- “One day, some people came to the master and asked: ‘How can you be so happy in a world of such impermanence, where you cannot protect your loved ones from harm, illness and death?’ The master held up a glass and said: ‘Someone gave me this glass, and I really like this glass. It holds my water admirably and it glistens in the sunlight. One day the wind may blow it off the shelf, or my elbow may knock it from the table. I know this glass is already broken, so I enjoy it incredibly.’ “
- Zen koan“A little suffering is good for the soul.”
- Leonard McCoy“Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the Jolly Roger and begin to slit throats”.
- H. L. Mencken“All love is strange, but you have to learn to take the crunchy with the smooth, I suppose.”
- Billy Bragg, “Walk Away Renee”“Who is more foolish – the fool, or the fool who follows him?”
- Obi-Wan Kenobi“Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.”
- Ford Prefect“Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ until you can find a rock.”
- Wynn Catlin“Faith is just fear that has said its prayers.”
- Annie Lamott“Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.”
- Leo Tolstoy“I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse ‘applicability’ with ‘allegory’; but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien“Call no man happy until he is dead.”
- Herodotus“Gold is for the mistress – silver for the maid -
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade!
‘Good!’ said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
‘But Iron – Cold Iron – is master of them all.’”
- Rudyard Kipling
