“The aim cannot be perfection, but wholeness.”
Source: Words of the Shaman: 50 Quotes from Paching Hoé Lambaiho
“The Jewish settlers are now an organic and integral part of the land. They cannot, and will not, be removed. They should be part of the future, but not on the basis of the constant oppression and dispossession of the local Palestinians.”
Source: Ten Myths About Israel
“There’s not really any bad news in nature. What we call catastrophe, to nature, is just neutral. Preston always said that if you can’t find the space to get to love, even towards yourself, at least be neutral. Everything else’ll just make you sick, and turn you into that thing you don’t understand or don’t wanna be.”
Source: Glitter Saints: The Cosmic Art of Forgiveness, a Memoir
“In order to be disturbed less—since Mischance goes everywhere, and even though he may be ubiquitous—I have chosen as my sole joy (whatever joy someone else may have, this is mine): peace, voluntary solitude, and a secluded, solitary life.”
Source: The Book of the Mutability of Fortune (Volume 52)
“To establish Peace, you need order, and to maintain order, you need Authority. Thus, if Authority doesn't lie with self-righteous men in a society, Peace cannot prevail.”
“Let the world's sharpness like a clasping knife
Shut in upon itself and do no harm
In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,
And let us hear no sound of human strife
After the click of the shutting.
- Sonnet XXIV”
Source: Sonnets from the Portuguese
“Fitness is essentially a ratio, with the numerator reflecting the success of genes in projecting copies of themselves into the future and the denominator, the success of alternative genes. Since a gene (or an individual, a population, even—in theory—a species) maximizes its success by producing the largest such ratio, it can do so either by reducing the denominator or increasing the numerator. Most creatures, most of the time, find it easier to do the latter than the former, which is why living things generally are more concerned with feathering their nests than de-feathering those of others.
Because of natural selection, human beings have a capacity to be peaceful and warlike, cooperative and competitive, loving and violent . . . depending upon conditions. Those conditions include but are not limited to the amount and nature of resources available (such as food, mates, living and breeding space), the nature of social expectation, cultural traditions and indoctrination, degree of embeddedness among kin and other reciprocating individuals, and so forth. Like the proverbial cartoon in which both an angel and a devil perch upon each person’s shoulder, whispering in her ears and vying for attention, our evolutionary heritage offers different routes for future behavior, without necessarily predisposing us in any one direction.
Although it is definitely worthwhile to interrogate our evolutionary background for indications as to our predilections, the answer leads us to Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous formulation that human beings are “condemned to be free.” Whether devotees of peace choose to be relieved to learn that we are not biologically obliged to war, or to be distraught that by the same token, we are not unilaterally predisposed, through our biology, to peace, we are all stuck with an obligation (if not necessarily a predisposition) to respond to Sartre’s simple, daunting, existentialist challenge: “You are free. Choose.”
“Here, every creature finds a sanctuary and peace, in a green embrace of leaves and rustles”
Source: Mountain poems: Musings on stone, forest, and snow
“Wise people do what they can do to enjoy their life, and choosing to believe the best is something we can do that will help us live joyfully, peacefully, and with a sense of purpose.”
Source: Loving People Who Are Hard to Love: Transforming Your World by Learning to Love Unconditionally
“Let peace make the final decision regarding what we do or don’t do. If you have peace, then follow it. If you don’t, then wait to make a decision until you have peace about what to do. Make peace one of your top priorities in life.”
Source: Loving People Who Are Hard to Love: Transforming Your World by Learning to Love Unconditionally