Post your favorite quotes and expressions here

My translation ( [-o< or =D> ) was this one:

Congratulations. May I test your German skills? :slight_smile:

“Ich bin ein Teil des Teils, der anfangs alles war,
Ein Teil der Finsternis, die sich das Licht gebar,
Das stolze Licht, das nun der Mutter Nacht
Den alten Rang, den Raum ihr streitig macht.
Und doch gelingt’s ihm nicht, da es, so viel es strebt,
Verhaftet an den Körpern klebt.”

  • Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe, Faust (I), 1790 / 1808, S. 67.

Translation:

“But I’m part of the Part which at the first was all,
Part of the Darkness that gave birth to Light,
The haughty Light that now with Mother Night
Disputes her ancient rank and space withal,
And yet 'twill not succeed, since, strive as strive it may,
Fettered to bodies will Light stay.”

  • Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe, Faust (I), 1790 / 1808, p. 67.

“Was Du ererbt von deinen Vätern hast,
Erwirb es, um es zu besitzen.”

  • Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe, Faust (I), 1790 / 1808, S. 39.

Translation:

“What you have inherited from your fathers,
Acquire it in order to possess it.”

  • Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe, Faust (I), 1790 / 1808, p. 39.

“We read fine things but never feel them to the full until we have gone the same steps as the author.”
― John Keats

“Nothing ever becomes real till experienced – even a proverb is no proverb until your life has illustrated it”
― John Keats

“Geben Sie Gedankenfreiheit!” - Friedrich Schiller, “Don Karlos”, 1787.
Translation:
“Give freedom of thought!” - Friedrich Schiller, “Don Carlos”, 1787.


_____ Don Carlos (1545-1568), ______ King Philipp II of Spain (1527-1598), Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), 1st print of Schiller’s “Don Karlos” (1787)

In the near end of Goethe’s “Faust”, part II, an angel says to Faust:

[list][list][list][list][list][list]“Wer immer strebend sich bemüht, // Den können wir erlösen.”
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Faust”, Teil II, S. 376.)
Translation:
“Who strives always to the utmost, // For him there is salvation…”[/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u]
And amongst others this is what the “Chorus mysticus” sings when Faust is in heaven at last:

[list][list][list][list][list][list]“Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis.”
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Faust”, Teil II, S. 383.)
Translation:
“All perishable is only an allegory.”[/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u][/list:u]
Add-on:
[list]
“Niemand ist mehr Sklave, als der sich für frei hält, ohne es zu sein.”
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Die Wahlverwandtschaften”, Band 6, S. 397.)

Translation:[/list:u]

[list]
“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.”[/list:u]

This quote turned me on. It is so cool…and real.

I meditate because evolution gave me a big brain, but it didn’t come with an instruction manual.
I meditate because life is too short and sitting slows it down.
I meditate because life is too long and I need an occasional break.
I meditate because it’s such a relief to spend time ignoring myself.
I meditate because I’m building myself a bigger and better perspective, and occasionally I need to add a new window.

Wes Nisker.

Arminius, how does one know, in actuality, when they are truly free? What do you think?

Perhaps…perhaps not.
Perhaps if you go back far enough with the pirates who sailed the mighty seas looking for ships to plunder.

Oh Arc, I’m similarly inclined. The Balzac quotation is a taunt, baiting me into argument. I often find myself fighting against the cynicism of (bad) experience - which I would guess is the germ of that quotation.

Here are my faves. I have loved all of these for a long time and thought about them countless times!

Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
(I am a man. Nothing human is foreign to me.)
~ Terence

Respect deities, but do not rely on them.
~ Miyamoto Musashi

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.–‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’–Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood. […]

The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now. Greatness appeals to the future. If I can be firm enough to-day to do right, and scorn eyes, I must have done so much right before as to defend me now. Be it how it will, do right now. Always scorn appearances, and you always may. The force of character is cumulative. All the foregone days of virtue work their health into this.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This one is more contemporary -

Such energy poured into technical fixes: speed, connectivity etc. So little into social fixes: purpose, community, kindness…
~ Alain de Botton

To me it asks the question: what if all the effort that built the apps on your phone, on your pc, that ceaselessly iterates to create all manner of software applications and endlessly update them - what if even a fraction of that effort was instead directed at building more robust communities and solving social problems? What would the world be like?

“The force of character is cumulative.” I like this.

Yeah! Me too! Self-Reliance is a pretty good read. Not too long either. How’ve you been, Wendy? Hope all’s well.

It’s not “how have I been,” it’s “where have you been?” You can visit here and I’m always relaying how I’ve been to everyone’s chagrin :laughing: , but you have to visit to stay in the know and contribute as well, dear Fuse. You now have your marching orders just don’t march too far away. :handgestures-salute: :happy-smileyflower:

Wendy,

Heh. I’m glad you’ve been well :slight_smile: Oh I still pop-in from time to time to see what the talk is, to see if the latest cultural conversation has made it to this little corner of the internet, to see how ILP is dealing with it. I’m just loathe to get into discussions if I don’t think I’ll have the time or effort to finish them properly.

You should see how many posts I’ve started - long-winded paragraphs of text - only to abort them after taking the time to write it all out. I think I must have a 100 saved drafts in my user control panel lol

Me too. Too many OPs and replies congesting that folder as I’ve said …never to see the light of day.

I can see tolerance as a virtue up to a point…until a laizzez fair attitude or lack of conscious observation and action causes death and destruction.

How is apathy a virtue? It goes against life.
Was Aristotle being literal here or facetious ~~ or did he mean something else by the quote.
Can someone explain this to me.

Arc, meaning a society faces its end when dominated by tolerance and apathy; so they will be its last virtues.