Great Quotes II: Source and Context are Key

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

"If you don't build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs"

Tony Gaskins.

I've no idea who Tony Gaskins is and in all likelihood he's some motivational speaking douche. In fact there is so much wrong with this quote in the sense it implies an ideal reality that just aint so.

But there is some truth to it that warrants attention.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

"If you don't build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs"

I am trying to make something out of this quote but it so unclear unlike this:

We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline, and effort.
-Jesse Owens

and this:

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
Anatole France

or this:

There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?
Robert Kennedy

 

[rugbyLEAGUEfan]

Do you mean you are unclear as to the meaning? My apologies if that's not the case. It's essentially saying, in some idealistic capitalist fashion that you either "go it alone" and forge you own success and fulfill your dreams or you work for the man, and the man fulfills his.

As I said, unrealistic and possible callous (not everyones dreams consist of wealth etc) but not without some truth.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Do you mean you are unclear as to the meaning? My apologies if that's not the case. It's essentially saying, in some idealistic capitalist fashion that you either "go it alone" and forge you own success and fulfill your dreams or you work for the man, and the man fulfills his.

As I said, unrealistic and possible callous (not everyones dreams consist of wealth etc) but not without some truth.

Ah, yes. I should have thought about it since "hire" represents the money power. I thought about it more as a metaphore. But there is nothing wrong in being hired since thats what happens anyway if only one doesnt lose ones focus on ones dream and simply doesnt give it up.
But even if one is idealist capitalist than there is nothing wrong to see that dreams can be fulfiled by reciprocial service/movement of capital. It hardly can be either all or nothing since thats not very idealistic and is impossible to function in long term...

...and perhaps this is part of the problem:

Mankind thinks naturally in extremes or else reconciles by a patchwork and compromise. Whether he makes a fetish of moderation or surrenders himself to the enthusiasm of the single idea, the human being misses always truth of vision and the right pitch of action because instead of seeing, feeling and becoming in obedience to his nature like other animate existences he tries always to measure things by a standard he has set up in his intelligence. But it is the character of his intelligence that it finds it an easy task to distinguish and separate but is clumsy in combining. When it combines, it tends to artificialise and falsify. It feels at ease in pursuing a single idea to its logical consequences and in viewing things from a single standpoint; but to harmonise different ideas in action and to view the facts from different standpoints is contrary to its native impulse; therefore it does that badly, with an ill grace and without mastery. Oftenest it makes an incongruous patchwork rather than a harmony. The human mind is strong and swift in analysis; it synthesises with labour and imperfectly and does not feel at home in its syntheses. It divides, opposes and, placed between the oppositions it creates, becomes an eager partisan of one side or another; but to think wisely and impartially and with a certain totality is irksome and disgusting to the normal human being.

by Sri Aurobindo

 

[Borachio]

Crippled becomes whole,
Crooked becomes straight,
Hollow becomes full,
Worn becomes new,
Little becomes more,
Much becomes delusion.


Therefore Sages cling to the One
And take care of this world;

Do not display themselves
And therefore shine;

Do not assert themselves
And therefore stand out;

Do not praise themselves
And therefore succeed;

Are not complacent
And therefore endure;

Do not contend
And therefore no one under heaven
Can contend with them.



The old saying
Crippled becomes whole
Is not empty words.

It becomes whole and returns.

Lao Tzu

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

"When a rule is extremely complex, that which conforms to it passes for random."
-partial translation of section VI, Discourse on Metaphysics, Gottfried Leibnitz

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

The Atheist is God playing at hide and seek with Himself; but is the Theist any other ? Well, perhaps; for he has seen the shadow of God and clutched at it.

Only those thoughts are true the opposite of which is also true in its own time and application; indisputable dogmas are the most dangerous kind of falsehoods.

Because the tiger acts according to his nature and knows not anything else, therefore he is divine and there is no evil in him. If he questioned himself, then he would be a criminal.

The sense of sin was necessary in order that man might become disgusted with his own imperfections. It was God's corrective for egoism. But man's egoism meets God's device by being very dully alive to its own sins and very keenly alive to the sins of others.

Only by perfect renunciation of desire or by perfect satisfaction of desire can the utter embrace of God be experienced; for in both ways the essential precondition is effected,-desire perishes.

Sri Aurobindo

 

[Borachio]

With TAO under heaven
Stray horses fertilize the fields.
Without TAO under heaven
Warhorses are bred at the frontier.

There is no greater calamity
Than not knowing what is enough.
There is no greater fault
Than desire for success.

Therefore,
Knowing that enough is enough
Is always
Enough.

Lao Tzu

 

[Mouthwash]

Pretty sure Borachio is trolling.

 

[Borachio]

Indeed, no. Not at all.

I must say the Tao Te Ching is mystifying, though.

 

[Mechanicalsalvation]

Pretty sure Borachio is trolling.

Indeed, no. Not at all.

I must say the Tao Te Ching is mystifying, though.

I agree. I believe I have red the Czech translation years ago but its meaning still eludes me...

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

Here is one Lao non-mysterious:

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

 

[Borachio]

Be filled with TE,
Like a baby:

Wasps, scorpions and vipers
Do not sting it.
Fierce tigers do not stalk it.
Birds of prey do not attack it.

Bones weak, muscles soft,
But its grasp is tight.

It does not yet know
Union of male and female,
But its sex is formed,
Its vital essence complete.

It can scream all day and not get hoarse,
Its harmony is complete.

Knowing harmony is called endurance.
Knowing endurance is called illumination.
Increasing life is called fortune.
Mind controlling energy is called power.

When beings prosper and grow old,
Call them not-TAO.

Not-TAO soon ends.

Lao Tzu

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

I think it's time for some White Guilt:

'One could almost hear the collective sigh of relief by the great powers and by all member states in the international community: "Oh, thank God it is not a genocide, just gross violations of human rights, crimes against humanity, and war crimes and therefore we can do little or nothing." As if murder, rape, systematic massacres, ethnic cleansing, and destruction of way of life are not enough to warrant a determined humanitarian response. What does "Never Again" mean in Darfur?'

- Roméo Dallaire, The World and Darfur, foreword

 

[Optical]

Be filled with TE,
Like a baby:

Be filled with tea like a baby?

 

[Borachio]

Tao Te Ching Way of virtue text. TE = virtue.

(Whatever you think "virtue" might mean. So, yes, it could be tea. It's a notoriously ambiguous text.)

 

[Traitorfish]

"‘Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.”

- H. L. Mencken


I think he was mostly talking about writing contentious poetry, but whatever.

I think it's time for some White Guilt:

'One could almost hear the collective sigh of relief by the great powers and by all member states in the international community: "Oh, thank God it is not a genocide, just gross violations of human rights, crimes against humanity, and war crimes and therefore we can do little or nothing." As if murder, rape, systematic massacres, ethnic cleansing, and destruction of way of life are not enough to warrant a determined humanitarian response. What does "Never Again" mean in Darfur?'

- Roméo Dallaire, The World and Darfur, foreword

Is that white guilt? Far as I know, "all member states in the international community" is a largely non-white category.

 

[Borachio]

"The normal American of the 'pure-blooded' majority goes to rest every night with an uneasy feeling that there is a burglar under the bed and he gets up every morning with a sickening fear that his underwear has been stolen."

Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.

Say what you will about the Ten Commandments, you must always come back to the pleasant fact that there are only ten of them.

The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth--that the error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it is cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.

- H.L. Mencken

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

"The Army as a permanent institution is abolished."
-Article 12, Constitution of Costa Rica

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Is that white guilt? Far as I know, "all member states in the international community" is a largely non-white category.

Well, what group of nations purports to be the defenders of Peace, Justice and Democracy™?


"H. L. Mencken suffers from the hallucination that he is H. L. Mencken—there is no cure for a disease of that magnitude."

- Maxwell Bodenheim

 

[madviking]

"The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living."

- Wendell Phillips