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U Quotes

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All U Quotes

“Up to now, most atheists have simply criticized religion in various ways, but the point is to dispel it. In A Manual For Creating Atheists, Peter Boghossian fills that gap, telling the reader how to become a ‘street epistemologist’ with the skills to attack religion at its weakest point: its reliance on faith rather than evidence. This book is essential for nonbelievers who want to do more than just carp about religion, but want to weaken its odious grasp on the world. (Review of Dr. Peter Boghossian's book, 'A Manual For Creating Atheists')”

“Up to now my involvement in the Tibetan freedom struggle has been part of my spiritual practice, because the issues of the survival of the Buddha Teaching and the freedom of Tibet are very much related. In this particular struggle, there is no problem with many monks and nuns, including myself, joining.”

“Up to now the whole past of humanity has been to condemn life and the joy of life. It has been a life-negative approach to life. It is to be against God, the divine, the whole,  because life is God. All the organized religions, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism, have been life-negative. They destroy the capacity to love life, and make you feel shameful and guilty about your joy in life. Meditation and awareness helps you to become free of all shame and guilt, and find the joy in life. Meditation is to rejoice in life, and also to help others to be happy in life, because life is divine.”

“Up to now, men and women have not been living in relationship - because woman has never been thought equal. And relationship exists only between equal people; it cannot happen between unequal people. Unless woman is given total freedom, absolute equality, there will be no possibility to relate. Up to now, man has exploited woman, woman has exploited man; there has not been real relationship.”

“Up to that time most of the Pimas and Maricopas wore long hair. One of the first steps towards their 'civilization' was to get them to cut their hair. Finding this a difficult problem, the agency offered a hat to anyone who cut his hair. ... The [United States government-run] agency had a hard time getting those Pimas to give up their olas-ki [round houses] to build and live in adobe houses. Adobe houses were supposed to be more civilized than the old arrow-weed shelters. But the Pimas did not want to change. So the agency issued a wagon to any Pima family who would build and live in an adobe house. The only thing was, they forgot to issue plans, so a Pima who wanted a free wagon built an adobe house according to his old ideas of a house, with a small door and no windows. These were warm on the few cold nights, but there was no ventilation. Some older people in my own family did what the agency told them to do. They built and lived in an adobe house. When they died they all died of tuberculosis. [pages 49 and 50, Progress]”

“Up to the age of five, children should be given a lot of love. From the age of five to fifteen they should be brought up under strict discipline especially regarding their study. It is at that time that life's foundation is formed. Love without discipline will only spoil them. Above the age of fifteen children should be given maximum love otherwise they may go astray.”

“Up to the Ancient Skies, caught in the storms of the sea of Galilee, we float, we fear, we grow, we grieve, but we believe. Upon every scary night, there is a starry sky. We flow down with the river. We flow with the purifying hope of the Jordan river; we cry, we sing, like a shelter home of love and liberty. We go down with the river with old pain, new wounds and countless scars. We shall rest so we can heal. Anytime soon, our pain shall cease. Until the river meets the sea, we shall cast away our pain and wash away our tears, for there is nothing left to fear. Out of the depths of misery into a place of love, safety, beauty and mystery, our pain shall drown — down to the depths of the Dead Sea. And so shall it remain through all the ages of all the ancient skies and olive trees.”

“Up to the days of Indiana's early statehood, probably as late as 1825, there stood, in what is now the beautiful little city of Vincennes on the Wabash, the decaying remnant of an old and curiously gnarled cherry tree, known as the Roussillion tree, le cerisier de Monsieur Roussillion, as the French inhabitants called it, which as long as it lived bore fruit remarkable for richness of flavor and peculiar dark ruby depth of color.”

“Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You [secretaries and ministers of state] will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my command, . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one.”

“Up until 1986, the top marginal rate, the top statutory rate was 50 percent. Now it's 35 percent. And all the pressure is on to lower that even further. And this just doesn't make a great deal of sense. When people say, 'Oh, we can't raise taxes on the rich. They'll go on strike, they'll move to another country.' But within recent memory, it hasn't been that long ago that we had rates that were substantially higher. And these people did just fine. I just think that there's a disconnect between the facts of what taxes do and the sort of mythology of what they do.”

“Up until now, I believed the nuclear threat to the U.S. from Iran was limited to the ability of terrorists to penetrate the borders or port security to deliver a device to a major city. ...While that threat should continue to be a grave concern for every American, these tests by Iran demonstrate just how devious the fanatical mullahs in Tehran are. We are facing a clever and unscrupulous adversary in Iran that could bring America to its knees.”

“Up until Prohibition, an apple grown in America was far less likely to be eaten than to wind up in a barrel of cider. ("Hard" cider is a twentieth-century term, redundant before then since virtually all cider was hard until modern refrigeration allowed people to keep sweet cider sweet.)”

“Up until that day, I had never really thought about why I defined success that way—instead, I’d been obsessed with how I would attain those things. That focus on the how instead of the why had really tripped me up. It had led me to make some very bad decisions and to experience some very unhappy times. When you follow the influence of mainstream culture—television, movies, magazines, and more—to elevate the goals of wealth, power, and recognition above all else, it becomes logical to take selfish or negative actions in order to attain them. After all, that kind of approach—playing the game, playing for keeps, as they say—is put forth as the way to achieve success and happiness. Machiavelli’s writings are often referenced to support this point of view—statements like “the ends justify the means”—but it should be noted that Machiavelli died alone and in exile.”

“Up until that moment, I'd been at the earliest stage of love, when you feel it will turn you into the better person you want to be. Now, his gentle voice and sage advice took me to a later stage: I felt I needed to pretend to be a better person than I was so he'd keep loving me. This was hard because it made me hate him.”

“Up until that point everyone who gets hurt winds up fine. There's not actual loss. And then Voldemort kills Cedric Diggory and suddenly everything becomes real. We have to face the possibility that we won't all live long enough to lose our hair or become those crotchety old folks who yell at dumb kids like us. Good people die and bad people don't always get what they deserve. Death stops being this abstract concept that happens to other people, and becomes something that could happen to the people we love. Or even to us.”