“I see practical enlightenment as becoming comfortable with the idea that some suffering is always inevitable, that no matter what you do, life is comprised of failures, loss, regrets, and even death.”
Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck, Rewire Your Mindset, The Fitness Mindset, Meltdown 4 Books Collection Set
“Why don't you live for the people. Why don't you struggle for the people. Why don't you die for the people.”
“We'd arrested him for making a speech seeking equality, and thrown him in a makeshift prison camp, open to the elements on one of the coldest nights of the year, and here he was inviting us in for a cup of tea. It was hard to dislike the man, let alone classify him as a mortal foe.”
Source: Smoke and Ashes
“I live bigger than your labels.
-Samantha N.”
Source: I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure
“...that when the Platypus was discovered, scientists said it was a paradox. But Pirsig’s point was it was never a paradox or an oddity. It didn’t make sense only to the scientists because they viewed the nature of animals according to their own classification, when nature did not have any.”
Source: Lila: An Inquiry Into Morals
“When I die — I’ll turn into wind,
And live above your rooftop, free.
Alisa cried, smiling through her tears.
And continued:
When you die — you’ll become the sun,
And still, you'll be above me.”
Source: Death’s Beloved: She fell in love with death
“If I believed a giant Platypus was coming to liberate humanity and save us all, it would still make more sense than the climate denial people do......”
“I have spent the last week as a nearly full-time reader of platypusology.”
Source: Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History
“Corrie's birth resonated in Britain, and Australia gained some of the liveliest publicity since the battle of El Alamein. In the thick of war, this clearly ruffled the London Daily Telegraph who published a local rhymester's verse in their columns:
Hush-a-bye Platypus,
Pride of the Zoo
Baby shall figure in Nature's Who's Who,
Mummy will fondle and Daddy will brag
While all the zoologists' tongues are a-wag.
Shush, little mammal, you're nor all that smart, This is no time to expect a star part, Sleep—and remove that smirk off your bill We are making more history than you ever will.
'Australian jungle fighters', huffed the paper 'will doubtless agree'.”
Source: Platypus: The Extraordinary Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the World
“Finally, the work of the minister tended to be judged by his success in a single area - the saving of souls in measurable numbers. The local minister was judged either by his charismatic powers or by his ability to prepare his congregation for the preaching of some itinerant ministerial charmer who would really awaken its members. The 'star' system prevailed in religion before it reached the theater. As the evangelical impulse became more widespread and more dominant, the selection and training of ministers was increasingly shaped by the revivalist criterion of ministerial merit. The Puritan ideal of the minister as an intellectual and educational leader was steadily weakened in the face of the evangelical ideal of the minister as a popular crusader and exhorter. Theological education itself became more instrumental. Simple dogmatic formulations were considered sufficient. In considerable measure the churches withdrew from intellectual encounters with the secular world, gave up the idea that religion is a part of the whole life of intellectual experience, and often abandoned the field of rational studies on the assumption that they were the natural province of science alone. By 1853 an outstanding clergyman complained that there was 'an impression, somewhat general, that an intellectual clergyman is deficient in piety, and that an eminently pious minister is deficient in intellect.”
Source: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life