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Ascent Quotes

Browse 155 quotes about Ascent.

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Ascent Quotes

“This is the ultimate heresy, then, and a possible outcome of a history of ascent, of system-breaks and paradigm-shifts that are exciting on one level, tedious on another: life characterized by so much somatic security, so much incarnation, that the need for “truth” is far less important than the need for love; and finally, not really in conflict with it. Incarnation means living in life, not transcending it. The last paradigm-shift has to be a shift to a world in which paradigm-shifts become unnecessary, if not actually banal.”

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Book:Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West
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“I tried to establish order over the chaos of my imagination, but this essence, the same that presented itself to me still hazily when I was a child, has always struck me as the very heart of truth. It is our duty to set ourselves an end beyond our individual concerns, beyond our convenient, agreeable habits, higher than our own selves, and disdaining laughter, hunger, even death, to toil night and day to attain that end. No, not to attain it. The self-respecting soul, as soon as he reaches his goal, places it still further away. Not to attain it, but never to halt in the ascent. Only thus does life acquire nobility and oneness.”

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Book:Report to Greco
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“When a great multitude is making a pilgrimage, I should never advise him to do so, for as a rule people return on these occasions in a state of greater distraction than when they went. And many set out and make these pilgrimages for recreation rather than devotion.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
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“They place more reliance upon methods and kinds of ceremony than upon the reality of their prayer, and herein they greatly offend and displease God. I refer, for example, to a Mass which is said with so many candles, neither more nor fewer; which is said by a priest in such and such a way; and must be at such and such an hour, neither sooner nor later; and the prayers and stations must be made at such time and with such ceremonies and in no other manner; and the person who makes them must have such qualities or qualifications. And there are those who think that if any of these details which they have laid down be wanting, nothing is accomplished. What is worse, and indeed intolerable, is that certain persons desire to feel some effect in themselves, or to have petitions fulfilled, or to know that the purpose of these ceremonious prayers of theirs will be accomplished. This is nothing less than to tempt God and to offend Him greatly, so much so that He sometimes gives leave for the devil to deceive them.”

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Book:The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross, of the Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
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“Pindar said, neither by land nor by sea shall you find us. Maybe you will have to fly to discover us. Or slither under the earth. Perhaps a great subterranean tunnel – the Underworld – will bring you to us. You must go down before you can come up. Katabasis, the going down, precedes anabasis, the going up. By the same token, the advance is followed by the retreat, the march forward so often turns into the march back. Even great Alexander learned that. Does descent precede ascent, or ascent precede descent?”

FallRiseAscentUnderworldAlexanderPindarKatabasis
Book:The Church of the Serpent: The Philosophy of the Snake and Attaining Transcendent Knowledge
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“Your legs feel like fried bacon after a day of climbing and descending. It's a roller coaster ride, but no one is pulling you up the mountain. You're headed toward Yosemite more than 4,000 feet of pounding the pedals. You are aware of every movement because your thighs feel tender with a sensation of pain. You push on, toward the final ascent into the valley. In front of you is a monster mountain-El Capitan. Your eyes grow wide. You take a deep breath. Suddenly, you feel only wonder.”

FeelsEyePainGrowsWonderFeetFrontsMovementMountainTravelBreathsFinalsLegsWideMonstersSensationsClimbingValleysPullingThighsDeep BreathRoller CoasterCoastersAscentDescendingPedalsTake A Deep BreathYosemiteRoller Coaster Rides
Author:Frosty Wooldridge
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“The ascent to greatness, however steep and dangerous, may entertain an active spirit with the consciousness and exercise of its own power: but the possession of a throne could never yet afford a lasting satisfaction to an ambitious mind.”

MindMaySpiritConsciousnessDangerousGreatnessExerciseFameSatisfactionPossessionActiveLastingAmbitiousThronesSteepAscent
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
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“As I toiled up the Mount of Olives, in the very footsteps of Christ, panting with the heat and the difficult ascent, I found it utterly impossible to conceive that the Deity, in human form, had walked there before me.”

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Book:The Lands of the Saracen: Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain
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“It is an impressive truth that sometimes in the very lowest forms of duty, less than which would rank a man as a villain, there is, nevertheless the sublimest ascent of self-sacrifice. To do less would class you as an object of eternal scorn, to do so much presumes the grandeur of heroism.”

MenSelfSometimesFormClassSacrificeObjectsDutyEternalVillainHeroismNeverthelessLowestScornImpressiveGrandeurSelf SacrificeAscent
Book:De Quincey's works
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“On eyes that watch as well as eyes that weep Descends the solemn mystery of sleep, Toiling and climbing to the very close, The weary Body, longing for repose, On the gained level of the day's ascent, Halts for the night and pitches there its tent.”

WellsBodyEyeNightSleepLevelsWatchesMysteryLongingClimbingWearySolemnReposeHaltTentsAscentToiling
Book:The Microcosm: A Poem, Read Before the Medical Society of New Jersey at Its Centenary Anniversary: with the Address Delivered as President, Jan. 24, 1866
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“Like all passions, anger has degrees, ascending from slight vexation through deepening clouds to rage, and finally to fury, which is a black and horrible tempest. In its mid-region, where it is neither too little to be motive nor too furious to be ungovernable, it has usefulness. For all feeling is as fuel, and where there is none life has no fire, and then no flame of ascent.”

LittlesFeelingsPassionBlackFireDegreesAngerCloudsRageHorribleFlamesMotiveFuelRegionsFuryUsefulnessFuriousTempestAscentVexationAscending
Author:James Vila Blake
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“What, then is our duty? It is to carefully distinguish the historic moment in which we live and to consciously assign our small energies to a specific battlefield. The more we are in phase with the current which leads the way, the more we aid man in his difficult, uncertain, danger-fraught ascent toward salvation.”

MenWayLifeWarMomentsEnergyDifficultHistoryDoubtMilitaryDangerDutyDifficultyAngerAdversitySalvationCurrentsAidsPhasesUncertainHistoricBattlefieldsAscent
Book:Report to Greco
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“The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science. You see it in the magnificence with which he carves and builds, the loving care, the gaiety, the effrontery. The monuments are supposed to commemorate kings and religions, heroes, dogmas, but in the end the man they commemorate is the builder.”

MenWellsDoeEndsDoneCarePleasurePowerfulHe ManKingsHeroSkillsMost PowerfulDogmaMonumentBuilderAscentMagnificenceGaiety
Book:The Ascent of Man
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“Again and again, faith in a possible satisfaction of the human race breaks through at the very moments of most zealous discord because humankind will never be able to live and work without this consoling delusion of its ascent into morality, without this dream of final and ultimate accord.”

HumansMomentsDreamAbleFaithHumanityPeaceRaceBreakMoralityUltimateFinalsSatisfactionHuman RaceDelusionHumankindAgain And AgainAccordBreak ThroughDiscordAscentZealousConsoling
Author:Stefan Zweig
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“The strategy of semantic ascent is that it carries the discussion into a domain where both parties are better agreed on the objects (viz., words) and on the main terms connecting them. Words, or their inscriptions, unlike points, miles, classes and the rest, are tangible objects of the size so popular in the marketplace, where men of unlike conceptual schemes communicate at their best. The strategy is one of ascending to a common part of two fundamentally disparate conceptual schemes, the better to discuss the disparate foundations. No wonder it helps in philosophy.”

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Author:Willard Van Orman Quine
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“Conservatives believe government's principal functions are the preservation of freedom and removal of restraints on the individual. Liberalism's ascent in the first two-thirds of this century reflected the new belief that government should also confer capacities on individuals. Liberalism's decline in the final third of this century has reflected doubts about whether government can be good at that, or whether government that is good at that is good for the nation's character.”

ShouldFirstsBelieveTwoCharacterGovernmentIndividualBeliefNationsDoubtCenturyCapacityThirdsFunctionFinalsBe GoodLiberalismDeclinePrincipalRestraintPreservationRemovalAscent
Author:George Will
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“The member of a culture ... purposely avoids the relationship of intimacy; he wants the object somehow depicted and fictionalized. ... He is embarrassed when this is taken out of its context of proper sentiments and presented bare, for he feels that this is a reintrusion of that world which his whole conscious effort has sought to banish. Forms and conventions are the ladder of ascent. And hence the speechlessness of the man of culture when he beholds the barbarian tearing aside some veil which is half adornment, half concealment.”

MenWorldWantFeelsWholeFormCultureEffortHalfTakenObjectsHe ManMembersConsciousIntimacySentimentsConventionsEmbarrassedVeilsLaddersBarbariansAscentConcealmentAdornment
Author:Richard M. Weaver
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“Tracing the progress of mankind in the ascending path of civilization, and moral and intellectual culture, our fathers found that the divine ordinance of government, in every stage of the ascent, was adjustable on principles of common reason to the actual condition of a people, and always had for its objects, in the benevolent councils of the divine wisdom, the happiness, the expansion, the security, the elevation of society, and the redemption of man. They sought in vain for any title of authority of man over man, except of superior capacity and higher morality.”

PeopleMenReasonGovernmentCultureFoundFatherCommonMoralPrinciplesPathProgressConditionsMankindStageSecurityObjectsDivineHigherMoralityCivilizationAuthorityIntellectualCapacityIndependenceSuperiorsRedemptionVainTitlesExpansionCouncilOur FatherBenevolentIndependence DayElevationAscentOrdinancesTracingAscendingDivine Wisdom
Author:William M. Evarts
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“Brothers and sisters, I believe that there are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. Seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the Eternal Presence. If our young people could but glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives.”

PeopleIfsBelieveWould BeSpiritualYoungMotivationI BelievePowerfulStepsBrotherEternalWorkersTemplesMost PowerfulBrothers And SistersGlimpseAscentEndowment
Author:David O. McKay
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“What can you conceive more silly and extravagant than to suppose a man racking his brains, and studying night and day how to fly? ... wearying himself with climbing upon every ascent, ... bruising himself with continual falls, and at last breaking his neck? And all this, from an imagination that it would be glorious to have the eyes of people looking up at him, and mighty happy to eat, and drink, and sleep, at the top of the highest trees in the kingdom.”

PeopleMenWould BeEyeLastsScienceNightFallImaginationSleepBrainStudyTreeDrinkHighestSillyKingdomsGloriousNecksClimbingExtravagantAscent
Author:William Law
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“The beginning of Christendom, is, strictly, at a point out of time. A metphysical trigonometry finds it among the spiritual Secrets, at the meeting of two heavenward lines, one drawn from Bethany along the Ascent of the Messias, the other from Jerusalem against the Descent of the Paraclete. That measurement, the measurement of eternity in operation, of the bright cloud and the rushing wind, is, in effect, theology.”

TwoSpiritualLinesSecretEffectsWindEternityMeetingsCloudsTheologyOperationsMeasurementRushingJerusalemDescentAscentChristendomTrigonometry
Book:The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church
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