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Quote by Lewis Thomas

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Lewis Thomas
Lewis Thomas

Lewis Thomas was a renowned American physician, writer, and scientist. Born on November 25, 1913, and died on December 3, 1993. He was known for his contributions to medicine and scientific writing, serving as the director of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. more

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“In a way, human beings have never been part of the natural order; we're not biological in the normal sense. Normal biological animals stop eating when they're not hungry and stop breeding when there is no sense in breeding. By contrast, human beings are what I think of as "biomythic" animals: we're controlled largely by the stories we tell. When we get the story wrong, we get out of harmony with the rest of the natural order. For a long time, our unnatural beahvior didn't threaten the natural world, but now it does.”

ThinkingWorldWayHumansLongDoeStoriesOrderNaturalHuman BeingsAnimalNormalEatingLong TimeHarmonyHungryControlledContrastNatural WorldUnnaturalBreedingNatural Order
Author:Sam Keen
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“What is this world? A complex whole, subject to endless revolutions. All these revolutions show a continual tendency to destruction; a swift succession of beings who follow one another, press forward, and vanish; a fleeting symmetry; the order of a moment. I reproached you just now with estimating the perfection of things by your own capacity; and I might accuse you here of measuring its duration by the length of your own days.”

WorldWholeMomentsShowsMightOrderSubjectsThis WorldRevolutionCapacityPerfectionDestructionPressesComplexesEndlessTendenciesLengthFleetingSuccessionDurationMeasuringSymmetryEstimating
Author:Denis Diderot
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“In practice, some come to see easily, some with difficulty. But whatever the case, never mind. Difficult or easy, the Buddha said not to be heedless. Just that--don't be heedless. Why? Because life is not certain. Wherever we start to think that things are certain, uncertainty is lurking right there. Heedlessness is just holding things as certain. It is grasping at certainty where there is no certainty and looking for truth in things that are not true. Be careful! They are likely to bite you sometime in the future!”

ThinkingMindSaidLife IsCertainEasyDifficultPracticeCasesDifficultyCarefulCertaintyUncertaintyBitesBe CarefulGraspingLurking
Book:Being Dharma: The Essence of the Buddha's Teachings
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