Quotes
Quotes about Man
FIRE HAS LEFT THE HEARTH Fire has left the hearth Nautilus climbed from shell Perfume flowed from bottle Prisoner gone from cell Butterfly flutterbied cocoon nor hand restrained by glove Jesus away from manger Cage left by Spirit Dove. Sparklings soared away from wand. Chick's egg become the bird. Omkar sung from out the throat Violin's notes now heard. Buddhist temple pine cone tabernacle'd godlet seed Shattered that it might manifest thousand forests of fir tree Eternal snow of mountain top now nurses meadow flowers. Shining never held by sun relentless melts ice towers. Love has left its spring the heart Is now a liquid pond Host stolen from the chalice consumed in mouth of God Starlight abandoned star a billion years ago Left that tonight you might have its sight and know Know Love is forever no drop of God ever dies Lover not bound by form of love God's bodies are not God's souls (to his wife and children on the death of Robert S) (Baba Hari Das: is the author of love is more powerful than lover for love is not bound by form).
What? Was man made a wheel-work to wind up, And be discharged, and straight wound up anew? No! grown, his growth lasts; taught, he ne'er forgets; May learn a thousand things, not twice the same.
Man seems the only growth that dwindles here.
It is not growing like a tree In bulk, doth make man better be; Or standing long an oak, three hundred year, To fall a log at last, dry, bald, and sere: A lily of a day Is fairer far in May, Although it falls and die that night-- It was the plant and flower of Light.
"Oh! what a vile and abject thing is man unless he can erect himself above humanity." Here is a bon mot and a useful desire, but equally absurd. For to make the handful bigger than the hand, the armful bigger then the arm, and to hope to stride further than the stretch of our legs, is impossible and monstrous. . . . He may lift himself if God lend him His hand of special grace; he may lift himself . . . by means wholly celestial. It is for our Christian religion, and not for his Stoic virtue, to pretend to this divine and miraculous metamorphosis.
'Tis thus the mercury of man is fix'd, Strong grows the virtue with his nature mix'd.
In a narrow circle the mind contracts. Man grows with his expanded needs. [Ger., Im engen Kreis verengert sich der Sinn. Es wachst der Mensch mit seinen grossern Zwecken.]
The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, not a man perfected without trials.
Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment - the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.
No, truly, 'tis more than manners will; And I have heard it said, unbidden guests Are often welcomest when they are gone.
It is . . . sometimes easier to head an institute for the study of child guidance than it is to turn one brat into a decent human being.
Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal consideration should stand in the way of performing a public duty.
Men's minds are too ingenious in palliating guilt in themselves. [Lat., Ingenia humana sunt ad suam cuique levandam culpam nimio plus facunda.]
Neither side is guiltless if its adversary is appointed judge. [Lat., Nulla manus belli, mutato judice, pura est.]
Nothing is more wretched that the mind of a man conscious of guilt. [Lat., Nihil est miserius quam animus hominis conscius.]
Every guilty person is his own hangman.
Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do.
Guilt is a sure sign your thinking is unnatural. * HS was the amanuensis for the Course In Miracles.
A civil habit Oft covers a good man.
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
How use doth breed a habit in a man! This shadowy desert, unfrequented woods, I better brook than flourishing peopled towns.
How many unjust and wicked things are done from mere habit. [Lat., Quam multa injusta ac prava fiunt moribus!]
Good habits, which bring our lower passions and appetites under automatic control, leave our natures free to explore the larger experiences of life. Too many of us divide and dissipate our energies in debating actions which should be taken for granted.
Habit is habit and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.
