Quotessence
Home / Quotes / W Quotes

W Quotes

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

All W Quotes

“We were created to guide mankind into the future. To oversee the birth of a new race. One which will outstrip even our accomplishments. We do not set the fire so that we might rule the ashes, my brothers...no, we set it so that the old might give way before the new. Take comfort, my brothers. It is a battle we cannot lose, for we have already won.”

“We were curious. We went seeking our tribe. And yes, I know there are people who’ll say I’m crazy. But just look at those people. Rag, Tag & Bobtail to a man. I’ll tell you about them, shall I? They’re victims of a conditioning in which authority figures such as parents, teachers, the media, religious leaders, politicians and even their mates – especially their mates actually - define what they think. Their cultural values define their beliefs and ultimately the way they perceive themselves, and so when they call me crazy, I take it as quite a compliment. My mind, trust me, is deeper than most Rag Tags would ever dare to swim.”

“We were deliberately designed to learn only by trial and error. We're brought up, unfortunately, to think that nobody should make mistakes. Most children get de-geniused by the love and fear of their parents - that they might make a mistake. But all my advances were made by mistakes. You uncover what is when you get rid of what isn't.”

“We were despised and trampled upon but the Lord lifted us.”

“We were destined to have our own way from the beginning and America - two nations that have always had their way, for they killed everybody else to get it ... Here we have a symbol of nationality [Canberra, the national capital] ... The first historic event in the history of the Commonwealth we are engaged in today without the slightest trace of that race we have banished from the face of the earth.”

“We were discovered by Don Fury; he was the first record producer who discovered us and essentially plucked us out of the rough. But I think in another way, we were discovered when we discovered each other, right before we started high school. We were 12 and 13. I don't want to speak for Justin Beck, but that's a big moment, linking up with your foil for the first time. Glassjaw definitely changed my life in the biggest way possible.”

“We were discussing sexual misconduct among Western Buddhist teachers. A woman Buddhist from California brought up someone who was using his students for his own sexual needs. One woman said, “We are working with him with compassion, trying to get him to understand his motives for exploiting female students and help him change his actions.” The Dalai Lama slammed his fist on the table, saying loudly, “Compassion is fine, but it has to stop! And those doing it should be exposed!” All the serving plates on the table jumped, the water glasses tipped precariously, and I almost choked on the bite of saffron rice in my mouth. Suddenly I saw him as a fierce manifestation of compassion and realized that this clarity did not mean that the Dalai Lama had moved away from compassion. Rather, he was bringing compassion and manifesting it as decisive fierceness. His magnetism was glowing like a fire. I will always remember that day because it was such a good teaching on compassion and precision. Compassion is not a “wishy-washy, anything goes” approach. Compassion can say a fierce “no!” Compassion is not being stupid and indulging someone in what they want. Trungpa Rinpoche called that “idiot compassion,” like giving a drug addict drugs. The way I am using the word “fierce” in this book is in the sense of how a mother animal defends her young. A laser beam of fierceness, of pure energy that when harnessed and directed is powerful and unstoppable. It is fierceness without hatred or aggression. Sometimes a wrathful manifestation is more effective than a peaceful approach. It is by understanding the Dakini’s fierceness as a productive and creative source of raw energy that we see the Dakini in action, wielding the power to subdue, protect, and transform. We must find the sources to access this fierce Dakini power and bring it to bear on what matters to us in our lives, be it emotional, spiritual, intellectual, or political. Meeting our strong feminine energy, we will develop as women, and not as women trying to be like men or asexual beings. We are different, and until that difference is known, owned, and maximized, our true feminine potency and capacity to bring this world into balance will not be realized. The powerful, fierce feminine is very much a part of the psyche, but it is repressed, and when it is not acknowledged because it is threatening, it can become subversive and vengeful. But when it is acknowledged and honored, it is an incredible source of power.”

“We were doing Scarface many years ago...and I remember having my coffee and looking at the beach, the surf, and I saw a hundred people looking out into the ocean. I thought, what's going on? Did some whale get washed up to shore? So I stood up on the table to see what it was, and it was the director, Brian De Palma, standing there alone by the surf and they were all waiting for him. And I never forgot that because it represented to me what a director is, what a director does.”

“We were doing something called telemedicine, where we were using the ultrasound. One interesting application of this ultrasound is the possibility that you could possibly use it to measure critical bone areas during a long space mission and track if you're losing bone in these areas. On Earth, when they check you for bone loss, you get in this big machine. It's the size of a room and it's got a platform with an x-ray that scans your whole body and in critical areas and it takes a while and it just wouldn't be practical to have a machine like that in space.”

“We were doing the same thing. We will never have "a" Chicano English or Spanish because of regional differences. But I think that because of our bilingual history, we'll always be speaking a special kind of English and Spanish. What we do have to do is fight for the right to use those two languages in the way that it serves us. Nuevo-mexicanos have done it very well for hundreds of years, inventing words where they don't have them. I think the future of our language is where we claim our bilingualism for its utility.”

“We were, each of us… at a crossroads of public and private dynamics which had brought us to this frame-worthy moment. I thought of the different currents and crosscurrents of history which had formed, merged, broken apart, and reformed to create the opportunity for us to give something essential to each other’s lives.”