Born on April 26 — Quotes

The truth ? the truth my dear Ashely is a luxury available only to those who are not involved in its consequences

the meaning of a word is its use in the language.

If someone does not believe in fairies, he does not need to teach his children 'There are no fairies'; he can omit to teach them the word 'fairy'.

The war saved my life. I don't know what I would have done without it. Now I should have the chance to be a decent human being, for I'm standing eye to eye with death.

Who cares about theology except the theologians? We are necessary, but less important than we think. The Church is Christ — Christ and the people. And all the people want to know is whether or not there is a God, and what is His relation with them, and how they can get back to Him when they stray.

It is a base thing for the countenance to be obedient and to regulate and compose itself as the mind commands, and for the mind not to be regulated and composed by itself.

If my life be not my own, it were criminal for me to put it in danger, as well as to dispose of it; nor could one man deserve the appellation of hero, whom glory or friendship transports into the greatest dangers, and another merit the reproach of wretch or misereant who puts a period to his life, from the same or like motives.

6.41 Der Sinn der Welt muss ausserhalb ihrer liegen.

Ik voel de drang tegen de grenzen van de taal storm te lopen, en dat is geloof ik de drang van alle mensen die ooit geprobeerd hebben over ethiek en religie te schrijven en te spreken. Dat stormlopen tegen de wanden van onze kooi is geheel en al zinloos. Voor zover de ethiek ontstaat vanuit de wens iets over de uiteindelijke zin van het leven te zeggen, over het absoluut goede, het absoluut waardevolle, kan ze geen wetenschap zijn. Door wat ze zegt wordt onze kennis in geen enkele zin vermeerderd. Maar het is getuigenis van een drang in het menselijke bewustzijn die ik persoonlijk alleen maar kan waarderen en die ik voor geen enkele prijs belachelijk zou maken.

Observe always that everything is the result of a change, and get used to thinking that there is nothing Nature loves so well as to change existing forms and to make new ones like them.

Getting hold of the difficulty deep down is what is hard. Because if it is grasped near the surface it simply remains the difficulty it was. It has to be pulled out by the roots; and that involves our beginning to think about these things in a new way. The change is as decisive as, for example, that from the alchemical to the chemical way of thinking. The new way of thinking is what is so hard to establish. Once the new way of thinking has been established, the old problems vanish; indeed they become hard to recapture. For they go with our way of expressing ourselves and, if we clothe ourselves in a new form of expression, the old problems are discarded along with the old garment.

When I obey a rule, I do not choose. I obey the rule blindly.

Doth perfect beauty stand in need of praise at all? Nay; no more than law, no more than truth, no more than loving kindness, nor than modesty.

We humans are truly marvelous, adaptable creatures, products of an exciting and inspiring — even though often dangerous — evolutionary story, a story to be celebrated with conviction and enthusiasm even as we move on to new challenges.

Choose not to be harmed -- and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed -- and you haven't been.