Quotes

It is better to presume ignorance and invite learning than to assume sufficient knowledge and risk the consequent blindness. When you are tightly boxed in or cornered - all too often by your own stubborn and fixed adherence to some unconsciously worshiped assumptions - all there is to help you is what you have not yet learned. It is necessary and helpful to be, and in some ways to remain, a beginner. No one unwilling to be a foolish beginner can learn. It is necessary even for the most accompl ...

Our knowledge of how to act in the world remains eternally incomplete - partly because of our profound ignorance of the vast unknown, partly because of our wilful blindness, and partly because the world continues, in its entropic manner, to transform itself unexpectedly.

People depend on constant communication with others to keep their minds organized. We all need to think to keep things straight, but we mostly think by talking. We need to talk about the past, so we can distinguish the trivial, overblown concerns that otherwise plague our thoughts from experiences that are truly important. We need to talk about the nature of the present and our plans for the future, so we know where we are, where we are going, and why we are going there. We must submit the str ...

Mistakes are the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is 𝒏𝒐𝒕.

To know where the other person makes a mistake is of little value. It only becomes interesting when you know where you make the mistake, for then you can do something about it.

In the course of the eighteenth century, there arose a notorious rift between faith and knowledge. Faith lacked experience and science missed out the soul. Instead, science believed fervently in absolute objectivity and assiduously overlooked the fundamental difficulty that the real vehicle and begetter of all knowledge is the 𝒑𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒆, the very thing that scientists knew the least about for the longest time. It was regarded as a symptom of chemical reactions, an epiphenomenon of biological proc ...

The more civilized, the more unconscious and complicated a man is, the less he is able to follow his instincts. His complicated living conditions and the influence of his environment are so strong that they drown the quiet voice of nature. Opinions, beliefs, theories, and collective tendencies appear in its stead and back up all the aberrations of the conscious mind. Deliberate attention should then be given to the unconscious so that the compensation can set to work.

Most people are content to be self-righteous and prefer mutual vilification (if nothing worse!) to the recognition of their projections.

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending o ...

Though winter hunted through the wood still flowers lingered where she stood. Tinúviel! Tinúviel!

Tevildo, however, himself a great and skilled liar, was so deeply versed in the lies and subtleties of all the beasts and creatures that he seldom knew whether to believe what was said to him or not, and was wont to disbelieve all things save those he wished to believe true, and so was he often deceived by the more honest.

The world is big enough to satisfy everyone's needs, but it will always be too small to satisfy an individual's greed.

Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now. You are not some disinterested bystander. Participate. Exert yourself.

If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labour passes quickly, but the good endures; If you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.

I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him.

If there be any life that it is really better we should lead, and if there be any idea which, if believed in, would help us to lead that life, then it would be really 𝑏𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑢𝑠 to believe in that idea, 𝑢𝑛𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠, 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑒𝑑, 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑓 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑏𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑡𝑠.

'Truth' in our ideas and beliefs means the same thing that it means in science. It means 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑠 (𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒) 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑠𝑜 𝑓𝑎𝑟 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑢𝑠 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑠𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, to summarize them and get about among them by conceptual shortcuts instead of following the interminable succession of particular phenomena. Any idea upon which we can ride, so to speak; any idea that will carry us prosperously f ...

The pragmatic method is primarily a method of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable. Is the world one or many? - fated or free? - material or spiritual? - here are notions either of which may or may not hold good of the world; and disputes over such notions are unending. The pragmatic method in such cases is to try to interpret each notion by tracing its respective practical consequences. What difference would it practically make to anyone if this notion rather th ...

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

Only the true man has understanding. So what is a true man? The true man of old did not fight against poverty, nor did he look for fulfilment through riches - for he had no grand plans. Therefore, he never regretted any failure, nor exulted in success. He could scale the heights without fear, plumb the depths without difficulties and go through fire without pain. This is the kind of person whose understanding has lifted him up towards the Tao.

The true man of old slept without dreaming ...