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Subtle Quotes

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Subtle Quotes

“Our intellect is not the most subtle, the most powerful, the most appropriate, instrument for revealing the truth. It is life that, little by little, example by example, permits us to see that what is most important to our heart, or to our mind, is learned not by reasoning but through other agencies. Then it is that the intellect, observing their superiority, abdicates its control to them upon reasoned grounds and agrees to become their collaborator and lackey.”

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Author:Marcel Proust
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“To get an elementary grasp of the game of golf, a human must learn, by endless practice, a continuous and subtle series of highly unnatural movements, involving about sixty-four muscles, that result in a seemingly natural swing, taking two seconds to begin and end.”

HumansTwoEndsGamesNaturalResultsPracticeFourMovementGolfSeriesEndlessMusclesSubtleSecondsSwingsSixtyUnnaturalInvolving
Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
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“Life in the country teaches one that the really stimulating things are the quiet, natural things, and the really wearisome things are the noisy, unnatural things. It is more exciting to stand still than to dance. Silence is more eloquent than speech. Water is more stimulating than wine. Fresh air is more intoxicating than cigarette smoke. Sunlight is more subtle than electric light. The scent of grass is more luxurious than the most expensive perfume. The slow, simple observations of the peasant are more wise than the most sparkling epigrams of the latest wit.”

LifeStillsCountryLightWaterNaturalSimpleSilenceTeachWiseAirQuietSpeechExcitingWineWitObservationSmokeGrassExpensiveSubtleElectricSunlightCigaretteScentSilence IsPerfumePeasantsUnnaturalEloquentNoisyFresh AirEpigramsSparklingNatural ThingsLuxuriousElectric LightCigarette Smoke
Author:Beverley Nichols
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“There is another more subtle way in which the innocence of childhood is lost: when the child is infected with the desire to become somebody. Contemplate the crowds of people who are striving might and main to become, not what Nature intended them to be- musicians, cooks, mechanics, carpenters, gardeners, inventors- but "somebody": to become successful, famous, powerful; to become something that will bring not quiet and self-fulfillment, but self-glorification and self-expansion”

PeopleWayChildrenSelfMightDesireLostPowerfulSuccessfulChildhoodQuietAmbitionMusicianStriveCrowdsInnocenceCooksFulfillmentSubtleContemplatingExpansionMechanicInventorGardenerCarpenterBecoming SuccessfulGlorificationSelf FulfillmentSelf Glorification
Book:The Way to Love: Meditations for Life
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“As we are concerned with what others think of us, so we are anxious to know all about them; and from this arise the crude and subtle forms of snobbishness and the worship of authority. Thus we become more and more externalized and inwardly empty. The more externalized we are, the more sensations and distractions there must be, and this gives rise to a mind that is never quiet, that is not capable of deep search and discovery.”

ThinkingKnowsGivingMindFormQuietAuthorityWorshipCapableDiscoveryConcernedEmptyAriseSubtleGossipSensationsDistractionAnxiousCrudeDeep SeaSnobbishness
Book:Commentaries on Living 2
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“The land retains an identity of its own, still deeper and more subtle than we can know. Our obligation toward it then becomes simple: to approach with an uncalculating mind, with an attitude of regard...be alert for its openings, for that moment when something sacred reveals itself within the mundane, and you know the land knows you are there.”

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Author:Barry Lopez
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“Walking the spiritual path properly is a very subtle process; it is not something to jump into naively. There are numerous sidetracks which leades to a distorted, ego-centered version of spirituality; we can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques. This fundamental distortion may be referred to as spiritual materialism”

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Author:Chogyam Trungpa
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“You are the witness of the three bodies: the gross, the subtle, and the causal, and of the three times: past, present and future, and also this void. In the story of the tenth man, when each of them counted and thought they were only nine, each one forgetting to count himself, there is a stage when they think one is missing and do not know who it is; and that corresponds to the void. We are so accustomed to the notion that all that we see around us is permanent and that we are this body, that when all this ceases to exist we imagine and fear that we also have ceased to exist.”

ThinkingKnowsMenStoriesBodyPastThreeForgetImagineStageMissingQuietNotionNineCeaseWitnessPermanentSubtleVoidAccustomedThree TimesGrossPast PresentPast Present And FutureTimes Past
Author:Ramana Maharshi
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“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity. The relationship between the soundness of the body and the activities of the mind is subtle and complex. Much is not yet understood. But we do know what the Greeks knew: that intelligence and skill can only function at the peak of their capacity when the body is healthy and strong; that hardy spirits and tough minds usually inhabit sound gods.”

KnowsMindImportantBodySpiritStrongSportsSoundCreativeKeysHealthyActivitySkillsIntellectualUnderstoodToughCapacityFunctionBasesComplexesGreekSubtleHockeyHardyHealthy BodyPhysical FitnessSoundness
Author:John F. Kennedy
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“The Bauls say, "Don't try to force anything." Let life be a deep let-go. See God opening millions of flowers every day without forcing the buds, waiting, never in a hurry, giving their time to them. The Bauls say, "Everything happens at its right time, everything happens in its own season. Wait, don't be impatient, don't be in a hurry. All hurry is greed, and all hurry is a subtle fight." That which is going to happen will happen. Whenever it is going to happen it will happen; you need not fight existence. You can surrender, you can trust.”

NeedsGivingTryingHappensLife IsFightingForceWaitingExistenceMillionsFlowerLetting GoSeasonsGreedSurrenderThings HappenOpeningSubtleRight TimeImpatientBud
Author:Rajneesh
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“The ego is a subtle wall around you. It does not allow anybody to enter into you. You feel protected, secure, but this security is deathlike. It is the security of the plant inside the seed. The plant is afraid to sprout because - who knows? The world is so hazardous and the plant will be so soft, so fragile. Behind the wall of the seed, hiding inside the cell, everything is protected.”

KnowsWorldFeelsDoeBehindsSecurityWallEgoPlantSeedsSecureCellsSubtleHidingFragileProtectedSprouts
Author:Rajneesh
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“Remember, character is not of much value. What is valuable is consciousness - not conscience but consciousness. Conscience is created by the society. The more foolish you are, the more the society is able to create a conscience in you. It gives you an idea how to live your life. It manipulates you in a very subtle way. It hypnotizes you and conditions you. And the conditioning is so long that you forget completely that these are not your ideas.”

WayGivingLongIdeasCharacterAbleRememberValuesForgetConsciousnessSocietyConditionsConscienceValuableFoolishSubtleLive Your LifeManipulateConditioning
Author:Rajneesh
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“As you become more conscious of your cruelty, of your violence, gross and subtle, you start becoming more and more compassionate. Not that you cultivate compassion. Just by becoming aware of your cruelty, violence, ugliness... the very awareness brings new changes in you. And the energy that was involved in cruelty, in violence, starts changing. The same energy becomes purified, the same energy becomes compassion.”

EnergyCompassionViolenceAwarenessBecomingInvolvedConsciousCrueltySubtleCompassionateGrossUglinessBecoming More
Author:Rajneesh
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“Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.”

LoveLifePersonsCountryUseTruthNamesViolenceDepthKillingDeeperOrganizedSubtleGesturesBrushesInquiringButcherySharp Words
Book:Krishnamurti: Reflections on the Self
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“There is no violent surface indication of the ecstasy which great thinkers alone enjoy. There is nothing dramatic about it, but there is some subtle light in the eye of the inspired one, or some even more subtle quiet emanation which surrounds the inspired thinker, which tells you that you are in the presence of one who has bridged the gap which separates the mundane world from the world of spirit.”

WorldLightEyeSpiritEnjoySecretQuietInspiredSurfaceViolentDramaticSubtleGapsSurroundEcstasyThinkerMundaneIndicationGreat Thinkers
Author:Walter Russell
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“The contradictory experiments of chemists leave us at liberty to conclude what we please. My conclusion is, that art has not yet invented sufficient aids to enable such subtle bodies [air, light, &c.] to make a well-defined impression on organs as blunt as ours; that it is laudable to encourage investigation but to hold back conclusion.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“I believe that even a smattering of such findings in modern science and mathematics is far more compelling and exciting than most of the doctrines of pseudoscience, whose practitioners were condemned as early as the fifth century B.C. by the Ionian philosopher Heraclitus as “nigh -walkers, magicians, priests of Bacchus, priestesses of the wine-vat, mystery-mongers.” But science is more intricate and subtle, reveals a much richer imiverse, and powerfully evokes our sense of wonder.”

ImportantScienceNightUniverseWonderVirtueMysteryCenturyExcitingMathematicsWinePhilosopherDoctrineBeing TrueSubtlePriestsCompellingMagicianFifthEvokeIntricateWalkersSense Of WonderPseudoscienceBacchusVatPriestesses
Author:Carl Sagan
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“Devote the mind to confusion and we know only too well, if we´re honest, that it will become a dark master of confusion, adept in its addictions, subtle and perversely supple in its slaveries. Devote it in meditation to the task of freeing itself from illusion, and we will find that, with time, patience, discipline, and the right training, our mind will begin to unknot itself and know its essential bliss and clarity.”

IfsKnowsMindWellsDarkPracticeMeditationHonestMastersDisciplineEssentialsTrainingIllusionTasksSlaveryAddictionConfusionClarityBlissSubtleMeditation PracticeAdeptSuppleTime Patience
Book:Glimpse After Glimpse: Daily Reflections on Living and Dying
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“Mind is elusive, you cannot hold it in your hand. You cannot force it into a test-tube. The only way to know it is to know it from within, from your witnessing self. The more you become aware, the more you can watch your mind - its subtle functioning. The functioning is tremendously complex and beautiful. Mind is the most complex phenomenon on the earth, the most subtle flowering of consciousness. If you want to really understand what the mind is, then you will have to detach yourself from your mind, and you will have to learn how to be just a witness. That's what meditation is all about.”

IfsKnowsWayWantMindSelfHandsEarthBeautifulForceConsciousnessWatchesMeditationTestsComplexesWitnessSubtlePhenomenonElusiveTubesFloweringBeautiful Mind
Author:Rajneesh
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“Each child is poisoned by the society through teaching him ambition. Ambition is a poison far more dangerous than any alcohol can ever be, far more dangerous than marijuana or LSD, because ambition destroys your whole life. It keeps you moving in a false direction. It keeps you imagining, desiring, dreaming, it keeps you wasting your life. Ambition means a subtle creation of the ego, and once the ego is created you are in the grip of darkness. And the whole social structure depends on ambition.”

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Author:Rajneesh
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“The path of self-purification is hard and steep. One has to become absolutely passion-free in thought, speech and action to rise above the opposing currents of love and hatred, attachment and repulsion. I know that I have not in me as yet that triple purity in spite of constant ceaseless striving for it. That is why the world's praise fails to move me, indeed it very often stings me. To conquer the subtle passions seems to me to be harder far than the physical conquest of the world by the force of arms.”

KnowsWorldLoveSelfHardSeemsActionMovingPassionForcePathFailingArmsSpeechHatredHarderPraiseConstantStriveCurrentsConquerPuritySpiteSubtleAttachmentConquestRise AboveOpposingSteepPurificationRepulsionHatred And Love
Book:All Men Are Brothers
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“Everybody is born with the capacity to enjoy, but not with the art. People think just because they are alive and they breathe and they exist, they know how to enjoy. That is sheer stupidity. Enjoyment is a great art, it is a great discipline. It is as subtle a discipline as music or poetry or painting. It is the greatest creativity.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsArtEnjoyBornCreativityKnow HowAlivePaintingDisciplineCapacityStupidityBreatheEnjoymentSubtleSheerGreat Art
Author:Rajneesh
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“Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have been safely embedded and preserved. It has arrested ten thousand lightning flashes of genius, which, unless thus fixed and arrested, might have been as bright, but would have also been as quickly passing and perishing, as the lightning.”

Has BeensMightLanguageCommunicationGeniusThousandTenPassingPassingsFixedSubtleFlashLightningMight Have BeenArrestedEmbeddedAmberPerishing
Book:On the Study of Words Lectures Addressed (originally) to the Pupils at the Diocesan Training-school, Winchester by Richard Chenevix Trench
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“Spies cannot be usefully employed without a certain intuitive sagacity; They cannot be properly managed without benevolence and straightforwardness; Without subtle ingenuity of mind, one cannot make certain of the truth of their reports; Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of warfare; If a secret piece of news is divulged by a spy before the time is ripe, he must be put to death together with the man to whom the secret was told.”

IfsMenMindKindArtWarUseTogetherCertainSecretPiecesMilitaryHe ManNewsReportsSubtleWarfareEmployedSpyIntuitiveArt Of WarBenevolenceRipeIngenuityStrategistSagacity
Author:Sun Tzu
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“Our intentions - noticed or unnoticed, gross or subtle contribute either to our suffering or to our happiness. Intentions are sometimes called seeds. The garden you grow depends on the seeds you plant and water. Long after a deed is done, the trace or momentum of the intention behind it remains as a seed, conditioning our future happiness or unhappiness.”

InspirationalLongSometimesDoneSpiritualSufferingGrowsWaterBehindsDependsGardenRemainsPlantIntentionDeedsSeedsSubtleUnhappinessOur FutureGrossMomentumConditioningUnnoticedFuture Happiness
Book:The Issue at Hand
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