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    Favorite sayings, quotes, poems, philosophy

    Woodsmoke and I (and others here) have dropped an occasional quote from an author, poet or from the likes of Don Juan, Yaqui shaman. How about your favorite saying, poem, words of wisdom, quote? Something not too long or involved (unless simply linked to). Humor or wisdom. PG rated. Let's try not to lecture or preach (though academic or religious quotes are good).

    Here's one I just read and sent to some friends in email tonight:

    Modern poet Charles Bukowski:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bukowski

    The poem, titled "It's ours":

    there is always that space there
    just before they get to us
    that space
    that fine relaxer
    the breather
    while say
    flopping on a bed
    thinking of nothing
    or say
    pouring a glass of water from the
    spigot
    while entranced by
    nothing

    that
    gentle pure
    space

    it's worth

    centuries of
    existence

    say

    just to scratch your neck
    while looking out the window at
    a bare branch

    that space
    there
    before they get to us
    ensures
    that
    when they do
    they won't
    get it all

    ever.
    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

    #2
    "Nuts!" (Anthony McAuliffe)
    Windows no longer obstructs my view.
    Using Kubuntu Linux since March 23, 2007.
    "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data." - Sherlock Holmes

    Comment


      #3
      Snowhog, I have to say that McAuliffe's statement ("Nuts") beats--or better yet, fits in with!--a lot of the stuff I'm reading in Hagakure--The Book of the Samurai.
      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Delmore Schwartz
        Time is the school in which we learn
        Time is the fire in which we burn
        Originally posted by Philip K. Dick
        Reality is that which, when we stop believing in it, doesn't go away
        Originally posted by Dylan Thomas
        Do not go gentle into that good night
        Rage, rage, against the dying of the light
        Originally posted by Robert Heinlein
        A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill
        Originally posted by Mark Twain
        You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
        Deliberately left out a line from the portion of the Dylan Thomas poem I quoted, because I prefer it that way.
        sigpic
        "Let us think the unthinkable, let us do the undoable, let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all."
        -- Douglas Adams

        Comment


          #5
          Fav Poems

          My all-time favourite is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by S T Coleridge.

          Nomination for most haunting is this one by Robert Frost.

          Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening


          Whose woods these are I think I know.
          His house is in the village, though;
          He will not see me stopping here
          To watch his woods fill up with snow.

          My little horse must think it queer
          To stop without a farmhouse near
          Between the woods and frozen lake
          The darkest evening of the year.

          He gives his harness bells a shake
          To ask if there's some mistake.
          The only other sound's the sweep
          Of easy wind and downy flake.

          The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
          But I have promises to keep,
          And miles to go before I sleep,
          And miles to go before I sleep.

          Comment


            #6
            "If you want peace, work for justice." Pope Paul VI

            Comment


              #7
              'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
              Was there a man dismay'd?
              Not tho' the soldiers knew
                Some one had blunder'd:
              Theirs not to make reply,
              Theirs not to reason why,
              Theirs but to do and die:
              Into the valley of Death
                Rode the six hundred.

              Alfred, Lord Tennyson

              Comment


                #8
                Apart from the one in my sig:

                "Without salt no sugar."
                "Once you can shoulder it, it becomes the lightest thing in the world."

                I was told these three long ago by some unknown friends. Don't know and never cared to know who is their author(s) but their condensed wisdom constantly crosses my path.
                Last edited by rms; Mar 15, 2012, 08:47 AM.
                Ok, got it: Ashes come from burning.

                Comment


                  #9
                  LOL
                  Hoist on my own petard!!! lol

                  Eight, sir; seven, sir;
                  Six, sir; five, sir;
                  Four, sir; three, sir;
                  two, sir; one!
                  'Tenser,' said the Tensor.
                  'Tenser,' said the Tensor.
                  'Tension, apprehension,
                  And dissension have begun.'

                  woodkeepmyneedleguninmybootsmoke

                  BTW....plus one for Detonate....I have included that in EVERY LECTURE for my 9th grade physical science class and my Physics classes in High School and my college Physical Science classes.........those lines gave us the thermometer.

                  And....when one actually THINKS...and CONSIDERS......what happened.....

                  one cries.
                  Last edited by woodsmoke; Mar 15, 2012, 10:44 PM.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Flip the Switch View Post
                    Nomination for most haunting is this one by Robert Frost.
                    The Road Not Taken

                    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
                    And sorry I could not travel both
                    And be one traveler, long I stood
                    And looked down one as far as I could
                    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

                    Then took the other, as just as fair,
                    And having perhaps the better claim
                    Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
                    Though as for that the passing there
                    Had worn them really about the same,

                    And both that morning equally lay
                    In leaves no step had trodden black.
                    Oh, I marked the first for another day!
                    Yet knowing how way leads on to way
                    I doubted if I should ever come back.

                    I shall be telling this with a sigh
                    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
                    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
                    I took the one less traveled by,
                    And that has made all the difference.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Two quotes from Hagakure--The Book of the Samurai.

                      The first one (a little metaphysics anyone?),

                      Our bodies are given life from the midst of nothingness. Existing where there is nothing is the meaning of the phrase, "Form is emptiness." That all things are provided for by nothingness is the meaning of the phrase, "Emptiness is form." One should not think that these two are separate things.

                      And this one (looking for a sense of meaning or purpose? a little Zen?):

                      There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man's whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue.

                      (... anybody who's survived a tough medical ordeal understands this second passage without having to think about it or having to put it into words)
                      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and
                        cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever
                        is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.
                        - Lao-Tzu (600 B.C.)

                        http://flowpsychology.com/flow-like-wa-ter/

                        Comment


                          #13
                          "Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans in the finite space of a planetary ecosystem as it is for gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive."

                          - Frank Herbert, Dune
                          linux since slack 2. kde since beta 1. kubuntu since hardy.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            The only thing you can do is be who you are and try to live a fearless life. --Kevin Costner
                            An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

                            Comment


                              #15
                              It is no measure of health to be
                              well adjusted to a profoundly sick society - Krishnamurti
                              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski

                              Comment

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