#reverence

We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. And this has been based on the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us. We have fulfilled the danger of this by making our personal pride and greed the standard of our behavior toward the world - to the incalculable disadvantage of the world and every living thing in it. And now, perhaps very close to too late, our great error has become clear. It is not only our own creativity - our own capacity for life - that is stifled by our arrogant assumption; the creation itself is stifled. We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and to learn what is good for it. We must learn to cooperate in its processes, and to yield to its limits. But even more important, we must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it. (pg. 20, "A Native Hill") ↗

— Wendell Berry

#creation #earth #humility #mystery #nature

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world. ↗

— John Milton

#awe #bestows #change #encounter #everyday

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness. ↗

— Aristotle

#because #brings #evil #fear #generality

Reverence reduces hostility. ↗

— Toba Beta

#hostility #respect #reverence #respect

The greatest gift that Oxford gives her sons is, I truly believe, a genial irreverence toward learning, and from that irreverence love may spring. ↗

— Robertson Davies

#genial #gift #gives #greatest #greatest gift

At the beginning, Lincoln was so inexperienced he had reverence for military expertise, not realizing that there wasn't any military expertise, that the most anybody had commanded up to that point had been somebody, some troops in the Mexican War, and it had been years ago. ↗

— David Herbert Donald

#any #anybody #been #beginning #commanded

Worship means reverence and humility it means revering your real self and humbling delusions. ↗

— Bodhidharma

#delusions #humbling #humility #means #real

A discipline I have observed is an attitude of love and reverence to people. ↗

— Bessie Head

#discipline #i #love #observed #people

Respect the masterpiece. It is true reverence to man. There is no quality so great, none so much needed now. ↗

— Frank Lloyd Wright

#man #masterpiece #much #needed #none

Curiosity and irreverence go together. Curiosity cannot exist without the other. Curiosity asks, "Is this true?" "Just because this has always been the way, is the best or right way of life, the best or right religion, political or economic value, morality?" To the questioner, nothing is sacred. He detests dogma, defies any finite definition of morality, rebels against any repression of a free, open search of ideas no matter where they may lead. He is challenging, insulting, agitating, discrediting. He stirs unrest. ↗

— Saul D. Alinsky

#dogma #irreverence #life