#eli

It's never pleasant to have one's unquestioning beliefs put in their historical context, as I know from experience, I can assure you. ↗

— Kingsley Amis

#superstition #traditions-history #experience

I came to understand that belief is a preconception about the way reality should be; faith is the willingness to experience reality as it is, including the acceptance of the unknown. An interesting way to understand the difference is to use the words interchangeably in the same sentence: I believe in Santa Claus. I have faith in Santa Claus. Belief can impede spiritual unfoldment; faith is supremely necessary for it. ↗

— Judith Hanson Lasater

#faith #experience

After listening to a lot of these stories, I began to think that American loneliness is a completely different creature from anything we experience in this country, and it made me glad I was born Japanese. The type of loneliness where you need to keep struggling to accept a situation is fundamentally different from the sort you know you'll get through if you just hang in there. ↗

— Ryū Murakami

#japan #life #loneliness #struggle #experience

When red-headed people are above a certain social grade their hair is auburn. ↗

— Mark Twain

#elitism #humor #redheads #humor

I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer - he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity. ↗

— Bernard Malamud

#experience #humanity #meliorist #optimist #pessimist

We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. ↗

— Martin Luther

#faith #inspirational #religion #faith

Most of our healing occurs during quiet moments of rest when we are in contact with unconscious feelings and experiences. I can't imagine life without the peaceful, insightful moments I have during meditation. ↗

— Janet Gallagher Nestor

#meditation #mindfulness #self-help #stress-relief #wellness

For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. ↗

— Charles Bukowski

#religion #death

since feeling is first who pays any attention to the syntax of things will never wholly kiss you; wholly to be a fool while Spring is in the world my blood approves, and kisses are a far better fate than wisdom lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry --the best gesture of my brain is less than your eyelids' flutter which says we are for eachother: then laugh, leaning back in my arms for life's not a paragraph And death i think is no parenthesis ↗

— E.E. Cummings

#kiss #love #death

Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words. ↗

— St. Francis of Assisi

#faith #religious #faith