Philip K. Dick, American science fiction author (1928–1982)
251 Quotes Tagged: man
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CAUSE AND EFFECT
You can give a man who has never given you a good word,
Volumes of knowledge.
And you can give a man who has never given you a gift,
A thousand gifts.
You can give that same man who has never given you a blessing,
A thousand blessings.
And you can offer that same man who has never
Offered a hand to help you grow,
Seeds to help him grow a garden.
And while you have never seen true kindness from his direction,
You still offer to help push him up.
And in the end,
He only wants to be the hand that pulls you down.
Do not worry, my friends.
Cause and effect was written by the stars of the universe.
He who passes suffering onto others
Will also have that suffering passed onto his own children.
Gifts he feels he should have in the next lifetime will be unobtainable.
And the help he needs to grow in the next lifetime will be unavailable.
And the people he cuts down that were good to him,
Will cut him down in the next lifetime.
What goes around does come back again,
Even through your children.
There is a vibrational effect
In every action,
Just as there is
A vibration that rings
From every letter
In every word.
No cause occurs without effect
And no effect occurs without cause.
No unjust action goes without penalty
And no action or thought
Flows unnoticed
Throughout
The universe.
For this reason the gentleman will employ a man on a distant mission and observe his degree of loyalty, will employ him close at hand and observe his degree of respect. He will hand him troublesome affairs and observe how well he manages them, will suddenly ask his advice and observe how wisely he answers. He will exact some difficult promise from him and see how well he keeps it, turn over funds to him and see with what benevolence he dispenses them, inform him of the danger he is in and note how faithful he is to his duties. He will get him drunk with wine and observe how well he handles himself, place him in mixed company and see what effect beauty has upon him. By applying these nine tests, you may determine who is the unworthy man.
Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverseness is one of the primitive impulses of the human heart - one of the indivisible primary faculties, or sentiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himself committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than because he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely because we understand it to be such?
Remain faithful to the earth, my brothers, with the power of your virtue. Let your gift-giving love and your knowledge serve the meaning of the earth. Thus I beg and beseech you. Do not let them fly away from earthly things and beat with their wings against eternal walls. Alas, there has always been so much virtue that has flown away. Lead back to the earth the virtue that flew away, as I do — back to the body, back to life, that it may give the earth a meaning, a human meaning.
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O my Mansoul, I have lived, I have died, I live, and I will die no more for thee. I live that thou mayest not die. Because I live thou shalt live also; I reconciled thee to my Father by the blood of My cross, and being reconciled thou shalt live through me. I will pray for thee, I will fight for thee, I will yet do thee good.
Nothing can hurt thee but sin; nothing can grieve Me but sin; nothing can make thee base before thy foes but sin; take heed of sin, my Mansoul.