#stern

Joy is thankfulness, and when we are joyful, that is the best expression of thanks we can offer the Lord, Who delivers us from sorrow and sin. ↗

— Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

#eastern-orthodoxy #joy #joyfulness #spirituality #thankfulness

Freedom has become a commodity whose availability, paradoxically, keeps society in check. The threat of its loss seems to enable us to tolerate its imposition. ↗

— Andrzej Stasiuk

#western-culture #freedom

I knew then that Jocelyn would never come back to me, because of you. You are the only thing in the world she ever loved more than she loved me. And because of that she hates me. And because of that, I hate the sight of you ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#valentine-morgenstern #love

Ours is a shockingly dead view of creation. We ourselves are the only things in the universe to which we grant an authentic vitality, and because of this we are not fully alive. ↗

— Frederick Turner

#nature #western-philosophy #nature

Valentine!" "You mean father. I despise this modern habit of calling one's parents by their names." "What I want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name." - Clary Fray and Valentine Morgenstern (City of Ashes) ↗

— Cassandra Clare

#clary-fray #valentine-morgenstern #parenting

The Bible tells us to be like God, and then on page after page it describes God as a mass murderer. This may be the single most important key to the political behavior of Western Civilization. ↗

— Robert Anton Wilson

#behavior #bible #civilization #describes #god

The ufo is nothing more than an assertion of herself by the Goddess into history, saying to science and paternalistically governed and driven organizations: You have gone far enough. We are going to turn the world upside down. Your science is going to be shown up for what it is, nothing more than a pleasant metaphor usefully extrapolated into the production of toys for healthy children. That's what science is good for. It is not some meta-theory at whose feet every point of view from astrology to acupressure to channeling need be laid to have the hand of science announce thumbs up or thumbs down. ↗

— Terence McKenna

#rationalism #science #scientism #ufo #western-culture

(When asked what he thought of Western civilization): 'I think it would be a good idea. ↗

— Mahatma Gandhi

#eastern-civilization #eastern-philosophy #society #western-civilization #western-philosophy

Orthodoxy is marked by sobriety, not by emotional enthusiasm. It is also marked by a quite “ordinary” persistence in living the humble, consistent life of Christ, not by seeking out extraordinary experiences, especially supernatural ones. ↗

— Andrew Stephen Damick

#christianity #eastern-orthodox-church #orthodox-christianity #orthodoxy #experience

It is of great significance if there is a person who truly prays in a family. Prayer attracts God's Grace and all the members of the family feel it, even those whose hearts have grown cold. Pray always. ↗

— Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

#eastern-orthodoxy #family #god #god-s-grace #prayer