"Our true history is scarcely ever deciphered by others. The chief part of the drama is a monologue, or rather an intimate debate between God, our conscience, and ourselves. Tears, grieves, depressions, disappointments, irritations, good and evil thoughts, decisions, uncertainties, deliberations— all these belong to our secret, and are almost all incommunicable and intransmissible, even when we try to speak of them, and even when we write them down."
My commentary: I've always related to this. Somehow, reading it today made me question it. It is not all intransmissible...it is not all incommunicable. We are sort of like icebergs floating in the same ocean. We are all bathed in that human condition. Only when we have that exceptional chance to genuinely converse and listen to each other, that's when our history can be communicable.
“Let mystery have its place in you; do not be always turning up your whole soil with the plowshare of self-examination, but leave a little fallow corner in your heart ready for any seed the winds may bring, and reserve a nook of shadow for the passing bird; keep a place in your heart for the unexpected guests, an altar for the unknown God. Then if a bird sing among your branches, do not be too eager to tame it. If you are conscious of something new - thought or feeling, wakening in the depths of your being - do not be in a hurry to let in light upon it, to look at it; let the springing germ have the protection of being forgotten, hedge it round with quiet, and do not break in upon its darkness.”
Ready for something sweet!
“Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.”
This man lived in the 1800s and was speaking about "the modern man". It is interesting how this still describes "the modern man"
“At the bottom of the modern man there is always a great thirst for self-forgetfulness, self-distraction; he has a secret horror of all which makes him feel his own littleness; the eternal, the infinite, perfection, therefore scare and terrify him. He wishes to approve himself, to admire and congratulate himself; and therefore he turns away from all those problems and abysses which might recall to him his own nothingness.”
Turning away from the abysses which might recall him to his own nothingness hehe this sounds so appealing. Where's the nearest abyss I can turn to? :)
The first sentence just struck me. Respecting the oscillations of feelings. I think that's an incredible concept.
[...] respect in yourself the oscillations of feeling. They are your life and your nature [...]. Do not abandon yourself altogether either to instinct or to will. Instinct is a siren, will a despot.Holy shit this is such a simple thing but it is HUGE as well. Respecting one's own oscillations. We are NOT meant to be static or stable.
Here's another one that I particularly like. I feel sometimes when I read for this guy that he is speaking right to me. Giving me his views on how things should be done. I like what he says...even though I may choose an alternative method.
Here's a teaching one:
"The highest function of the teacher consists not so much in imparting knowledge as in stimulating the pupil in its love and pursuit. To know how to suggest is the art of teaching."
The art of suggestion, eh!
I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this.
"The test of every religious, political, or educational system, is the man which it forms. If a system injures the intelligence it is bad. If it injures the character it is vicious. If it injures the conscience it is criminal."
Do you think the product of a system is a valid enough measure of its legitimacy/goodness?
I will leave you with those quotes for today. Hopefully I will be back with some more quotes or commentary or nothing at all :)
Be swift to love,
Wegdan
