The sea has its pearls
The heavens its stars
But my heart, my heart
My heart has its love.
(Heine)
"Here's what I've decided: the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof." (Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver)
"What keeps you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on, and the fact that you know how to drive. You keep your eyes open, you see this damned-to-hell world you got born into, and you ask yourself, 'What life can I live that will let me breathe in and out and love somebody or something and not run off screaming into the woods?'" (Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver)
"Courage is not something you have, like a sum of money, more or less in a pouch -- it cannot be lost, like money spilling out. Courage is inherent in all creatures; it is the quality that keeps them alive, because they endure. It is courage... that splits the acorn and sends the rootlet down into soil to search for sustenance. You can damage the creature, yes, and it may die of it, but as long as it lives and endures, each living part has as much courage as it can hold.... the essence is the going on. A liking for excitement and danger is like a taste for walnuts or mushrooms or the color yellow. Most people have a little -- you may have noticed how small children like to scare themselves climbing tres and such -- but the gift varies in amount. It adds to the warrior's ability by masking fear. But it's not essential... even to a warrior. The going on, the enduring, is." (The Deed of Paksenarrion, Elizabeth Moon)
"We have been thwarted at every turn by god. Not the real God. A false
one which has been set up by man to expedite his destruction of the earth.
He is the gobble-god who bids fair to swallow everything in the name of a
totally selfish humanity. His ten commandments are me first (let me live
as I please), humans first (let all other living things die for my benefit),
sperm first (no birth control), birth first (no abortions), males first
(no women's rights), my culture/tribe/language/religion first
(separatism/terrorism), my race first (no human rights), my politics first
(lousy liberals/rotton reactionaries), my country first (wave the flag, the
flag, the flag), and, above all, profit first.
We worship the gobble-god. We burn forests in his name. We kill whales and
dolphins in his name. We pave prairies in his name. We set bombs in his
name. We worship him everywhere. We call him by different titles and commit
blasphemies in the name of worship.
We were given magic to use in creating wonder, and the gobble-god has sucked
it dry. His followers reject mystery and madness and marvel. They cannot
tolerate questions. They can believe any answer, no matter how false, so
long as it is a certainty nailed firmly onto the cross of money..."
(Beauty, Sheri Tepper)
"Wisdom was the curse of man, she said. In seeking wisdom, we had lost our heritage. I didn't believe that. We hadn't sought wisdom diligently enough, that's how we'd lost our heritage. We preferred cleverness to wisdom. Instead of seeking the truth, we had preferred to believe in easy certainties. Always so much easier to take the lazy, easy way and then pretend God had commanded it." (Beauty, Sheri Tepper)
"...Aiki is not a technique to fight with... it is the way to reconcile the world, and make human beings one family. Winning means winning over the mind of discord in yourself. It is to accomplish your bestowed mission. Love is the guardian deity of everything. Nothing can exist without it. Aikido is the realisation of love... 'Do' is Japanese for 'a way'. 'Ai' means 'love, harmony,' and 'ki' is the vital spirit. 'Aikido' can mean, the way of martial spiritual harmony... The way means to be one with the will of deity, and practice it. How can you straighten your warped mind, purify your heart, and be at harmony with the activities of all things in the universe? You should first make god's heart yours. There is no discord in love. There is no enemy in love... Even standing with my back to the opponent is enough. When he attacks, hitting, he will injure himself with his own intention to hit. I am one with the love of the universe, and I am nothing else." (The Bone People, Keri Hulme)
"I know there are women who find one man and love him forever... but I have never been that kind of woman. I do love forever, I don't mean to say otherwise, but I love so many people. I have too much affection in me to bind it up in one person -- I have so much to give to the pepole I love -- I want to absorb them and understand them and make them a part of me. It seems artificial to me to choke off that love, to deny it, when no one is hurt by it and everyone is -- uplifted." (Wrapt in Crystal, Sharon Shinn)
"...No one deserves happiness -- that is, happiness is not something that is deserved or earned... happiness is a gift... like beauty is a gift, or musical ability or intelligence..." (Wrapt in Crystal, Sharon Shinn)
Selected quotes from The Plague that have been extremely influential to me and my life philosophy. (This is long.)
Back to words, words and more words
words are another dimension of silence