Quote: Society

Credit: High Society, 1998 by Cecily Brown

What, I wondered, did he mean by “society”? The plural of human beings? Where was the substance of this thing called “society”? I had spent my whole life thinking that society must certainly be something powerful, harsh and severe, but to hear Horiki talk made the words “Don’t you mean yourself?” come to the tip of my tongue. But I held the words back, reluctant to anger him.
‘Society won’t stand for it.’
‘It’s not society. You’re the one who won’t stand for it - right?’
‘If you do such a thing society will make you suffer for it’
‘It’s not society. It’s you, isn’t it?’
‘Before you know it, you’ll be ostracized by society.’
‘It’s not society. You’re going to do the ostracizing, aren’t you?’
Words, words of every kind went flitting through my head. “Know thy particular fearsomeness, thy knavery, cunning and witchcraft!” What I said, however, as I wiped the perspiration from my face with a handkerchief was merely, “You’ve put me in a cold sweat!” I smiled.
From then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: What is society but an individual?

~ Osamu Dazai

Quote: Society

Credit: High Society, 1998 by Cecily Brown

What, I wondered, did he mean by “society”? The plural of human beings? Where was the substance of this thing called “society”? I had spent my whole life thinking that society must certainly be something powerful, harsh and severe, but to hear Horiki talk made the words “Don’t you mean yourself?” come to the tip of my tongue. But I held the words back, reluctant to anger him.
‘Society won’t stand for it.’
‘It’s not society. You’re the one who won’t stand for it - right?’
‘If you do such a thing society will make you suffer for it’
‘It’s not society. It’s you, isn’t it?’
‘Before you know it, you’ll be ostracized by society.’
‘It’s not society. You’re going to do the ostracizing, aren’t you?’
Words, words of every kind went flitting through my head. “Know thy particular fearsomeness, thy knavery, cunning and witchcraft!” What I said, however, as I wiped the perspiration from my face with a handkerchief was merely, “You’ve put me in a cold sweat!” I smiled.
From then on, however, I came to hold, almost as a philosophical conviction, the belief: What is society but an individual?

~ Osamu Dazai

Quote on Monday

Source: Unknown/Favim 

In my life-long study of human beings, I have found that no matter how hard they try, they have found no way yet to prevent the arrival of Monday morning. And they do try, of course, but Monday always comes, and all the drones have to scuttle back to their dreary workday lives of meaningless toil and suffering.

~ Jeff Lindsay

Quote on Monday

Source: Unknown/Favim 

In my life-long study of human beings, I have found that no matter how hard they try, they have found no way yet to prevent the arrival of Monday morning. And they do try, of course, but Monday always comes, and all the drones have to scuttle back to their dreary workday lives of meaningless toil and suffering.

~ Jeff Lindsay

Quote on the end of the world

Source: Pastoralia

We are a species of animal which is bringing about the end of the world we were born into. Not out of evil or malice, or not mainly, but because of a lopsided mixture of extraordinary cleverness, extraordinary greed, extraordinary proliferation of our own kind, and a biologically built-in short-sightedness. Every day I read of a new extinction, of the bleaching of the coral and the disappearance of the codfish the thin child caught in the North Sea with a hook and line, when there were always more where those came from. I read of human projects that destroy the world they are in, ingeniously, ambitiously engineered oil wells in deep water, a road across the migration paths of the beasts in the Serengeti park, farming of asparagus in Peru, helium balloons to transport the crops more cheaply, emitting less carbon while the farms themselves are dangerously depleting the water that the vegetables, and the humans and other creatures, depend on.

~ A. S. Byatt

Quote on the end of the world

Source: Pastoralia

We are a species of animal which is bringing about the end of the world we were born into. Not out of evil or malice, or not mainly, but because of a lopsided mixture of extraordinary cleverness, extraordinary greed, extraordinary proliferation of our own kind, and a biologically built-in short-sightedness. Every day I read of a new extinction, of the bleaching of the coral and the disappearance of the codfish the thin child caught in the North Sea with a hook and line, when there were always more where those came from. I read of human projects that destroy the world they are in, ingeniously, ambitiously engineered oil wells in deep water, a road across the migration paths of the beasts in the Serengeti park, farming of asparagus in Peru, helium balloons to transport the crops more cheaply, emitting less carbon while the farms themselves are dangerously depleting the water that the vegetables, and the humans and other creatures, depend on.

~ A. S. Byatt

Quote on strength of human beings

Source: Tumblr/Favim

Human beings are remarkable - at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?

~ John Irving

Quote on strength of human beings

Source: Tumblr/Favim

Human beings are remarkable - at what we can learn to live with. If we couldn't get strong from what we lose, and what we miss, and what we want and can't have, then we couldn't ever get strong enough, could we? What else makes us strong?

~ John Irving

Quote on specialization

Pic: Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

~ Robert A. Heinlein

Quote on specialization

Pic: Wenger Giant Swiss Army Knife

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

~ Robert A. Heinlein

The Living God

Photo credit: cohdra from morguefile.com

He who is in you and outside you, 

Who works through all hands,

Who walks on all feet,

Whose body are all ye,

Him worship, and break all other idols!

He who is at once the high and low,

The sinner and the saint,

Both God and worm,

Him worship — visible, knowable, real, omnipresent,

Break all other idols!

In whom is neither past life

Nor future birth nor death,

In whom we always have been

And always shall be one,

Him worship. Break all other idols!

Ye fools! who neglect the living God,

And His infinite reflections with which the world is full.

While ye run after imaginary shadows,

That lead alone to fights and quarrels,

Him worship, the only visible!

Break all other idols!

~ Swami Vivekananda

(Written to an American friend from Almora, 9th July 1897.)

______________________________________________________

There is one absolute God. But each human being, according to my philosophy, is a portion of God. The Supreme God is like the ocean. Each drop has a little of the consciousness of the ocean; therefore, we can say each drop is a tiny god, a portion of God. When you are portion of the infinite, you can say that you also embody the essence of the Infinite.

According to our Indian philosophy, there are as many gods as there are human beings. What do we mean by that? We feel that each human being has God inside him. We believe in the soul; we believe that we have God inside us. Most of the time our God is fast asleep. But when we pray and meditate, our God comes forward. There are many who are still fast asleep. Their God is still sleeping. But we are praying, we are meditating; so we are bringing our God to the fore. The soul, which is God's representative within us, has a complete and inseparable connection with the Absolute God.

~ Sri Chinmoy

(Excerpt from God And The Cosmic Game)

The Living God

Photo credit: cohdra from morguefile.com

He who is in you and outside you, 

Who works through all hands,

Who walks on all feet,

Whose body are all ye,

Him worship, and break all other idols!

He who is at once the high and low,

The sinner and the saint,

Both God and worm,

Him worship — visible, knowable, real, omnipresent,

Break all other idols!

In whom is neither past life

Nor future birth nor death,

In whom we always have been

And always shall be one,

Him worship. Break all other idols!

Ye fools! who neglect the living God,

And His infinite reflections with which the world is full.

While ye run after imaginary shadows,

That lead alone to fights and quarrels,

Him worship, the only visible!

Break all other idols!

~ Swami Vivekananda

(Written to an American friend from Almora, 9th July 1897.)

______________________________________________________

There is one absolute God. But each human being, according to my philosophy, is a portion of God. The Supreme God is like the ocean. Each drop has a little of the consciousness of the ocean; therefore, we can say each drop is a tiny god, a portion of God. When you are portion of the infinite, you can say that you also embody the essence of the Infinite.

According to our Indian philosophy, there are as many gods as there are human beings. What do we mean by that? We feel that each human being has God inside him. We believe in the soul; we believe that we have God inside us. Most of the time our God is fast asleep. But when we pray and meditate, our God comes forward. There are many who are still fast asleep. Their God is still sleeping. But we are praying, we are meditating; so we are bringing our God to the fore. The soul, which is God's representative within us, has a complete and inseparable connection with the Absolute God.

~ Sri Chinmoy

(Excerpt from God And The Cosmic Game)