#nature

What is Zen? Zen means doing anything perfectly, making mistakes perfectly, being defeated perfectly, hesitating perfectly, doing anything perfectly or imperfectly, perfectly. What is the meaning of this perfectly? How does it differ from perfectly? Perfectly is in the will; perfectly is in the activity. Perfectly means that at each moment of the activity there is no egoism in it… our pain is not only our own pain; it is the pain of the universe. The joy of the universe is also our joy. Our failure and misjudgment is that of nature, which never hopes or despairs, but keeps on trying. R. H. Blyth ↗

— R.H. Blyth

#nature

Apesar de um sentimento comum, comum e banal no sentido natural e intrínseco à própria existência dos homens e mulheres, o amor é, igualmente, um sentimento complexo, a lucidez confunde-se com o desvario, o desejo enreda-se na ternura, as certezas nas inseguranças, a felicidade no medo da perda ↗

— Ana Souto de Matos

#nature

For four centuries now, the American people have resigned themselves to natural disasters and acts of God: floods, prairie fires, blizzards, tornados, hurricanes, dust bowls, epidemics, academics, lawyers, and politicians. ↗

— Markham Shaw Pyle

#american-history #politics #nature

Preciso mais do que um protetor com as asas sempre prontas a se estenderem sobre mim. Nunca estive tão segura e ao mesmo tempo nunca me senti tão insegura. Para que eu alcance o inatingível e possa provar aos meus sentidos que amar o sobrenatural é natural, Nate precisa amanhecer um lado para que o outro anoiteça. Eu preciso ver o homem que se eclipsa na sombra do anjo. ↗

— Lu Piras

#equinócio #romance #sobrenatural #nature

Worldliness proposes objectives which demand no radical breach with man's fallen nature; it judges the importance of things by the present and material results; it weighs success by numbers; it covets human esteem and wants no unpopularity; it knows no truth for which it is worth suffering; it declines to be a 'fool for Christ's sake. ↗

— Iain Murray

#theology #worldliness #nature

I believe that this suffering, which Miss Hale says is impressed on the countenances of the people of Milton, is but the natural punishment of dishonestly-enjoyed pleasure, at some former period of their lives. I do not look on self-indulgent, sensual people as worthy of my hatred; I simply look upon them with contempt for their poorness of character. ↗

— Elizabeth Gaskell

#nature

But if there are slaves by nature, it is only because there has been slavery against nature. Force made the first slaves; and their cowardice perpetuates their slavery. ↗

— Rousseau

#nature

Our insight into the need of redemption will largely depend upon our knowledge of the terrible nature of the power that has entered our being. ↗

— Andrew Murray

#sin #nature

Shakespeare, in some sense, helped create the modern man, didn't he, his influence is that pervasive. He held the mirror up to nature, but he also created that mirror: so the image he created is the very one we hold ourselves up to. ↗

— Jess Winfield

#modern-man #nature #pervasive-influence-of-the-bard #shakespeare #nature

For this is how things are: the diminution and leveling of European man constitutes our greatest danger, for the sight of him makes us weary.—We can see nothing today that wants to grow greater, we suspect that things will continue to go down, down, to become thinner, more good-natured, more prudent, more comfortable, more mediocre, more indifferent, more Chinese, more Christian—there is no doubt that man is getting 'better' all the time. ↗

— Friedrich Nietzsche

#nature