Elude Us Quotes - Page 2

• Even though the discples were not aware of it, the presence was with them while they were reviewing the scriptures together on the road. Henceforth, we will catch only a fleeting glimpse of it -- in the study of sacred writings, in other human beings, in liturgy, and in communion with strangers. But these moments remain us that our fellow men and women are themselves sacred; there is something about them taht is worthy of absolute reverence, is in the last resort mysterious, and we will always elude us.

  Karen Armstrong

  Writing, Men, Together

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• Many of you have already found out, and others will find out in the course of their lives, that truth eludes us if we do not concentrate our attention totally on it's pursuit. But even while it eludes us, the illusion of knowing it still lingers and leads to many misunderstandings. Also, truth seldom is pleasant; it is almost invariably bitter.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Knowing, Attention, Bitter

  A World Split Apart, delivered 8 June 1978, Harvard University

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• When 'happiness' eludes us - as, eventually, it always will - we have the invitation to examine our programmed responses and to exercise our power to choose again.

  Richard Rohr

  Exercise, Response, Invitations

  "Contemplation: Finding Ourselves, Finding God" by Fr. Richard Rohr, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 13, 2011.

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• The fact is that the beautiful, humanly speaking, is merely form considered in its simplest aspect, in its most perfect symmetry, in its most entire harmony with our make-up. Thus the ensemble that it offers us is always complete, but restricted like ourselves. What we call the ugly, on the contrary, is a detail of a great whole which eludes us, and which is in harmony, not with man but with all creation. That is why it constantly presents itself to us in new but incomplete aspects.

  Victor Hugo

  Beautiful, Makeup, Men

  Victor Hugo (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Victor Hugo (Illustrated)”, p.12466, Delphi Classics

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• schools for love do not exist. everyone assumes that we will know how to love instinctively. despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we still accept that the family is the primary school for love. those of us who do not learn how to love among family are expected to experience love in romantic relationships. however this love often eludes us.

  Bell Hooks

  School, How To Love, Assuming

  bell hooks (2018). “All About Love: New Visions”, p.26, HarperCollins

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• Something must always remain that eludes us ... For power to have an object on which it can be exercised, a space in which to stretch out its arms ... As long as I know there exists in the world someone who does tricks only for the love of the trick, as long as I know there is a woman who loves reading for reading's sake, I can convince myself that the world continues ... And every evening I, too, abandon myself to reading, like that distant unknown woman.

  Italo Calvino

  Reading, Space, Long

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• We may know ourselves, and yet even with all the efforts we make, we do not know ourselves. We know our fellowman, and yet we do not know him, because we are not a thing, and our fellowman is not a thing. The further we reach into the depths of our being, on someone else's being, the more the goal of knowledge eludes us.

  Erich Fromm

  Goal, Effort, Depth

  Erich Fromm (2013). “The Art of Loving”, p.37, Open Road Media

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• There would seem to be nothing more obvious, more tangible and palpable than the present moment. And yet it eludes us completely. All the sadness of life lies in that fact. In the course of a single second, our senses of sight, of hearing, of smell, register (knowingly or not) a swarm of events and a parade of sensations and ideas passes through our head. Each instant represents a little universe, irrevocably forgotten in the next instant.

  Milan Kundera

  Lying, Sadness, Sight

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• Indeed, the direction of the future is only there in order to elude us.

  Georges Bataille

  Order, Elude

  Georges Bataille (2012). “Literature and Evil”, p.25, Penguin UK

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• If we try to hold on to our partial glimpses of the divine, we cut it down to our own size and close our minds. Like it or nor, our human experience of anything or anybody is always incomplete: there is usually something that eludes us, some portion of experience that evades our grasp.

  Karen Armstrong

  Cutting, Mind, Trying

  Karen Armstrong (2007). “The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness”, p.218, Anchor

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• Love is always changing and unless we stay aware and change with it, it eludes us.

  Leo Buscaglia

  Love, Love Is, Elude

  "Leo Buscaglia - An Exclusive Interview". Interview with Veronica M. Hay, www.peopleandpossibilities.com. 1998.

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• The stories we sit up late to hear are love stories. It seems that we cannot know enough about this riddle of our lives. We go back and back to the same scenes, the same words, trying to scrape out the meaning. Nothing could be more familiar than love. Nothing else eludes us so completely.

  Jeanette Winterson

  Trying, Meaning Nothing, Stories

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• In 50 years - or 20 years, or 200 years - our current epistemic horizon (the Big Bang, roughly) may look as parochial as the horizon Newton had to settle for in his day, but no doubt there will still be good questions whose answers elude us.

  Daniel Dennett

  Years, Doubt, May

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• Falling in love is not an act of will. It is not a conscious choice. No matter how open to or eager for it we may be, the experience may still elude us. Contrarily, the experience may capture us at times when we are definitely not seeking it, when it is inconvenient and undesirable.

  M. Scott Peck

  Falling In Love, Love Is, Choices

  M. Scott Peck (2012). “The Road Less Travelled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth”, p.77, Random House

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• If wisdom in government eludes us, perhaps courage could substitute-the moral courage to terminate mistakes.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Courage, Mistake, Government

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2011). “Practicing History: Selected Essays”, p.207, Random House

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• All that is best for us comes of itself into our hands-but if we strive to overtake it, it perpetually eludes us.

  Ananda Coomaraswamy

  Hands, Awareness, Strive

  Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1924). “The Dance of ?iva: Essays on Indian Art and Culture”, p.109, Courier Corporation

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• I believe profoundly in the possibilities of democracy, but democracy needs to be emancipated from capitalism. As long as we inhabit a capitalist democracy, a future of racial equality, gender equality, economic equality will elude us.

  Angela Davis

  Believe, Long, Democracy

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• The power of psychedelics... is that they often reveal, in the span of a few hours, depths of awe and understanding that can otherwise elude us for a lifetime.

  Sam Harris

  Understanding, Depth, Lifetime

  Sam Harris (2014). “Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion”, p.197, Simon and Schuster

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• The unique eludes us; yet we remain faithful to the ideal of it; and in spite of sense and of our merely abstract thinking, it becomes for us the most real thing in the actual world, although for us it is the elusive goal of an infinite quest.

  Josiah Royce

  Real, Unique, Thinking

  Josiah Royce (1952). “The Religious Philosophy of Josiah Royce; Edited, with an Introductory Essay, by Stuart Gerry Brown”

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• The past slips from our grasp. It leaves us only scattered things. The bond that united them eludes us. Our imagination usually fills in the void by making use of preconceived theories...Archaeology, then, does not supply us with certitudes, but rather with vague hypotheses. And in the shade of these hypotheses some artists are content to dream, considering them less as scientific facts than as sources of inspiration.

  Igor Stravinsky

  Dream, Inspiration, Artist

  "Poetics of Music in the Form of Six Lessons". Book by Igor Stravinsky, 1947.

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• The creative act is also in a small way a suffering act - we start out with our ego, this hope of making this thing whatever it be, but so often it eludes us and it collapses and we kind of regress into this mental suffering, we can't find what we're looking for.

  Michael Leunig

  Creative, Ego, Suffering

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• Freedom, peace, and inner joy will continue to elude us until we become aware of our real truth, without hiding ourselves or being ashamed of what we are.

  Lynn Grabhorn

  Real, Joy, Hiding

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• Eternity eludes us, even as a thought.

  Mason Cooley

  Literature, Elude, Eternity

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• And so when we talk about intangible values remember that they cannot be separated from the others. The conservation of waters, forests, soils, and wildlife are all involved with the conservation of the human spirit. The goal we all strive toward is happiness, contentment, the dignity of the individual, and the good life. This goal will elude us forever if we forget the importance of the intangibles.

  Sigurd F. Olson

  Good Life, Water, Goal

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• Every other civilized country has determined when life begins and it's something that eludes us. We've got things that have to be done! "We didn't fix that bridge because you are all down at the meeting house discussing abortion again."

  Lewis Black

  Country, Bridges, House

  Interview with Tom Lewis, www.scpr.org. September 7, 2012.

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