ix. Whenever people write they cannot help putting something of their personality-their very selves- into what they say.
After all, what does it matter what we are? The important thing is what we are able to do.
7. They tell me I walked the day I was a year old. My mother had just taken me out of the bath-tub and was holding me in her lap, when I was suddenly attracted by the flickering shadows of leaves that danced in the sunlight on the smooth floor. I slipped from my mother's lap and almost ran toward them. The impulse gone, I fell down and cried for her to take me up in her arms.
60. My work was practice, practice, practice. Discouragement and weariness cast me down frequently; but the next moment the thought that I should soon be at home and show my loved ones what I had accomplished, spurred me on, and I eagerly looked forward to their pleasure in my achievement.
89. In a word, every study had its obstacles. Sometimes I lost all courage and betrayed my feelings in a way I am ashamed to remember.
97. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit, which one hears only in leisure moments when the words of some loved poet touch a deep, sweet chord in the soul that until then had been silent.
One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one leaves the dearest pleasures- solitude, books and imagination- outside with the whispering pines. I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day.
115. German puts strength before beauty, and truth before convention, both in life and in literature.
129. Is it not true, then, that my life with all its limitations touches at many points the life of the World Beautiful? Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
195. The eyes of the mind are stronger, more penetrating, and more reliable than our physical eyes. We can see a lot of things with a little common-sense light to aid our perceptions.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Daniel Keyes- Flowers For Algernon: 2013. 7. 19
50. Now I understand one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you've believed in all your life aren't true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.
136. Nothing in our minds is ever really gone.
140. What I mean to say is that Charlie Gordon exists in the past, and the past is real. You can't put up a new building on a site until you destroy the old one, and the old Charlie can't be destroyed.
153. The meaning of my total existence involves knowing the possibilities of my future as well as my past, where I'm going as well as where I've been. Although we know the end of the maze holds death, I see now that the path Ic hoose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being-one of many ways-and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
136. Nothing in our minds is ever really gone.
140. What I mean to say is that Charlie Gordon exists in the past, and the past is real. You can't put up a new building on a site until you destroy the old one, and the old Charlie can't be destroyed.
153. The meaning of my total existence involves knowing the possibilities of my future as well as my past, where I'm going as well as where I've been. Although we know the end of the maze holds death, I see now that the path Ic hoose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being-one of many ways-and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Mother Teresa- In My Own Words: 2013. 7. 17
IX. Abandoning Loreto was an even harder sacrifice for me than leaving my family that first time in order to follow my vocation. But I had to do it. It was a calling. I knew where I had to go.
3. Holiness is not the luxury of a few. It is everyone's duty: yours and mine.
7. There are some people who, in order not to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying. This cannot be. Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer.
It is not necessary to always be meditating nor to consciously experience the sensation that we are talking to God, no matter how nice this would be. What matters is being with him, living in him, in his will. To love with a pure heart, to love everybody, especially to love the poor, is a twenty-four-hour prayer.
8. Lord, may I not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
Because it is in giving that we receive,
in pardoning that we are pardoned.
9. Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.
11. Praying the Our Father and living it will lead us toward saintliness. The our Father contains everything: God, ourselves, our neighbors..
19. Our poor do not need your condescending attitude nor your pity. The poor need your love and your kindness.
20. If we worry too much about ourselves, we won't have time for others.
23. I have the feeling that we are in such a hurry that we do not even have time to look at one another and smile.
27. Are we equally sure that none of them feels alone, abandoned, neglected, needing some affection? That, too, is poverty.
29. The important thing is not to do a lot or to do everything. The important thing is to be ready for anything, at all times.
33. True love causes pain. If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices.
37. What we say does not matter, only what God says to souls through us.
42. When I speak of joy, I do not identify it with loud laughter or with noise. This is not true happiness. Sometimes it hides other things. when I speak of happiness, I refer to an inner and deep peace, which shows itself in our eyes, on our faces, in our attitudes, in our gestures, in our promptness.
49. To better understand those we live with, it is imperative that we understand ourselves first.
50. It was a home where tenderness, understanding, and mutual respect abounded.
Everybody today seems to be in a hurry. No one has any time to give to others: children to their parents, parents to their children, spouses to each other.
52. Love begins by taking care of the closest ones- the ones at home. Let us ask ourselves if we are aware that maybe our husband, our wife, our children, or our parents live isolated from others, do not feel loved enough, even though they may live with us. Do we realize this? Where are the old people today? They are in nursing homes. Why? Because they are not wanted, because they are too much trouble, because...
53. If we were humble, nothing would change us-neither praise nor discouragement. If someone were to criticize us, we would not feel discouraged. If someone were to praise us, we also would not feel proud.
55. Before we judge the poor, we have the duty to look inside ourselves.
65. At the moment of death we will not be judged according to the number of good deeds we have done or by the diplomas we have received in our lifetime. We will be judged according to the love we have put into our work.
75. When suffering comes into our lives, we should accept it with a smile. This is the greatest gift from God: to have the courage to accept everything he gives us and asks of us with a smile.
79. Whoever is dependent on his or her money or worries about it, is truly a poor person. If that person places his or her money at the service of others, then the person becomes rich, very rich indeed.
84. It is very possible that you will find human beings, surely very near you, needing affection and love. Do not deny them these. Show them, above all, that you sincerely recognize that they are human beings, that they are important to you.
91. As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved. The greatest suffering is also having no one, forgetting what an intimate, truly human relationship is, not knowing what it means to be loved, not having a family or friends.
93. Loneliness was an expression of their poverty, the poverty of seeing themselves abandoned by relatives and friends. The poverty of having no one coming to visit them is the poverty that older people feel the most.
94. To listen to someone who has no one to listen to him is a very beautiful thing.
109. I very often tell the Sisters to approach the poor with joy, knowing that they have plenty of reasons to be sad. They don't need us to confirm their sadness for them.
If our work were just to wash and feed and give medicines to the sick, the center would have closed a long time ago. The most important thing in our centers is the opportunity we are offered to reach souls.
3. Holiness is not the luxury of a few. It is everyone's duty: yours and mine.
7. There are some people who, in order not to pray, use as an excuse the fact that life is so hectic that it prevents them from praying. This cannot be. Prayer does not demand that we interrupt our work, but that we continue working as if it were a prayer.
It is not necessary to always be meditating nor to consciously experience the sensation that we are talking to God, no matter how nice this would be. What matters is being with him, living in him, in his will. To love with a pure heart, to love everybody, especially to love the poor, is a twenty-four-hour prayer.
8. Lord, may I not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
Because it is in giving that we receive,
in pardoning that we are pardoned.
9. Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at his disposition, and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.
11. Praying the Our Father and living it will lead us toward saintliness. The our Father contains everything: God, ourselves, our neighbors..
19. Our poor do not need your condescending attitude nor your pity. The poor need your love and your kindness.
20. If we worry too much about ourselves, we won't have time for others.
23. I have the feeling that we are in such a hurry that we do not even have time to look at one another and smile.
27. Are we equally sure that none of them feels alone, abandoned, neglected, needing some affection? That, too, is poverty.
29. The important thing is not to do a lot or to do everything. The important thing is to be ready for anything, at all times.
33. True love causes pain. If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices.
37. What we say does not matter, only what God says to souls through us.
42. When I speak of joy, I do not identify it with loud laughter or with noise. This is not true happiness. Sometimes it hides other things. when I speak of happiness, I refer to an inner and deep peace, which shows itself in our eyes, on our faces, in our attitudes, in our gestures, in our promptness.
49. To better understand those we live with, it is imperative that we understand ourselves first.
50. It was a home where tenderness, understanding, and mutual respect abounded.
Everybody today seems to be in a hurry. No one has any time to give to others: children to their parents, parents to their children, spouses to each other.
52. Love begins by taking care of the closest ones- the ones at home. Let us ask ourselves if we are aware that maybe our husband, our wife, our children, or our parents live isolated from others, do not feel loved enough, even though they may live with us. Do we realize this? Where are the old people today? They are in nursing homes. Why? Because they are not wanted, because they are too much trouble, because...
53. If we were humble, nothing would change us-neither praise nor discouragement. If someone were to criticize us, we would not feel discouraged. If someone were to praise us, we also would not feel proud.
55. Before we judge the poor, we have the duty to look inside ourselves.
65. At the moment of death we will not be judged according to the number of good deeds we have done or by the diplomas we have received in our lifetime. We will be judged according to the love we have put into our work.
75. When suffering comes into our lives, we should accept it with a smile. This is the greatest gift from God: to have the courage to accept everything he gives us and asks of us with a smile.
79. Whoever is dependent on his or her money or worries about it, is truly a poor person. If that person places his or her money at the service of others, then the person becomes rich, very rich indeed.
84. It is very possible that you will find human beings, surely very near you, needing affection and love. Do not deny them these. Show them, above all, that you sincerely recognize that they are human beings, that they are important to you.
91. As far as I am concerned, the greatest suffering is to feel alone, unwanted, unloved. The greatest suffering is also having no one, forgetting what an intimate, truly human relationship is, not knowing what it means to be loved, not having a family or friends.
93. Loneliness was an expression of their poverty, the poverty of seeing themselves abandoned by relatives and friends. The poverty of having no one coming to visit them is the poverty that older people feel the most.
94. To listen to someone who has no one to listen to him is a very beautiful thing.
109. I very often tell the Sisters to approach the poor with joy, knowing that they have plenty of reasons to be sad. They don't need us to confirm their sadness for them.
If our work were just to wash and feed and give medicines to the sick, the center would have closed a long time ago. The most important thing in our centers is the opportunity we are offered to reach souls.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Murakami Haruki- 1Q84: 2013. 7. 15
266. What did it mean for a person to be free? Even if you managed to escape from one cage, weren't you just in another, larger cage?
307. Things are so convenient for us these days, our perceptions are probably that much duller. Four hundred years ago, we might have had richer spirits that were closer to nature.
374. Gilyaks do not recognize that anybody has power over them.
420. The ones who did it can always rationalize their actions and even forget what they did. They can turn away from things that don't want to see. But the surviving victims can never forget. They can't turn away. Their memories are passed on from parent to child. That's what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.
582. Why can't I love myself? It's because I can't love anyone else. A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else. A person who is incapable of loving another cannot properly love himself.
626. Most people are not looking for provable truths. As you said, truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths. What people need is beautiful, comforting stories that make them feel as if their lives have some meaning.
658. Where there is light, there must be shadow, and where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow. Karl Jung said this about 'the Shadow' in one of his books: 'It is as evil as we are positive... the more desperately we try to be good and wonderful and perfect, the more the Shadow develops a definite will to be black and evil and destructive...The fact is that if one tries beyond one's capacity to be perfect, the Shadow descends to hell and becomes the devil. For it is just as sinful from the standpoint of nature and of truth to be above oneself as to be below oneself.'
903. Nobody's easier to fool than the person who is convinced that he is right.
990. Most people in the world don't really use their brains to think. And people who don't think are the ones who don't listen to others.
1041. Most of what is generally considered the truth is entirely relative. Subject and object are not as distinct as most people think.
1064. The time slowly chips away at life. People don't just die when their time comes. They gradually die away, from the inside. And finally the day comes when you have to settle accounts. Nobody can escape it. People have to pay the price for what they've received.
307. Things are so convenient for us these days, our perceptions are probably that much duller. Four hundred years ago, we might have had richer spirits that were closer to nature.
374. Gilyaks do not recognize that anybody has power over them.
420. The ones who did it can always rationalize their actions and even forget what they did. They can turn away from things that don't want to see. But the surviving victims can never forget. They can't turn away. Their memories are passed on from parent to child. That's what the world is, after all: an endless battle of contrasting memories.
582. Why can't I love myself? It's because I can't love anyone else. A person learns how to love himself through the simple acts of loving and being loved by someone else. A person who is incapable of loving another cannot properly love himself.
626. Most people are not looking for provable truths. As you said, truth is often accompanied by intense pain, and almost no one is looking for painful truths. What people need is beautiful, comforting stories that make them feel as if their lives have some meaning.
658. Where there is light, there must be shadow, and where there is shadow there must be light. There is no shadow without light and no light without shadow. Karl Jung said this about 'the Shadow' in one of his books: 'It is as evil as we are positive... the more desperately we try to be good and wonderful and perfect, the more the Shadow develops a definite will to be black and evil and destructive...The fact is that if one tries beyond one's capacity to be perfect, the Shadow descends to hell and becomes the devil. For it is just as sinful from the standpoint of nature and of truth to be above oneself as to be below oneself.'
903. Nobody's easier to fool than the person who is convinced that he is right.
990. Most people in the world don't really use their brains to think. And people who don't think are the ones who don't listen to others.
1041. Most of what is generally considered the truth is entirely relative. Subject and object are not as distinct as most people think.
1064. The time slowly chips away at life. People don't just die when their time comes. They gradually die away, from the inside. And finally the day comes when you have to settle accounts. Nobody can escape it. People have to pay the price for what they've received.
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