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Ordinary Life Quotes

Browse 229 quotes about Ordinary Life.

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Ordinary Life Quotes

“Architects are today routinely indoctrinated against the dumb box. Even advertising urges us to "think outside the box." Why? Because it is thought we all hate the box for being too dumb, too boring, and we want to escape it. If we do escape, by buying the advertised product, we usually find ourselves inside another dumb box populated by boring people just like us. It is clearly possible to live an extraordinary life inside a dumb box. Question: is it possible to lead an extraordinary life in anything other than a dumb box?”

PeopleIfsThinkingWantTodayHateProductsExtraordinaryBoxesBoringArchitectureAdvertisingDumbBuyingUrgesArchitectOrdinary LifeOutside The BoxThink Outside The BoxExtraordinary Life
Author:Lebbeus Woods
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“SIR,-Your letter of February the 18th came to hand on the 1st instant; and the request of the history of my physical habits would have puzzled me not a little, had it not been for the model with which you accompanied it, of Doctor Rush's answer to a similar inquiry. I live so much like other people, that I might refer to ordinary life as a history of my own. Like my friend the Doctor, I have lived temperately, eating very little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables, which constitute my principle diet.”

PeopleLittlesHandsMightMy OwnAnswersAnimalPrinciplesHabitEatingModelsOrdinaryMy FriendsLettersDoctorsDietsInstantVegetablesAnimal RightsInquiryRequestOrdinary LifeFebruaryPuzzledCondimentsAnimal Food
Book:Memoirs, 4: Correspondence and Private Papers
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“To read great books does not mean one becomes ‘bookish’; it means that something of the terrible insight of Dostoyevsky, of the richly-charged imagination of Shakespeare, of the luminous wisdom of Goethe, actually passes into the personality of the reader; so that in contact with the chaos of ordinary life certain free and flowing outlines emerge, like the forms of some classic picture, endowing both people and things with a grandeur beyond what is visible to the superficial glance.”

PeopleMeanDoeBookFormCertainImaginationPersonalityReaderTerribleOrdinaryChaosInsightContactClassicVisibleSuperficialGlancesGrandeurOutlinesLuminousOrdinary LifeGreat BookDostoyevsky
Author:John Cowper Powys
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“In ordinary life, we are not aware of the unity of all things, but divide the world into separate objects and events. This division is useful and necessary to cope with our everyday environment, but it is not a fundamental feature of reality. It is an abstraction devised by our discriminating and categorising intellect. To believe that our abstract concepts of separate 'things' and 'events' are realities of nature is an illusion.”

WorldBelieveRealityEnvironmentEventsObjectsOrdinaryIllusionConceptsAll ThingsFundamentalsUnityEverydayIntellectFeaturesAbstractTaoismDivisionDividesAbstractionOrdinary Life
Author:Fritjof Capra
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“The ancient Masters didn't try to educate the people, but kindly taught them to not-know. When they think that they know the answers, people are difficult to guide. When they know that they don't know, people can find their own way. If you want to learn how to govern, avoid being clever or rich. The simplest pattern is the clearest. Content with an ordinary life, you can show all people the way back to their own true nature.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsWayWantTryingShowsDifficultAnswersRichTaughtMastersOrdinaryAncientPatternsGuidesCleverEducateTaoSimplestTrue NatureOrdinary Life
Author:Laozi
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“Philosophy arises from an unusually obstinate attempt to arrive at real knowledge. What passes for knowledge in ordinary life suffers from three defects: it is cocksure, vague and self-contradictory. The first step towards philosophy consists in becoming aware of these defects, not in order to rest content with a lazy scepticism, but in order to substitute an amended kind of knowledge which shall be tentative, precise and self-consistent.”

FirstsKindRealSelfPhilosophySufferingOrderThreeStepsBecomingOrdinaryAriseLazyConsistentSubstitutesFirst StepsVaguePreciseDefectsContradictoryOrdinary LifeObstinateScepticismReal Knowledge
Book:An Outline of Philosophy
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“... he felt himself to be one of them, who can live neither in the world nor out of it. They are a kind of sick people, whose desire for God makes them unsatisfactory citizens of an ordinary life, but whose strength or temperament fails them to surrender the world completely; and present-day society, with its hurried pace and its mechanical and technical structure, offers no home to these unhappy souls.”

PeopleWorldKindSoulHomeDesireFeltFailingCitizensOffersOrdinarySickStructureSurrenderUnhappyPaceTemperamentPresent DayOrdinary LifeDesire For God
Book:The Bell
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“How is your life limited by your fear? What are you not doing that you'd really like to do? When we use fear to our advantage by tackling those things that evoke a sense of excitement and trepidation, fear becomes and ally. Each experience provides a challenge and an opportunity to expand your comfort zone. The way to create an extraordinary life is to make the challenge of fear work for you by building your courage muscles.”

WayUseLife IsOpportunityFearChallengesBuildingComfortAdvantageExtraordinaryExcitementMusclesZoneAlliesComfort ZoneEvokeOrdinary LifeTacklingTrepidationExtraordinary Life
Author:Cheryl Richardson
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“If we are on the outside, we assume a conspiracy is the perfect working of a scheme. Silent nameless men with unadorned hearts. A conspiracy is everything that ordinary life is not. It's the inside game, cold, sure, undistracted, forever closed off to us. We are the flawed ones, the innocents, trying to make some rough sense of the daily jostle. Conspirators have a logic and a daring beyond our reach. All conspiracies are the same taut story of men who find coherence in some criminal act.”

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Author:Don DeLillo
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“My benefactor said that when a man embarks on the paths of sorcery he becomes aware, in a gradual manner, that ordinary life has been forever left behind; that knowledge is indeed a frightening affair; that the means of the ordinary world are no longer a buffer for him; and that he must adopt a new way of life if he is going to survive. The first thing he ought to do, at that point, is to want to become a warrior.”

IfsMenWorldWayWantFirstsMeanHas BeensSaidLeftBehindsForeverPathAwarenessOughtOrdinaryAffairWarriorFrighteningNew WaysLeft BehindOrdinary LifeBenefactorsSorceryOrdinary WorldNew Way Of Life
Book:A Separate Reality.Further Conversations with Don Juan
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