Quote Me A Piece Of Writing That You Really, Really Love :)

[Erikmen]

“For the two of us, home isn't a place. It is a person. And we are finally home.”

 

[Erikmen]

You will find meaning in life only if you create it. It is not lying there somewhere behind the bushes, so you can go and you search a little bit and find it. It is not there like a rock that you will find. It is a poetry to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.

So true..

People say that what we're all seeking is the meaning of life.
I think that what we're really seeking is the experience of being alive.

 

[Mysterie]

People say that what we're all seeking is the meaning of life.
I think that what we're really seeking is the experience of being alive.

i'll be okay with the answers to both ;p, but yes the meaning of life really is too subjective and theoretical of an inquiry to interest me. and i don't think its a coincidence that zombie themed tv shows and movies have been a hit in the past few years.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Everyone's looking for the perfect teacher, but although their teachings might be divine, teachers are all too human, and that's something people find all too hard to accept. Don't confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter of the symbol with the symbol itself. The Tradition is linked to our encounter with the forces of life and not with the people who bring this about. But we are weak: we ask the Mother to send us guides, and all she sends are signs to the road we need to follow."


― Paulo Coelho, The Witch Of Portobello (each page is a new revelation at the moment)

 

[sigmond]

serendipitous appearance mysterie! i finally got the ebook of the The Alchemist which i just finished and was a bit surprised at how straightforward and unoriginal it was. love the overall message, the use of parables and allegories, but disliked how it didn't leave much to the imagination or make an attempt at character development. It reminded me of Siddhartha. i think it has to do with my age, if i had read this years ago, ideally as a teenager, i would've enjoyed it more. [..searching for kindle..] [insert random quotes from various places]

“Because I don’t live in either my past or my future. I’m interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you’ll be a happy man. You’ll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we’re living right now.”

“How does one achieve peace of mind?” On the latter point, Plutarch’s advice was the same as Seneca’s: focus on what is present in front of you, and pay full attention to it."

"Learning how to die was learning to let go; learning to live was learning to hang on."

“Place before your mind’s eye the vast spread of time’s abyss, and consider the universe; and then contrast our so-called human life with infinity.”

"The Zen master who, when asked, “What is enlightenment?” whacked the questioner on the head with a stick Enlightenment is something learned on your own body: it takes the form of things happening to you. This is why the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics taught tricks rather than precepts. All philosophers can offer is that blow on the head: a useful technique, a thought experiment, or an experience—in Montaigne’s case, the experience of reading the Essays. The subject he teaches is simply himself, an ordinary example of a living being."

/

 

[Mysterie]

serendipitous appearance mysterie! i finally got the ebook of the The Alchemist which i just finished and was a bit surprised at how straightforward and unoriginal it was. love the overall message, the use of parables and allegories, but disliked how it didn't leave much to the imagination or make an attempt at character development. It reminded me of Siddhartha. i think it has to do with my age, if i had read this years ago, ideally as a teenager, i would've enjoyed it more. [..searching for kindle..] [insert random quotes from various places]

/

i know exactly what you mean, i feel somewhat guilty because really 'the alchemist' is more simplistic/repetitive than i usually like to read (i still love coelho) but the parable nature like you said would have been relevant/new ideas for me to explore in more formative and confusing years if i was ready to receive it then. although there are pithy reminders of what i forget all the time, but not sure how actionable or clear it felt to me. if i didn't completely put you off coelho i would say so far that 'the witch of portobello' and then 'veronika wants to die' is second on my list of books of his that have been very stimulating.

although reading those quotes, i have really been trying to practice, "focus on what is present in front of you, and pay full attention to it", and i love the simplicity in a way.

ironically i also have siddhartha with me (on a journey of self-discovery) and have started it and am disappointed so far, i suppose this may have been revolutionary in the 60s or 70s but there has been such a proliferation of ideas since the internet that nothing feels fresh in it (not far in and short attention span). i'm sure it had its cultural impact but i still love hesse for most of 'narcissus and goldmund' which i have gone through and had that feeling of an author speaking directly, almost to the two halves of my voice.

if your familiar with personality types i think both authors are almost directly in a similar/almost identical archetype on my coping mechanism for life, definitely hesse.

i loved this somewhat snide quote from coelho on extroverts. “They say that extroverts are unhappier than introverts and have to compensate for this by constantly proving to themselves how happy and contented and at ease with life they are.”

 

[Erikmen]

^ This book, 'The Alchemist' was poorly written in the in the original language (Portuguese) in its first edition and very criticized as the author (Paulo Coelho, I suppose) - a recognized author nowadays - had become famous by that time. Ironically because of this book. It could have been a much more developed story if he had written it today.

 

[hydroazuanacaine]

Sometimes Madeleine listened to the busy signal so long she found herself trying to hear Leonard's voice beneath it, as if he was just on the other side of the noise.

 

[Erikmen]

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”

 

[Troubadour]

"He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber," (Psalm 121:3, King David, Holy Bible).

 

[Erikmen]

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

"Without music, life would be a mistake."
[h=1]Friedrich Nietzsche[/h]

 

[JoeTheStoner]

Welcome to 2016. The age of tech positivity and the age of information have transformed into the age of self importance. A time in which the opinions of scholars and scientists are ignored and everybody is tapping into gut feelings of fear and hate. Fear and hate towards all those that are not you. Those that don’t look like you or act like you. Those that don’t believe in the same superstitious meta reality.

Our different opinions are no longer a discussion with arguments, but a screaming contest, void of all nuances. And you have an opinion on everything. And it must be heard. Its going to be a long, hot, violent summer. It feels like time and space are tearing up. Lets hope we all make it to the fall. Lets hope we smarten up and create a better way of dealing with this is in the future. Then again, dead eyes see no future...

https://newyorkhaunted.bandcamp.com/album/nyh39-drvg-cvltvre-dead-eyes-see-no-future

 

[Troubadour]

"Ye therefore, beloved, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness," (2 Peter 3:17, Peter the Apostle, Holy Bible).

 

[Erikmen]

 

[Erikmen]

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy;
they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
― Marcel Proust

 

[Mysterie]

"when i'm with a group of people and i want to provoke them by asking thay most important of questions---are you happy?--- they all reply: "yes i am."

then i ask: "but don't you want more? dont you want to keep growing?" and they all reply: "of course."

then i say: "so you're not happy." and they change the subject.

-coelho

 

[Jabberwocky]

I, with legs crossed along the daylight, watch
The variegated fists of clouds that gather over
The uncouth features of this, my prone island.

Meanwhile the steamers which divide horizons prove
Us lost;
Found only
In tourist booklets, behind ardent binoculars;
Found in the blue reflection of eyes
That have known cities and think us here happy.

Time creeps over the patient who are too long patient,
So I, who have made one choice,
Discover that my boyhood has gone over.

And my life, too early of course for the profound cigarette,
The turned doorhandle, the knife turning
In the bowels of the hours, must not be made public
Until I have learnt to suffer
In accurate iambics.

I go, of course, through all the isolated acts,
Make a holiday of situations,
Straighten my tie and fix important jaws,

And note the living images
Of flesh that saunter through the eye.

Until from all I turn to think how,
In the middle of the journey through my life,
O how I came upon you, my
Reluctant leopard of the slow eyes.

-1948 (Derek Walcott)

 

[Erikmen]

“I am both happy and sad at the same time, and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.”
― Stephen Chbosky

 

[IceDancer]

"Momma said life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get"

 

[Erikmen]

“Choices made, whether bad or good, follow you forever and affect everyone in their path one way or another.”

 

[Fidelity]

"True happiness... is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose."

~ Helen Keller

I had never even heard of the woman, but this quote struck a chord.