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“. . . the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage . . . the sutras say, "Mind is the teaching." But people of no understanding don't believe in their own mind or that by understanding this teaching they can become a sage. They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity.”

PeopleWorldMindBelieveLooksLongLightFallBeliefUnderstandingLosesSpaceTeachingThis WorldColorFoolDon't BelieveInsanityFar AwayFalsehoodSagePreyIncense
Author:Bodhidharma
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“Fools, art is a heavy task, more heavy than gold crowns; it's far more difficult to match firm words than armies, they're disciplined troops, unconquered, to be placed in rhythm, the mind's most mighty foe, and not disperse in air. I'd give, believe me, a whole land for one good song, for I know well that only words, that words alone, like the high mountains, have no fear of age or death.”

KnowsGivingMindBelieveWellsArtWholeAgeSongDifficultAirLandFoolMountainArt IsTasksGoldArmyHeavyRhythmFirmTroopsBelieve In MeCrownsNo FearFoeHave No Fear
Book:the Odyssey a Modern Sequel
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“Long before a thermonuclear war can come about, we have had to lay waste our own sanity. We begin with the children. It is imperative to catch them in time. Without the most thorough and rapid brainwashing their dirty minds would see through our dirty tricks. Children are not yet fools, but we shall turn them into imbeciles like ourselves, with high I.Q.s if possible.”

IfsMindChildrenLongWarTurnsFoolWasteLaysTricksDirtySanityRapidsImperativesThoroughNuclear WarBrainwashingImbecilesDirty Minds
Book:The Politics of Experience
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“It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they are empty, and their heart is narrow; but great souls find in themselves a number of exterior things; they have no need to read or travel or to listen or to work to discover the highest truths; they have only to delve into themselves and search, if we may say so, their own thoughts.”

IfsKnowsNeedsMindHeartMaySoulNumbersObjectsFoolHighestEmptyPerceiveExteriorGreat Souls
Author:Luc de Clapiers
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“I Have often thought if the minds of men were laid open, we should see but little difference between that of the wise man and that of the fool. There are infinite reveries, numberless extravagances, and a perpetual train of vanities which pass through both. The great difference is, that the first knows how to pick and cull his thoughts for conversation, by suppressing some, and communicating others; whereas the other lets them all indifferently fly out in words.”

IfsKnowsMenShouldMindFirstsLittlesDifferencesKnow HowWiseFoolConversationPicksInfiniteTrainCommunicateVanityPerpetualExtravaganceReverieSuppressing
Book:Works, including the whole contents of Bp. Hurd's edition: withletters and other pieces not found in any previous collection; and Macaulay's essay on his life and works
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“Get a single, solitary thought in your mind, and that thought - the precious love of Jesus. Go and live it out, and come what may, you will be respected though abused. They may say you are an enthusiast, a fanatic, a fool, but those names from the world are titles of praise and glory. The world does not take the trouble to nickname a man unless he is worth it. It will not give you any censure unless it trembles at you.”

MenWorldGivingMindMayDoeJesusNamesTroubleFoolGloryPraiseTitlesSolitaryWorth ItFanaticsNicknamesCensurePrecious Love
Author:Charles Spurgeon
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“Empathising with the younger children on whom the same confidence trick was being imposed, I embarked on a crusade around the neighbourhood, telling all the kids that there was no Santa Claus. This reached the ears of the father of a neighbouring family, who reproved me for spoiling it for the little ones. Spoiling it! I could not understand what he meant. To my mind, they were being made fools of, and I was only saving them from this indignity.”

MindChildrenLittlesMadeKidsFatherAtheismFoolEarsPositive AtheismTricksSavingSantaSanta ClausCrusadesIndignityNeighbourhoods
Author:Barbara Smoker
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“Satire, whilst envy and ill-humor sway The mind of man, must always make her way; Nor to a bosom, with discretion fraught, Is all her malice worth a single thought. The wise have not the will, nor fools the power, To stop her headstrong course; within the hour Left to herself, she dies; opposing strife Gives her fresh vigor, and prolongs her life.”

MenWayGivingMindDiesCoursesLeftHoursWiseFoolIllEnvySatireStrifeMaliceBosomsDiscretionOpposingVigorHeadstrong
Author:Charles Churchill
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“There is nothing that we can properly call our own but our time, and yet everybody fools us out of it who has a mind to do it. If a man borrows a paltry sum of money, there must needs be bonds and securities, and every common civility is presently charged upon account. But he who has my time thinks he owes me nothing for it, though it be a debt that gratitude itself can never repay.”

IfsThinkingMenNeedsMindTimeCommonSecurityFoolGratitudeAccountsDebtOur TimeMy TimeCivility
Author:Seneca the Younger
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“Every time that a man who is not an absolute fool presents you with a question he considers very problematic after giving it careful thought, distrust those quick answers that come to the mind of someone who has considered it only briefly or not at all. These answers are usually simplistic views lacking in consistency, which explain nothing, or which do not bear examination.”

MenGivingMindAnswersViewsFoolBearsAbsolutesCarefulLackingConsistencyDistrustExamination
Book:St Petersburg Dialogues: Or Conversations on the Temporal Government of Providence
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“We humans are born egocentric. The sky thunders and children believe that God is mad at them for something they've done - parents divorce and children believe it's their fault for not being good enough. Growing up means putting aside our egocentricity for truth. Still, some people cling to this childish mind-set. As painful as their self-flagellation may be, they'd rather believe their crises are their fault so they can believe they have control. In doing so they make fools and false gods of themselves.”

PeopleMindBelieveHumansMayMeanChildrenStillsSelfDoneEnoughParentBornGrowing UpGrowingSkyFoolCrisisMadFaultsPainfulDivorceBe GoodGood EnoughThunderMind SetEgocentricFalse GodsBeing Good EnoughNot Being Good EnoughParents Divorce
Book:Miles to Go: The Second Journal of the Walk Series
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“When I abandoned the smoking habit of more than three decades I was given a supposedly helpful pill called Wellbutrin. But as soon as I discovered that this was the brand name for an antidepressant, I tossed the bottle away. There may be successful methods for overcoming the blues but for me they cannot include a capsule that says: 'Fool yourself into happiness, while pretending not to do so.' I should actually want my mind to be strong enough to circumvent such a trick.”

WantShouldMindMayEnoughThreeNamesStrongGivenSuccessfulFoolHabitOvercomingMethodDecadesTricksBrandsSmokingBeing SuccessfulHelpfulBottlesPretendingAbandonedPillsStrong EnoughAntidepressantsBrand Names
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“When at the typewriter I am no longer where I site but am away across the mountains, in ancient cities or on the Great Plains among the buffalo. Often I think of what pitiful fools are those who use mind-altering drugs to seek feelings they do not have, each drug taking a little more from what they have of mind, leaving them a little less. Give the brain encouragement from study, from thinking, from visualizing, and no drugs are needed.”

ThinkingGivingMindLittlesUseFeelingsCitiesBrainStudyFoolNeededDrugMountainEncouragementLeavingAncientSiteTypewritersPitifulBuffaloVisualizingDrug Taking
Book:Education of a Wandering Man
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“This is the most important thing I will ever say to you. The human mind is the ultimate testing device. You can take all the notes you want on the technical data, anything you forget you can look up again, but this must be engraved on your hearts in letters of fire. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, more important to me in the men and women I train than their absolute personal integrity. Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool metal. That’s all.”

MenWantMindHumansLooksHeartMayImportantLawLyingForgetFireFoolIntegrityMen And WomenLettersUltimateFunctionAbsolutesImportant ThingsTrainNotesPhysicsDataLook UpDevicesHuman MindMetalsTestingForget YouLaws Of PhysicsInspectorsEngravedPersonal Integrity
Author:Lois McMaster Bujold
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“may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smile”

IfsKnowsMenShouldMindHeartMayLittlesYoungSecretFailingSkyFoolMy HeartBirdAnd LoveHungryFearlessSundayLove YourselfPullingThirstySupple
Book:100 Selected Poems
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“By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the the impossible.”

ThinkingMenTryingMindBelieveHumansMayMeanHas BeensChanceEffortCasesImpossibleAchieveHumilityFoolSucceedMethodUglyCleverNonsenseManifestRevolvingClever ManPretty WomanScrewtape Letters
Book:Joyful Christian
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“His contempt for humanity grew fiercer, and at last he came to realize that the world is made up mostly of fools and scoundrels. It became perfectly clear to him that he could entertain no hope of finding in someone else the same aspirations and antipathies; no hope of linking up with a mind which, like his own, took pleasure in a life of studious decrepitude; no hope of associating an intelligence as sharp and wayward as his own with any author or scholar.”

WorldMindMadeLastsHumanityRealizingPleasureClearGrewFoolFindingsAspirationContemptScholarNo HopeScoundrelsAntipathyStudious
Book:Against nature: a new translation of À rebours
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“Arraigned at my own bar, Memory having given her evidence of the hopes, wishes, sentiments I had been cherishing since last night-- of the general state of mind which I have indulged for nearly a fortnight past; Reason having come forward and told in her own quiet way , a plain, unvarnished tale, showing how I had rejected the real, and rabidly devoured the ideal;-- I pronounced judgment to this effect:-- That a greater fool than Jane Eyre had never breathed the breath of life: that a more fantastic idiot had never surfeited herself on sweet lies, and swallowed the poison as if it were nectar.”

IfsWayMindRealStatesReasonLastsPastLyingNightGivenWishMemoriesMy OwnGreaterEffectsSweetFoolQuietJudgmentEvidenceIdealsBreathsBarsTalesFantasticIdiotPoisonCherishSentimentsState Of MindRejectedLast NightJaneNectarFortnight
Book:The Complete Works Of Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre, Shirley, Villette, and The Professor
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“Like looking down on a lubricious chess set, isn't it? The king moves in tiny steps, with no direction, like a drunkard trying to avoid the archer's bolt. The others work their strategies and wait for the old man to fall. He has no power, yet all power moves in his orbit and to his mad whim. Do you know there's no fool piece on the chessboard, Kent?" "Methinks the fool is the player, the mind above the moves.”

KnowsMenTryingMindMovingFallWaitingStepsPiecesPlayerFoolKingsMadStrategyTinyChessOld ManDo You KnowWhimBoltsOrbitDrunkardsLooking DownArcherKentPower Moves
Author:Christopher Moore
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“Achilles glared at him and answered, "Fool, prate not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions, wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out an through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall”

MenMindMayHateFallUnderstandingFoolLionsCovenantLambsAchillesIliadFate In The IliadRage From The IliadAchilles FateBetween You And Me
Book:The Iliad & The Odyssey
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