26 Quotes Tagged: things

The greatest victory in life is to rise above the material things that we once valued most.

There was a period when I believed stuff meant something. I thought that if you had matching side chairs and a sofa that harmonized and some beautiful lamps to light them you would have a home, that elegance signaled happiness.

Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, since things come first and names afterwards.

The moment you are wrapped up in the world, you become blind to the things wrapped in the mysteries.

If we fear loss enough, in the end the things we possess will come to possess us.

All things can be deadly to us, even the things made to serve us; as in nature walls can kill us, and stairs can kill us, if we do not walk circumspectly.

Sometimes we can't find the thing that will make us happy, because we can't let go of the thing that was supposed to.

Useless and precious objects. Taking up space. Taking up time.

The accouterments of life were so rich and varied, so elaborated, that almost no place at all was left for life itself. Each and every accessory was so costly and beautiful that it had an existence above and beyond the purpose it was meant to serve – confusing the observer and absorbing attention.

Look upon men and things with the inner eye, with its form and desire, never forgetting that the shadow they throw as they pass by, upon hillock or wall, is but the fleeting image of a mightier shadow, which, like the wing of an imperishable swan, floats over every soul that draws near to their soul. Do not believe that thoughts such as these can be mere ornaments, and without influence upon the lives of those who admit them. It is far more important that one’s life should be perceived than that it should be transformed; for no sooner has it been perceived, than it transforms itself of its own accord.

When there is both name and reality,
We dwell in the realm of things;
When there is neither name nor reality,
We exist in a vacuity of things.
We can speak and can think,
But the more we speak, the further off we are.
What is not yet born cannot be forbidden,
What is already dead cannot be prevented.
Death and birth are not distant,
It's their principle that cannot be seen.

Don't spend money on things... spend money on experiences. You'll enjoy life a lot more!

"Children of her type contrive the purest philosophies. Ada had worked out her own little system. Hardly a week had elapsed since Van’s arrival when he was found worthy of being initiated in her web of wisdom. An individual’s life consisted of certain classified things: "real things" which were unfrequent and priceless, simply "things" which formed the routine stuff of life; and "ghost things," also called "fogs," such as fever, toothache, dreadful disappointments, and death. Three or more things occurring at the same time formed a "tower," or, if they came in immediate succession, they made a "bridge." "Real towers" and "real bridges" were the joys of life, and when the towers came in a series, one experienced supreme rapture; it almost never happened, though. In some circumstances, in a certain light, a neutral "thing" might look or even actually become "real" or else, conversely, it might coagulate into a fetid "fog." When the joy and the joyless happened to be intermixed, simultaneously or along the ramp of duration, one was confronted with "ruined towers" and "broken bridges.

The books and magazines streamed in. He could buy them all, they piled up around him and even while he read, the number of those still to be read disturbed him. … they stood in rows, weighing down his life like a possession which he did not succeed in subordinating to his personality.