Quotessence
Home / Quotes / A Quotes

A Quotes

Browse famous quotes beginning with A. This page is a child index of the full Popular Quotes A-Z directory.

All A Quotes

“A living body is not a fixed thing but a flowing event, like a flame or a whirlpool: the shape alone is stable, for the substance is a stream of energy going in at one end and out at the other. We are particularly and temporarily identifiable wiggles in a stream that enters us in the form of light, heat, air, water, milk, bread, fruit, beer, beef Stroganoff, caviar, and pate de foie gras. It goes out as gas and excrement - and also as semen, babies, talk, politics, commerce, war, poetry, and music. And philosophy.”

“A living creature develops a destructive impulse when it wants to destroy a source of danger... The original motive is not pleasure in destruction... I destroy in a dangerous situation because I want to live and do not want to have any anxiety. In short, the impulse to destroy serves a primary biological will to live.”

“A living faith is always on trial; we call it faith for that reason. When I read in some alarmist book that the Christian faith is now on trial, or "at the crossroads," my impulse is to answer, Why Not? Does anybody know a time when the Christian faith was not on trial, or when the Christian life was a simple walkover, with neither principalities nor powers to dispute its advance?”

“A living organism must be studied from two distinct aspects. One of these is the causal-analytic aspect which is so fruitfully applicable to ontogeny. The other is the historical descriptive aspect which is unravelling lines of phylogeny with ever-increasing precision. Each of these aspects may make suggestions concerning the possible significance of events seen under the other, but does not explain or translate them into simpler terms.”

“A living system continually re-creates itself. But how this occurs in social systems such as global institutions depends on our level of awareness, both individually and collectively... As long as our thinking is governed by industrial, "machine age" metaphors such as control, predicatbility, and "faster is better", we will continue to re-create institutions as we have, despite their increasing disharmony with the larger world.”

“A lizard brain fired the gun that wounded you, but it was the combination of three brains that orchestrated the elaborate circumstances in which the trigger was pulled. Way back when, the Landlord believed a second brain would endow some of his lower life forms with the capacity for emotional connections. By adding the third brain, he probably planned on having his... higher forms empowered with the ability to not only think before acting, but to feel regret afterwards when their actions were wrong. But that’s not what happened, is it?”

“A LLEGADO LA HORA DE CRECER, MADURAR Y DARME CUENTA QUE LA VIDA NO ESPERA POR TI. LA VIDA TIENE UN RITMO, NO PUEDES SENTARTE Y VERLA PASAR, SOLO PUEDES SONREIRLE Y DEJARTE LLEVAR... VIVE CADA SEGUNDO COMO SI FUERA EL ULTIMO, VIVE DE TAL FORMA QUE DESEES VOLVER A VIVIR, NO TE DETENGAS ENTRE LOS MOMENTOS DIFICILES, TE AYUDARAN A CUMPLIR TU MISION DE SER Y HACER FELIZ. HA LLEGADO LA HORA DE PENSAR EN LOS DEMAS, DE SOÑAR, PERDONAR Y DEJAR TU EGO ATRÁS. TU VIDA TIENE UN RITMO, NO TIENE MAPAS NI DIRECCION, SOLO SE PACIENTE Y SIGUE EL RITMO DE TU CORAZON...”

“A lo largo de esos meses pensé a menudo en lo que yo intentaba hacer, en lo duro que es mantener con vida a alguien que no quiere vivir. Primero pruebas con la lógica («Tienes tantos motivos para vivir»), luego con la culpabilidad («Me lo debes»), con la cólera, las amenazas y los ruegos («Ya tengo una edad. No le hagas esto a un anciano»). Pero una vez que él accede, es necesario que tú, que le has engatusado, sepas bien a qué te enfrentas, porque ves cómo le cuesta, ves cuánto desea irse, ves que el solo acto de existir le resulta agotador, y tienes que repetirte cada día: «Estoy haciendo lo que debo. Permitir que haga lo que quiere hacer es contrario a las leyes de la naturaleza, a las leyes del amor». Y te abalanzas sobre los buenos momentos, te aferras a ellos como si fueran una prueba —«¿Ves? Por eso vale la pena vivir. Por eso quiero que lo intente»—, aunque esos momentos únicos no pueden compensar todos los demás, que son la mayoría. Piensas, como pensé con respecto a Jacob: «¿Para qué está aquí este niño? ¿Para darme consuelo? ¿Para que yo le dé consuelo a él? Y si un niño ya no puede ser consolado, ¿es mi deber darle permiso para que se vaya?». Y entonces vuelves a decirte: «Pero eso es abominable. No puedo».”