Favorite quotes
December 7, 2011 6:12 PM Subscribe
What are your favorite short quotes about equilibrium/balance/harmony?
inquiring mind(s) want to know
inquiring mind(s) want to know
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but this is Chatfilter. -- taz
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes.
-- Walt Whitman
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:19 PM on December 7, 2011 [3 favorites]
-- Walt Whitman
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 6:19 PM on December 7, 2011 [3 favorites]
Come to kindly terms with your ass - for it bears you. (attributed to Harlan Ellison)
posted by Trurl at 6:25 PM on December 7, 2011
posted by Trurl at 6:25 PM on December 7, 2011
"So divinely is the world organized that every one of us, in our place and time, is in balance with everything else." -- Goethe
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." --Mahatma Gandhi
"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content." -- Helen Keller
posted by argonauta at 6:41 PM on December 7, 2011
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." --Mahatma Gandhi
"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content." -- Helen Keller
posted by argonauta at 6:41 PM on December 7, 2011
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." ~Emerson
"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
posted by headnsouth at 6:42 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."
~Thich Nhat Hanh
posted by headnsouth at 6:42 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
"There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness." - Carl Jung
"We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves." - Francis J. Braceland
"Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle." - Helen Keller
"We come into this world head first and go out feet first; in between, it is all a matter of balance." - Paul Boese
posted by datarose at 7:04 PM on December 7, 2011
"We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves." - Francis J. Braceland
"Toleration is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle." - Helen Keller
"We come into this world head first and go out feet first; in between, it is all a matter of balance." - Paul Boese
posted by datarose at 7:04 PM on December 7, 2011
"She was perfect because she was a perfect balance of qualities and strengths. She was symmetrical in every respect. The search for perfection, she had told him, was in fact the search for balance, for harmony."
Not so great out of context, you sort of have to read the whole chapter, but that's from here, and is meant to contradict the idea that "perfection is flawlessness."
posted by clavicle at 7:11 PM on December 7, 2011
Not so great out of context, you sort of have to read the whole chapter, but that's from here, and is meant to contradict the idea that "perfection is flawlessness."
posted by clavicle at 7:11 PM on December 7, 2011
"For both excessive and insufficient exercise destroy one's strength, and both eating and drinking too much or too little destroy health, whereas the right quantity produces, increases or preserves it. So it is the same with temperance, courage and the other virtues... This much then, is clear: in all our conduct it is the mean that is to be commended." — Aristotle
"The middle path is the way to wisdom." — Mevlana Rumi
posted by John Cohen at 7:41 PM on December 7, 2011
"The middle path is the way to wisdom." — Mevlana Rumi
posted by John Cohen at 7:41 PM on December 7, 2011
"...An act is not, as young men think, like a rock that one picks up and throws, and it hits or misses, and that's the end of it. When that rock is lifted, the earth is lighter; the hand that bears it is heavier. When it is thrown, the circuits of the stars respond, and where it strikes or falls the universe is changed.” Ursula K. LeGuin (The Farthest Shore)
posted by cocoagirl at 7:52 PM on December 7, 2011
posted by cocoagirl at 7:52 PM on December 7, 2011
"Remember that unbalanced force is evil; that unbalanced severity is but cruelty and oppression; but that also unbalanced mercy is but weakness which would allow and abet Evil. Act passionately; think rationally; be Thyself." --Aleister Crowley
posted by Matt Oneiros at 8:12 PM on December 7, 2011
posted by Matt Oneiros at 8:12 PM on December 7, 2011
Newton's law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
posted by elizeh at 8:24 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by elizeh at 8:24 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
"In all forms of nature there exists an equilibrium that will be maintained at all costs. So why is it that people must question the origins of evil, of pain, of corruption. They are the balance to what is good and just, and without them there is a polar disarray of emotion that would consume the world." — Mike Hutchison
"Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And youre keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life." — James Patterson
posted by netbros at 8:42 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
"Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity. And youre keeping all of them in the air. But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life." — James Patterson
posted by netbros at 8:42 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: "And this, too, shall pass away." How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" - Abraham Lincoln, Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1859
posted by shothotbot at 9:00 PM on December 7, 2011
posted by shothotbot at 9:00 PM on December 7, 2011
The Way that can be described is not the true Way.
posted by KeSetAffinityThread at 9:25 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by KeSetAffinityThread at 9:25 PM on December 7, 2011 [1 favorite]
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posted by steinsaltz at 6:14 PM on December 7, 2011