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Ordinary Quotes

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Ordinary Quotes

“For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of criss-crossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible.”

Men Mind Attention Opinion Impossible Ordinary Reflection Prejudice Crossings Ordinary Man Checkerboard

Book:The three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment

Source: The three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment

“I have always directed my attempts at the figurative representation of objects by way of summary and not very descriptive brushstrokes, diverging greatly from the real objective measurements of things, and this has led many people to talk about childish drawing.. ..this position of seeing them (the objects) without looking at them too much, without focussing more attention on them than any ordinary man would in normal everyday life..”

People Men Way Real Attention Too Much Seeing Position Objects Normal Ordinary Everyday Drawing Objectives Representation Everyday Life Measurement Ordinary Man Summary

Author:Jean Dubuffet

“What we try to do as Elders is help those who are trying to change their own societies and communities for the better. We hope that by supporting the good work that is being done, especially at the grass roots, we can help to alleviate the suffering of human beings. That is our core mission - to draw attention to the impact that conflict, injustice and poverty have on ordinary people.”

“There is nothing to compare with the courage of ordinary people whose names are unknown and whose sacrifices pass unnoticed. The courage that dares without recognition, without the protection of media attention, is a courage that humbles and inspires and reaffirms our faith in humanity.”

People Humanity Names Attention Courage Sacrifice Media Inspire Ordinary Dare Protection Recognition Compare Ordinary People Unnoticed Ordinariness Faith In Humanity

Book:Letters From Burma

Source: Letters From Burma

“It is impossible to look into the Bible with the most ordinary attention without feeling that we have got into a moral atmosphere quite different from that which we breathe in the world, and in the world's literature.”

World Looks Different Feelings Literature Attention Moral Impossible Ordinary Bible Breathe Atmosphere

Author:Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine

“From youth to middle, and often to past middle, age, most men are apt to be too closely engaged in the struggle of life to pay due attention to the strength of the body. They may take daily what they consider a sufficient amount of exercise; but the exercise is not calculated to keep the various limbs and muscles, still less the internal organs, in proper working order. Amid the ordinary concerns of life the man may appear strong, even stalwart. But when occasion arises for some special muscular exercise, or taxing the action of some organ, he finds out his weakness.”

“Both ground- rents and the ordinary rent of land are a species of revenue which the owner, in many cases, enjoys without any care or attention of his own. The annual produce of the land and labour of the society, the real wealth and revenue of the great body of the people, might be the same after such a tax as before. Ground-rents, and the ordinary rent of land are, therefore, perhaps the species of revenue which can best bear to have a peculiar tax imposed upon them.”

Source: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Volume 2

“For the ordinary man, whose mind is a checkerboard of crisscrossing reflections, opinions, and prejudices, bare attention is virtually impossible; his life is thus centered not in reality itself but in his ideas of it. By focusing the mind wholly on each objects and every action, zazen strips it of extraneous thoughts and allows us to enter into a full rapport with life.”

Men Mind Ideas Reality Action Life Is Attention Opinion Impossible Objects Ordinary Reflection Prejudice Ordinary Man Rapport Checkerboard

Book:The three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment

Source: The three pillars of Zen: teaching, practice, and enlightenment

“Our confused society badly needs a community of contrast, a counterculture of ordinary pilgrims who insist living a different way. Unlike popular culture, we will lavish attention on the least "deserving" in direct opposition to our celebrity culture's emphasis on success, wealth, and beauty.”

“[My poems] of course, it's symbolic, in the way that things in a poem can be - that is, pointing to something beyond its mere ordinary meaning, while also retaining all the qualities of that ordinary meaning. In other words, it's a bear, but it's also suggesting something else, just by virtue of the attention to it. But it's not "symbolic" in that way we are taught to think about things in poems.”

Thinking Way Courses Attention Quality Virtue Taught Bears Ordinary Mere Pointing Symbolic Suggesting Retaining

Author:Matthew Zapruder

“I do not like to encourage personalized politics, so we would not like it to be thought that just because certain political personalities were attacked, this means the situation is very grave. The true gravity of the situation comes from the fact that ordinary members of the NLD are repressed all the time. We don't want a completely paralyzed political organization, while a select few leaders are protected by international attention.”

Want Mean Facts Political Certain Attention Situation Leader Personality Members Ordinary Organization International Graves Gravity Protected Select Repressed Paralyzed Personalized

Author:Aung San Suu Kyi

“That's how I do this life sometimes by making the ordinary just like magic and just like a card trick and just like a mirror and just like disappearing. Every Indian learns how to be a magician and learns how to misdirect attention and the dark hand is always quicker than the white eye and no matter how close you get to my heart you will never find out my secrets and I'll never tell you and I'll never show you the same trick twice. I'm traveling heavy with illusions.”

Source: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

“For official record, announce instructor, the state requires no epic hero. No strive achieve personal celebrity of spotlight and applause. Lectures instructor, the state desires best ideal perform as mediocre. No gain attention showboat. No buffoon. Best effort so occur average. Suppress climbing ego. Become ordinary. Invisible.”

“Just as in prayer it is not we who momentarily catch His attention, but He ours, so when we fail to hear His voice, it is not because He is not speaking so much as that we are not listening. We must recognize that all things are in God and that God is in all things, and we must learn to be very attentive, in order to bear God speaking in His ordinary tone without any special accent.”

Order Voice Prayer Attention Failing Special Listening Bears Ordinary All Things Tone Accents God Speaking

Author:Charles Brent

“The purpose of meditation practice is not enlightenment; it is to pay attention even at extraordinary times, to be of the present, nothing-but-in-the-present, to bear this mindfulness of now into each event of ordinary life.”

Purpose Pay Attention Practice Meditation Events Bears Mindfulness Ordinary Enlightenment Extraordinary Pay Attention Ordinary Life Meditation Practice

Author:Peter Matthiessen

“It is in a way a mystery that, instead of demanding that their governments give primary attention to their own needs and aspirations, most of the citizens of big counties-those, that is, that have the status of being "powers" in the world-far from being self-centered or materialistic as they are commonly credited with being, the ordinary citizen and his elected representative all too often turn out to be romantics, ready and eager to sacrifice programs of health, education and welfare for the power and pride of the nation.”