Favorite Secular Quotes

[Ayu]

From the "Dharma Quotes Thread":

nothing fades as fast as the future
and nothing clings like the past
until we can see
more than this

Peter Gabriel

http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... 40#p246639
This post from "The Dharma Quotes Thread" inspired me to start another quotes thread for not-clearly-Dharma-only quotes.

My favorite:

Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved.
Unknown

[Wayfarer]

'My life has been a whole series of crises, most of which never occurred' ~ Unknown.

'What if everything is an illusion and nothing really exists? In that case I definitely overpaid for my carpet' ~ Woody Allen

[Fortyeightvows]

fast nickle or slow dime?

[boda]

God is dead

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

[boda]

The meme for blind faith secures its own perpetuation by the simple unconscious expedient of discouraging rational inquiry.

~ Richard Dawkins

[DGA]

When you believe in things that you don't understand, then you suffer.
Superstition ain't the way.

[mindyourmind]

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

GEORGE SANTAYANA

[mindyourmind]

Whoever is not a misanthrope at forty can never have loved mankind.


NICOLAS CHAMFORT

[mindyourmind]

Admiration, n. Our polite recognition of another’s resemblance to ourselves.


AMBROSE BIERCE

[boda]

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they've been fooled.

~ Mark Twain

[Mkoll]

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

― Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan

[Takoda]

From The Pale Blue Dot :

"In our obscurity, in all this vastness,
there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.
There is nowhere else, at least in the near future
to which our species could migrate.

Visit yes, settle not yet.

Like it or not, for the moment,
the earth is where we make our stand...

To me it underscores our responsibility to deal more
kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish
the pale blue dot."

- Carl Sagan

[boda]

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe.

~ Carl Sagan

[Ayu]

God is dead

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead"
God


(This one is old. Couldn't resist.)

[Takoda]

"That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run. So I ran to the end of the road. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd run to the end of town. And when I got there, I thought maybe I'd just run across Greenbow County. And I figured, since I run this far, maybe I'd just run across the great state of Alabama. And that's what I did. I ran clear across Alabama. For no particular reason I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. And when I got there, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well turn around, just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured, since I'd gone this far, I might as well just turn back, keep right on going".

Forrest Gump.

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself...

but could there be some hidden dharma lesson in this quote?

[boda]

God is dead

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead"
God


(This one is old. Couldn't resist.)

Those who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.

~ Voltaire

[SeekerNo1000003]

Not my favorite quote, but something that's been stuck in my mind for years & makes me wonder: whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?

Here's another one by Shakespeare:

The quality of mercy is not strained,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless’d,
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes…(The Merchant of Venice)

སྙིང་རྗེའི་དགེ་མཚན་བཟང་པོ་འདི་ནི་ནམ་ཡང་འཛད་མེད་དེ།།
གནམ་ལས་བབས་པའི་སྦྲང་ཆར་དང་འདྲ་གཉིས་ཀར་ཕན་པར་བྱེད།།
འདི་ཉིད་སྟེར་བ་བྱེད་པོ་དེ་ལ་བྱིན་རླབས་འཇུག་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།།
གང་གིས་ལེན་པ་དེ་ལའང་བྱིན་རླབས་འཇུག་པར་འགྱུར།།

Source; https://adamspearcey.com/2014/04/23/mor ... n-tibetan/

[Nicholas Weeks]

The moral imagination is an enduring source of inspiration that elevates us to first principles as it guides us upwards towards virtue and wisdom and redemption.

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

Russell Kirk

[Nicholas Weeks]

All great systems, ethical or political, attain their ascendency over the minds of men by virtue of their appeal to the imagination; and when they cease to touch the chords of wonder and mystery and hope, their power is lost, and men look elsewhere for some set of principles by which they may be guided.

Russell Kirk

[Yavana]

"Better to live a day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep." — Donald J Trump

(Very similar to:
"It is better to live a single day with honor than to live to 120 and die in disgrace." — Nichiren)