Freedom

Birds take off at sunrise. On the opposite side of the
world, they are landing at sunset. This causes the earth
to spin on its axis.

In the silence of the wild, we find the home we lost in the city.
~John Muir

"The government cannot give to anyone anything that it does not first take from someone else."
~ Benjamin Franklin

"When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable."
~ Thomas Merton

Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.
Space is what prevents everything from happening to me
~ John Archibald Wheeler

השכחה היא הגלות והזיכרון הוא הגאולה

Forgetting is exile, remembering is redemption
~Baal Shem Tov

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little. Do what you can. ~ Sydney Smith

Heaven never helps the men who will not act. ~ Sydney Smith

The Pious Man

Whatever the pious man does is linked to the divine; each smallest trifle is tangential to His course. In breathing he uses His force; in thinking he wields His power. He moves always always under the unseen weight of the name of God rests steadily on his mind. The word of God is as vital to him as air or food. He is never alone, never companionless, for God is within reach of his heart. . . . The pious man needs no miraculous communication to make him aware of God's presence; nor is a crisis necessary to awaken him to the meaning and appeal of that presence. His awareness may be overlaid momentarily or concealed by some violent shift in consciousness, but it never fades away. It is this awareness of ever living under the watchful eye of God that leads the pious man to see hints of God in the varied things he encounters in his daily walk; so that many a simple event can be accepted by him both for what it is and also as a gentle hint or kindly reminder of things divine. In this mindfulness he eats and drinks, works and plays, talks and thinks; for piety is a life compatible with God's presence.

Renewal is costly. Resisting it can be even more costly. Change and renewal, however must not take place at the expense of Tradition. It is Tradition which provides the traction needed for mobilizing these shifts, and without it, the wheels of change will only be spinning on ice and taking us nowhere.

I believe in Revelation. But I believe that it filters through every one of us, through our actions, our thoughts, our music, our artwork.

Trying to give finite form to the Revelation of the Infinite is dangerous. You can't drive forward while looking through the rear-view mirror. The Revelation of Torah, for example, has no one single finite form. The Revelation might remain the same, but the form which mortals give it changes. Tradition, therefore, is a marker we leave behind us in previous life cycles so that when we come back we have some notion of where we left off. We need to look at tradition, therefore, not as a relic of the past but as a catalyst for the future.

"Remember that there is a meaning beyond absurdity. Be sure that every little deed counts, that every word has power. Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the world in spite of all absurdities and frustrations and disappointments."

It is man’s ability to remember that sets us apart. We are the only species concerned with past. Our memories give us voice and bear witness to history, so that others might learn; so they might celebrate our triumphs and be warned of our failures. ~ Heroes

Creature polo was the Cat's favourite game.  Unnecessary cruelty to small, furry animals was very much of his psychological make-up.  ~ Better the Life by Grant Naylor, Page 34

Such a place would save you from faerie, or call faerie to you--like so many things with us, there was never a yes, or a no, but a yes, a no, and a something. ~ Mistral's Kiss by Laurell K. Hamilton, Page 236

Some people think in black and white, while other people think in shades of gray. Accountants think in black and red. ~ A co-worker

You must never let yourself be turned aside from life's serious and important questions by ridicule. ~ Silk in Lake of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe, Page 47

We acknowledge this state we call death with so much reluctance, Silk thought, not for the first time. Surely it can't be natural to us. ~ Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe, Page 251

Men build scales, but the gods blow upon the lighter pan. ~ Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe, Page 16.

It was quite the most audacious piece of astronavigation ever attempted in the entire history of the universe.
...
"What do you think he's doing?" asked the Cat.
"I think he's playing pool. With planets."
~ Better Than Life by Grant Naylor (Rob Grant and Doug Naylor), Page 140, 141-142.

Some people are like slinkies,
They dont really have a purpose.
But they bring a smile to your face,
When you push them down the stairs.
~ Unknown

( The thing about human beings was this... )

And the reason was this: basically, all human beings believed all other human beings were insane, in varying degrees.

~ Better Than Life by Grant Naylor (Rob Grant and Doug Naylor), Page 228