Ancient Quotes - Page 25

• History will also afford frequent opportunities of showing the necessity of a public religion, from its usefulness to the public; the advantage of a religious character among private persons; the mischiefs of superstition, and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Christian, Education, Religious

  Benjamin Franklin (1844). “The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Containing Several Political and Historical Tracts Not Included in Any Former Edition, and Many Letters, Official and Private, Not Hitherto Published; with Notes and a Life of the Author”, p.573

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• Forgiveness feels most dramatic when some ancient pattern of self-punishment collapses in a torrent of tears. But it is just as effective when practiced daily in tiny doses - relinquishing a pointless worry, getting wise to a self-destructive habit, serving notice on a cruel notion about yourself that has previously seemed justified. The beginning of forgiveness is alertness to false ideas.

  D. Patrick Miller

  Wise, Healing, Ideas

  D. Patrick Miller (2009). “The Way of Forgiveness: Letting Go, Easing Stress, and Building Strength”, p.48, Fearless Books

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• No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward a time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient than those of our Revolutionary ancestors.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Equality, Rights, Ideas

  "Foundations of the Republic; Speeches and Addresses". Book by Calvin Coolidge, 1926.

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• ... the embryological record, as it is usually presented to us, is both imperfect and misleading. It may be compared to an ancient manuscript, with many of the sheets lost, others displaced, and with spurious passages interpolated by a later hand. ... Like the scholar with his manuscript, the embryologist has by a process of careful and critical examination to determine where the gaps are present, to detect the later insertions, and to place in order what has been misplaced.

  Francis Maitland Balfour

  Hands, Order, Records

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• Like night dreams, stores often use symbolic language, therefore bypassing the ego and persona, and traveling straight to the spirit and soul who listen for the ancient and universal instructions imbedded there. Because of this process, stories can teach, correct errors, lighten the heart and the darkness, provide psychic shelter, assist transformation and heal wounds.

  Clarissa Pinkola Estes

  Dream, Heart, Night

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• Ancient history is oddly short on incorrect omens.

  Stacy Schiff

  Omen, Ancient History

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• What then, is correctness of speech but the maintenance of the practice of others, as established by the authority of ancient speakers? But the weaker men are, the more they are troubled by such matters. Their weakness stems from a desire to appear learned, not with a knowledge of things, by which we are edified, but with a knowledge of signs, by which it is difficult not to be puffed up in some way; even a knowledge of things often makes people boastful, unless their necks are held down by the Lord's yoke.

  Saint Augustine

  Men, Practice, People

  "On Christian Doctrine". Book by Saint Augustine, 426 AD.

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• We may be entering a new phase of history, a time when we begin to rediscover . . . the traditional teaching that power must entail restraint and responsibility, the ancient awareness that we are interdependent with all of nature and that our sense of community must take in the whole of creation.

  Donald Worster

  Teaching, Responsibility, Community

  Donald Worster (1988). “The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives on Modern Environmental History”, p.20, Cambridge University Press

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• Men may dam it and say that they have made a lake, but it will still be a river. It will keep its nature and bide its time, like a caged animal alert for the slightest opening. In time, it will have its way; the dam, like the ancient cliffs, will be carried away piecemeal in the currents.

  Wendell Berry

  Animal, Men, Lakes

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• Ancient rock paintings remind us that there are no unclaimed lands, that people have always lived here. They are wayposts along the river journey to the interior of the mind and heart.

  Lynn Culbreath Noel

  Heart, Journey, Rocks

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• The ancient Irish bards knew the Salmon of Knowledge as the giver of all life's wisdom. In the salmon's leap of understanding like a leap of faith, we can see ourselves "in our element," immersed in the river of life. The cycle of the salmon's journey reminds us that all rivers flow to the same sea.

  Lynn Culbreath Noel

  Journey, Sea, Rivers

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• If I live to be old enough, I may sit down under some bush, the last left in the utilitarian world, and feel thankful that intellect in its march has spared one vestige of the ancient forest for me to die by.

  Thomas Cole

  Rivers, Environmental, World

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• TURN ON. to contact the ancient energies and wisdoms that are built into your nervous system. They provide unspeakable pleasure and revelation. TUNE IN. to harness and communicate these new perspectives in a harmonious dance with the external world. DROP OUT. detach yourself from the tribal game. current models of social adjustement - mechanized, computerized, socialized, intellectualized, televised, sanforized - make no sense to the new LSD generation who see clearly that American society is becoming an air-conditioned anthill.

  Timothy Leary

  Air, Games, Perspective

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• THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Religion, Mystery, Certitude

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.220, 谷月社

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• PIGMY, n. One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelers in many parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only. The Pigmies are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians - who are Hogmies.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Men, World, Tribes

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.182, University of Georgia Press

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• "Oh, ancient god, whatever your name," whispered Ahmed. "Help this lost son of a good father, this evil boy who meant no harm but slept in school, ran errands slowly, did not pray from his heart, ignored his mother, and did not hold his family in great esteem. For all this I know I must suffer. But here in the midst of silence, at the desert's heart, where even the wind knows not my name? Must I die so young? Am I to be forgotten without having been?"

  Ray Bradbury

  God, Mother, Father

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• Hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest. The concept of hospitality arose in ancient times when the reciprocity was easier to see: in nomadic cultures, the food and shelter one gave to a stranger yesterday is the food and shelter one hopes to receive from a stranger tomorrow. By offering hospitality, one participates in the endless reweaving of a social fabric on which all can depend-thus the gift of sustenance for the guest becomes a gift of hope for the host.

  Parker J. Palmer

  Offering, Yesterday, Culture

  Parker J. Palmer (2017). “The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life”, p.51, John Wiley & Sons

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• I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all.

  Winston Churchill

  Education, Heart, Rome

  "My Early Life: A Roving Commission" by Winston Churchill, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958.

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• It's a perfect moment to quietly meditate on the cosmic Great Mother who can inspire us all; the divine, feminine Spirit of nurturance known as The Goddess, so revered in ancient times and being rediscovered by women today.

  Sarah Ban Breathnach

  God, Mother, Divine Feminine

  Sarah Ban Breathnach (2012). “Simple Abundance”, p.51, Random House

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• SORCERY, n. The ancient prototype and forerunner of political influence. It was, however, deemed less respectable and sometimes was punished by torture and death.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Death, Punishment, Political

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.209, 谷月社

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• Somehow the notion has been loosed that nature is hostile to man or that her ways are offensive or slovenly, so that every step of progress is measured by how far we have altered these. Nothing short of a recovery of the ancient virtue of pietas can absolve man from this sin.

  Richard M. Weaver

  Recovery, Men, Progress

  Richard M. Weaver (2013). “Ideas Have Consequences”, p.171, University of Chicago Press

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• If men are discharged of reverence for ancient usage, they will treat this world, almost certainly, as if it were their private property, to be consumed for their sensual gratification; and thus they will destroy in their lust for enjoyment the property of future generations, of their own contemporaries, and indeed their very own capital.

  Russell Kirk

  Men, Lust, Sensual

  Russell Kirk (2001). “The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot”, p.44, Regnery Publishing

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• The Devil has the broadest perspectives for God; therefore, he keeps so far away from God -- the Devil being the most ancient friend of wisdom

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Perspective, Devil, Far Away

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2009). “Basic Writings of Nietzsche”, p.277, Modern Library

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• As strange as it sounds, meditation may reveal that we are happier than we thought we were. We may discover that ancient conditioning rather than present circumstances is causing our dissatisfaction , and that this moment is quite sufficient or even wonderful, and we simply hadn't noticed.

  Wes Nisker

  Meditation, Sound, May

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• 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.

  Toni Packer

  Love, Pain, Self

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