hone. You don't see its damage. But, it does by days.
Author: Buddha

Do not be misled by what you see around you, or be influenced by what you see. You live in a world which is a playground of illusion, full of false paths, false values and false ideals. But you are not part of that world.
Sai Baba

whisper wrote:

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha

I agree with that, Whisper. I have difficulty holding grudges, primarily, because anger isn't natural to me and hard to sustain.

trennie wrote:

whisper wrote:

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
Buddha

I agree with that, Whisper. I have difficulty holding grudges, primarily, because anger isn't natural to me and hard to sustain.

Me too though I fight for fairness. I remember a mystic friend of mine saying
" We humans are strange we put a person in the dungeon of our heart and take them out beat them and put them back. We could be free if we just opened the door and let them leave."
I never have forgotten that wisdom. I do feel however righteous indignation when I see wrong done to others.

Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real.
Thomas Merton

The emergence and blossoming of understanding, love, and intelligence has nothing to do with any tradition, no matter how ancient or impressive--it has nothing to do with time. It happens on its own when a human being questions, wonders, inquires, listens, and looks without getting stuck in fear, pleasure, and pain. When self-concern is quiet, in abeyance, heaven and earth are open.
Author: Toni Packer

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." - John Rogers