Quotes

Some of my favorite quotes…

““Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.” William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

“To be something in reality he must give up being everything in potentia”

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain

Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination. Oscar Wilde

An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field. Niels Bohr

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. Albert Einstein

Named must your fear be before banish it you can. YODA

Many a false step was made by standing still. Fortune Cookie

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. Mark Twain

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to him-self. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw

The existential vacuum manifests itself mainly in a state of boredom. Viktor Frankl

One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity. Bruce Lee

A man is rich according to the number of things he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau

“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing.”

-Edmund Burke

“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”

-Norman Schwarzkopf

“If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.”

-Sun Tzu

“Your value to society is measured by how much income you can produce
Your intelligence is measured by how much of your income you can keep, and your character by what you do with it to help others.” H Breese

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things that matter least.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,

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“In Germany, the Nazis came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I didn’t speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, but I was a protestant, so I didn’t speak up. Then they came for me… By that time there was no-one to speak up for anyone.”
Martin Neimoller, German anti-Nazi campaigner

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“Nothing is secret which shall not be made manifest”

Luke 8:17

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“Like the innocent small town invaded in a monster movie, all those people work and play, unaware of how fragile and vulnerable their community is. It could be destroyed outright by a virus, or worse, it could consume itself with mutual suspicion, tangle itself up in locks, security checkpoints and surveillance, wither away by becoming so inaccessible and bureacratic that no-one would want it anymore.”

Clifford Stoll, The Cuckoo’s Egg.

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‘Would you tell me, please, which way I go from here?’

‘That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat.

‘I don’t much care where – ‘ said Alice.

‘Then it dosen’t much matter which way you go,’ said the Cat.

‘- so long as I get somewhere,’ Alice added in explanation.

I knew who I was this morning,

But I think I must have been
Changed several times since
then.

Alice, in Through the looking Glass

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“If I believe I can climb the mountain, I will get at least part way to the top! If I believe it is useless to even try, I won’t attempt it. I’ll stay where I am.”

Anderson, 1998 Transforming leadership

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If you think you are beaten you are;

If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose you’re lost,
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a person’s will,
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are
You have to think high to rise,
You have to be sure of yourself
To win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the one who wins
Is the ONE who THINKS he can.

Anon

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The more a person accepts himself, the less is he threatened by the experience of being known by others.

Jourard (1971) p. 76

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Argue for your limitations and sure enough they will be yours.

Bach

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There is nothing permanent except change

Heraclities (535 – 475 BC)

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“The bigger the organisation, the more unavoidable is its morality and blind stupidity (Senatus bestia, senatores boni viri).

Jung 1953/1966, para 240, Cited in Gray, 1992, pp. 161

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“The privileged position of the superior function is as detrimental to the individual as it is valuable to society. This detrimental effect has reached such a pitch that the mass organizations of our present day culture actually strive for the complete extinction of the individual, since their very existence depends upon a mechanized application of the privileged function of individual human beings. It is not man who counts, but his one differentiated function. Man no longer appears as man in our collective culture: he is merely represented by a function, what is more he identifies himself completely with his function and denies the relevance of the other inferior functions. Thus modern man is debased to a mere function, because it is this that represents a collective value and alone guarantees a possible livelihood.

Jung, 1971, para 109, cited in gray, 1992 pp.201

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American Chief Crazy Horse used to rally his braves with the battle cry “Hoka Hey,” which means “its a great day to die.”

Randazzo, 1993, pp. 112.

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“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but the wish come true is a tree of life”

Proverbs XIII, 12

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“A Maori proverb says: “There is a well of dissatisfaction in the heart of man, and hence vexation and anxiety.”

taken from Ellenberger, 1970, the discovery of the unconscious, p. 25.

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Sapere aude, Have the courage to make use of your own reason

Taken from Ellengerger, 1970, p. 195, Immanuel Kant, Beatwortung der frage: Was ist Aufklarung? (1784), in Werke, ( Berlin: Buchenau-Cassirer, 1913), IV, 167-176

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“Whosoever has eyes to see and ears to hear convinces himself that mortals can keep no secret hidden. He whose lips are silent prattles with his fingertips, and self-betrayal gushes forth through all the pores of his skin”. Sigmeund Freud, 1901, p449 dis cov unconcs

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“Seek not abroad, turn back into thyself, for in the inner man dwells the truth.” P. 450

cited in Ellenberger.

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“To be something in reality he must give up being everything in potentia”

Edinger, 1972, Ego and archetype. P.13.

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He who feels punctured

Must have been a bubble,
He who feels unarmed
Must have carried arms,
He who feels belittled
Must have been consequential
He who feels deprived
Must have had priviledge…..

Lao Tzu Tao Teh Ching verse 36

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