Middle Way Quotes

• In politics the middle way is none at all.

  John Adams

  Success, Law, Nerd

  Letter to Horatio Gates, 23 March 1776

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• The middle path is the way to wisdom

  Rumi

  Spiritual, Wisdom, Middle Path

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• Our task is to strike a balance, to find a middle way, to learn not to overextend ourselves with extraneous activities and preoccupations, but to simplify our lives more and more. The key to finding a happy balance in modern life is simplicity.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Keys, Simplicity, Balance

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• Ignorant people see life as either existence or non-existence, but wise men see it beyond both existence and non-existence to something that transcends them both; this is an observation of the Middle Way.

  Seneca the Younger

  Wise, Ignorance, Men

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• The Buddha's insight into the middle way is not simply about a balance between extremes. This conventional understanding misses the deeper revelation of the middle way as being the very nature of unexcelled enlightenment. The middle way is an invitation to leap beyond nirvana and samsara and to realize the unborn Buddha mind right in the middle of everywhere.

  Adyashanti

  Missing, Understanding, Mind

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• Instead of making others right or wrong, or bottling up right and wrong in ourselves, there's a middle way, a very powerful middle way...... Could we have no agenda when we walk into a room with another person, not know what to say, not make that person wrong or right? Could we see, hear, feel other people as they really are? It is powerful to practice this way..... true communication can happen only in that open space.

  Pema Chodron

  Inspirational, Powerful, Communication

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• The middle way cannot be achieved by dividing two extremes in half.

  Eric Maisel

  Two, Half, Way

  Eric Maisel (1996). “Affirmations for Artists”, Tarcher

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• As human beings, not only do we seek resolution, but we also feel that we deserve resolution. However, not only do we not deserve resolution, we suffer from resolution. We don't deserve resolution; we deserve something better than that. We deserve our birthright, which is the middle way, an open state of mind that can relax with paradox and ambiguity.

  Pema Chodron

  Buddhist, Mind, Suffering

  "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times". Book by Pema Chodron, December 24, 1996.

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• Harmonizing opposites by going back to their source is the distinctive quality of the Zen attitude, the Middle Way: embracing contradictions, making a synthesis of them, achieving balance.

  Taisen Deshimaru

  Buddhist, Attitude, Opposites

  " Zen and the Art of Systems Analysis : Meditations on Computer Systems Development" by Patrick McDermott, (p. xix), 2002.

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• Life is one, said the Buddha, and the Middle Way to the end of suffering in all its forms is that which leads to the end of the illusion of separation, which enables man to see, as a fact as clear as sunlight, that all mankind, and all other forms in manifestation, are one unit, the infinitely variable appearance of an indivisible Whole.

  Christmas Humphreys

  Life, Equality, Men

  Christmas Humphreys (1969). “An Invitation to the Buddhist Way of Life for Western Readers”

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• Some people will follow their minds without listening to their hearts, and others will follow their hearts without listening to their minds. This is why reason exists, for there to be balance between the heart and mind. We were not meant to follow the mind and ignore the heart. Instead, we were meant to follow the heart over the mind, but without completely abandoning logic. The middle way is the preferred way, and this path simply means to allow your heart to drive you, but do not forget to balance reason with your conscience.

  Suzy Kassem

  Heart, Mean, People

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• The key to finding a happy balance in modern lives is simplicity.

  Sogyal Rinpoche

  Keys, Simplicity, Balance

  "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying". Book by Sogyal Rinpoche, 1992.

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• There's many lanes on the highway of enlightenment, they don't have to be on the razor's edge like the yellow line dotted in the middle. Balance is appropriate, not too tight, not too loose, the Middle Way as we call it in Buddhist dharma teachings.

  Surya Das

  Buddhist, Teaching, Yellow

  Source: theindiespiritualist.com

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• I think that whatever we encounter in life, we want to encourage a balance between the mind and the soul...and that is to consider about 50% data from the mind and 50% data from the soul. This is what Buddhists call, "the middle way."

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Buddhist, Thinking, Data

  Source: www.trulyalive.net

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• There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Play, Choices

  Ludwig Von Mises (1962). “The free and prosperous commonwealth: an exposition of the ideas of classical liberalism”

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• For us, terrorism remains the great evil of our time, and the war against this evil, our generation’s great cause … There is no middle way for Americans: it is victory or holocaust.

  Richard Perle

  War, Our Generation, Evil

  David Frum, Richard Perle (2003). “An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror”, p.12, Random House

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• The decision must be made between Judaism and Christianity, between business and culture, between male and female, between the race and the individual, between unworhtiness and worth, between the earthly and the higher life, between negation and God-like. Mankind has the choice to make. There are only two poles, and there is no middle way.

  Otto Weininger

  Race, Two, Choices

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• The middle way is still driving on the wrong side of the road; it still permits the killing of the fox for pleasure. One cannot kill half a fox. Like Monty Python parrot, a fox torn apart by hounds remains dead, deceased and off its perch for ever. Before the fox has been dispatched - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly - it will have suffered the agonies of the pursuit by animals four times its size and four times its strength. The middle way is a compromise that still seriously compromises the welfare of the fox.

  Lyndon Harrison, Baron Harrison

  Hunting, Animal, Python

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• In our calling, we have to choose; we must make our fortune either in this world or in the next, there is no middle way.

  Stendhal

  Success, Calling, World

  Stendhal (2016). “The Red and the Black: World Classics”, p.51, World Classic

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• Damn'd neuters, in their middle way of steering, Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.

  John Dryden

  Flesh, Red, Way

  John Dryden (1755). “The Duke of Guise. A tragedy. Acted by their Majesties Servants. Written by Mr. Dryden, and Mr. Lee”, p.267

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• The twentieth century ended with its dreams in ruins. The notion of the community as a voluntary association of enlightened citizens has died forever. We realize how suffocatingly humane we've become, dedicated to moderation and the middle way. The suburbanization of the soul has overrun our planet like the plague.

  J. G. Ballard

  Dream, Community, Forever

  J. G. Ballard (2010). “Super-Cannes: A Novel”, p.269, Macmillan

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• I've been broke more than I've been rich. I like being in the middle way better.

  Reagan Gomez-Preston

  Way, Rich, Broke

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• In a novella, a whole lot of crap can happen, and you can build momentum and suspense and leave room for a surprise or three. Stories are cut down to the most essential elements, and novels (this might be an unfair generalization on my part) are big fat clumsy efforts where the reader can snooze for a couple chapters and miss nothing of consequence. Hence my love for the middle way.

  Robert Reed

  Couple, Cutting, Effort

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• Lukewarm persons think they may accommodate points of religion by middle ways and witty reconcilements,--as if they would make an arbitrament between God and man.

  Francis Bacon

  Witty, Men, Thinking

  Francis Bacon (1838). “The Works of Lord Bacon: With an Introductory Essay”, p.263

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• I'm interested in people who are not exactly the middle way, or who are trying something else because they cannot prevent themselves from being different, or they wish to be different, or they are different because society pushed them away.

  Agnes Varda

  People, Being Different, Wish

  Interview with Sheila Heti, believermag.com. October 1, 2009.

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