Rudolf Steiner and spirit

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was an Austrian philosopher. Writer Colin Wilson said,

"We may even conclude that Swedenborg, Blake and Madame Blavatsky had all developed the same power of amplification, and that Steiner's visions of angelic hierarchies are no truer than Swedenborg's visions of heaven and hell, Blake's visions of the daughters of Albion, or Madame Blavatsky's visions of the giants of Atlantis." (Rudolf Steiner: The Man and his Vision, 1985)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Steiner.

Spirit

"When human beings meet together seeking the spirit with unity of purpose then they will also find their way to each other." (AZQuotes.com)

"When the spirit most closely approaches the physical earth, then we have the perception of fragrance."  (AZQuotes.com)

Materialism

"I ask you to write this deeply into your souls... the materialistic culture... is now on the way to its close." (AZQuotes.com)

"Just as an age was ready to receive the Copernican theory of the universe, so is our own age ready for the ideas of reincarnation and karma to be brought into the general consciousness of humanity." (AZQuotes.com)

Art

"When the human being hears music, he has a sense of wellbeing, because these tones harmonize with what he has experienced in the world of his spiritual home." (AZQuotes.com)

"The task of art is to take hold of the shining, the radiance, the manifestation, of that which as spirit weaves and lives throughout the world." (AZQuotes.com)

Manly P. Hall and wisdom

Manly P. Hall (1901-1990) was Canadian-American mystic. Astronaut Edgar Mitchell said,

"Manly Hall's great work is a classic in the world's literature. It will guide historians, philosophers, and lay seekers of esoteric wisdom for centuries." (Wikiquote)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Hall.

Life

"There are many levels of life which we cannot see and know, yet which certainly exist. There is a larger world, vast enough to include immortality... Our spiritual natures belong to this larger world." (AZQuotes.com)

"We can only escape from the world by outgrowing the world. Death may take man out of the world but only wisdom can take the world out of the man. As long as the human being is obsessed by worldliness, he will suffer from the karmic consequences of false allegiances. When however, worldliness is transmuted into spiritual integrity he is free, even though he still dwells physically among worldly things." (Horizon, 1949)

"Man's security comes from within himself." (AZQuotes.com)

Wisdom

"Wisdom is a condition of consciousness rather an attitude of mind. Wisdom is that state of being in which an individual finds himself when realization has tinctured and transmuted all attitudes and opinions. A wise man is one who has experienced wisdom, wisdom in this sense being a mystical experience" (First Principles of Philosophy: The Science of Perfection, 1935)

"There exists in the world today, and has existed for thousands of years, a body of enlighted humans united in what might be termed, an Order of the Quest... For those who have come to a stage of wisdom then belong to a family of heroes-perfected human beings." (AZQuotes.com)

"It must be shown that self-seeking is out of fashion, and that the world is moving on to a larger conception of living." (AZQuotes.com)

Wilhelm Reich and energy

Wilhelm Reich (1897-1957) was an Austrian psychoanalyst best known for his analysis of vital energy. Mystic Benjamin Creme said,

"The reality of this etheric energy, of what he called 'orgone energy', was demonstrated palpably by Wilhelm Reich in various simple experiments. Nevertheless, he was arrested because he used instruments which he called the 'orgone accumulator', boxes which accumulated the etheric energy of some levels..." (Interview with Benjamin Creme with Share International, 2002)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Reich.

Energy

"I am well aware of the fact that the human race has known about the existence of a universal energy related to life for many ages. However, the basic task of natural science consisted of making this energy usable. This is the sole difference between my work and all preceding knowledge." (Quoted in The New American Medicine in the Journal of The Mindshift Institute)

"The discovery of orgone energy was made through consistent, thorough study of energy functions, first in the realm of the psyche, and later in the realm of biological functioning." (Ether, God and Devil, 1949)

"Psychic health depends on orgastic potency, i.e. upon the degree to which one can surrender to and experience the climax of excitation in the natural selection act... Psychic illnesses are the disturbances in the natural capacity for love." (The Function of the Orgasm, 1927)

Enthusiasm

"Rooting in work is crucial to any accomplishment. Rooting in mere enthusiasm will in the long run force illusory measures to keep the fires of empty enthusiasm going. And this makes politics and politicians." (Writings, 1951)

Work

"Work democracy is the natural process of love, work and knowledge which has always governed economy and the social and cultural life of man and always will, as long as there is a human society." (The Psychology of Fascism, 11th edition, 1946)

Great man

"You are different from the really great man in only one thing: the great man, at one time, also was a very little man, but he developed one important ability: he learned to see where he was small in his thinking, and actions... the great man, then knows when and in what he is a little man." (Listen, Little Man! 1948)

Modern man

"The character structure of modern man, who reproduces a six-thousand-year-old patriarchal authoritarian culture is typified by characterological armoring against his inner nature and against the social misery that surrounds him. This characterological armoring of the character is the basis of isolation, indigence, craving for authority, fear of responsibility, mystic longing, sexual misery, and neurotically impotent rebelliousness." (The Function of the Orgasm, 1927)

"In the course of thousands of years of mechanical development, the mechanistic concept, from generation to generation, has anchored itself deeply in man's biological system. In so doing, it actually has altered human functioning in the sense of the machine-like. In the process of killing his genital function, man has become biologically rigid." (The Psychology of Fascism, 11th edition, 1946)

Samuel Johnson and curiosity

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons, Joshua Reynolds

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an English writer. Wikipedia says,

"...[Johnson] made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer." (Wikipedia: Samuel Johnson, 10.4.21 UTC 14:47)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Johnson.

Curiosity

"A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity." (Quoted in Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell)

"Curiosity is one the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect." (The Rambler, 1750-1752)

Aphorism

"But perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words." (The Rambler, 1750-1752)

"I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made." (The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, 1785)

"Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language." (A dictionary of the English Language, 1755)

Dictionaries

"Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true." (Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson by Hester Lynch Piozzi)

John Dalberg-Acton and democracy

John Dalberg-Acton (1834-1902) was an English historian best known for his analysis of democracy. Historian Herbert Butterfield said,

"Behind the multitude of Acton's reflective notes there is an intellectual system (and a record of the man' achievement) ampler and more imposing than the published writings would suggest. The notes are an evidence of Acton's amazing intellectual integrity, his determination to confront the discrepant fact and not to shrink from the inconvenient anomaly." (Action: His Training, Methods and Intellectual System, 1961)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Dalberg-Acton.

Democracy

"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." (Letter to Mandell Creighton, 1887)

"The true democratic principle, that none shall have power over the people is taken to mean that none shall be able to restrain or to elude its power." (Review of Democracy in Europe, 1878)

"History is not a web woven with innocent hands. Among all the causes which degrade and demoralize men, power is the most constant and most active." (The Story of History, 1895)

Liberty

"Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike and provokes no sincere opposition." (Nationality, 1982)

Solon

"Solon gave them a voice in electing magistrates from the classes above them, and the right of calling them to account... And this idea completely inverted the notion of human authority, for it inaugurated the reign of moral influence... Government by consent superseded government by compulsion and the pyramid which had stood on a point was made to stand upon its base." (The History of Freedom in Antiquity, 1877)

Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society

Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a Russian mystic best known for co-founding the Theosophical Society. Wikipedia says,

"Fundamentally, the underlying concept behind Blavatsky's Theosophy was that there was an 'ancient wisdom religion' which had once been found across the world, and which was known to various ancient figures, such as the Greek philosopher Plato and the ancient Hindu sages." (Wikipedia: Helena Blavatsky, 10.23.21 UTC 20:33)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Blavatsky.

Altruism

"The function of Theosophists is to open men's hearts and understandings to charity, justice and generosity, attributes which belong specifically to the human kingdom and are natural to man when he has developed the qualities of a human being." (Letter to the 1888 American Convention)

"Children should above all be taught self-reliance, love for all men, altruism, to think and reason for themselves... Aim at creating free men and women, free intellectually, free morally, unprejudiced in all respects and above all things, unselfish." (The Key to Theosophy, 1888)

"There is the karma of merit and the karma of demerit. Karma neither punishes or rewards, it is simply the one universal law which guides unerringly, and so to say, blindly all other laws productive of certain effects along the grooves of their respective causations." (The Theosophical Glossary, 1892)

"Buddha, 'The Enlightened'. The highest degree of knowledge. To become a Buddha one has to break through the bondage of sense and personality; to acquire a complete perception of the REAL SELF and learn not to separate it from all otherselves; to learn by experience the utter unreality of all phenomena of the visible Kosmos foremost of all..." (The Theosophical Glossary, 1892)

Ernst Mayr and evolution

Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) was a German-American biologist best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. Wikipedia says,

"...Mayr rejected reductionism in evolutionary biology, arguing that evolutionary pressures act on the whole organism, not on single genes, and that genes can have different effects depending on the other genes present." (10.24.21 UTC 10:42)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Mayr.

Innovation

"Most scientic problems are far better understood by studying their history than their logic." (The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance, 1982)

"The history of science knows scores of instances where an investigator was in the possession of all the important facts for a new theory but simply failed to ask the right questions." (The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution and Inheritance, 1982)

Evolution

"As a consequence, geneticists described evolution simply as a change in gene frequencies in populations, totally ignoring the fact that evolution consists of the two simultaneous but quite separate phenomena of adaptation and diversification." (Toward a New Philosophy of Biology: Observations of an Evolutionist, 1988)

"Darwin argued that the fossil record is very incomplete because some species fossilize better than others... I noted that you are never going to find evidence of a small local population that changed very rapidly in the fossil records." (Interview with Michael Shermer and Frank Sulloway, 2000)

Collection of Bent songs

This post is a collection of songs by Bent. There are 8 songs listed below alphabetically.

• Always In My Heart
• Cyclones in Love
• Exercise 7
• I Can't Believe It's Over
• Magic Love
• Private Road
• So Long Without You
• Swollen

Jacques Monod and innovation

Jacques Monod (1910-1976) was a French biologist best known for his analysis of virus synthesis. Medical doctor Eric Kandel said,

"Jacob and Monod not only outlined a theory of gene regulation, they also discovered the first regulators of gene transcription. These regulators come in two forms - repressors, genes that encode the regulatory proteins that shut genes off, and as later work showed, activators, genes that encode the regulatory proteins that turn genes on." (In Search of Memory, 2006)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Jacques Monod.

Innovation

"In science, self-satisfaction is death. Personal self-satisfaction is the death of the scientist. Collective self-satisfaction is the death of the research. It is restlessness, anxiety, dissatisfaction, agony of mind that nourish science." (AZQuotes.com)

"A totally blind process can by definition lead to anything; it can even lead to vision itself." (AZQuotes.com)

"Modern societies accepted the treasures and the power offered them by science. But they have not accepted - they have scarcely even heard - its profounder message: the defining of a new and unique source of truth... the definitive abandonment of the 'old covenant; the necessity of forging a new one." (AZQuotes.com)

Nikos Kazantzakis and duty

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) was a Greek philosopher. Philosopher Daniel Dombrowski said,

"Like Teresa of Avila, Kazantzakis indicates that behind all appearances lies a struggling divine essence (the 'invisible') that is striving to merge with our hearts just as the mystic is striving to merge with God's." (Kazantzakis and God, 1997)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Kazantzakis.

Duty

"Our profound human duty is not to interpret or to cast light on the rhythm of God's arch, but to adjust, as much as we can, the rhythm of our small and fleeting life to his." (The Saviors of God, 1923)

"Blessed are those eyes that have seen more water than any man! Blessed be that haughty mind that aimed at the greatest hope!" (The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, 1938)

"Free yourself from race also; fight to live through the whole struggle of man." (The Saviors of God, 1923)

"Even the most humble insect and the most insignificant idea are the military encampments of God. Within them, all of God is arranged in fighting position for a critical battle. Even in the most meaningless particle of earth and sky I hear God crying out: Help me!" (The Saviors of God, 1923)

"As I watched the seagulls, I thought: That's the road to take; find the absolute rhythm and follow it with absolute trust." (Zorba the Greek, 1946)

George Bernard Shaw and life experience

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, Underwood & Underwood

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish writer best known for his contributions to drama and theater. Historian Jacques Barzun said,

"Bernard Shaw remains the only model we have of what the citizen of a democracy should be: an informed participant in all things we deem important to the society and the individual." (Bernard Shaw, 1943)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Shaw.

Life experience

"The secret of being miserable is have leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not. The cure for it is occupation because occupation means pre-occupation; and the pre-occupied person is neither happy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active..." (A Treatise on Parents and Children, 1910)

"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one..." (Man and Superman, 1903)

"Attention and activity lead to mistakes as well as to successes; but a life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." (The Doctor's Dilemma, 1911)

"Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience." (Maxims for Revolutionists, 1903)

Aleister Crowley and innovation

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a British philosopher and mystic best known his analysis of magic. Wikipedia says,

"Crowley's thought was not always cohesive, and was influenced by a variety of sources, ranging from eastern religious movements and practices like Hindu yoga and Buddhism, scientific naturalism, and various currents within Western esotericism, among them ceremonial magic, alchemy, astrology, Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah and the Tarot." (10.7.21 UTC 22:56)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Crowley.

Innovation

"I am certain of opinion that genius can be acquired, or in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession. It's rarity may be attributed to the crushing influence of a corrupted society." (Energized Enthusiasm: A Note on Theurgy, 1913)

"Adaptation to one's environment makes for a sort of survival; but after all, the supreme victory is only won by those who prove themselves of so much hardier stuff than the rest that no power on earth is able to destroy them. The people who have really made history are martyrs." (The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, 1929)

Analysis of evil

"Crime, folly, sickness and all phenomena must be contemplated with complete freedom from fear aversion or shame. Otherwise we shall fail to see accurately and interpret intelligently; in which case we shall be unable to outwit and outfight them." (Magick Book, Liber ABA, Book IV, 1911-1936)

"The conscious of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper." (The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, 1929)

Love

"Love is a virtue; it grows stronger and purer and less selfish by applying it to what it loathes..." (Magick Book, Liber ABA, Book IV, 1911-1936)

Thomas Reid and epistemology

Thomas Reid (1710-1796) was a Scottish philosopher best known for his contributions to Scottish Enlightenment. Wikipedia says,

"Reid believed that common sense (in a special philosophical sense of sensus communis) is, or at least should be, at the foundation of all philosophical inquiry. He disagreed with Hume, who asserted that we can never know what an external world consists of as our knowledge is limited to ideas in the mind, and George Berkeley, who asserted that the external world is merely ideas in the mind." (Wikipedia: Thomas Reid, 6.28.23 UTC 10:42)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Reid.

Epistemology

"There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words." (AZQuotes.com)

"In every chain of reasoning, the evidence of the last conclusion can be no greater than the weakest link of the chain, whatever may be the strength of the rest." (AZQuotes.com)

"Every man feels that perception gives him an invincible belief of the existence of that which he perceives; and that this belief is not the effect of reasoning but the immediate consequence of perception." (AZQuotes.com)

George Gurdjieff and consciousness

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, Janet Flanner

George Gurdjieff (1866/77 - 1949) was a Russian philosopher best known for his analysis of consciousness and the self. Writer Colin Wilson said,

"During his lifetime Gurdjieff did not publish any books on the techniques of his teaching, and his pupils were bound to secrecy on the subject. Since his death in Paris in 1949, however, many of his works have been published, and there has been a flood of memoirs by disciples and admirers." (They Had Strange Powers, 1975)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Gurdjieff.

Consciousness

"The evolution of man is the evolution of his consciousness." (In Search of the Miraculous, 1949 posthumous)

"It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same for even half an hour." (In Search of the Miraculous, 1949 posthumous)

"All religions speak about death during this life on earth. Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one's own knowledge, self-love and egoism." (All and Everything: Views from the Real World, 1973 posthumous)

Helen Keller and optimism

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons, National Portrait Gallery

Hellen Keller (1880-1968) was an American writer and political activist. Mark Twain wrote in a letter to Keller,

"I am charmed with your book - enchanted. You are a wonderful creature, the most wonderful in the world - you and your other half together - Miss Sullivan, I mean, for it took the pair of you to make a complete and perfect whole." (1903)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Keller.

Optimism

"Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement; nothing can be done without hope." (Optimism, 1903)

"To know the history of philosophy is to know that the highest thinkers of the ages, the seers of the tribes and the nations, have been optimists." (Optimism, 1903)

Tolerance

"Tolerance... is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle." (The Story of My Life, 1903)

"The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next. Mere tolerance has given place to a sentiment of brotherhood between sincere men of all denominations." (Optimism, 1903)

Senses

"It seemed to me that there could be nothing more beautiful than the sun whose warmth makes all things grow." (The Story of My Life, 1903)

"I who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch." (Three Days to See, 1933)

"Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken to deaf tomorrow." (Three Days to See, 1933)

Ralph Waldo Emerson and quotes

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American philosopher and writer best known for his contributions to transcendentalism. Poet Edmund Clarence Stedman said,

"Emerson's prose is full of poetry, and his poems are light and air... His modes of expression, like his epithets, are imaginative." (Poets of America, 1885)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Emerson.

Quotes

"Poetry teaches the enormous force of a few words, and, in proportion to the inspiration, checks loquacity." (Parnassus, 1874)

"Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better." (Lectures and Biographical Sketches, 1883 posthumous)

"Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it." (Quotation and Originality, 1859)

"The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it." (Quotation and Originality, 1859)

Exploration

"Explore, and explore, and explore. Be neither chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. Neither dogmatize yourself, nor accept another's dogmatism. Why should you renounce your right to traverse the star-lit deserts of truth, for the premature comforts of an acre, house and barn? (Literary Ethics, 1838)

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better." (Journals, 1842)

Leaders

"We must have kings, and we must have nobles. Nature provides such in every society - only let us have the real instead of the titular." (The Young American, 1844)

"The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome." (Representative Men, 1850)

"Great men, great nations, have not been boasters and buffoons, but perceivers of the terror of life, and have manned themselves to face it." (The Conduct of Life, 1860)

Self reliance

"A man contains all that is needful to his government within himself. He is made a law unto himself... He only can do himself any good or any harm." (Journals, 1883)

"It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are. His greatness will shine and accomplish itself unto the end, whether they second him or not." (The Conservative, 1841)

"We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching." (Self-Reliance, 1841)

"Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world." (Self-Reliance, 1841)

Ram Dass and acceptance

Ram Dass (1931-2019) was an American spiritual teacher best known for his book Be Here Now (1971). Wikipedia says,

"Dass was personally and professionally associated with Timothy Leary at Harvard University in the early 1960's... In 1967, [Richard Alpert] traveled to India and became a disciple of Hindu guru Neem Karoli Baba who gave him the name Ram Dass, meaning 'Servant of Ram'." (Wikipedia: Ram Dass, 8.15.23 UTC 15:39)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Dass.

Acceptance

"The judging mind is very divisive. It separates. Separation closes your heart. If you close your heart to someone, you are perpetuating your suffering and theirs." (AZQuotes.com)

"Compassion lets us appreciate that each individual is doing what he or she must do, and that there is no reason to judge another person or oneself." (AZQuotes.com)

"Behind everyone's learned behaviors and odd eccentricities lurks a soul, ready to make contact if only coaxed out through a crack in the ego." (AZQuotes.com)

"If you want to be free, you can't push away anything. You have to embrace it all. It's all God." (AZQuotes.com)

Love

"Souls love. That's what souls do. Egos don't but souls do. Become a soul, look around, and you'll be amazed - all beings around you are souls." (Be Here Now, 1971)

"Gratitude opens your heart, and opening your heart is a wonderful and easy way for God to slip in." (AZQuotes.com)

"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion - and where it isn't, that's where my work lies." (Quoted in One-Lines: A Mini-Manual for a Spiritual Life)

Now

"Early in the journey you wonder how long the journey will take and whether you will make it in this lifetime. Later you will see that where you are going is here and you will arrive now... so stop asking." (Be Here Now, 1971)

"Many of us are caught in separateness and we look for love out there, out there. But then as we proceed inside there will be the love." (Interview with Marianne Schnall, 2013)

"The way you come to fully appreciate the infusion of the spirit is to more and more come fully into the moment, where this moment is enough." (AZQuotes.com)

Thinking

"When you are completely identified with your thinking mind you are totally separate from everything else in the universe." (AZQuotes.com)

"We're sitting under the tree of our thinking minds, wondering why we're not getting any sunshine!" (AZQuotes.com)

"The intellect is a beautiful servant but a terrible master. Intellect is the power tool of our separateness. The intuitive, compassionate heart is the doorway to our unity." (AZQuotes.com)

Neem Karoli Baba and God

Neem Karoli Baba (1900-1973) was an Indian Hindu guru. Wikipedia says,

"[Baba] would advise people to surrender to God's will above everything else so that they might develop love and faith in him and thereby be free of unnecessary worries in life."

The rest of this post is some quotes from Baba.

God

"All religions are the same. They all lead to God. God is everybody." (AZQuotes.com)

"It's better to see God in everything than to try to figure it out." (AZQuotes.com)

"The best service you can do is to keep your thoughts on God. Keep God in mind every minute." (AZQuotes.com)

Desire

"If you want to see God, kill desires. Desires are in the mind. When you have a desire for something, don't act on it and it will go away. If you desire to drink think cup of tea, don't, and the desire for it will go away." (AZQuotes.com)

"This world is all attachment. Yet you get worried because you are attached." (AZQuotes.com)

"It is very difficult to know exactly what good should come out of a particular situation. To attempt to manipulate circumstances so you idea of good can come about, is to let the ego play God - and that, as you know, can and does backfire." (AZQuotes.com)

Václav Havel and politics

Václav Havel (1936-2011) was a Czech politician who served as the last President of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003). The rest of this post is some quotes from Havel.

Language

"I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than then military divisions." (Speech accepting peace prize, 1989)

"There can be no doubt that distrust of words is less harmful than unwarranted trust in them. Besides, to distrust words, and indict them for the horrors that might slumber unobtrusively within them - isn't this, after all, the true vocation of the intellectual? (Speech accepting peace prize, 1989)

Politics

"Despite all the political misery I am confronted with every day, it still is my profound conviction that the very essence of politics is not dirty; dirt is brought in only by wicked people... But it is not true at all that a politician cannot do without lying or intriguing. That is sheer nonsense, often spread by those who want to discourage people from taking an interest in public affairs." (International Herald Tribune, 1991)

"The idea of human rights and freedoms must be an integral part of any meaningful world order." (The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World, 1994)

"It is clearly necessary to invent organizational structures appropriate to the present multicultural age. But such efforts are doomed to failure if they do not grow out of something deeper, out of generally held values." (The Need for Transcendence in the Postmodern World, 1994)

"We introduced a new model of behavior: don't get involved in diffuse general ideological polemics with the center, to whom numerous concrete causes are always being sacrificed... In other words, don't get mixed up in backroom wheeling and dealing, but play an open game." (Disturbing the Peace, 1986)

"The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both." (Disturbing the Peace, 1986)

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and flow

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934-now) is a Hungarian-American psychologist best known for his analysis of flow. Wikipedia says,

"In his seminal work, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csikszentmihalyi outlines his theory that people are happiest when they are in a state of flow - a state  of concentration or complete absorption with the activity at hand and the situation." (Wikipedia: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 8.4.23 UTC 05:45)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Csikszentmihalyi.

Flow

"Flow is being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz." (AZQuotes.com)

"Contrary to what most of us believe, happiness does not simply happen to us. Its something that we make happen, and it results from doing our best." (Good Business, 2004)

"The best moments in our lives are not the passive receptive, relaxing times... the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limited in voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile." (AZQuotes.com)

"Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives... most of the things that are interesting, important and human are the results of creativity... when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." (AZQuotes.com)

"If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. Many of the things we find interesting are not so by nature, but because we took the trouble of paying attention to them." (Finding Flow, 1997)

Gertrude Stein and innovation

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was an American novelist and art collector. She is best known her contributions to literary modernism. Wikipedia says,

"Her books include Q.E.D. (1903), about a lesbian romantic affair involving several of Stein's friends; Fernhurst, a fictional story about a love triangle; Three Lives (1905-06); The Making of Americans (1902-1911); and Tender Buttons (1914)." (Wikipedia: Gertrude Stein, 9.13.21 UTC 10:00)

Wikipedia also says,

"By early 1906, Leo and Gertrude Stein's studio had many paintings by Henri Manguin, Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Honoré Daumier, Henri Matisse and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec." (Wikipedia: Gertrude Stein, 9.13.21 UTC 10:00)

The rest of this quote is some quotes from Stein.

Innovation

"From the very nature of progress, all ages must be transitional. If they were not, the world would be at a stand-sill and death would speedily ensure." (Form and Intelligibility from the Radcliffe Manuscripts, 1949 posthumous)

"The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic." (Composition as Explanation, 1926)

"For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling." (Composition as Explanation, 1926)

Joseph Campbell and mythology

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was an American writer best known for his analysis of myths. Politician Bill Moyers said,

"To [Campbell] mythology was 'the song of the universe', 'the music of the spheres' - music we dance to even when we cannot name the tune." (Introduction to The Power of Myth, 1988)

The rest of this post is some quotes from Campbell.

Life's path

"I don't think people are really seeking the meaning of life. I think we're seeking an experience of being alive... we want to feel the rapture of being alive." (The Power of Myth, 1988)

"Nothing is exciting if you know what the outcome is going to be." (AZQuotes.com)

"If you see your path laid out in front of you - step one, step two, step three - you only know one thing... it is not your path." (AZQuotes.com)

"If the path before you is clear, you're probably on someone else's." (AZQuotes.com)

Misfortune

"Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow." (AZQuotes.com)

"Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging." (AZQuotes.com)

"When you stumble, there lies your treasure. The very cave you are afraid to enter turns out to be the source of what you are looking for. The damned thing in the cave that was so dreaded has become the center." (Quoted in Joseph Campbell Companion, 1991)

Mythology

"If you live with the myths in your mind, you will find yourself always in mythological situations. They cover everything that can happen to you. And that enables you to interpret the myth in relation to life, as well as life in relation to myth." (AZQuotes.com)

"Thinking in mythological terms helps to put you in accord with the inevitables of this vale of tears. You learn to recognize the positive values in what appear to be the negative moments and aspects of your life." (The Power of Myth, 1988)

"Myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human manifestation." (The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 1949)

Compassion

"I think of compassion as the fundamental religious experience and, unless that is there, you have nothing." (AZQuotes.com)

"The key to the grail is compassion, 'suffering with', feeling another's sorrow as if it were you own. The one who finds the dynamo of compassion is the one who's found the grail." (AZQuotes.com)

Problems of the world

"When we talk about settling the world's problems, we're barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It's a mess. It has always been a mess. We're not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives." (AZQuotes.com)

"We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes." (The Power of Myth, 1988)

Creativity

"Writer's block results from too much head. Cut off your head. Pegasus, poetry, was born of Medusa when her head was cut off. You have to be reckless when writing. Be as crazy as your conscious allows." (AZQuotes.com)

"The creative act is not hanging on, but yielding to a new creative movement. Awe is what moves us forward." (AZQuotes.com)

"The quest for fire occurred not because anyone knew what the practical uses for fire would be, but because it was fascinating." (AZQuotes.com)