Insightful power quotes

You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power-he's free again.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.
Eric Hoffer

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.
Thomas Jefferson

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies.
Napoleon I

Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.
George Bernard Shaw

The world is ruled only by consideration of advantages.
To gain a crown by fighting is great, to reject it divine.
Power is the most persuasive rhetoric.
No emperor has the power to dictate to the heart.
Friedrich Schiller

Power is no blessing in itself, except when it is used to protect the innocent.
Jonathan Swif

What I do say is that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent.
Abraham Lincoln

Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.
Honore de Balzac

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Lord Acton

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI, Freedom from Fear

Power -- the great power that shattered lives and twisted the course of nations -- was like a fog over a meadow at evening. From any distance, it seemed to have a shape, a substance, a color, an edge, yet as you approached it, it seemed to recede before you. Finally, when common sense said you were at its very center, it still seemed just as far away, only by this time it was on all sides, obscuring any vision of the world beyond it.... Was this phenomenon ... the reason why such men, who were truly concerned with the workings of power, chose to stay away from its center, so that they might never lose sight of power's contours?
SAMUEL R. DELANY, Neverÿon

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Les quatre saisons/Auteur Inconnu

Les quatre saisons
Source inconnue

Il était une fois un homme, père de 4 fils. Il voulait apprendre à ses 4 fils de ne point juger précipitemment. Pour cela il les envoya faire chacun faire une enquête personnelle, ils devaient se rendre à une distance lointaine et aller chacun observer un poirier. Le premier fils partait en hiver, le second au printemps, le troisième en été et le benjamin en automne.

Quand tous furent partis et revenus, il les rassembla et leur demanda de lui décrire ce qu'ils avaient vus.
Le premier fils dit que l'arbre était affreux, plié et les branches tordus.

Le second dit, "non, il était couvert de pousses vertes et plein de promesses".

Le troisième n'était pas d'accord et dit "il était couvert de fleurs qui sentait si agréable et je le trouvais majestueux, c'était l'arbre le plus gracieux que j'avais jamais vu".

Le benjamin secoua sa tête pour bien marquer son désapprobation en disant que les fruits étaient tous murs, lourds de leur jus et plein de promesses.

Le brave homme leur dit alors, "mes fils vous avez tous raison et oui, vous avez tous été à une saison différente et donc chacun a vu seulement une saison dans la vie de l'arbre".

Il leur dit aussi qu'ils ne pouvaient pas juger un arbre ni un être humain en seulement une saison et que l'essence de ce qu'ils sont en réalité ne peut être jugée en seulement une petite partie de vie, car il y a les joies, les peines, les regrets, etc, et qu'ils peuvent seulement être jugé tout à la fin de leur existence.
Si tu abandonnes en hiver alors tu manques inévitablement la promesse du printemps, la beauté de l'été et l'accomplissement de l'automne.

Ne laissez pas le chagrin d'une saison détruire toute la joie de tout ce qui est encore à venir.
Ne jugez pas la vie à cause d'un passage difficile. Persévérez et n'évitez pas les chemins difficiles qui se présentent à vous et soyez-en sûrs l'avenir est plein de promesses car tout change éternellement.

Vit simplement, aime généreusement, prends soin de toi et des autres grandement. Parles poliment et gentiment et laisse le reste à Dieu . Le bonheur te garde doux et en beauté, les expériences te rendent fort et les larmes te gardent humain. Les échecs préservent ton humilité et les succès te font briller.

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Excerpt from : Tales Of A Wayside Inn - The Poet's Tale - The Birds Of Killingworth

Do you ne'er think what wondrous beings these?
Do you ne'er think who made them, and who taught
The dialect they speak, where melodies
Alone are the interpreters of thought?
Whose household words are songs in many keys,
Sweeter than instrument of man e'er caught!
Whose habitations in the tree-tops even
Are half-way houses on the road to heaven!

Think, every morning when the sun peeps through
The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,
How jubilant the happy birds renew
Their old, melodious madrigals of love!
And when you think of this, remember too
'T is always morning somewhere, and above
The awakening continents; from shore to shore,
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.

Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
As in an idiot's brain remembered words
Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds
Make up for the lost music, when your teams
Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
The feathered gleaners follow to your door?
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,The Poet's Tale-The Birds Of Killingworth

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Peace quotes by Thich Nhat Hanh

We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds- our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women. To prepare for war, to give millions of men and women the opportunity to practice killing day and night in their hearts, is to plant millions of seeds of violence, anger, frustration, and fear that will be passed on for generations to come.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

Do not think the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice nonattachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints." To me, this is the most essential practice of peace.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Living Buddha, Living Christ

From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax and be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we can walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on Earth.
Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

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Kahlil Gibran Romantic Love Letters

Leonid Afremov Art

Among intelligent people the surest basis for marriage is friendship- the sharing of real interests- the ability to fight out ideas together and understand each other's thoughts and dreams.

No human relation gives one possession in another - every two souls are absolutely different. In friendship or in love, the two side by side raise hands together to find what one cannot reach alone.

You listen to so much more than I can say. You hear consciousness. You go with me where the words I say can't carry you.

We are expression of earth, and of life - not separate individuals only. We cannot get enough away from the earth to see the earth and ourselves as separates. We move with its great movements and our growth is part of its great growth.

That deepest thing, that recognition, that knowledge, that sense of kinship began the first time I saw you, and it is the same now - only a thousand times deeper and tenderer. I shall love you to eternity. I loved you long before we met in this flesh. I knew that when I first saw you. It was destiny. We are together like this and nothing can shake us apart.

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Osho Quotes on Perfectionism

Osho Quotes on Perfectionism

My approach is not that of a perfectionist... The whole idea has to be dropped. We have to learn a new language,the language of wholeness. And I call a person holy when he is whole in whatsoever he does. If you are doing cleaning, then do it totally. Then be utterly lost in it, and it will give you as much as a musician gets when he gets lost totally in his music or a dancer gets when he is utterly lost into his dance. Even cleaning the floor or cooking the food or taking the bath or going for a morning walk or anything. Let this be your foundation of life: that whatsoever you are doing at the moment, be utterly lost into it. Nothing of you should be left behind. Don’t keep any reservations. And you will come out of it immensely benefited, enriched. I am as fallible as anybody with only one difference: I am totally fallible!

Perfectionism is the seed of neurosis. A perfectionist can never be satisfied — because there is no way to satisfy a perfectionist. He will always find something or other and that ‘something’ will create trouble. Be more realistic, down to earth, and enjoy imperfection too; that is part of life.

I don’t teach perfection. What do I teach? I teach wholeness, not perfection. Be whole; be total; but don’t think about perfection. Be whole. Whatsoever you do, do it totally. What is the difference? When you do it totally you are not worried about the result. You did it totally. You are finished. More you could not do. You are not holding anything; you have put all your energy in it, you were whole in it. Now if you fail, you fail. If you succeed, you succeed. But whether you fail or you succeed, you are fulfilled all the same. A deep contentment arises because you have done whatsoever you could do. You can never be perfect. How can the part be perfect? You can never be perfect. Whatsoever you do, you can always imagine that it could have been better, whatsoever you do, you can imagine that better could have been done.

When I say be whole, I mean be real, be here; whatsoever you do, do it totally. You will be imperfect but your imperfection will be full of beauty, it will be full of your totality. Never try to be perfect otherwise you will create much anxiety. So many troubles are there already; don’t create more troubles for yourself.

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Insightful beauty quotes

Richard Johnson Art

Most people tend to think the best of those who are blessed with beauty; we have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind.
DEAN KOONTZ, Odd Thomas

There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.
GEORGE ELIOT, Adam Bede

Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it.
ROGER SCRUTON, Beauty

To speak of beauty is to enter another and more exalted realm-- a realm sufficiently apart from our everyday concerns as to be mentioned only with a certain hesitation. People who are always in praise and pursuit of the beautiful are an embarrassment, like people who make a constant display of their religious faith. Somehow, we feel such things should be kept for our exalted moments, and not paraded in company, or allowed to spill out over dinner.
ROGER SCRUTON, Beauty

Beauty had this penalty -- it came too readily, came too completely. It stilled life -- froze it. One forgot the little agitations; the flush, the pallor, some queer distortion, some light or shadow, which made the face unrecognisable for a moment and yet added a quality one saw for ever after. It was simpler to smooth that all out under the cover of beauty.
VIRGINIA WOOLF, To the Lighthouse

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