Thread: A Proverb A Day

Originally Posted by Howietzer

"The ability to relax in the moment ant let the universe do the driving." Jed McKenna[/b]

Though it seems rather passive, I've had enough experience with athletics to know that that's usually very good advice

I myself do not use proverbs very often, because they seem to be too generic and unrealistic to me. There are some I enjoy, however, such as "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind," said by Gandhi.

If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves. - Douglas Adams

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. - Groucho Marx

And a whole bunch of Terry Pratchett's sayings:

People whose concept of ancient history is the first series of Star Trek
may be treated with patience, because it's usually not their fault they
were reduced to getting their education from school.
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.books.pratchett)

I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when
there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

I think perhaps the most important problem is that we are trying to
understand the fundamental workings of the universe via a language
devised for telling one another when the best fruit is.
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

Every procedure for getting a cat to take a pill works fine -- once.
Like the Borg, they learn...
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

This isn't life in the fast lane, it's life in the oncoming traffic.
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

Never trust any complicated cocktail that remainds perfectly clear until
the last ingredient goes in, and then immediately clouds.
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that
it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without
inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

Death isn't on line. If he was, there would be a sudden drop in the death
rate. Although it'd be interesting to see if he'd post things like: DON'T
YOU THINK I SOUND LIKE JAMES EARL JONES?
-- (Terry Pratchett, alt.fan.pratchett)

There're tons more, but by now y'all are probably getting irritated at me, so I'll just leave it at that...

Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think.
--Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change" -Dr. Wayne Dyer

@ Man of Steel - Another Terry Pratchett fan!

just because I saw our dandelions freeze and croak.

"Many a flower is born to blush unseen." Gray

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

--Mark Twain

Originally Posted by pj

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.

--Mark Twain[/b]

I've always like this one.

Sometimes people should just heed the following:

"It is better to be THOUGHT a fool.. then to open ones' mouth and REMOVE ALL DOUBT."

Originally Posted by wendylove

''All thinking men are atheists'' Ernest Hemingway
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZuknsnphEU...ted&search=
I don't know how people think the founding farthers of america were chrisitian or religious.[/b]

Damn pesky atheists!

(The Protocols Of The Elders of Zion was a really bad idea, why didn't they call it The Protocols Of The Pretentious Atheists)

1 Corinthians 13 (here) contains a lot of lully proverbs for your theistic enjoyment.

In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.

--Voltaire

Happy Tax Day, America.

Originally Posted by pj

In general the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.

--Voltaire Happy Tax Day, America.[/b]

Voltair. Nice. How about another Voltair
Any idea what is meant by this. Not really sure. "He who is only wise leads a sad life."


"Fear is the tax which the conscience pays to guilt."

Originally Posted by Howietzer

Voltair. Nice. How about another Voltair
Any idea what is meant by this. Not really sure. "He who is only wise leads a sad life."
"Fear is the tax which the conscience pays to guilt."[/b]

I think he meant that it is important to be foolish sometimes... childish... silly... be able to take things as they are rather than struggling to understand them.

I think that was the voice of experience.

my favorite:
Anticipation is sweeter than realization- anonymous

"He who is only wise leads a sad life."

Originally Posted by pj

I think he meant that it is important to be foolish sometimes... childish... silly... be able to take things as they are rather than struggling to understand them.
I think that was the voice of experience.[/b]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE("serenitatem1")</div>

my favorite:
Anticipation is sweeter than realization- anonymous[/b]

Both of these have a similarity to me.
When you are on a quest to understand something, you are living a means to an end, in a manner of speaking. Anticipation is sweeter than realization. Well If we could always remind ourselves of this.
Living in the "now" seems a common theme in many of these proverbs. I don&#39;t think it is coencidence.

Sometimes the most unplanned. spontaneous experiences are our best. Leaving our expectations out of the equation.

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice;but for those who love, time is eternity." - Henry Van Dyke

Originally Posted by Howietzer

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice;but for those who love, time is eternity." - Henry Van Dyke[/b]

I love how true this is..

Originally Posted by Clairity

I love how true this is..[/b]

Amen.

Speaking of Henry Van Dyke:
“When once you have tasted flight you will always walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward: for there you have been and there you will always be.”

I have felt like that ever since my first lucid dream, when I flew. (Though in that one I didn&#39;t get much higher than a few story buildings )

I&#39;m torn here on which to post this morning. I think it will be one of my all time favorites - a bit long... but one that pretty well sums it all up for me. So here it goes:

To live content with small means,
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion,
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich.

To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly,
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart,
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions,
hurry never.

In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.

This is to be my symphony.

--Willian Henry Channing

That is a tough one to follow.

I will just go short an to the point with an old Chinese proverb.

Those who know when they have enough are rich.

Originally Posted by pj

--Willian Henry Channing[/b]

That reminds me of "If" by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don&#39;t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don&#39;t give way to hating,
And yet don&#39;t look too good, nor talk too wise: If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you&#39;ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build &#39;em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on&#33;"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds&#39; worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that&#39;s in it,
And--which is more--you&#39;ll be a Man, my son&#33;

Originally Posted by Led

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,[/b]

Indeed.

It never occurred to me before, but Kipling kind of summed up the whole concept of lucid dreaming in that one as well, didn&#39;t he? We&#39;re here to master our dreams&#33;

Originally Posted by pj

Indeed.

It never occurred to me before, but Kipling kind of summed up the whole concept of lucid dreaming in that one as well, didn&#39;t he? We&#39;re here to master our dreams&#33;[/b]

I suppose you could say that, but I think when he(she?) said dreams he meant lofty goals.

I like this thread&#33; Good thoughts.

"Little things affect little minds." --Disraeli.

"Without work, all life goes rotten." --Camus.

"The secret of success is constancey of purpose."--Disraeli again.

"Since today is all I have, may I use it wisely."--? Twelve-stepper?

"The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts."--Darwin.