Quotes by Philosophers - Page 20

No one, on his deathbed, ever regretted having been a Catholic.
Thomas More
I'd be willing to bet that the notion of the end of time is more common today in the secular world than in the Christian. The Christian world makes it the object of meditation, but acts as if it may be projected into a dimension not measured by calendars. The secular world pretends to ignore the end of time, but is fundamentally obsessed by it. This is not a paradox, but a repetition of what transpired in the first thousand years of history.... I will remind readers that the idea of the end of time comes out of one of the most ambiguous passages of John's text, chapter 20...This approach, which isn't only Augustine's but also the Church Fathers' as a whole, casts History as a journey forward—a notion alien to the pagan world. Even Hegel and Marx are indebted to this fundamental idea, which Pierre Teilhard de Chardin pursued.Christianity invented History, and it is in fact a modern incarnation of the Antichrist that denounces History as a disease. It's possible that secular historicism has understood history as infinitely perfectible—so that tomorrow we improve upon today, always and without reservation... But the entire secular world is not of the ideological view that through history we understand how to look at the regression and folly of history itself. There is, nonetheless, an originally Christian view of history whenever the signpost of Hope on this road is followed. The simple knowledge of how to judge history and its horrors is fundamentally Christian, whether the speaker is Emmanuel Mounier on tragic optimism or Gramsci on pessimism of reason and optimism of will.
Umberto Eco
Growing up I sometimes imagined that for Christ's return perhaps He would appear as 'Black Jesus' to white people and 'White Jesus' to black people just to screw with the racists.
Criss Jami
There have been two great narcotics in European civilisation: Christianity and alcohol.
Friedrich Nietzsche
We have created youth ministry that confuses extroversion with faithfulness. We have effectively communicated to young people that sincerely following Jesus is synonymous with being 'fired up' for Jesus, with being excited for Jesus, as if discipleship were synonymous with fostering an exuberant, perky, cheerful, hurray-for-Jesus disposition like what we might find in the glee club or at a pep rally.
James K.A. Smith
The civil magistrate cannot function without some ethical guidance, without some standard of good and evil. If that standard is not to be the revealed law of God… then what will it be? In some form or expression it will have to be the law of man (or men) - the standard of self-law or autonomy. And when autonomous laws come to govern a commonwealth, the sword is certainly wielded in vain, for it represents simply the brute force of some men’s will against the will of other men.
Greg L. Bahnsen
All individuals have moral deficiencies, and when introducing these to reality one not only strengthens himself but also the confidence of others in the human exigency for Christ due to a reflection throughout the body of Christ.
Criss Jami
In the specially Christian case we have to react against the heavy bias of fatigue. It is almost impossible to make the facts vivid, because the facts are familiar; and for fallen men it is often true that familiarity is fatigue. I am convinced that if we could tell the supernatural story of Christ word for word as of a Chinese hero, call him the Son of Heaven instead of the Son of God, and trace his rayed nimbus in the gold thread of Chinese embroideries or the gold lacquer of Chinese pottery, instead of in the gold leaf of our own old Catholic paintings, there would be a unanimous testimony to the spiritual purity of the story. We should hear nothing then of the injustice of substitution or the illogicality of atonement, of the superstitious exaggeration of the burden of sin or the impossible insolence of an invasion of the laws of nature. We should admire the chivalry of the Chinese conception of a god who fell from the sky to fight the dragons and save the wicked from being devoured by their own fault and folly. We should admire the subtlety of the Chinese view of life, which perceives that all human imperfection is in very truth a crying imperfection. We should admire the Chinese esoteric and superior wisdom, which said there are higher cosmic laws than the laws we know.
G.K. Chesterton
For the believer, humility is honesty about one's greatest flaws to a degree in which he is fearless about truly appearing less righteous than another.
Criss Jami
When one has once fully entered the realm of love, the world — no matter how imperfect — becomes rich and beautiful, it consists solely of opportunities for love.
Søren Kierkegaard
If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.
Bertrand Russell
Together, we form a necessary paradox; not a senseless contradiction.
Criss Jami
If beauty is relative, then any and everything when compared to the beauty of God is absolutely hideous.
Criss Jami
Looks sure can be deceiving: not every ‘ugly’ person is a ‘bad’ person (or is guilty of whatever it is that they are accused of).
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Perhaps not everything happens for a reason. That is, until you make it so; because for everything there is a season, which can, in fact, become beautiful.
Criss Jami
...The sublime feeling is not mere pleasure as taste is – it is a mixture of pleasure and pain... Confronted with objects that are too big according to their magnitude or tooviolent according to their power, the mind experiences its own limitations.
Jean-François Lyotard
The idea of beauty, like a slab of magnificent marble, has crushed all possible refinement and vitality from the psychology of love.
José Ortega y Gasset
Awareness in its pure state is nonlocal; there’s no focal point in it. It is unbounded. Awareness, when managed and directed, becomes attention. By turning into attention, awareness becomes localized, and attains a focal point. Because of this feature, attention has the power to direct energy.
Ilchi Lee
In order to recognize the Truth, you have to separate yourself from the Truth; and to explain the Truth, you have to separate yourself from the recognition. This is why a wordsmithed Truth is nothing but a shadow of the shadow of the Truth. If Buddha had yawned instead of holding up a fower, would that gesture have been any less representative of the Truth?
Ilchi Lee
I am not convinced within myself that to its core and as a whole, humanity has, as some like to assume, progressed a great deal over the millennia. Human technology? Of course. Human beings? Hardly.
Criss Jami
Christ died not so that you could freely go on sinning, and therefore, continue dying; He died rather so that you could freely grow in obedience, and therefore, start living.
Criss Jami
The only way to truly help most drug addicts and most alcoholics is to—instead of them—change reality.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.
Simone de Beauvoir
Excessive praise arises from the same bigotry matrix as excessive criticism.
Stefan Molyneux
Most sexually adventurous women want a man who regards cunnilingus as a basic woman right.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Some women would not cheat, and some would not have cheated, had they each married a man whom they love … or at least like.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
In a patriarchal society, one of the most important functions of the institution of the family is to make feel like a somebody whenever he is in his own yard a man who is a nobody whenever he is in his employer’s yard.
Mokokoma Mokhonoana
The darkest part of the storm paints the brightest part of the rainbow.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A book is the only vehicle that can take you around the world in one hour.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Yesterday, I was clever, I wanted to be rich. Today, I am wise, I want to be happy.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The world accommodates you for fitting in, but only rewards you for standing out.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When excellence comes in at the door, failure flies out the window.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Your deepest scars tell the world of your greatest triumphs.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If you have the power to put a smile on one person’s face, you have the power to change the world.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Be like seeds; do not see dirt thrown at you as your enemy, but as ground to grow.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Thoughts are powerful; before you were born, you were one.
Matshona Dhliwayo
A rose does not answer its enemies with words, but with beauty.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If seeds despaired in their darkest hours, they would never rise to enjoy their brightest days.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Darkness is a prison from which only light escapes.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Today’s storms usher in tomorrow’s sunshine.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Roses do not bloom hurriedly; for beauty, like any masterpiece, takes time to blossom.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The larger the bricks your enemies throw at you the larger the palace you are going to build.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Every seed must rise through dirt to enjoy the sunshine.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If the grass is greener on the other side, try planting better seeds.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When night comes do not despair; rejoice instead and say to yourself, “At least now I can see the stars.
Matshona Dhliwayo
You are as the sun; the world is your stage; even without an audience, shine.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The louder the dogs bark the less a lion feels threatened.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Your end can be greater than your beginning: butterflies are the greatest proof of this.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The bad chapters of your life lead to the good ones if you keep turning the pages.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When your past tries to haunt you tell it you don’t believe in ghosts.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When the world told the caterpillar its life was over, the butterfly objected, “My life has just begun.
Matshona Dhliwayo
An Oak tree is a daily reminder that great things often have small beginnings.
Matshona Dhliwayo
If you have much, be generous; if you have little, be grateful; even if you have nothing, be hopeful.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Fear is an assassin; if you let it in your life, it will kill your dreams.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Make your own luck, and then share it with others.
Matshona Dhliwayo
Diamonds are proof that the most valuable things are sometimes formed in the dark.
Matshona Dhliwayo
It is in the roots, not the branches, that a tree’s greatest strength lies.
Matshona Dhliwayo
The early bird gets the first worm, but the wisest bird gets the fastest one.
Matshona Dhliwayo
There are three things that a beggar and a rich person share every day: the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Matshona Dhliwayo
When you have the world on your shoulders, God alone can help you carry it.
Matshona Dhliwayo