TERMS STARTING WITH
TERMS ANYWHERE
ACTION. ::: If a man is spiritual and has gone beyond the vital and mind, he does not need to be always “doing” something. The self or spirit has the joy of its own existence. It is free to do nothing and free to do everything - but not because it is bound to action and unable to exist without it.
To be able to work with full energy is necessary, but to be able not to work is also necessary.
Action in sādhanā ::: The feeling that all one does is from the Divine, that all action is the Mother’s is a necessary step in experience but one cannot remain in it ; one has to go further. Those can remain in it who do not want to change the nature, but only to have the experience of the Truth behind it. Your action is according to universal Nature and in that again it is according to your individual nature, and all Nature is a force put out by the Divine Mother for the action of the universe. But as things are it is an action of the Ignorance and the ego; while what we want is an action of the divine Truth unveiled and undeformed by the Ignorance and the ego.
The aim of the sadhana is to become a conscious and perfect instrument instead of one that is unconscious and therefore imperfect. One can be a conscious and perfect instrument only when one is no longer acting in obedience to the ignorant push of the lower nature but in surrender to the Mother and aware of her higher Force acting within oneself.
Action ::: If a man is spiritual and has gone beyond the vital and mind, he does not need to be always "doing" something. The self or spirit has the joy of its own existence. It is free to do nothing and free to do everything —but not because it is bound to action and unable to exist without it.
Ref: CWSA Vol.35, Page: 303
blo sbyong. (lojong). In Tibetan, "mind training"; a tradition of Tibetan Buddhist practice associated especially with the BKA' GDAMS sect and providing pithy instructions on the cultivation of compassion (KARUnA) and BODHICITTA. The trainings are based primarily on the technique for the equalizing and exchange of self and other, as set forth in the eighth chapter of sANTIDEVA's BODHICARYAVATARA, a poem in ten chapters on the BODHISATTVA path. The practice is to transform the conception of self (ATMAGRAHA), characterized as a self-cherishing attitude (T. rang gces 'dzin) into cherishing others (gzhan gces 'dzin), by contemplating the illusory nature of the self, the faults in self-cherishing, and the benefits that flow from cherishing others. The training seeks to transform difficulties into reasons to reaffirm a commitment to bodhicitta. Dharmaraksita's Blo sbyong mtshon cha'i 'khor lo (sometimes rendered as "Wheel of Sharp Weapons"), translated into Tibetan by ATIsA DĪPAMKARAsRĪJNANA and 'BROM STON, founders of the Bka' gdam sect, in the eleventh century; Glang ri thang pa's (Langri Thangpa) (1054-1123) BLO SBYONG TSHIG BRGYAD MA ("Eight Verses on Mind Training"); 'CHAD KA BA YE SHES RDO RJE's BLO SBYONG DON BDUN MA (Lojong dondünma) ("Seven Points of Mind Training"), and Hor ston Nam mkha'i dpal bzang's (1373-1447) Blo sbyong nyi ma'i 'od zer ("Mind Training like the Rays of the Sun") are four among a large number of widely studied and practiced blo sbyong texts. The Blo sbyong mtshon cha'i 'khor lo, for example, compares the bodhisattva to a hero who can withstand spears and arrows, and to a peacock that eats poison and becomes even more beautiful; it says difficulties faced in day-to-day life are reasons to strengthen resolve because they are like the spears and arrow of karmic results launched by earlier unsalutary actions. From this perspective, circumstances that are ordinarily upsetting or depressing are transformed into reasons for happiness, by thinking that negative KARMAN has been extinguished. The influence of tantric Buddhism is discernable in the training in blo sbyong texts like the Mtshon cha'i 'khor lo that exhorts practitioners to imagine themselves as the deity YAMANTAKA and mentally launch an attack on the conception of self, imagining it as a battle. The conception of self is taken as the primary reason for the earlier unsalutary actions that caused negative results, and for engaging in present unsalutary deeds that harm others and do nothing to advance the practitioner's own welfare.
Circulations of the Kosmos ::: Also Circulations of the Universe. This is a term used in the ancient wisdom or esoteric philosophy tosignify the network, marvelously intricate and builded of the channels or canals or paths or roadsfollowed by peregrinating or migrating entities as these latter pass from sphere to sphere or from realm torealm or from plane to plane. The pilgrim monads, however far advanced or however little advanced intheir evolution, inevitably and ineluctably follow these circulations. They can do nothing else, for theyare simply the spiritual, psychomagnetic, astral, and physical pathways along which the forces of theuniverse flow; and consequently, all entities whatsoever being indeed imbodiments of forces must ofnecessity follow the same routes or pathways that the abstract forces themselves use.These circulations of the kosmos are a veritable network between planet and planet, and planet and sun,and between sun and sun, and between sun and universe, and between universe and universe.Furthermore, the circulations of the kosmos are not restricted to the material or astral spheres, but are ofthe very fabric and structure of the entire universal kosmos, inner as well as outer. It is one of the mostmystical and suggestive doctrines of theosophy.
Cleaning the vital ::: If you get peace, then to clean the vital becomes easy. If you simply clean and clean and do nothing else, you go very slowly — for the vital gels dirty again and has to he cleaned a hundred times. The peace is something that is clean in itself, so to get It is a positive way of securing your object. To look for dirt only anil clean is the negative way.
Psychic emergence ::: When the psychic being comes in front, there is an automatic perception of the true and untrue, the divine and the undivine, the spiritual right and wrong of things, and the false vital and mental movements and attacks are imme- diately exposed and fall away and can do nothing ; gradually the vital and physical as well as flte mind get full of this psychic licht and truth and sound feeling and purit>'.
The Mahabharata, India: “This is the sum of all true righteousness — treat others as thou wouldst thyself be treated. Do nothing to thy neighbor which hereafter thou wouldst not have thy neighbor do to thee.”
The Mother: "To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that without the Divine they know nothing, are noting and can do nothing; with the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
Therefore, any jiva or monad of necessity imbodies itself in vehicles or sheaths flowing forth from its own essence or vitality — for it can do nothing else. Such a sheath, vehicle, or body is the svarupa of the indwelling svabhava — character or individuality — of the jiva or monad.
vegetate ::: v. i. --> To grow, as plants, by nutriment imbibed by means of roots and leaves; to start into growth; to sprout; to germinate.
Fig.: To lead a live too low for an animate creature; to do nothing but eat and grow.
To grow exuberantly; to produce fleshy or warty outgrowths; as, a vegetating papule.
virus "security" (By analogy with biological viruses, via science fiction) A program or piece of code, a type of {malware}, written by a {cracker}, that "infects" one or more other programs by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan horses}. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the "infection". This normally happens invisibly to the user. A virus has an "engine" - code that enables it to propagate and optionally a "payload" - what it does apart from propagating. It needs a "host" - the particular hardware and software environment on which it can run and a "trigger" - the event that starts it running. Unlike a {worm}, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see {SEX}). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing "cute" messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include {display hacks}). Viruses written by particularly antisocial {crackers} may do irreversible damage, like deleting files. By the 1990s, viruses had become a serious problem, especially among {IBM PC} and {Macintosh} users (the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system). The production of special {antivirus software} has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users. Many {lusers} tend to blame *everything* that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of "virus" has passed into popular usage where it is often incorrectly used for other types of {malware} such as {worms} or {Trojan horses}. See {boot virus}, {phage}. Compare {back door}. See also {Unix conspiracy}. [{Jargon File}] (2003-06-20)
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13 The Mother
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1 SWAMI VIRAJANANDA
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1 Saint Gregory of Nazianzus
1 Saint Ephrem of Syria
1 Regina Brett
1 P D Ouspensky
1 Oscar Wilde
1 Miriam
1 Forsha (31)
1 Dhammapada 280
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1 Adi Shankara
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1:When you can do nothing,
what can you do? ~ Zen proverb,#KEYS
2:When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing. ~ Adi Shankara, #KEYS
3:The Way is in training... Do nothing which is not of value. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
4:Heaven and earth do nothing. Yet there is nothing they do not do. ~ Chuang Tzu, #KEYS
5:Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. ~ Amos 3:7 KJV, #KEYS
6:To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual. ~ Oscar Wilde, #KEYS
7:Unless we believed what we were told, we would do nothing at all in this life. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #KEYS
8:I have realized why corrupt politicians do nothing to improve the quality of public school education. They are terrified of educated voters. ~ Miriam, #KEYS
9:It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides. ~ Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, [T5], #KEYS
10:The sun can do nothing when the clouds shut out its rays. Similarly, so long as egotism is in the heart, God cannot shine upon it. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
11:To express our gratitude to Sri Aurobindo we can do nothing better than to be a living demonstration of his teaching.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T3],#KEYS
12:Summer is the annual permission slip to be lazy. To do nothing and have it count for something. To lie in the grass and count the stars. To sit on a branch and study the clouds." ~ Regina Brett, #KEYS
13:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #KEYS
14:Follow not a law of perdition, shut not yourselves up in negligence, follow not a law of falsehood; do nothing for the sake of the world. ~ Dhammapada, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
15:Do nothing at all without the beginning of prayer. Seal all your doings, my child, with the sign of the living cross. Do not go out the door of your house till you have signed the cross. ~ Saint Ephrem of Syria, #KEYS
16:The sense of one's personal will is lost. That is enlightenment. Enlightenment means there is no "me" with a sense of personal doership. "I" can do nothing. Everything that happens is God's will. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
17:Create your vision, then systematically follow it. There are no guarantees of success. There is only the assurance that if you do nothing, you will accomplish nothing. . . . Where do you want to start?
~ Forsha (31),#KEYS
18:Be very sincere and straightforward, harbour nothing within yourself which you cannot show me without fear, do nothing which you would be ashamed of before me.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T3],#KEYS
19:I" can do nothing. Everything that happens is God's will. One hundred percent acceptance of that which is surrender to God's will is enlightenment. That does not lead to enlightenment, that is itself enlightenment. ~ Ramesh Balsekar, #KEYS
20:Things will come to a head, but when man's hand can do nothing and everything seems to be lost, God Himself will intervene and rearrange the world in the blink of an eye, like from morning to night." ~ Ven. Bernardo Maria Clausi (1787-1849), #KEYS
21:The greatest Guru is your inner self. But you must have the strong desire to find him and do nothing that will create obstacles and delays. And do not waste energy and time on regrets. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
22:Live always as if you were under the very eye of the supreme and the Divine Mother. Do nothing, try to think and feel nothing that would be unworthy of the Divine Presence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Himself And The Ashram, 852,#KEYS
23:The man who is sincere and careful to do nothing to others that he would not have done to him, is not far from the Law. What he does not desire to be done to him, let him not himself do to others. ~ Confucius, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
24:Self-Observation is an act of watching everything that goes on, both within yourself, and outside. You do nothing but watch, just as if it were happening to someone else. You do not personalize. You do not react or form an opinion about anything you observe. ~ Vernon Howard, #KEYS
25:Whining or self-pity is of no use at all. "I am too wretched, worthless, vile & weak; I cannot do anything by myself." These are the words of the namby-pamby, the do-nothing imbeciles. Can anything be done by such people? Strive hard, be wide awake & push on. ~ SWAMI VIRAJANANDA, #KEYS
26:He who shows not zeal where zeal should be shown, who young and strong gives himself up to indolence, who lets his will and intelligence sleep, that do-nothing, that coward shall not find the way of the perfect knowledge. ~ Dhammapada 280, the Eternal Wisdom #KEYS
27:In order to be always near me really and effectively you must become more and more sincere, open and frank towards me. Cast away all dissimulation and decide to do nothing that you could not tell me immediately. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, To Be Near Me [T3], #KEYS
28:The Vedantins say that the Atman is completely unattached. Sin or virtue, pain or pleasure, cannot affect it; but they can inflict sufferings on those who have attachment to the body. The smoke can soil the walls, but can do nothing to the sky. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #KEYS
29:There is nothing to do. Just be. Do nothing. Be. No climbing mountains and sitting in caves. I do not even say: 'be yourself', since you do not know yourself. Just be. Having seen that you are neither the 'outer' world of perceivables, not the 'inner' world of thinkables, that you are neither body nor mind, just be. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #KEYS
30:To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that without the Divine they know nothing, are nothing and can do nothing; without the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Purity and Humility, 152,#KEYS
31:1. Do not think dishonestly. 2. The Way is in training. 3. Become acquainted with every art. 4. Know the Ways of all professions. 5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. 6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. 7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. 8. Pay attention even to trifles. 9. Do nothing which is of no use. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #KEYS
32:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees ... The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love.... Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes. ~ Paracelsus, #KEYS
33:It is an invaluable possession for every living being to have learnt to know himself and to master himself. To know oneself means to know the motives of one's actions and reactions, the why and the how of all that happens in oneself. To master oneself means to do what one has decided to do, to do nothing but that, not to listen to or follow impulses, desires or fancies. ~ The Mother, On Education, Teachers [T3], #KEYS
34:True humility is humility before the Divine, that is, a precise, exact, living sense that one is nothing, one can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine, that even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the divine Consciousness, and this sense one must always keep, because then one always has the true attitude of receptivity - a humble receptivity that does not put personal pretensions in opposition to the Divine. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, #KEYS
35:If a man but once tastes the joy of God, his desire to argue takes wing. The bee, realizing the joy of sipping honey, doesn't buzz about any more. What will vou achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do nothing else.
What will you gain by merely repeating 'siddhi'? You will not be intoxicated even by gargling with a solution of siddhi. It must go into your stomach; not until then will you be intoxicated. One cannot comprehend what I am saying unless one prays to God in solitude, all by oneself, with a longing heart. ~ Sri Ramakrishna?,#KEYS
36:I am not a philosopher, I am not a scholar, I am not a savant, and I declare it very loudly: neither a philosopher nor a scholar nor a savant. And no pretension. Nor a littérateur, nor an artist - I am nothing at all. I am truly convinced of this. And it's absolutely unimportant - that's perfection for human beings. There is no greater joy than to know that you can do nothing and are absolutely helpless, that you're not the one who does, and that what little is done - little or big, it doesn't matter - is done by the Lord; and the responsibility is fully His. That makes you happy. With that, you are happy. Voilà.
~ The Mother, Agenda Vol 5, Satprem,#KEYS
37:It is to bring back all the scattered threads of consciousness to a single point, a single idea. Those who can attain a perfect attention succeed in everything they undertake; they will always make rapid progress. And this kind of concentration can be developed exactly like the muscles; one may follow different systems, different methods of training. Today we know that the most pitiful weakling, for example, can with discipline become as strong as anyone else. One should not have a will that flickers out like a candle. The will, the concentration must be cultivated; it is a question of method, of regular exercise. If you will, you can. But the thought Whats the use? must not come in to weaken the will. The idea that one is born with a certain character and can do nothing about it is a stupidity.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1950-1951,#KEYS
38:The power to do nothing, which is quite different from indolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to inaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest absolutely from action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the power to cease absolutely from thought, as the power to remain indefinitely in sheer solitude and silence and as the power of immovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these states is not yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge; whoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its acquisition.
...
Still, periods of absolute calm, solitude and cessation from works are highly desirable and should be secured as often as possible for that recession of the soul into itself which is indispensable to knowledge.
~ Sri Aurobindo, The Synthesis Of Yoga, The Freedom from Subjection to the Being,#KEYS
39:Here is something you must bear in mind. Every effort a man makes increases the demands made upon him. So long as a man has not made any serious efforts the demands made upon him are very small, but his efforts immediately increase the demands made upon him. And the greater the efforts that are made, the greater the new demands.
"At this stage people very often make a mistake that is constantly made. They think that the efforts they have previously made, their former merits, so to speak, give them some kind of rights or advantages, diminish the demands to be made upon them, and constitute as it were an excuse should they not work or should they afterwards do something wrong. This, of course, is most profoundly false. Nothing that a man did yesterday excuses him today. Quite the reverse, if a man did nothing yesterday, no demands are made upon him today; if he did anything yesterday, it means that he must do more today. This certainly does not mean that it is better to do nothing. Whoever does nothing receives nothing. ~ P D Ouspensky,#KEYS
40:Many Blows are Needed:
Mother, even when one tries to think that one is powerless, there is something which believes one is powerful. So?
Ah, yes, ah yes! Ah, it is very difficult to be sincere.... That is why blows multiply and sometimes become terrible, because that's the only thing which breaks your stupidity. This is the justification of calamities. Only when you are in an acutely painful situation and indeed before something that affects you deeply, then that makes the stupidity melt away a little. But as you say, even when there is something that melts, there is still a little something which remains inside. And that is why it lasts so long... How many blows are needed in life for one to know to the very depths that one is nothing, that one can do nothing, that one does not exist, that one is nothing, that there is no entity without the divine Consciousness and the Grace. From the moment one knows it, it is over; all difficulties have gone. When one knows it integrally and there is nothing which resists... but till that moment... And it takes very long.
Why doesn't the blow come all at once?
Because that would kill you. For if the blow is strong enough to cure you, it would simply crush you, it would reduce you to pulp. It is only by proceeding little by little, little by little, very gradually, that you can continue to exist. Naturally this depends on the inner strength, the inner sincerity, and on the capacity for progress, for profiting by experience and, as I said a while ago, on not forgetting. If one is lucky enough not to forget, then one goes much faster. One can go very fast. And if at the same time one has that inner moral strength which, when the red-hot iron is at hand, does not extinguish it by trying to pour water over it, but instead goes to the very core of the abscess, then in this case things go very fast also. But not many people are strong enough for this. On the contrary, they very quickly do this (gesture), like this, like this, in order to hide, to hide from themselves. How many pretty little explanations one gives oneself, how many excuses one piles up for all the foolishnesses one has committed.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1954,#KEYS
41:Fundamentally, whatever be the path one follows - whe- ther the path of surrender, consecration, knowledge-if one wants it to be perfect, it is always equally difficult, and there is but one way, one only, I know of only one: that is perfect sincerity, but perfect sincerity!
Do you know what perfect sincerity is?...
Never to try to deceive oneself, never let any part of the being try to find out a way of convincing the others, never to explain favourably what one does in order to have an excuse for what one wants to do, never to close one's eyes when something is unpleasant, never to let anything pass, telling oneself, "That is not important, next time it will be better."
Oh! It is very difficult. Just try for one hour and you will see how very difficult it is. Only one hour, to be totally, absolutely sincere. To let nothing pass. That is, all one does, all one feels, all one thinks, all one wants, is exclusively the Divine.
"I want nothing but the Divine, I think of nothing but the Divine, I do nothing but what will lead me to the Divine, I love nothing but the Divine."
Try - try, just to see, try for half an hour, you will see how difficult it is! And during that time take great care that there isn't a part of the vital or a part of the mind or a part of the physical being nicely hidden there, at the back, so that you don't see it (Mother hides her hands behind her back) and don't notice that it is not collaborating - sitting quietly there so that you don't unearth it... it says nothing, but it does not change, it hides itself. How many such parts! How many parts hide themselves! You put them in your pocket because you don't want to see them or else they get behind your back and sit there well-hidden, right in the middle of your back, so as not to be seen. When you go there with your torch - your torch of sincerity - you ferret out all the corners, everywhere, all the small corners which do not consent, the things which say "No" or those which do not move: "I am not going to budge. I am glued to this place of mine and nothing will make me move."... You have a torch there with you, and you flash it upon the thing, upon everything. You will see there are many of them there, behind your back, well stuck.
Try, just for an hour, try!
No more questions?
Nobody has anything to say? Then, au revoir, my children! ~ The Mother, Question and Answers, Volume-6, page no.132-133),#KEYS
42:Mother, suffering comes from ignorance and pain, but what is the nature of the suffering and pain the Divine Mother feels for her children-the Divine Mother in Savitri?
It is because she participates in their nature. She has descended upon earth to participate in their nature. Because if she did not participate in their nature, she could not lead them farther. If she remained in her supreme consciousness where there is no suffering, in her supreme knowledge and consciousness, she could not have any contact with human beings. And it is for this that she is obliged to take on the human consciousness and form, it is to be able to enter into contact with them. Only, she does not forget: she has adopted their consciousness but she remains in relation with her own real, supreme consciousness. And thus, by joining the two, she can make those who are in that other consciousness progress. But if she did not adopt their consciousness, if she did not suffer with their sorrow, she could not help them. Hers is not a suffering of ignorance: it is a suffering through identity. It is because she has accepted to have the same vibrations as they, in order to be able to enter into contact with them and pull them out of the state they are in. If she did not enter into contact with them, she would not be felt at all or no one could bear her radiance.... This has been said in all kinds of forms, in all kinds of religions, and they have spoken very often of the divine Sacrifice, but from a certain point of view it is true. It is a voluntary sacrifice, but it is true: giving up a state of perfect consciousness, perfect bliss, perfect power in order to accept the state of ignorance of the outer world so as to pull it out of that ignorance. If this state were not accepted, there would be no contact with it. No relation would be possible. And this is the reason of the incarnations. Otherwise, there would be no necessity. If the divine consciousness and divine force could work directly from the place or state of their perfection, if they could work directly on matter and transform it, there would be no need to take a body like man's. It would have been enough to act from the world of Truth with the perfect consciousness and upon consciousness. In fact that acts perhaps but so slowly that when there is this effort to make the world progress, make it go forward more rapidly, well, it is necessary to take on human nature. By taking the human body, one is obliged to take on human nature, partially. Only, instead of losing one's consciousness and losing contact with the Truth, one keeps this consciousness and this Truth, and it is by joining the two that one can create exactly this kind of alchemy of transformation. But if one did not touch matter, one could do nothing for it. ~ The Mother, Question And Answers,#KEYS
43:Allow the Lord to Do Everything :::
Now, when I start looking like this (Mother closes her eyes), two things are there at the same time: this smile, this joy, this laughter are there, and such peace! Such full, luminous, total peace, in which there are no more conflicts, no more contradictions. There are no more conflicts. It is one single luminous harmony - and yet everything we call error, suffering, misery, everything is there. It eliminates nothing. It is another way of seeing.
(long silence)
There can be no doubt that if you sincerely want to get out of it, it is not so difficult after all: you have nothing to do, you only have to allow the Lord to do everything. And He does everything. He does everything. It is so wonderful, so wonderful!
He takes anything, even what we call a very ordinary intelligence and he simply teaches you to put this intelligence aside, to rest: "There, be quiet, don't stir, don't bother me, I don't need you." Then a door opens - you don't even feel that you have to open it; it is wide open, you are tkane over to the other side. All that is done by Someone else, not you. And then the other way becomes impossible.
All this... oh, this tremendous labour of hte mind striving to understand, toiling and giving itself headaches!... It is absolutely useless, absolutely useless, no use at all, it merely increases the confusion.
You are faced with a so-called problem: what should you say, what should you do, how should you act? There is nothing to do, nothing, you only have to say to the Lord, "There, You see, it is like that" - that's all. And then you stay very quiet. And then quite spontaneously, without thinking about it, without reflection, without calculation, nothing, nothing, without the slightest effect - you do what has to be done. That is to say, the Lord does it, it is no longer you. He does it. He arranges the circumstances, He arranges the people, He puts the words into your mouth or your pen - He does everything, everything, everything, everything; you have nothing more to do but allow yourself to live blissfully.
I am more and more convinced that people do not really want it.
But clearing the ground is difficult, the work of clearing the ground before hand.
But you don't even need to do it! He does it for you.
But they are constantly breaking in: the old consciousness, the old thoughts....
Yes, they try to come in again, by habit. You only have to say, "Lord, You see, You see, You see, it is like that" - that's all. "Lord, You see, You see this, You see that, You see this fool" - and it is all over immediately. And it changes automatically, my child, without the slightest effort. Simply to be sincere, that is to say, to truly want everything to be right. You are perfectly conscious that you can do nothing about it, that you have no capacity.... But there is always something that wants to do it by itself; that's the trouble, otherwise...
No, you may be full of an excellent goodwill and then you want to do it. That's what complicated everything. Or else you don't have faith, you believe that the Lord will not be able to do it and that you must do it yourself, because He does not know! (Mother laughs.) This, this kind of stupidity is very common. "How can He see things? We live in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood and see..." But He sees the thing as it is! Exactly!
I am not speaking of people of no intelligence, I am speaking of people who are intelligent and try - there is a kind of conviction, like that, somewhere, even in people who know that we live in a world of Ignorance and Falsehood and that there is a Lord who is All-Truth. They say, "Precisely because He is All-Truth, He does not understand. (Mother laughs.) He does not understand our falsehood, I must deal with it myself." That is very strong, very common.
Ah! we make complications for nothing. ~ The Mother,#KEYS
44:The Two Paths Of Yoga :::
14 April 1929 - What are the dangers of Yoga? Is it especially dangerous to the people of the West? Someone has said that Yoga may be suitable for the East, but it has the effect of unbalancing the Western mind.
Yoga is not more dangerous to the people of the West than to those of the East. Everything depends upon the spirit with which you approach it. Yoga does become dangerous if you want it for your own sake, to serve a personal end. It is not dangerous, on the contrary, it is safety and security itself, if you go to it with a sense of its sacredness, always remembering that the aim is to find the Divine.
Dangers and difficulties come in when people take up Yoga not for the sake of the Divine, but because they want to acquire power and under the guise of Yoga seek to satisfy some ambition. if you cannot get rid of ambition, do not touch the thing. It is fire that burns.
There are two paths of Yoga, one of tapasya (discipline), and the other of surrender. The path of tapasya is arduous. Here you rely solely upon yourself, you proceed by your own strength. You ascend and achieve according to the measure of your force. There is always the danger of falling down. And once you fall, you lie broken in the abyss and there is hardly a remedy. The other path, the path of surrender, is safe and sure. It is here, however, that the Western people find their difficulty. They have been taught to fear and avoid all that threatens their personal independence. They have imbibed with their mothers' milk the sense of individuality. And surrender means giving up all that. In other words, you may follow, as Ramakrishna says, either the path of the baby monkey or that of the baby cat. The baby monkey holds to its mother in order to be carried about and it must hold firm, otherwise if it loses its grip, it falls. On the other hand, the baby cat does not hold to its mother, but is held by the mother and has no fear nor responsibility; it has nothing to do but to let the mother hold it and cry ma ma.
If you take up this path of surrender fully and sincerely, there is no more danger or serious difficulty. The question is to be sincere. If you are not sincere, do not begin Yoga. If you were dealing in human affairs, then you could resort to deception; but in dealing with the Divine there is no possibility of deception anywhere. You can go on the Path safely when you are candid and open to the core and when your only end is to realise and attain the Divine and to be moved by the Divine. There is another danger; it is in connection with the sex impulses. Yoga in its process of purification will lay bare and throw up all hidden impulses and desires in you. And you must learn not to hide things nor leave them aside, you have to face them and conquer and remould them. The first effect of Yoga, however, is to take away the mental control, and the hungers that lie dormant are suddenly set free, they rush up and invade the being. So long as this mental control has not been replaced by the Divine control, there is a period of transition when your sincerity and surrender will be put to the test. The strength of such impulses as those of sex lies usually in the fact that people take too much notice of them; they protest too vehemently and endeavour to control them by coercion, hold them within and sit upon them. But the more you think of a thing and say, "I don't want it, I don't want it", the more you are bound to it. What you should do is to keep the thing away from you, to dissociate from it, take as little notice of it as possible and, even if you happen to think of it, remain indifferent and unconcerned. The impulses and desires that come up by the pressure of Yoga should be faced in a spirit of detachment and serenity, as something foreign to yourself or belonging to the outside world. They should be offered to the Divine, so that the Divine may take them up and transmute them. If you have once opened yourself to the Divine, if the power of the Divine has once come down into you and yet you try to keep to the old forces, you prepare troubles and difficulties and dangers for yourself. You must be vigilant and see that you do not use the Divine as a cloak for the satisfaction of your desires. There are many self-appointed Masters, who do nothing but that. And then when you are off the straight path and when you have a little knowledge and not much power, it happens that you are seized by beings or entities of a certain type, you become blind instruments in their hands and are devoured by them in the end. Wherever there is pretence, there is danger; you cannot deceive God. Do you come to God saying, "I want union with you" and in your heart meaning "I want powers and enjoyments"? Beware! You are heading straight towards the brink of the precipice. And yet it is so easy to avoid all catastrophe. Become like a child, give yourself up to the Mother, let her carry you, and there is no more danger for you.
This does not mean that you have not to face other kinds of difficulties or that you have not to fight and conquer any obstacles at all. Surrender does not ensure a smooth and unruffled and continuous progression. The reason is that your being is not yet one, nor your surrender absolute and complete. Only a part of you surrenders; and today it is one part and the next day it is another. The whole purpose of the Yoga is to gather all the divergent parts together and forge them into an undivided unity. Till then you cannot hope to be without difficulties - difficulties, for example, like doubt or depression or hesitation. The whole world is full of the poison. You take it in with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or even if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from him. It is sufficient for you to come near a place where there is plague in order to be infected with its poison; you need not know at all that it is there. You can lose in a few minutes what it has taken you months to gain. So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary life, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if you want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your company and your environment.
~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1929-1931,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Without dance, a man can do nothing. ~ moliere, @wisdomtrove 2:It is better to play than do nothing. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 3:Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 4:Evil succeeds when good men do nothing ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 5:Do nothing without regard to the consequences. ~ aesop, @wisdomtrove 6:To do nothing is in everyone's power. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 7:Leisure is being allowed to do nothing. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 8:To do nothing is the way to be nothing. ~ nathaniel-hawthorne, @wisdomtrove 9:When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing. ~ adi-shankara, @wisdomtrove 10:The trick is, when there is nothing to do, do nothing. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 11:Leadership is a choice. It's the choice not to do nothing. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 12:People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. ~ a-a-milne, @wisdomtrove 13:To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 14:To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 15:Sometimes the riskiest decision you can make is to do nothing. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 16:Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 17:I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me. ~ william-blake, @wisdomtrove 18:When there's nothing to do, you do nothing slowly and intently. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 19:The greatest sin is to do nothing because you can only do a little. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 20:Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove 21:Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all. ~ sophocles, @wisdomtrove 22:We live in an age of & 23:To want nothing and do nothing - that is true creation! ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 24:My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 25:The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 26:All the forces of darkness need to succeed ... is for the people to do nothing. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 27:Do nothing, only keep agitating, debating; and things will destroy themselves. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 28:Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 29:If a soldier or labourer complain of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing. ~ blaise-pascal, @wisdomtrove 30:The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little. ~ zig-ziglar, @wisdomtrove 31:For He (God) seems to do nothing of himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 32:I can do nothing for you but work on myself... you can do nothing for me but work on yourself! ~ ram-das, @wisdomtrove 33:A little old lady sitting at the front of the bus can do nothing to change civil rights. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 34:Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the gods can do nothing against that man. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 35:A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 36:We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 37:Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 38:It's hard to do nothing because you tend to do something and then you have to drop everything. ~ jerry-seinfeld, @wisdomtrove 39:Making no decision is a decision. To do nothing. And doing nothing always brings you to nowhere. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 40:Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 41:I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove 42:People who talk well but do nothing are like musical intruments; the sound is all they have to offer. ~ diogenes, @wisdomtrove 43:The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 44:My star was fading, I felt the reins slipping out of my grasp, and could do nothing to stop it. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 45:The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do or who do nothing. ~ samuel-johnson, @wisdomtrove 46:Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 47:I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 48:We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 49:People with dark souls have nothing but dark dreams. People with really dark souls do nothing but dream. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 50:You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 51:Deep continuous investment over time brings real, sustaining change. Cramming or quick fix solutions do nothing. ~ stephen-r-covey, @wisdomtrove 52:even God could do nothing for someone already full. You have to be completely empty to let Him in to do what He will. ~ mother-teresa, @wisdomtrove 53:It is to our advantage to have securities do nothing price-wise for months, or perhaps years, while we are buying them. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 54:The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 55:I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, and accrue what I hear into myself…and let sound contribute toward me. ~ walt-whitman, @wisdomtrove 56:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ saint-augustine, @wisdomtrove 57:Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 58:Creative energy is the essence of all healing... We physicians do nothing, we only help and encourage the physician within. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 59:A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done. ~ fred-allen, @wisdomtrove 60:It's supposed to be a secret, but I'll tell you anyway. We doctors do nothing. We only help. And encourage the doctor within. ~ albert-schweitzer, @wisdomtrove 61:I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. ~ ronald-reagan, @wisdomtrove 62:Either you set your goals and, in doing so, have your life governed by choice or you do nothing and have your life governed by chance. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 63:I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. ~ stephen-hawking, @wisdomtrove 64:The one thing you can do is to do nothing. Wait . . . You will find that you survive humiliation and hat's an experience of incalculable value. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 65:If you would escape moral and physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing—court obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie. ~ elbert-hubbard, @wisdomtrove 66:The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 67:If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 68:As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 69:During one of these sacred time blocks, do nothing but the activity that's right in front of you. Don't check email or online forums or do web surfing. ~ steve-pavlina, @wisdomtrove 70:If you're extremely rich, and you have got children, my theory was, you give them enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 71:There are only two realities in life: death and laughter. We can do nothing to change the former, so we might as well do all we can to save the latter. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 72:Never blame a legislative body for not doing something. When they do nothing, that don't hurt anybody. When they do something is when they become dangerous. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 73:Humanity is in the highest degree irrational, so that there is no prospect of influencing it by reasonable arguments. Against prejudice one can do nothing. ~ sigmund-freud, @wisdomtrove 74:The plain rule is to do nothing in the dark, to be a party to nothing underhanded or mysterious, and never to put his foot where he cannot see the ground. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 75:The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for. ~ dan-millman, @wisdomtrove 76:Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, & 77:God is all that is great and wonderful; I am nothing, have nothing, can do nothing. Yet all comes out of me - the source is me; the root, the origin is me. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 78:You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 79:Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 80:It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 81:Setting an example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing. ~ william-faulkner, @wisdomtrove 82:Do nothing to mar its grandeur ... keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 83:Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove 84:As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil. ~ alan-watts, @wisdomtrove 85:Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 86:When you do nothing, you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. ~ maya-angelou, @wisdomtrove 87:I can tell you from experience that God's help and presence in our lives is vital. He is the Author of all true success and everything that is good-without Him, we can do nothing of true value. ~ joyce-meyer, @wisdomtrove 88:So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist. ~ t-s-eliot, @wisdomtrove 89:God scorns and mocks the devil, in setting under his very nose a poor, weak, human creature, mere dust and ashes, yet endowed with the firstfruits of the Spirit, against whom the devil can do nothing. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 90:You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority. ~ eleanor-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 91:With younger children the greatest reward is to be able to pass on to a new stage in each subject. It is a punishment to a young child not to be allowed to use the apparatus but to sit still and do nothing. ~ maria-montessori, @wisdomtrove 92:What is past is past. You can do nothing about yesterday and last month and the failures of last year, but you can do everything toward making tomorrow and the rest of your life what you always dreamed it could be. ~ og-mandino, @wisdomtrove 93:I do not believe in inheriting your position in society based on which womb you come from... I think a rich person should leave his children enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing. ~ warren-buffet, @wisdomtrove 94:It's easy to be afraid of taking a plunge, because, after all, plunging is dangerous. And the fear is a safe way to do nothing at all. Wading, on the other hand, gets under the radar. It gives you a chance to begin. ~ seth-godin, @wisdomtrove 95:One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way. ~ bruce-lee, @wisdomtrove 96:Q: My thoughts will not let me. M: Pay no attention. Don't fight them. Just do nothing about them, let them be, whatever they are. Your very fighting them gives them life. Just disregard. Look through. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 97:Too often we get distracted by what is outside of our control. You can't do anything about yesterday. The door to the past has been shut and the key thrown away. You can do nothing about tomorrow. It is yet to come. ~ john-wooden, @wisdomtrove 98:The mind of a little child is fascinating, for it looks on old things with new eyes-but at about twelve this changes. The adolescent offers nothing, can do nothing, say nothing that the adult cannot do better. ~ f-scott-fitzgerald, @wisdomtrove 99:Protect your enthusiasm from the negativity and fear of others. Never decide to do nothing just because you can only do little. Do what you can. You would be surprised at what "little" acts have done for our world. ~ steve-maraboli, @wisdomtrove 100:All the passages in the Holy Scriptures that mention assistance are they that do away with "free-will", and these are countless... For grace is needed, and the help of grace is given, because "free-will" can do nothing. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 101:Being nothing, I am all. Everything is me, everything is mine. Just as my body moves by my mere thinking of the movement, so do things happen as I think of them. Mind you, I do nothing. I just see them happen. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 102:Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 103:Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce no improvement, no development, it is done ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 104:The spiritual rest, which God particularly intends in this Commandment, is this: that we not only cease from our labor and trade, but much more, that we let God alone work in us and that we do nothing of our own with all our powers. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 105:As an adventurer... I try to protect against the downside. I make sure I have covered as many eventualities as I can. In the end, you have to take calculated risks; otherwise you're going to sit in mothballs all day and do nothing. ~ richard-branson, @wisdomtrove 106:For who in fact seeks the salvation of souls through indulgences, and not instead money for his coffers? This is evident from the way indulgences are preached . For the commissioners and preachers do nothing but extol indulgences and incite. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 107:All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing as they must if they believe they can do nothing. There is nothing worse because the council of despair is declaration of irresponsibility; it is Pilate washing his hands. ~ edmund-burke, @wisdomtrove 108:Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of & 109:The name of the new religion, said Rumfoord, is The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent. . . The two chief teachings of this religion are these: Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 110:When I am convinced of any principle, it is only an idea which strikes more strongly upon me. When I give the preference to one set of arguments above another, I do nothing but decide from my feeling concerning the superiority of their influence. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 111:To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values, there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally, and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 112:Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless. As an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 113:Aegistheus, the kings have another secret... . Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men and to them alone to let him flee or to destroy him. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 114:You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist. ~ isaac-asimov, @wisdomtrove 115:When you sit quiet and watch yourself, all kinds of things may come to the surface. Do nothing about them, don't react to them; as they have come so will they go, by themselves. All that matters is mindfulness, total awareness of oneself or rather, of one's mind. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 116:Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern. ~ henri-nouwen, @wisdomtrove 117:It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer Neither is resignation Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 118:Photography at first was asked to do nothing but embalm our best smiles for the benefit of our friends and our best clothes for the amusement of posterity. Neither thing lasts, and photography came as a welcome salve to keep those precious, if slightly ridiculous, things a little longer in the world. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 119:Therefore, I see whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as it is, everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me. ~ hermann-hesse, @wisdomtrove 120:One of the biggest lessons I've learned recently is that when you don't know what to do, you should do nothing until you figure out what to do because a lot of times you feel like you are pressed against the wall, and you've got to make a decision. You never have to do anything. Don't know what to do? Do nothing. ~ oprah-winfrey, @wisdomtrove 121:The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 122:It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. ~ mahatma-gandhi, @wisdomtrove 123:This is very important - to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you're gonna lose everything... just to do nothing at all, very, very important. And how many people do this in modern society? Very few. That's why they're all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful. ~ charles-bukowski, @wisdomtrove 124:There is nothing to do. Just be. Do nothing. Be. No climbing mountains and sitting in caves. I don ot even say: & 125:Most Americans are born drunk, and really require a little wine or beer to sober them. They have a sort of permanent intoxication from within, a sort of invisible champagne. Americans do not need to drink to inspire them to do anything, though they do sometimes, I think, need a little for the deeper and more delicate purpose of teaching them how to do nothing. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 126:So if we are content now, and we abandon goals, does that mean we do nothing? Sit around or sleep all day? Not at all. I certainly don’t do that. We should do what makes us happy, follow our passions, do things that make us excited. For me and many people, that’s creating, building new things, expressing ourselves, making something useful or new or beautiful or inspiring. ~ leo-babauta, @wisdomtrove 127:God is the life behind your life, the sight behind your eyes, the taste behind your tongue, and the love behind your love. To realize this to the fullest extent is Self-realization. Without God's power you can do nothing. If you always hold this thought, you cannot go wrong, because you will have purified the temple of your mind and your soul with the vibrations of God. ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 128:Suppose you stand on a high place to enjoy the beauty of the sparkling sea below. You need do nothing to create that beauty; you need only BE IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE IT IS, and let nature do the rest. So it is with the inner life. There is nothing we can DO to gain psychic beauty. It already exists without our effort. We need only be where we belong, that is, in self-union. Then, beauty IS. ~ vernon-howard, @wisdomtrove 129:Can any do otherwise than assent to words said to them by way of correction? Only let them reform by such advice, and it will then be reckoned valuable. Can any be other than pleased with words of gentle suasion? Only let them comply with them fully, and such also will be accounted valuable. With those who are pleased without so complying, and those who assent but do not reform, I can do nothing at all. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 130:What I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, & 131:Money is a sort of instinct. It's a sort of property of nature in a person to make money. It's nothing you do. It's no trick you play. It's a sort of permanent accident of your own nature; once you start, you make money, and you go on. . . But you've got to begin. . . You've got to get in. You can do nothing if you are kept outside. You've got to beat your way in. Once you've done that, you can't help it! ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 132:I think you may judge of a man's character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it he is ambitious and self-seeking; but when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he is not seeking himself, but that pure benevolence sways his heart. ~ charles-spurgeon, @wisdomtrove 133:God-realization is the most difficult state to reach. Let no one fool himself, nor think that someone else can "give" it to him. Whenever I fell into a state of mental stagnation, my Master could do nothing for me. But I never gave up trying to keep in tune with him by cheerfully performing whatever he asked me to do. "I have come to him for God-realization," I reasoned, "and I must listen to his advice." ~ paramahansa-yogananda, @wisdomtrove 134:In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 135:... the kingdom of God is that invisible collection of committed Christians that transcends cultures, ideologies... and creeds- all bound by the golden commitment to say nothing and do nothing that would attack the self-esteem, the self-respect, and the dignity of any other human being, whether or not they are committed members of the kingdom of God. The dignity of the person then is the irreducible cell of true Christianity. ~ robert-h-schuller, @wisdomtrove 136:I have seen something like it happen in battle. A man was coming at me, I at him, to kill. Then came a sudden great gust of wind that wrapped out cloaks over our swords and almost over our eyes, so that we could do nothing to one another but must fight the wind itself. And that ridiculous contention, so foreign to the business we were on, set us both laughing, face to face - friends for a moment - and then at once enemies again and forever. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 137:So your desire is to do nothing? Well, you shall not have a week, a day, an hour, free from oppression. You shall not be able to lift anything without agony. Every passing minute will make your muscles crack. What is feather to others will be a rock to you. The simplest things will become difficult. Life will become monstrous about you. To come, to go, to breathe, will be so many terrible tasks for you. Your lungs will feel like a hundred-pound weight. ~ victor-hugo, @wisdomtrove 138:The use of violence in our struggle would be both impractical and immoral. To meet hate with retaliatory hate would do nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love; we must meet physical force with soul force. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. ~ martin-luther-king, @wisdomtrove 139:What sets Christian spiritual activity apart from all other religions is that they have knowledge of Christ as their goal; not moral perfection (although you will become more moral), not tranquility (although your life will be remarkably more peaceful). And because of the grace you have in Christ, the disciplines will do nothing to make you more accepted by the Father. You cannot be more accepted than you already are in Christ, since He has already done it all for you! ~ charles-r-swindoll, @wisdomtrove 140:May my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smile ~ e-e-cummings, @wisdomtrove 141:Heaven does nothing: its non-doing is its serenity. Earth does nothing: its non-doing is its rest. From the union of these two non-doings All actions proceed. All things are made. How vast, how invisible This coming-to-be! All things come from nowhere! How vast, how invisible No way to explain it! All beings in their perfection Are born of non-doing. Hence it is said: Heaven and earth do nothing Yet there is nothing they do not do. Where is the man who can attain To this non-doing? ~ zhuangzi, @wisdomtrove 142:I'm working on forgiving myself for some not-so-hot choices I've made in my life. I neglected two people I loved dearly. They are both dead now and I obviously can do nothing to repair or change that, and I grieve every day for those choices. That grief can be paralyzing, but it has made me understand the pain of holding on to unfinished business. In my case, I had put work first. I will never do that again. Having made that choice, I find the grief in my heart finally abating. Now I teach the need to forgive yourself and others relentlessly. ~ caroline-myss, @wisdomtrove 143:I'm working on forgiving myself for some not-so-hot choices I've made in my life. I neglected two people I loved dearly. They are both dead now and I obviously can do nothing to repair or change that, and I grieve every day for those choices. That grief can be paralyzing, but it has made me understand the pain of holding on to unfinished business. In my case, I had put work first. I will never do that again. Having made that choice, I find the grief in my heart finally abating. Now I teach the need to forgive yourself and others relentlessly. ~ norman-vincent-peale, @wisdomtrove 144:Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely. The only sense to make of tragedies like this is that terrible things can happen to perfectly innocent people. This understanding inspires compassion. Religious faith, on the other hand, erodes compassion. Thoughts like, & *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Don't be a Do Nothing Bitch ~ Ronda Rousey, #NFDB
2:apart from me you can do nothing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
3:Like how could you do nothing, ~ Ani DiFranco, #NFDB
4:Do nothing twice over. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
5:Without dance, a man can do nothing. ~ Moliere, #NFDB
6:Do nothing that is of no use ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
7:Better do nothing than do ill. ~ Pliny the Elder, #NFDB
8:Do nothing which is of no use ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
9:I can't do nothing just a little. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
10:Do nothing which is of no use. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
11:It is better to play than do nothing. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
12:if one writes one can do nothing else. ~ W B Yeats, #NFDB
13:Most people can do nothing at all well ~ G H Hardy, #NFDB
14:Evil will win if good people do nothing. ~ P C Cast, #NFDB
15:A dying man can do nothing easy. ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
16:Come cook food with me and do nothing. ~ Aziz Ansari, #NFDB
17:Fortune cannot aid those who do nothing. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
18:I can never do nothing in this house! ~ George Lopez, #NFDB
19:Without resistance you can do nothing ~ Jean Cocteau, #NFDB
20:You train your man to do nothing. ~ Jennifer Aniston, #NFDB
21:Evil succeeds when good men do nothing ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
22:Without resistance you can do nothing. ~ Jean Cocteau, #NFDB
23:Do nothing without regard to the consequences. ~ Aesop, #NFDB
24:To do nothing is in everyone's power. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
25:You can't make me do nothing but die! ~ Richard Wright, #NFDB
26:To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy. ~ Hippocrates, #NFDB
27:I don't do nothing I don't want to do. ~ John Lee Hooker, #NFDB
28:I've never been to the gym. I do nothing. ~ Adriana Lima, #NFDB
29:Leisure is being allowed to do nothing. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
30:The worst thing we can do is to do nothing. ~ Brad Henry, #NFDB
31:When in doubt, my dear fellow, do nothing. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
32:Evil prevails when good people do nothing. ~ Erin Gruwell, #NFDB
33:I'd rather make a mistake than do nothing. ~ Harry Chapin, #NFDB
34:If you don’t know what to do, do nothing. ~ Gregg Hurwitz, #NFDB
35:It's never to late to do nothing at all. ~ Allen Ginsberg, #NFDB
36:Time felt slower when we do nothing but wait. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
37:Without Me you can do nothing”… nothing. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
38:Do nothing and hope the enemy fades away. ~ Fabius Maximus, #NFDB
39:Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
40:God will do nothing but in answer to prayer. ~ John Wesley, #NFDB
41:I am air and thought and can do nothing. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
42:Sophie don’t do nothing Sophie don’t want. ~ Thea Harrison, #NFDB
43:Do nothing but be prepared to do anything. ~ Nathaniel Fick, #NFDB
44:How could people sit still and do nothing? ~ Mitchell Hogan, #NFDB
45:If you do nothing there will be no results ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
46:There's never enough time to do nothing! ~ Daniel Radcliffe, #NFDB
47:They certainly do nothing for the rest of us. ~ Hilari Bell, #NFDB
48:Evil prevails where good people do nothing. ~ Corban Addison, #NFDB
49:To avoid lying, do nothing that needs covering. ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
50:you do nothing else, be like Bill and build a ~ Ben Horowitz, #NFDB
51:Evil prospers when good men do nothing. ~ John Philpot Curran, #NFDB
52:He did nothing and knew how to do nothing. He ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
53:It is not a plan to simply hide and do nothing ~ Julie Kagawa, #NFDB
54:One of the worst mistakes is to do nothing. ~ Warren G Bennis, #NFDB
55:To do nothing is the way to be nothing. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
56:It’s always safe to do nothing when it rains. ~ Atticus Poetry, #NFDB
57:Leisure is being allowed to do nothing. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
58:When you can do nothing,
what can you do? ~ Zen proverb,#NFDB
59:Do nothing by halves which can be done by quarters. ~ F R Scott, #NFDB
60:If you do nothing, that just empowers the gangs. ~ Curtis Sliwa, #NFDB
61:To do nothing is within the power of all men. ~ Maria Konnikova, #NFDB
62:To remain mysterious, say little and do nothing. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
63:Fear is never a good enough reason to do nothing ~ Charlie Sheen, #NFDB
64:- If you love yourself, you will do nothing wrong to yourself! ~, #NFDB
65:It is better to make a mistake than to do nothing. ~ Adolf Hitler, #NFDB
66:To do nothing would be to die one day at a time. ~ Corban Addison, #NFDB
67:Without a deadline, baby, I wouldn't do nothing. ~ Duke Ellington, #NFDB
68:By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
69:I had come to France to do nothing but walk and eat ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
70:I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen. ~ John Green, #NFDB
71:By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
72:How can I help change things if I sit by and do nothing? ~ Lisa See, #NFDB
73:Let us do nothing through passion and ill temper. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
74:When I have time off, all I want to do is do nothing. ~ Niall Horan, #NFDB
75:hate, or love, anything rather than do nothing. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
76:How sweet it is to do nothing, and afterwards to rest! ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
77:It’s better to do nothing than to waste your time. ~ Sharon Salzberg, #NFDB
78:Why Is It So Hard for Us to Do Nothing? By Alison Gopnik ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
79:Few people do business well, who do nothing else. ~ Lord Chesterfield, #NFDB
80:It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
81:When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing. ~ Adi Shankara, #NFDB
82:Do you know what happens when you do nothing? Nothing. ~ Matthew Quick, #NFDB
83:If you do nothing unexpected, nothing unexpected happens. ~ Fay Weldon, #NFDB
84:I like to complain and do nothing to make things better. ~ Kurt Cobain, #NFDB
85:The biggest risk a person can take is to do nothing. ~ Robert Kiyosaki, #NFDB
86:To do nothing evil is good; to wish nothing evil is better. ~ Claudius, #NFDB
87:We learn as we go, not as we sit idly by and do nothing. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
88:When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing. ~ Adi Shankara, #NFDB
89:Evil will never be countered while good men do nothing. ~ David Gemmell, #NFDB
90:It is only those who do nothing who makes no mistake. ~ Peter Kropotkin, #NFDB
91:It is only those who do nothing who makes no mistake. ~ Pyotr Kropotkin, #NFDB
92:Leadership is a choice. It's the choice not to do nothing. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
93:The trick is, when there is nothing to do, do nothing. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
94:When there's no clear option, it's better to do nothing. ~ Erwin Rommel, #NFDB
95:When you can't do nothing but pray-you've done a whole lot. ~ T D Jakes, #NFDB
96:You're still in prison if you do nothing better in freedom. ~ Toba Beta, #NFDB
97:Do nothing till thou hast well considered the end of it. ~ Matthew Henry, #NFDB
98:People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing everyday. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
99:The Democrats in particular are do-nothing guys. ~ Peter George Peterson, #NFDB
100:This proves Indians do nothing else but surf the Web. ~ Amitabh Bachchan, #NFDB
101:To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
102:But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing. ~ Robert F Kennedy, #NFDB
103:People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
104:To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing. ~ Dave Ramsey, #NFDB
105:all evil needs to triumph is for a few good men to do nothing. ~ S E Smith, #NFDB
106:Il ne faut jamais rien outrer: One must do nothing in excess ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
107:It is better to do the wrong thing that to do nothing. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
108:It was easier to do nothing than to brave the unknown ~ Michael J Sullivan, #NFDB
109:I've learned people are watching, so don't do nothing stupid. ~ Bruno Mars, #NFDB
110:Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning. ~ George Eliot, #NFDB
111:You do too much. Go and do nothing for a while. Nothing. ~ Lillian Hellman, #NFDB
112:But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner. ~ John Donne, #NFDB
113:Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
114:Most men do nothing to deserve what the gods throw their way, ~ Scott Lynch, #NFDB
115:There was nothing to do and not enough time to do nothing in. ~ Sarah Blake, #NFDB
116:When your last breath arrives, Grammar can do nothing. ~ Adi Shankaracharya, #NFDB
117:To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing and be nothing. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
118:You can't do nothing but try if you still got it in your heart. ~ Leon Spinks, #NFDB
119:Dead heroes do nothing to protect their people tomorrow. ~ Wayne Thomas Batson, #NFDB
120:I like to work for a while, and then do nothing for some period. ~ Peter Boyle, #NFDB
121:The Way is in training... Do nothing which is not of value. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
122:When morals decline and good men do nothing, evil flourishes. ~ J Edgar Hoover, #NFDB
123:for evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing. ~ Hourly History, #NFDB
124:It's wrong to do NOTHING when you have the power to do SOMETHING. ~ Chuck Black, #NFDB
125:Saving the world is only a hobby. Most of the time I do nothing. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
126:The Way is in training... Do nothing which is not of value. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
127:To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. —Aristotle ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
128:To do nothing by halves is the way of noble spirits. ~ Christoph Martin Wieland, #NFDB
129:It is better to break one's heart than to do nothing with it. ~ Margaret Kennedy, #NFDB
130:It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
131:Sometimes the riskiest decision you can make is to do nothing. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
132:Without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
133:For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing. ~ Simon Wiesenthal, #NFDB
134:I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me. ~ William Blake, #NFDB
135:People of higher talent work, even if they seem to do nothing ~ Leonardo da Vinci, #NFDB
136:Unless I had the spirit of prayer, I could do nothing. ~ Charles Grandison Finney, #NFDB
137:When there's nothing to do, you do nothing slowly and intently. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
138:When there’s nothing to do, you do nothing slowly and intently. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
139:A soul-winner can do nothing without God. He must cast himself ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
140:Can you comprehend everything in the four directions and still do nothing? ~ Laozi, #NFDB
141:Days go by when I do nothing but underline the damp edge of myself. ~ Mary Szybist, #NFDB
142:Stop working, stop doing everything, let's do nothing - let's eat! ~ Ridhwan Saidi, #NFDB
143:The greatest sin is to do nothing because you can only do a little. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
144:The worst thing a government can do now in Spain is to do nothing. ~ Mariano Rajoy, #NFDB
145:Hurry up and do nothing, that was the army’s way of doing things. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
146:out Johnson could do nothing beyond publicly register his opposition. ~ Daniel Brook, #NFDB
147:We were just about to do nothing at all for a while but it can wait. ~ Douglas Adams, #NFDB
148:All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
149:Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly. ~ Robert H Schuller, #NFDB
150:for evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.” More ~ Hourly History, #NFDB
151:It is better to waste your old age than to do nothing at all with it. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
152:The most fitting occupation for a civilized man is to do nothing. ~ Theophile Gautier, #NFDB
153:The trouble with people nowadays is they don't know how to do nothing. ~ Iris Murdoch, #NFDB
154:To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. —ARISTOTLE ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
155:As long as I am nothing but a ghost of the civil dead, I can do nothing. ~ Jack Abbott, #NFDB
156:If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent them from growing. ~ Coco Chanel, #NFDB
157:I love comics, but I'd rather cut off my thumbs than do nothing but. ~ Molly Crabapple, #NFDB
158:The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing. ~ David Tepper, #NFDB
159:the only way for bad shit to triumph was for good people to do nothing. ~ Jack Kilborn, #NFDB
160:Do nothing secretly; for Time sees and hears all things, and discloses all. ~ Sophocles, #NFDB
161:If she could do nothing else in this moment, she would trust in truth. ~ Joanne Bischof, #NFDB
162:it is always easier to do nothing than to try a new line of action. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #NFDB
163:I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing. ~ Johnny Carson, #NFDB
164:I would rather try to succeed and fail than try to do nothing and succeed. ~ Og Mandino, #NFDB
165:Let us not overstrain our talents, lest we do nothing gracefully. ~ Jean de La Fontaine, #NFDB
166:A friend is someone you can do nothing with, and enjoy it. ~ Reader s Digest Association, #NFDB
167:Evil triumphs when good men do nothing. That’s what they say, right? ~ Christina Dalcher, #NFDB
168:I do nothing but search and not find. That’s how I waste my nights. ~ Alejandra Pizarnik, #NFDB
169:"Just do nothing and love this moment. It's very beautiful and very deep." ~ Ajahn Brahm, #NFDB
170:realize that people who do nothing are just as dangerous as those who do. ~ Alice Feeney, #NFDB
171:When nothing can be done it is not a bad idea to do nothing. ~ Janwillem van de Wetering, #NFDB
172:All That Is Needed For Evil To Succeeded, Is For Good People To Do Nothing ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
173:If there is life, then I believe we should do nothing to disturb that life. ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
174:I want to do nothing chic, I want to have ideas before beginning a piece. ~ Georges Bizet, #NFDB
175:Occasionally indulging in a do-nothing day is more than worth the price. ~ Malcolm Forbes, #NFDB
176:To do nothing was disgraceful; therefore I made use of my understanding. ~ Horatio Nelson, #NFDB
177:To do the wrong thing, she has decided, is better than to do nothing. ~ John Joseph Adams, #NFDB
178:Do what you say you're going to do! People can do nothing but respect that. ~ Steve Harvey, #NFDB
179:I like American cars. And I would do nothing to hurt the U.S. auto industry. ~ Mitt Romney, #NFDB
180:My mind works in idleness. To do nothing is often my most profitable way. ~ Virginia Woolf, #NFDB
181:To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”—Elbert Hubbard ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
182:If you try to fix violence with violence, you do NOTHING but create violence. ~ Tom DeLonge, #NFDB
183:Sometimes it's best to do nothing at all where social networking is concerned. ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
184:The danger was not that I would do wrong, but that I would do nothing ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
185:We humans can never claim to do nothing, we breath, we pulse, we regenerate. ~ Suzanne Weyn, #NFDB
186:I'm a fan of relaxing, and when i get tired of relaxing I like to do nothing. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
187:I'm a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
188:I want to be able to hump people's legs and have them do nothing about it. ~ Macaulay Culkin, #NFDB
189:My movements, ma'am, are all leg movements. I don't do nothing with my body. ~ Elvis Presley, #NFDB
190:No one is more miserable than the person who wills everything and can do nothing. ~ Claudius, #NFDB
191:Our situation is intolerable, but what's worse
is to sit here and do nothing. ~ Rita Dove,#NFDB
192:Sometimes it's best to do nothing ast all where social networking is concerned. ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
193:So we do nothing?” Claire asked.
“We do the best nothing you’ve ever seen. ~ Rachel Caine,#NFDB
194:There is no slander in an allowed fool, though he do nothing but rail. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
195:To do nothing and get something, formed a boy's ideal of a manly career. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
196:Well! well! It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
197:Claire: So we do nothing?
Michael: We do the best nothing you've ever seen. ~ Rachel Caine,#NFDB
198:God will do nothing except you pray; and you have to be clear what you want ~ Strive Masiyiwa, #NFDB
199:He said all that needs to happen for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing. ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
200:If you want to do something for Jah, then dont associate with people who do nothing ~ Rihanna, #NFDB
201:All the forces of darkness need to succeed ... is for the people to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
202:It's easy to do nothing, but your heart breaks a little more every time you do. ~ Mark Ruffalo, #NFDB
203:People who do something can always make a mistake. So can people who do nothing. ~ C J Cherryh, #NFDB
204:The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
205:There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
206:(Aristotle once said “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing.”) ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
207:Aristotle once said, “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing. ~ Dave Ramsey, #NFDB
208:Do nothing, only keep agitating, debating; and things will destroy themselves. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
209:In Paris, I really do like to try and do nothing... but that's impossible. ~ Christian Louboutin, #NFDB
210:There's digital fatigue. When you can do everything, you can actually do nothing. ~ Laszlo Nemes, #NFDB
211:Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
212:I'm in pain all the time,' I said, 'and if I gave into it then I'd do nothing. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
213:The fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all. ~ Sarah Palin, #NFDB
214:The wrong thing to do about any given circumstance or situation is to do nothing. ~ L Ron Hubbard, #NFDB
215:He does not seem to me to be a free man who does not sometimes do nothing. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero, #NFDB
216:I’m in pain all the time,” I said, “and if I gave in to it then I’d do nothing. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
217:it made her angry, and since she could do nothing with her anger, it made her sad. ~ Deborah Ellis, #NFDB
218:It’s mentally exhausting, feeling bad about something you can do nothing about. ~ Janeane Garofalo, #NFDB
219:Never do nothing you wouldnt want printed on the front page of The New York Times. ~ Judy Holliday, #NFDB
220:Only an indirect method is effective. We do nothing if we have not first drawn back. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
221:better to fight and to fail,” said Hugh, “than to do nothing and perish.” Mazael ~ Jonathan Moeller, #NFDB
222:commune with nature, play with your children, read, see a movie, or just do nothing. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
223:Do nothing that is not natural - and ritual is natural - and all will be for the best. ~ Gore Vidal, #NFDB
224:I like to sleep. I like to do nothing. Nothing is my favorite kind of something. ~ Callan McAuliffe, #NFDB
225:It is better to do something than to do nothing while waiting to do everything. ~ Winston Churchill, #NFDB
226:It made me realize that people who do nothing are just as dangerous as those who do. ~ Alice Feeney, #NFDB
227:Life could do nothing for her, beyond giving time for a better preparation for death. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
228:There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
229:You do the same thing every time you whine about problems but do nothing to fix them. ~ Mel Robbins, #NFDB
230:Your Majesty, I am like you. I do no work. I do nothing, but I am indispensable. ~ Sergei Diaghilev, #NFDB
231:A choice to do nothing was a choice to passively die at the hands of a cruel future. I ~ Bobby Adair, #NFDB
232:All that is required for evil to flourish in the world is for good men to do nothing. ~ Carl Ashmore, #NFDB
233:Don't do nothing because you can't do everything. Do something. Anything. ~ Colleen Patrick Goudreau, #NFDB
234:Get to the end of yourself where you can do nothing, but where He does everything. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
235:If a soldier or labourer complain of the hardship of his lot, set him to do nothing. ~ Blaise Pascal, #NFDB
236:The only thing necessary for the continuance of evil is for a good man to do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
237:Until you transcend the ego, you can do nothing but add to the insanity of the world. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
238:You are a Sunday porch I could do nothing on and feel like everything was happening. ~ Derrick Brown, #NFDB
239:You can have the best intentions in the world but if you do nothing, you are nothing. ~ Corey Taylor, #NFDB
240:I said, "Don't do nothing of the kind; it's one of the most jackass ideas I ever struck; ~ Mark Twain, #NFDB
241:What happens if you do nothing, nothing, there's a price and a terrible freedom to that ~ Brent Weeks, #NFDB
242:When a companion's heart of itself overflows, the best one can do is to do nothing. ~ Herman Melville, #NFDB
243:If you are wronged and do nothing but sulk about it, you wrong yourself even further. ~ Nicole Galland, #NFDB
244:If you believed only what the stories say, you'd think we do nothing but wreak mischief. ~ Janie Chang, #NFDB
245:The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little. ~ Zig Ziglar, #NFDB
246:The only thing necessary for evil to conquer is for us and those like us to do nothing. ~ Julie Kagawa, #NFDB
247:The truest test of character is how we behave towards people who can do nothing for us. ~ James Runcie, #NFDB
248:They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
249:You must dismantle your sources, lest you do nothing but ape the prejudices of others ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
250:Be content to remember that those who can make omelettes properly can do nothing else. ~ Hilaire Belloc, #NFDB
251:Don't do nothing halfway, else you find yourself dropping more than can be picked up. ~ Louis Armstrong, #NFDB
252:For one who has really mastered the way of warfare, his enemy can do nothing to escape death. ~ Sun Bin, #NFDB
253:I absentmindedly fantasize as I rest my chin in my hand. But in the end I can do nothing. ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
254:If your education, talent and capacity can do nothing; your body can do lots of things. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
255:It is better to be able neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
256:My job ... I do nothing, it pays nothing, but - you guessed it - it's better than nothing. ~ Amy Hempel, #NFDB
257:The only people, scientific or other, who never make mistakes are those who do nothing. ~ Thomas Huxley, #NFDB
258:For He (God) seems to do nothing of himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
259:I can do nothing for you but work on myself...you can do nothing for me but work on yourself! ~ Ram Dass, #NFDB
260:It’s far better to attempt something great and fail than to plan to do nothing and succeed. ~ John Hagee, #NFDB
261:The believing we do something when we do nothing is the first illusion of tobacco. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
262:the government can do nothing for you. But you can do everything for yourselves ~ Pierre Joseph Proudhon, #NFDB
263:you do nothing else in this life, my dear, marry for love and you’ll have no regrets. ~ Beverley Kendall, #NFDB
264:And who was ever bold enough to do nothing because every action is senseless in infinity? ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
265:Can one do nothing for the dead? And for a long time the answer had been - Nothing! ~ Katherine Mansfield, #NFDB
266:I do nothing, granted. But I see the hours pass—which is better than trying to fill them. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
267:When you're out of options, the best option is to do nothing. Play dead. The possum option. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
268:When you’re out of options, the best option is to do nothing. Play dead. The possum option. ~ Rick Yancey, #NFDB
269:You know what I want to do? Wake up one weekend and not have to go anywhere and do nothing. ~ Derek Jeter, #NFDB
270:A little old lady sitting at the front of the bus can do nothing to change civil rights. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
271:All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. —Edmund Burke ~ Christine Kling, #NFDB
272:he said that for wickedness to succeed all it takes is for decent people to do nothing. ~ Peter F Hamilton, #NFDB
273:I'd rather attempt to do something and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed. ~ Robert H Schuller, #NFDB
274:I think China will do nothing to obstruct it, and they probably will go along with it. ~ Henry A Kissinger, #NFDB
275:It must be so easy to judge the decisions of someone else when you sit back and do nothing. ~ Scott Sigler, #NFDB
276:One can't live on love alone; and I am so stupid that I can do nothing but think of him. ~ Sophia Tolstaya, #NFDB
277:sometimes the night wakes in the middle of me. and i can do nothing but become the moon. ~ Nayyirah Waheed, #NFDB
278:All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win is for enough good women to do nothing. ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
279:I like to stay in a hotel where it's a dome of silence. I can sit in my room and do nothing. ~ Jim Gaffigan, #NFDB
280:"One should do nothing other than what is directly or indirectly of benefit to living beings." ~ Shantideva, #NFDB
281:To think that he can lie beside that furnace I stoked for him and do nothing but make water! ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
282:Unless our hands go hand in hand with our heads, we will be able to do nothing whatsoever. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
283:You freeze with the number of opportunities given to you and just decide to do nothing at all. ~ Sam Mendes, #NFDB
284:I am a recluse at present & do nothing but write & read & read & write ~ Katherine Mansfield, #NFDB
285:I do nothing, granted. But I see the hours pass - which is better than trying to fill them. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
286:Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the gods can do nothing against that man. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
287:You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
288:I find I have to give myself a day when I just shut myself off and do nothing but read. ~ Christopher Hampton, #NFDB
289:When you don't know what to do, do nothing. Get quiet so you can hear the still, small voice. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
290:Why do you never kiss me sweetly in the morning, Zoya?” “I do nothing sweetly, Your Highness. ~ Leigh Bardugo, #NFDB
291:And Hillary Clinton is going to do nothing for the African- American worker, the Latino worker. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
292:A very rich person should leave his kids enough to do anything, but not enough to do nothing. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
293:I make little distinction between those who commit evil and those who stand by and do nothing. ~ David Gemmell, #NFDB
294:It is better to do nothing Than to do what is wrong. For whatever you do, you do to yourself. ~ Gautama Buddha, #NFDB
295:It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to admit you can do nothing. ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
296:It is difficult, when faced with a situation you cannot control, to admit you can do nothing. ~ Lemony Snicket, #NFDB
297:It takes a lot of courage to choose to do nothing when you aren’t certain of the outcome. ~ Joelle Charbonneau, #NFDB
298:I would almost say that the best screen actor is the man who can do nothing extremely well. ~ Alfred Hitchcock, #NFDB
299:Of course. But how can I let her believe it’s all right to do nothing in times such as these? ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
300:The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide. ~ Michael Crichton, #NFDB
301:We hold that man is never so near grace as when he begins to feel he can do nothing at all. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
302:Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind. We are useless. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
303:All that is required for the triumph of evil is that good men remain silent and do nothing. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
304:It's hard to do nothing because you tend to do something and then you have to drop everything. ~ Jerry Seinfeld, #NFDB
305:I've got enough money to live me two lifetimes so I don't have to do nothing I don't want to. ~ John Lee Hooker, #NFDB
306:Making no decision is a decision. To do nothing. And doing nothing always brings you to nowhere. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
307:Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
308:When you do dance, I wish you a wave o' the sea, that you might ever do nothing but that. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
309:Finding a moment to sit and just do nothing can be very healing, transforming, and nourishing. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
310:I'd rather attempt to do something great and fail than to attempt to do nothing and succeed. ~ Robert H Schuller, #NFDB
311:One of my favorite little sayings is, 'To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. ~ Robert M Gates, #NFDB
312:People talk but do nothing,” the Ginen people said. “Papa God doesn’t talk, but he does plenty. ~ Nalo Hopkinson, #NFDB
313:People who talk well but do nothing are like musical intruments; the sound is all they have to offer. ~ Diogenes, #NFDB
314:Plenty of people have dreams, after all, but many do nothing to actually accomplish them. ~ Emily Esfahani Smith, #NFDB
315:The captain swore polyglot, very polyglot, polyglot with bloom and blood, but he could do nothing. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
316:Making no decision is a decision. To do nothing. And doing nothing always brings you to nowhere. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
317:Sometimes you just have to do nothing for a day or two. Reboot. We’re human beings, not human doings, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
318:The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
319:You cannot shy away from yourself. Look the world in the eye, and it can do nothing to hurt you. ~ Claire Legrand, #NFDB
320:A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~ John Henry Newman, #NFDB
321:I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life. ~ Sidney Poitier, #NFDB
322:One can begin a picture and carry it through and stop it and do nothing about the title at all. ~ William Baziotes, #NFDB
323:The human mind is incredible. It can do nothing without belief, yet practically anything with it. ~ Sylvia Engdahl, #NFDB
324:Wanting is as bad as wishing, I suppose, if the one who wants does nothing. Or can do nothing. ~ Carrie Anne Noble, #NFDB
325:A hero is just somebody who does the right thing when it would be far, far easier to do nothing. ~ G Norman Lippert, #NFDB
326:All darkness needs to spread is for a bunch of people to stand around and do nothing. You know that. ~ Billy Coffey, #NFDB
327:If the liberal arts do nothing else they provide engaging metaphors for the thinking they displace. ~ Roger Zelazny, #NFDB
328:I had to touch you with my hands, I had to taste you with my tongue; one can't love and do nothing. ~ Graham Greene, #NFDB
329:I'll probably make loads of plans, and then just sit around on my bottom all day long and do nothing. ~ John Deacon, #NFDB
330:One way to avoid criticism is to do nothing and to be a nobody. The world will then not bother you. ~ Napoleon Hill, #NFDB
331:The way to use life is to do nothing through acting, The way to use life is to do everything through being. ~ Laozi, #NFDB
332:When we can do nothing else, we can still love, without expecting any reward or change or gratitude. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
333:An artist is like a woman who can do nothing but love, and who succumbs to every stray male jackass. ~ Heinrich B ll, #NFDB
334:An artist is like a woman who can do nothing but love, and who succumbs to every stray male jackass. ~ Heinrich Boll, #NFDB
335:a sure-fire way to predict the future is to take no action at all. When you do nothing, you get nothing. ~ Pat Flynn, #NFDB
336:Because sometimes, a man could do nothing about where he came from, he could only control where he went ~ Lora Leigh, #NFDB
337:Doing nothing,” Inez said, “is a choice in its own way. When you do nothing, you still do something. ~ Laura Lippman, #NFDB
338:I can’t just sit back and watch someone die. I’d rather die alongside them than do nothing.”- Kirito ~ Reki Kawahara, #NFDB
339:Inside and out, Westley's world was ripping apart and he could do nothing but crack along with it. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
340:It's because I chatter that I do nothing. Or perhaps it is that I chatter because I do nothing. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
341:Just because we cannot do everything for everyone does not mean we should do nothing for anyone. ~ William J Clinton, #NFDB
342:My star was fading, I felt the reins slipping out of my grasp, and could do nothing to stop it. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
343:Records should come from feelings. You shouldn't try to do nothing; it should just come out how you feel. ~ Jadakiss, #NFDB
344:The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do or who do nothing. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
345:Wanting is as bad as wishing, I suppose, if the one who wants does nothing. Or can do nothing. I ~ Carrie Anne Noble, #NFDB
346:Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
347:Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
348:I could do nothing but hope that Heaven would be more merciful to us all than we are to one another. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
349:Those with no dreams of their own, can do nothing better, than to try to destroy the dreams of others. ~ Jos N Harris, #NFDB
350:We did nothing to earn our adoption into God’s family, and we can do nothing to lose it either. ~ John F MacArthur Jr, #NFDB
351:What shall you do all your vacation?’, asked Amy. "I shall lie abed and do nothing", replied Meg. ~ Louisa May Alcott, #NFDB
352:you could tell a lot about a person’s character by how they treated those who could do nothing for them. ~ Laura Kaye, #NFDB
353:Fear is no excuse to do nothing with your money. When others are scared, there are bargains to be found. ~ Ramit Sethi, #NFDB
354:He who has learned to do nothing with his whole mind and body will have everything done for him. ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
355:I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
356:We can do nothing without the body, let us always take care that it is in the best condition to sustain us. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
357:Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something. ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
358:Because to suffer and do nothing is to be nothing, while to suffer and do something is to become someone. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
359:Clarity is the preoccupation of the effective leader. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear. ~ Marcus Buckingham, #NFDB
360:Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favourable do nothing. ~ William Feather, #NFDB
361:Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
362:So what? So we sit there and do nothing every day in case we have an accident? Is that really how to live? ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
363:The origin of civilization is man's determination to do nothing for himself which he can get done for him. ~ H C Bailey, #NFDB
364:Therefore a sage has said, 'I will do nothing (of purpose), and the people will be transformed of themselves; ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
365:There was no doubt about it: if you wanted to succeed you had to go away. You could do nothing in Dublin. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
366:You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
367:All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good women to do nothing. ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
368:A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault. ~ Saint John Henry Newman, #NFDB
369:You must dismantle your sources, Toc the Younger, lest you do nothing but ape the prejudices of others. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
370:In Los Angeles, people dress with the deep and earnest hope that people will do nothing but stare at them. ~ Ellie Kemper, #NFDB
371:Sit and do nothing. Every once in a while a golden fish swims by and lays her golden eggs. You'll know. ~ Chogyam Trungpa, #NFDB
372:Sundays tend to be a day where just I do nothing but visit people. It's kind of like trick-or-treating. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
373:Without Allah on your side, you can do nothing. With Allah on your side, there is nothing you cannot do ~ Boonaa Mohammed, #NFDB
374:He’s such an extraordinarily brilliant person that it would be terrible if he let himself do nothing in the end. ~ Various, #NFDB
375:It seems to me like stealing, for men and women to live in the world and do nothing to make it better. ~ Sarah Orne Jewett, #NFDB
376:People with dark souls have nothing but dark dreams. People with really dark souls do nothing but dream, ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
377:People with dark souls have nothing but dark dreams. People with really dark souls do nothing but dream. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
378:Surrounded by nothingness you have to do nothing. You have to do nothing to be who you are. Nothing at all. ~ H W L Poonja, #NFDB
379:To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
380:when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
381:Be a man, and conquer an unhappy attachment toward a creature who can do nothing but pity you. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
382:He listens to his trainer real good. He just doesn't listen to me. I still can't get him to do nothing. ~ Evander Holyfield, #NFDB
383:I was carrying the sun within myself and could do nothing to impede the tremendous light I was radiating. ~ Raymond Roussel, #NFDB
384:To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble; it is boasting of your modesty. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky, #NFDB
385:To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
386:You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
387:All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good women to do nothing. The ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
388:In the end, I suspect, being female will do nothing for Sheba, except deny her the grandeur of genuine villainy. ~ Zo Heller, #NFDB
389:The real, true spring had arrived, the chestnut trees were in blossom, and the Boche could do nothing about it. ~ Alan Furst, #NFDB
390:We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
391:When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.” —J. I. Packer ~ Pete Wilson, #NFDB
392:"If there's nothing you can do, then do nothing. If there's something you can do, then give it all you've got." ~ Ajahn Brahm, #NFDB
393:It is not really hard to do nothing. Many can. The hard part is doing nothing without feeling guilty about it. ~ Haim Shapira, #NFDB
394:I would rather do nothing than do a rough sketch without having looked at anything. My memories will do better. ~ Edgar Degas, #NFDB
395:The heaviest of my crosses was that I could do nothing to lighten the cross my mother was suffering. ~ Margaret Mary Alacoque, #NFDB
396:The market does not know you exist. You can do nothing to influence it. You can only control your behavior. ~ Alexander Elder, #NFDB
397:Visits are insatiable devourers of time, and fit only for those who, if they did not that, would do nothing. ~ William Cowper, #NFDB
398:When you turn your back on hypocrisy and do nothing you don’t change the hearts of others you change yours. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
399:Fans like their heroes simple. I'm supposed to stick out my tongue twenty-four hours a day and do nothing else. ~ Gene Simmons, #NFDB
400:I can't just sit around and do nothing. Although, I can sit on the couch sometimes and just watch movies. ~ Brian Austin Green, #NFDB
401:Never REJECT yourself due to the sins you have committed. REGRET will do nothing; REPENT and do something! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
402:One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
403:Do nothing against thy will, nor contrary to the community, nor without due examination, nor with reluctancy. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
404:Entrust everything to Me and do nothing on your own, and you will always have great freedom of spirit. ~ Mary Faustina Kowalska, #NFDB
405:Then she had understood how it was possible for a man to do nothing wrong, and still to be wrong, day after day. ~ Laura Brodie, #NFDB
406:You told me to look into the mirror each morning and be proud of myself, to do nothing that I would be ashamed of. ~ Kavita Kan, #NFDB
407:Acceptance means no complaining, and happiness means no complaining about the things over which you can do nothing. ~ Wayne Dyer, #NFDB
408:I go on vacation strictly to relax - to kick back with a good book and do nothing else but read, sleep and eat. ~ Morgan Freeman, #NFDB
409:I like to juggle with one ball at a time. Then I put the ball down and do nothing for extended periods of time. ~ Rowan Atkinson, #NFDB
410:Kids today do nothing. They're so apathetic. We used to go out and protest. All they do is shop and complain. ~ Douglas Coupland, #NFDB
411:The moral of the story is this: sometimes, to do nothing, to do nothing at all, is the sorriest thing ever. ~ Binnie Kirshenbaum, #NFDB
412:The truth is that the world doesn't have much use or respect for "do nothing" people. Can you really blame them? ~ Bryant McGill, #NFDB
413:We humans can look deep into future and predict what will happen, but then turn around and do nothing about it. ~ Daniel Gilbert, #NFDB
414:Because that's the way the world works, isn't it? You can work hard and be miserable, or do nothing and be happy. ~ Brian Katcher, #NFDB
415:How many years must a man do nothing, before he can at all know what is to be done and how to do it! ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
416:My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
417:Acceptance means no complaining, and happiness means no complaining about the things over which you can do nothing. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
418:If we cannot give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
419:The newly-minted captain is told to let nothing stop him but to do nothing that would risk his ship or his crew. ~ Patrick O Brian, #NFDB
420:The only time anyone has ever gotten into serious trouble was when he decided he could do nothing about something. ~ L Ron Hubbard, #NFDB
421:Words do nothing against them in the short term, so we bow to the storm winds and wait. We wait, and we have faith. ~ James R Benn, #NFDB
422:Degredation is the subtlest drug, the most insinuating. But they could do nothing to me I had not already imagined. ~ Angela Carter, #NFDB
423:I don’t see why I should disguise the magnificence of my education when you do nothing to hide the paucity of yours. ~ Markus Heitz, #NFDB
424:I'm so busy during my everyday, when I go on vacation I need to pull the plug like they say, and to do nothing. ~ Georges St Pierre, #NFDB
425:The brains of the undead do nothing for me. The taste is vile, nothing like the juicy, enticing brains of the living. ~ Darren Shan, #NFDB
426:The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil but because of those who look on and do nothing. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
427:The world is not full of evil because of those who do wrong. It is full of evil because of those who do nothing. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
428:A grape may become a raisin, and taste the sweeter for it, but even a raisin rot on the vine, if you do nothing for it. ~ E J Patten, #NFDB
429:He’s such an extraordinarily brilliant person that it would be terrible if he let himself do nothing in the end. ~ Compton Mackenzie, #NFDB
430:In other words, a sure-fire way to predict the future is to take no action at all. When you do nothing, you get nothing. ~ Pat Flynn, #NFDB
431:The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
432:A grape may be a raisin, and taste the sweeter for it, but even a raisin will rot on the vine, if you do nothing for it. ~ E J Patten, #NFDB
433:Albert knew that one could never be sure about magic, but a lack of certainty is not a good reason to do nothing. ~ Howard L Anderson, #NFDB
434:even God could do nothing for someone already full. You have to be completely empty to let Him in to do what He will. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
435:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
436:I do not ask who you are, that is not important to me, You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
437:Regrettably, we've made it acceptable to sit in church week after week & do nothing & still call yourself a 'Christian.' ~ Ed Stetzer, #NFDB
438:say that evil happens when good men do nothing. And the Democrats prove it also happens when mediocre people do nothing. ~ Bill Maher, #NFDB
439:Carbon dioxide does not cause or contribute to smog, and the Kyoto treaty would do nothing to reduce or prevent smog. ~ Stephen Harper, #NFDB
440:I don’t have to do nothing you say, you old heifer cow. And you are old. Really, really old. And a cow, too. (Simi) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
441:Imagine: you could say nothing, do nothing, eat nothing, touch nothing, love nothing without the other knowing. ~ Megan Mayhew Bergman, #NFDB
442:You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a third--a something between the do-nothing and the do-all. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
443:I can do nothing but think of you... What have you done to me? Can't you remove the spell you have cast over me? ~ Ludwig van Beethoven, #NFDB
444:Lie still, it said. If you do not rise, do not move, nothing can hurt you. Simply do nothing, say nothing, be nowhere. ~ Ashley Gardner, #NFDB
445:Sometimes you get stuck with family members that do nothing but make mistakes they never have to apologize or pay for. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
446:a hero is just somebody who does the right thing when it would be far, far easier to do nothing.”
-Cedric Diggory- ~ G Norman Lippert,#NFDB
447:God can do nothing for me until I recognize the limits of what is humanly possible, allowing Him to do the impossible. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
448:If everyone did a little bit, then we would all be okay, I think. Instead most people do nothing. And that is the problem. ~ Randy Ribay, #NFDB
449:If you do nothing, you are nothing. If someone could pluck you from existence and nothing would change, you've failed. ~ Johnny B Truant, #NFDB
450:It is to our advantage to have securities do nothing price-wise for months, or perhaps years, while we are buying them. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
451:The key to living a moral life is this: Do nothing in private that you would be ashamed to discuss openly with your mother. ~ J P Morgan, #NFDB
452:The safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
453:the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
454:What kinda women you is? You gonna let a man lay up on another woman in your own house and not do nothing about it? ~ Bernice L McFadden, #NFDB
455:Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
456:Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
457:Do whatever you can do, and refuse to sit and do nothing. Remember, do what you can do, and God will do what you cannot do. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
458:If you wish at once to do nothing and be respectable nowadays, the best pretext is to be at work on some profound study. ~ Leslie Stephen, #NFDB
459:Just be happy, and if you can't be happy, do things that make you happy. Or do nothing with the people that make you happy. ~ Esther Earl, #NFDB
460:People who know how to employ themselves, always find leisure moments, while those who do nothing are forever in a hurry. ~ Madame Roland, #NFDB
461:Whenever I have free time, I love to just lay in my bed and watch YouTube videos, watch movies. Just basically do nothing. ~ Bethany Mota, #NFDB
462:Citizens are starting not to excuse political candidates who have web sites that do nothing but throw virtual confetti. ~ David Weinberger, #NFDB
463:Everything I've stated may prove to be total poppycock.... Perhaps time will tell. Perhaps time will do nothing of the kind. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
464:Experience, then, was something that enabled you to do nothing with a clear conscience. Experience was an overrated quality. ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
465:It’s pathetic—how a man can stand by and do nothing as a whole nation cleans out the garbage and makes itself great.” Trudy ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
466:Children are like water; they don't much care where the stream takes them. They do nothing to avoid or follow the contours. ~ Nilesh Rathod, #NFDB
467:He could do nothing but twist his moustache, drink, and chatter the most inept nonsense that can possibly be imagined. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
468:If you give someone more than they can do, they will do it. If you give them only what they can do, they will do nothing. ~ Rudyard Kipling, #NFDB
469:I live for opening doors for the young generation of creators. If we do nothing else with our success, let's open up some doors. ~ L A Reid, #NFDB
470:It’s funny how there are things in this world that do nothing but annoy you, but you know you’d miss them when they’re gone. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
471:The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death. ~ Matt Ridley, #NFDB
472:A man's name, title, and rank are artificial and impermanent; they do nothing to reveal what he really is, even to himself. ~ Jean Giraudoux, #NFDB
473:For our lives are in the Lord's hands; and they can do nothing unto us before God suffer them. Therefore give all thanks to God. ~ John Foxe, #NFDB
474:Get your appointment book out and schedule do-nothing-but-relax periods during the week, and then keep those appointments. ~ Sonia Choquette, #NFDB
475:It's pretty tough on your loved ones to try to get back into a rhythm, especially when all you want to do is do nothing. ~ Patrick Heusinger, #NFDB
476:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ Saint Augustine, #NFDB
477:One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them. ~ Andre Maurois, #NFDB
478:Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
479:God's greatest blessings often come costumed as disasters. Any doubters need to do nothing more than ascend the hill of Calvary. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
480:He was a victim of his own integrity, which forced him to do his best, even when he would have preferred to do nothing at all. ~ Irving Stone, #NFDB
481:I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, And accrue what I hear into myself...and let sound contribute toward me. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
482:She needed to get ready for bed, but first, she wanted to do nothing for a few moments. Just nothing. Nothing was such a luxury ~ Helen Hoang, #NFDB
483:Walk along one day and do nothing wrong, play by the rules, be a good person, do everything right: it doesn't guarantee anything. ~ Owen Hart, #NFDB
484:When we can do nothing Jesus can do all things; let us enlist His powerful aid upon our side, and all will be well. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
485:You can do nothing without prayer and everything with it. Anything worth worrying about is something worth praying about. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
486:Creative energy is the essence of all healing...We physicians do nothing, we only help and encourage the physician within. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
487:If we keep telling that life is unfair but do nothing serious about it, then life will forever continue to remain unfair! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
488:If you want to be successful, don't seek success - seek competence, empowerment; do nothing short of the best that you can do. ~ Jaggi Vasudev, #NFDB
489:I think when we don't know what to do it's wise to do nothing. Sit down quietly; quiet our hearts and minds and breathe deeply. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
490:When I go on vacation I just like to do nothing - just hang out at the beach, go eat the best restaurants, and do nothing. ~ Georges St Pierre, #NFDB
491:Donate and do not talk about it, they say you do nothing for the society; do and talk about it, they say you seek publicity! ~ Amitabh Bachchan, #NFDB
492:I didn’t spend my whole summer training with Anwar and him on a deserted island in the Baltic sea to stand here and do nothing. ~ Rebekkah Ford, #NFDB
493:People can be so frightened of failing that they do nothing, or choose something so dull they have no chance of shining. - Molly ~ Robyn Sisman, #NFDB
494:We all find ourselves in situations that at times seem hopeless. And, we all have the choice to do nothing or take action. ~ Catherine Pulsifer, #NFDB
495:I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,
And accrue what I hear into myself...and let sound contribute toward me. ~ Walt Whitman,#NFDB
496:Our sisters and brothers were picked up in public by local commanders for the purpose of sex and luxury and we could do nothing. ~ M F Moonzajer, #NFDB
497:We need to continuously put pressure on politicians to do more, because they are happy just to do nothing—it’s easier to do nothing. ~ Carl Hart, #NFDB
498:A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done. ~ Fred Allen, #NFDB
499:A very quiet and tasteful way to be famous is to have a famous relative. Then you can not only be nothing, you can do nothing too. ~ P J O Rourke, #NFDB
500:I cannot remember any of the things that were on my list of things to do. I will just have to sit here and do nothing,” said Toad. ~ Arnold Lobel, #NFDB
501:The only thing necessary for evil to conquer is for us and those like us to do nothing, and I will not sit by and let that happen! ~ Julie Kagawa, #NFDB
502:The best way to avoid a bad action is by doing a good one, for there is no difficulty in the world like that of trying to do nothing. ~ John Clare, #NFDB
503:There are times in life when the most comfortable thing is to do nothing at all. Things happen to you and you just let them happen. ~ James Hilton, #NFDB
504:We should do nothing for revenge, but everything for security: nothing for the past; everything for the present and the future. ~ James A Garfield, #NFDB
505:I'm one dude and when I make my bed I lay in it but don't stereotype me. Never sold a crumb to this day and I don't do nothing on the side. ~ Rakim, #NFDB
506:It's pathetic how a man can stand by and do nothing as a whole nation cleans out the garbage and makes itself great"
-Hans Junior ~ Markus Zusak,#NFDB
507:It's supposed to be a secret, but I'll tell you anyway. We doctors do nothing. We only help. And encourage the doctor within. ~ Albert Schweitzer, #NFDB
508:No town can live peacefully whatever its laws when its citizens do nothing but feast and drink and tire themselves out in the cares of love ~ Plato, #NFDB
509:... unhappiness is like marriage. We believe we chose it, but then it is choosing us. That is how it is, we can do nothing about it. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
510:When conscience falls silent and we do nothing to resist it, the consequence is the dehumanization of the world and a deadly danger. ~ Benedict XVI, #NFDB
511:When I'm at my grandparents', I know I literally have to do nothing but relax, enjoy myself, and enjoy my family members' company. ~ Tyson Chandler, #NFDB
512:Do nothing, and nothing happens. Life is about decisions. You either make them or they're made for you, but you can't avoid them. ~ Mhairi McFarlane, #NFDB
513:I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
514:I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. ~ Ronald Reagan, #NFDB
515:I try to do nothing. I drink rosemary when I have a lot of work to do. People take coffee, they take speed, whatever. I take rosemary. ~ Agnes Varda, #NFDB
516:No cold prudence for me. I am not born to sit still and do nothing. If I lose the game, it shall not be from not striving for it." The ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
517:We fear saying the wrong thing or using the wrong tone or acting the wrong way. So rather than do it incorrectly, we do nothing at all. ~ Max Lucado, #NFDB
518:Whether you do something or decide to do nothing, either way, you are making a moral choice. And I hope people make the right one. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
519:Either you set your goals and, in doing so, have your life governed by choice or you do nothing and have your life governed by chance. ~ Robin Sharma, #NFDB
520:...entered the library, and could do nothing but stare in wonder...She wondered if she should curtsy as if she were entering a chapel. ~ Shannon Hale, #NFDB
521:I have realized why corrupt politicians do nothing to improve the quality of public school education. They are terrified of educated voters. ~ Miriam, #NFDB
522:It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Mockingbirds do nothing but bring pleasure with their singing and thus to kill them is unjustifiable. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
523:It takes character to sit there with all that cash and do nothing. I didn't get to where I am by going after mediocre opportunities. ~ Charlie Munger, #NFDB
524:Let us not overstrain our talents, lest we do nothing gracefully: a clown, whatever he may do, will never pass for a gentleman. ~ Jean de La Fontaine, #NFDB
525:No man tastes pleasures truly, who does not earn them by previous business; and few people do business well, who do nothing else. ~ Lord Chesterfield, #NFDB
526:But I don't just own my volcanoes, and my flower, I am useful to them. You may own your stars, but you do nothing for them. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
527:Follow not a law of perdition, shut not yourselves up in negligence, follow not a law of falsehood; do nothing for the sake of the world. ~ Dhammapada, #NFDB
528:I have realized why corrupt politicians do nothing to improve the quality of public school education. They are terrified of educated voters. ~ Miriam, #NFDB
529:I told him I wanted to major in creative writing and sit around in yoga pants and do nothing but write books eat ice cream every day. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
530:Either you set your goals and, in doing so, have your life governed by choice or you do nothing and have your life governed by chance. ~ Robin S Sharma, #NFDB
531:I have a rule that has served me well in life. When in doubt, do nothing. If you’re not sure, don’t buy it, don’t comment, don’t commit. ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
532:The right response to the non-problem of global warming is to have the courage to do nothing. ~ Christopher Monckton 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, #NFDB
533:Goddammit, T-bird, he said. I love that faerie as much as any of us, but I couldn’t watch and do nothing while she becomes your Titanic. ~ Thea Harrison, #NFDB
534:He squirmed as though he was the one who'd killed Edwal and named Thorn a murderer. All he'd done was watch.
Watch and do nothing. ~ Joe Abercrombie,#NFDB
535:I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
536:It takes character to sit with all that cash and to do nothing.
I didn't get top where I am by going after mediocre opportunities. ~ Charles T Munger,#NFDB
537:it was useless to divide it into months and years, and the days into hours, when one could do nothing, but contemplate the rain ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
538:There are certain inessential activities-moths of precious time-and it is worse to busy yourself with the trivial than to do nothing. ~ Baltasar Gracian, #NFDB
539:The theatrical performance of politicians who profess to speak for an "American People" do nothing to highlight the history of poverty. ~ Nancy Isenberg, #NFDB
540:I see no need in taking part in forced adolescent social rituals that would do nothing but stir up emotions of dread for all involved. ~ Jennifer Mathieu, #NFDB
541:Mostly, organizations do not reward solving problems – they reward not fucking up, and the easiest way not to fuck up is to do nothing. ~ Daniel Polansky, #NFDB
542:single cockroach will completely wreck the appeal of a bowl of cherries, but a cherry will do nothing at all for a bowl of cockroaches. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
543:A writer can do nothing for men more necessary, satisfying, than just simply to reveal to them the infinite possibility of their own souls. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
544:Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace. ~ John Lennon, #NFDB
545:In those quiet moments, Olivia realized how lovely it was to have someone to do nothing with, to just stand with, and watch and think with. ~ Hazel Gaynor, #NFDB
546:I told him I wanted to major in creative writing and sit around in yoga pants and do nothing but write books and eat ice cream every day. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
547:Key in life is to be able to answer the question "How much is enough?" Modern society has a desire to accumulate stuff & do nothing with it ~ Gunter Pauli, #NFDB
548:My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt. ~ Anna Sewell, #NFDB
549:My doctrine is this: that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt. ~ Anna Sewell, #NFDB
550:Some people just couldn't commit to their own health. Instead they wasted their energy worrying about things they could do nothing about. ~ Tess Gerritsen, #NFDB
551:The wise do nothing,” the Beaver complained. “The wise sit and advise. Their understanding prevents action. Do not underestimate the young. ~ Brandon Mull, #NFDB
552:You know when you have a good relationship with someone when you are just perfectly happy to be quiet and just hang out and do nothing. ~ Victoria Justice, #NFDB
553:I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
554:You can't operate a company by fear, because the way to eliminate fear is to avoid criticism. And the way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. ~ Steve Ross, #NFDB
555:But I find God to be an ineffectual shrink. He adopts the “do nothing” method of therapy. You tell him your problems and he, ah, does nothing. ~ Ned Vizzini, #NFDB
556:Do you ask why I tortured and tormented myself? The answer is that it was too boring to sit and do nothing, and so I indulged my fancy. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
557:Every economist knows that minimum wages either do nothing or cause inflation and unemployment. That's not a statement, it's a definition. ~ Milton Friedman, #NFDB
558:Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, [T5], #NFDB
559:If it is characteristic of the wise man to do nothing useless, no one will surpass me in wisdom: I do not even lower myself to useful things. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
560:Our real innermost concern was to get as much money and praise as possible. To gain that end we could do nothing except write books and papers. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
561:Stories without endings can do nothing but go on forever, and to be caught in one means that you must die before your part in it is played out. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
562:Surgeons know nothing but do everything. Internists know everything but do nothing. Pathologists know everything and do everything but too late. ~ Robin Cook, #NFDB
563:To me, meditation sounds a whole lot like doing nothing. I don’t do nothing. I pack every second of every day with something that can get done. ~ Lisa Genova, #NFDB
564:And now that she knew, she couldn't do nothing. She couldn't. The anger would build inside he, on and on, forever until it poisoned her ~ Django Wexler, #NFDB
565:Fate, that bloody, vicious, fickle bitch. Sometimes she loved him, and he could do nothing wrong. And sometimes she stuck a knife in his back. ~ Ilona Andrews, #NFDB
566:the Son f can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father [5] does, that the Son does likewise. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
567:The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
568:what I have learned is that I can do nothing incredible, but as I follow God into impossible situations, He can work miracles in and through me. ~ Katie Davis, #NFDB
569:You have a choice in life, Alex. You can help someone in need or stand back and do nothing. And the choice you make determines the person you are. ~ S H Jucha, #NFDB
570:As long as you do not hold a balance between your seeing of things and your execution, you will do nothing that is really good. ~ Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, #NFDB
571:If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
572:Only three things are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since we can do nothing with the first two, we must do what we can with the third. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
573:The oppressed do not see too much difference between those who would keep them down and those who do nothing to help. There is no in-between. ~ Christine Caine, #NFDB
574:Well, of course. It’s easy to have a good reputation—you merely have to do nothing. But earning a bad reputation … well, that takes some effort. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
575:Do nothing, and leave nothing undone. ["Doing nothing" is what happens when the doer disappears, it isn't something that one does or chooses not to do.] ~ Laozi, #NFDB
576:For fuck’s sake, December! You’re carrying everyone in that damn house! Someone has to carry you. I can’t just watch you suffer and do nothing. ~ Rebecca Yarros, #NFDB
577:If you do nothing but read your Bible, you will dry up; if you only pray, you will blow up; but if you read your Bible and pray, you will grow up. ~ R T Kendall, #NFDB
578:It is a horrible, terrible thing, the worst thing, to watch somebody you love die right in front of you and not be able to do nothing about it. ~ Kate DiCamillo, #NFDB
579:The average woman is at the head of something with which she can do as she likes; the average man has to obey orders and do nothing else. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
580:and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
581:but I know what it feels like to be full of doubt about your purpose in life. You are what you do, and if you do nothing, you can feel like nothing. ~ Tony Danza, #NFDB
582:If you would escape moral and physical assassination, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing—court obscurity, for only in oblivion does safety lie. ~ Elbert Hubbard, #NFDB
583:In the growth mindset, it’s almost inconceivable to want something badly, to think you have a chance to achieve it, and then do nothing about it. ~ Carol S Dweck, #NFDB
584:Every time I hear that somebody died I think of their body, on a steel table in a morgue somewhere. I think of how they can do nothing about it. ~ Laurel Nakadate, #NFDB
585:I love filmmaking, and I love the process. And I would rather do nothing else. It's a privilege to be able to paint such big pictures, so to speak. ~ Bryan Singer, #NFDB
586:It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides. ~ Gregory of Nazianzus, #NFDB
587:JOH15.5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
588:misquote Edmund Burke rather than Milton. All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good women to do nothing. ~ Kate Atkinson, #NFDB
589:To argue, to complain, or worse, to just give up, these are choices. Choices that more often than not, do nothing to get us across the finish line. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
590:To express our gratitude to Sri Aurobindo we can do nothing better than to be a living demonstration of his teaching.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T3],#NFDB
591:We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force. ~ William Howard Taft, #NFDB
592:A god come to earth ought to do nothing whatever but wrong; to take upon oneself not the punishment but the guilt―only that would be godlike. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
593:Any fool can be fussy and rid himself of energy all over the place, but a man has to have something in him before he can settle down to do nothing. ~ J B Priestley, #NFDB
594:Don’t assume that because you know something in the future won’t happen, that you can do nothing. Sometimes the reason it doesn’t happen is you. ~ Nathan Van Coops, #NFDB
595:For mere vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge. But for security of the future I would do every thing. ~ James A Garfield, #NFDB
596:I like going out and I like being single, but a growing part of me would rather just stay home, cook food with someone I really like, and do nothing. ~ Aziz Ansari, #NFDB
597:It is better to do nothing than to contribute to the invention of formal ways of rendering visible that which Empire already recognizes as existent. ~ Alain Badiou, #NFDB
598:There is more beauty than our eyes can bear, precious things have been put into our hands and to do nothing to honor them is to do great harm. ~ Marilynne Robinson, #NFDB
599:A constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages is a form of gay bashing and it would do nothing at all to protect traditional marriages. ~ Coretta Scott King, #NFDB
600:I do nothing I regret, man, because I try to do nothing abominable. As long as there is not an abomination, there is nothing to regret, you understand? ~ Peter Tosh, #NFDB
601:The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
602:What you are born to be, you will be, whether it be priest or sailor. So step up and be it. Let them do nothing to you. Be the one who shapes yourself. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
603:If you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else. ~ Thomas Carlyle, #NFDB
604:It is my desire, in the office of a Christian minister, to do nothing which I cannot do with my whole heart. Having said this, I have said all. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
605:Life is too short to spend forty to fifty hours around people who do nothing but stress you out and make you desire to go stick your head in a blender. ~ Perry Noble, #NFDB
606:To affirm that men and women are persons and as persons should be free, and yet to do nothing tangible to make this affirmation a reality, is a farce. ~ Paulo Freire, #NFDB
607:We are saved gratis, by grace. We do nothing and we deserve nothing; it is all, absolutely and without qualification, one huge, hilarious gift. ~ Robert Farrar Capon, #NFDB
608:As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
609:As for me, to love you alone, to make you happy, to do nothing which would contradict your wishes, this is my destiny and the meaning of my life. ~ Napol on Bonaparte, #NFDB
610:But it was equally clear to her that this was her fate, that she had called its name and it had come to her, and she could do nothing now but own it. ~ Robin McKinley, #NFDB
611:My doctrine is this, that if we see
cruelty or wrong that we have the
power to stop, and do nothing, we
make ourselves sharers in the guilt. ~ Anna Sewell,#NFDB
612:There have been some nations who could do nothing but construct tombs, and these are the only traces which they have left. They are the heathen. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
613:You can bind my body, tie my hands, govern my actions: you are the strongest, and society adds to your power; but with my will, sir, you can do nothing. ~ George Sand, #NFDB
614:Your doubts do nothing than pouring cold water on your enviable dreams. Just keep doubts away from you and you will not dilute your success story! ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
615:A god come to earth ought to do nothing whatever but wrong: to take upon oneself, not the punishment, but the guilt - only that would be godlike. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
616:Because to suffer and do nothing is to be nothing, while to suffer and do something is to become someone. And that is what he is doing: becoming someone. ~ Yann Martel, #NFDB
617:Do nothing to merely interest, assume or attract. This is not your province. Do only that wins the people you are after in the cheapest possible way ~ Claude C Hopkins, #NFDB
618:It was easy enough to kill yourself in a fit of despair. It was easy enough to play the martyr. It was harder to do nothing. To endure your life. To wait. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
619:November is usually such a disagreeable month as if the year had suddenly found out she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. ~ Anne Shirley, #NFDB
620:Victory always starts in the head. It's a state of mind. It then spreads with such radiance and such affirmations that destiny can do nothing but obey. ~ Douchan Gersi, #NFDB
621:you once did nothing because you thought progress is inevitable, then you can continue to do nothing because you think time moves in repeating cycles. ~ Timothy Snyder, #NFDB
622:Begin with the possible: begin with one step. There is always a limit you cannot do more than you can do. If you try to do too much you will do nothing ~ P D Ouspensky, #NFDB
623:I could probably sit here in my office and do nothing, and the criminal would find his way to me. That’s how strong the probabilities are in my favor. ~ Robert Sheckley, #NFDB
624:Srebrenica's not simply another reminder of man's inhumanity to man, but how intelligent people can always come up with intelligent reasons to do nothing. ~ Scott Simon, #NFDB
625:There are only two realities in life: death and laughter. We can do nothing to change the former, so we might as well do all we can to save the latter. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
626:But the world I wanted wasn’t the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at one, I would do nothing forever. ~ Naomi Novik, #NFDB
627:Fifth and finally, do nothing impulsively. Give God an opportunity to speak. Until He does, stall for time and concentrate on the first four approaches. ~ James C Dobson, #NFDB
628:If you're extremely rich, and you have got children, my theory was, you give them enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
629:Pretend to be mad and talk a lot. Then — and this is the important bit — do nothing at all until you absolutely have to and then make sure everyone dies. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
630:To me, young has no meaning. It's something you can do nothing about, nothing at all. But youth is a quality. And if you have it, you never lose it. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
631:To me, young has no meaning. It’s something you can do nothing about, nothing at all. But youth is a quality. And if you have it, you never lose it. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright, #NFDB
632:We can pay teachers a hundred thousand dollars a year, and we'll do nothing to improve our schools as long as we keep the A, B, C, D, F grading system. ~ William Glasser, #NFDB
633:But the world I wanted wasn't the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at once, I would do nothing forever. ~ Naomi Novik, #NFDB
634:My own ambition, my deepest and truest ambition, is to find within myself someday, somehow, the ability to do likewise, to do NOTHING - and find it enough. ~ Edward Abbey, #NFDB
635:Qui tacet consentire videtur is Latin for “Silence gives consent.” When we say nothing, when we do nothing, we are consenting to these trespasses against us. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
636:He could think nothing and do nothing after the common fashion of the world; even when he "went wrong," he did so in a highly unusual and eccentric manner. ~ Arthur Machen, #NFDB
637:if you do nothing but urge people to “look out for number one,” you will be setting them up for future failure in any relationship, especially marriage. ~ Timothy J Keller, #NFDB
638:The way to do a great deal is to keep on doing a little. The way to do nothing at all is to be continually resolving that you will do everything. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
639:To rest satisfied with existing evils, as if we could do nothing, is not obedience; but neither is it obedience to imitate the actions of the apostles. ~ John Nelson Darby, #NFDB
640:But in those moments, caught in Ethan's eyes and his spell, I can do nothing but nod. Do nothing but surrender and hope the ride is worth the inevitable fall. ~ Tracy Wolff, #NFDB
641:God can do something with those who see what they really are and who know their need of cleansing but can do nothing with the man who feels himself worthy. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
642:Humanity is in the highest degree irrational, so that there is no prospect of influencing it by reasonable arguments. Against prejudice one can do nothing. ~ Sigmund Freud, #NFDB
643:If I were to think of and dwell on disastrous possibilities, I could do nothing. I throw myself headlong into my work, and come up again with my studies. ~ Vincent Van Gogh, #NFDB
644:The plain rule is to do nothing in the dark, to be a party to nothing underhanded or mysterious, and never to put his foot where he cannot see the ground. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
645:Just do something. You might make a mistake, then you can fix it. But if you do nothing, you can't fix anything. And your life might turn out full of regrets. ~ Jenny Colgan, #NFDB
646:Our Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done, and Himself shall do it, and I shall do nothing but sin, and my sin shall not hinder His Goodness working. ~ Julian of Norwich, #NFDB
647:The new healer could do nothing about his memory loss, either. So, Sala was still unrecognized for what she was. She was still free and confident. Remembering ~ L J McDonald, #NFDB
648:The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for. ~ Dan Millman, #NFDB
649:What are we “doing” when we do nothing but think? Where are we when we, normally always surrounded by our fellow men, are together with no one but ourselves? ~ Hannah Arendt, #NFDB
650:As a reader, I notice political views regardless of whether or not the book is fiction. What annoys me is when said views do nothing to advance the narrative. ~ Jen Lancaster, #NFDB
651:In this light he looks old and gray, a bitter man haunted by a dead sister, in love with a broken woman, doomed to teach a girl who can do nothing but lie. ~ Victoria Aveyard, #NFDB
652:The best and easiest way to get a forest to return to any plot of cleared land is to do nothing—nothing at all, and do it for less time than you might think. ~ Richard Powers, #NFDB
653:You shouldn't get to live in society and give nothing back. People complain about their taxes, yet they do nothing for the community. That makes me furious. ~ Kathleen Turner, #NFDB
654:How could you do nothing to him, if you fought so hard?” she asked. “I’m lust and he’s wrath!” he yelled. “I’m a lover, he’s a fighter!” Virtue - A Fairy Tale ~ Amanda Hocking, #NFDB
655:It is more important that we should remember God than that we should breathe: indeed, if one may say so, we should do nothing else besides. ~ Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, [T5], #NFDB
656:I told people I was taking a gap year, but the truth was that I wanted to do nothing, absolutely nothing, for as long as possible, maybe for the rest of my life. ~ Tana French, #NFDB
657:People like you always choose to absolve yourselves. You are complicit even if you do not actively contribute to the problem because you do nothing to solve it.” I ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
658:Piss on the beards of all those self- righteous monkeys. They do nothing but thumb their rosaries and recite a book written in a tongue they don't understand. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
659:Speaking from experience, there are people who have too much space between their ears, and given the time, do nothing but free fall forever inside their heads. ~ James St James, #NFDB
660:The reality is that if we do nothing it will take 75 years, or for me to be nearly a hundred before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work. ~ Emma Watson, #NFDB
661:...there are days when I feel I can do anything and days when I feel I can do nothing. But fortunately for those around me, neither sort occurs very often. ~ Marilyn vos Savant, #NFDB
662:Beauty comes in many forms, and the strong, powerful kind is the most admirable. It's easy to be weak; you simply do nothing, but strength takes courage and effort. ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
663:Beauty comes in many forms, and the strong, powerful kind is the most admirable. It’s easy to be weak; you simply do nothing, but strength takes courage and effort. ~ L H Cosway, #NFDB
664:Goethe, the great nineteenth-century thinker, reportedly summed up, “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
665:In 40-odd years in show business, some years I could do no wrong, and some years I could do nothing right. Show business. I owe it everything - it owes me nothing. ~ Patsy Kelly, #NFDB
666:..."The plain rule is, to do nothing in the dark, to be party to nothing under-handed or mysterious, and never to put his foot down where he cannot see ground. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
667:There is nothing of which we are apt to be so lavish as of time, and about which we ought to be more solicitous; since without it we can do nothing in this world. ~ William Penn, #NFDB
668:When we poor blacks take bribes, we perform what we are bribed to perform, and the law discovers us in consequence. The English take and do nothing. I admire them. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
669:Why are you like this? Why did you terrify us like that? Why did you fight so hard against made-up monsters, but do nothing about the monsters in your own house? ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
670:Again and again, students of the Tao
must humble themselves,
until they reach the state of non-doing. Then they will do nothing,
yet leave nothing undone. ~ Lao Tzu,#NFDB
671:The League of Nations is the greatest humbug in history. They cannot even protect a little nation like Armenia. They do nothing but pass useless resolutions. ~ David Lloyd George, #NFDB
672:Befriend narrow limits. Let them be a reminder to you that your work and your art are impossible without divine resources. You can do nothing on your own anyway. ~ Emily P Freeman, #NFDB
673:But try letting yourself be carried along blindly by your feelings, banish your reason if only for the moment; hate, or love, anything rather than do nothing. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
674:I have no taste for work any longer, I can do nothing more except wait for night.
530: Things are bad! Things are very bad: I have it, the filth, the Nausea. ~ Jean Paul Sartre,#NFDB
675:J. Edgar Hoover: When morals decline and good men do nothing, evil flourishes. A society unwilling to learn from past is doomed. We must never forget our history. ~ J Edgar Hoover, #NFDB
676:Let your sexuality move in whichever way it does. Do nothing to guide it or control it. What brings it into balance is you being in your heart in the midst of it. ~ John de Ruiter, #NFDB
677:It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don't mind hard work when there is no definite object of any kind. To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
678:It’s supposed to be a professional secret, but I’ll tell you anyway. We doctors do nothing. We only help and encourage the doctor within.” — ALBERT SCHWEITZER, M.D. ~ Lissa Rankin, #NFDB
679:The first duty of man is to take none of the principles of conduct upon trust; to do nothing without a clear and individual conviction that it is right to be done. ~ William Godwin, #NFDB
680:There is a call to spiritual perseverance. A call not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately, knowing with certainty that God will never be defeated. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
681:We all think we want to have a lot of choices, but the truth is that too many choices lead to overwhelm, causing people to make bad choices or shut down and do nothing. ~ S J Scott, #NFDB
682:You are also the physician who must watch over yourself. But in the course of every illness there are many days in which the physician can do nothing but wait. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
683:You can blame people who knock things over in the dark or you can begin to light candles. You're only at fault if you know about the problem and choose to do nothing. ~ Paul Hawken, #NFDB
684:As the French philosopher Alain has written, “You don’t need to be a sorcerer to cast a spell over yourself by saying ‘This is how I am. I can do nothing about it. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
685:everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
686:Feel nothing, know nothing, do nothing, have nothing, give up all to God, and say utterly, 'Thy will be done.' We only dream this bondage. Wake up and let it go. ~ Swami Vivekananda, #NFDB
687:I don’t feel comfortable with… doing the sexual things I want to do. So I do nothing at all.” “Unless Oli is there?” Charles grinned. “He brings out your inner ho. ~ Santino Hassell, #NFDB
688:I wanted to tear the skin from her face so I could see the blood of a woman who would stand by and do nothing while another woman endured what was being done to me. The ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
689:I would invite all Latin people to do nothing for about two weeks so you can see who really, really is running the economy I am here to give voice to the invisible. ~ Carlos Santana, #NFDB
690:By all evidence we are in the world to do nothing; but instead of nonchalantly promenading our own corruption, we exude our sweat and grow winded upon the fetid air. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
691:Do nothing, say nothing before considering if that which you are about to say or do is pleasing to God, profitable to yourself, and edifying to your neighbor.—ST. IGNATIUS. ~ Various, #NFDB
692:If a man but once tastes the joy of God, his desire to argue takes wing. What will you achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do nothing else. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
693:I'm also very proud to be a part of a trilogy of films that, if they do nothing else, allow people to check their problems at the door, sit down and have a good time. ~ Michael J Fox, #NFDB
694:Real friends … don’t give you heroin and cocaine.” He took a step closer. “And they don’t stand by and do nothing if they think one of their buddies is doing drugs. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
695:Those who do too much for their children will soon find they can do nothing with their children. So many children have been so much done for they are almost done in. ~ Neal A Maxwell, #NFDB
696:We do not kiss. We do nothing but hold on and breathe, but still I know. I cannot go gently now. Not even for the sake of my parents, my family.
Not even for Xander. ~ Ally Condie,#NFDB
697:You can blame people who knock things over in the dark, or you can begin to light candles. You’re only at fault if you know about the problem and choose to do nothing. ~ Scott Berkun, #NFDB
698:Do nothing and relax. Contemplate the sea and sunshine and contemplate contemplating, but without expending too much energy on contemplating your abilities to contemplate. ~ Jo Watson, #NFDB
699:We might all place ourselves in one of two ranks the women who do something, and the women who do nothing; the first being of course the only creditable place to occupy. ~ Lucy Larcom, #NFDB
700:If you have to be at work at 8, it's always like, 7:54. Just enough time to do nothing. To just lay there and go, "I can't do anything! I can't even have an English muffin! ~ Dane Cook, #NFDB
701:I joined Genesis when I was 19. I've earned the right to actually do nothing. I don't want to be a shadow of what I was, so I've kind of just quite willingly stood back. ~ Phil Collins, #NFDB
702:Land, domination, pre-emptive attacks - all just excuses, mundane justifications that do nothing but disguise the simple distinction. They are not us. We are not them. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
703:People mistakenly believe that if you do nothing but train you can only get better. You've got to work hard, but the harder you work the harder you must rest and relax. ~ Justin Gatlin, #NFDB
704:There's something about rushing water that I can watch for hours and feel as if I need to do nothing more. It's alive in a way that's greater than any description of it. ~ Mark Helprin, #NFDB
705:I couldn't tell people what I wanted to do because I was from Atlanta. You don't tell people you're gonna be a comedian in Atlanta. That means you ain't gonna do nothing. ~ Chris Tucker, #NFDB
706:If you have a 2 or 3 year old who is not talking, you must start an early intervention program. The worst thing you can do with an autistic 3 year old is to do nothing. ~ Temple Grandin, #NFDB
707:I want to undo this. To make it right. But I have no idea how. I don't seem to know how to open up to people without getting the door slammed in my face. So I do nothing. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
708:I want to undo this. To make it right. But I have no idea how. I don’t seem to know how to open up to people without getting the door slammed in my face. So I do nothing. ~ Gayle Forman, #NFDB
709:So why should he even bother himself with this? The answer came to his mind: Because what happened to Annie Brewer was evil and evil prevails when good men do nothing. ~ Frank E Peretti, #NFDB
710:The two chief teachings of this religion are these,” said Rumfoord: “Puny man can do nothing at all to help or please God Almighty, and Luck is not the hand of God. “Why ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
711:Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
712:Habakkuk couldn’t understand why God seemed to do nothing about the wickedness in society. Then he realized that faith in God alone would supply the answers to his questions. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
713:Politicians do nothing but ask of us, during every expiration of a legal statute, "a gesture of trust." But here trust is not enough; what's needed is an act of faith. ~ Indro Montanelli, #NFDB
714:There's something about rushing water that I can watch for hours and feel as if I need to do nothing more. It's alive in a way that's greater than any description of it... ~ Mark Helprin, #NFDB
715:While endangering one of the most pristine areas in the world, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would do nothing to make our country more energy independent. ~ Tom Daschle, #NFDB
716:With fierce hate harbored by a few and complacency displayed by the rest. All it takes for evil to take hold and flourish is for men and women of conscience to do nothing. ~ Lisa Shearin, #NFDB
717:And more than that: you are also the doctor responsible for looking after himself. But with all illnesses there are many days when the doctor can do nothing but wait. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
718:It is the people who can do nothing who find nothing to do, and the secret to happiness in this world is not only to be useful, but to be forever elevating one's uses. ~ Sarah Orne Jewett, #NFDB
719:One of the first keys to success, he considered, was to recognize the difference between problems you could do something about and problems you could do nothing about. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
720:Some people think that without that spark of empathy we would do nothing, but that's just flat-out wrong. You could feel compassion for somebody without the spark of empathy. ~ Paul Bloom, #NFDB
721:If we do nothing, the ensuing climate catastrophe will wreck our economy - including wreaking havoc on our food production systems. All credible scientists agree on this point. ~ Van Jones, #NFDB
722:It’s really hard to do nothing totally. Even just sitting here, like this, our bodies are churning, our minds are chattering. There’s a whole commotion going on inside us. ~ Jerry Spinelli, #NFDB
723:The animals know what’s coming before we do; they heed the instinct to flee. But we humans, even when we know what’s coming, we do nothing. We watch the animals disappear. ~ Alexis M Smith, #NFDB
724:Guidelines: •Cause no harm. •Have no fixed goals or plans. •Have no expectations. •Don’t create false needs. •Do nothing you hate. •Don’t rush. •Create no unnecessary actions. ~ Leo Babauta, #NFDB
725:Smith, quoting British philosopher Edmund Burke, ended Who Speaks for Birmingham? by saying: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. ~ Douglas Brinkley, #NFDB
726:The orators and the despots have the least power in their cities ... since they do nothing that they wish to do, practically speaking, though they do whatever they think to be best. ~ Plato, #NFDB
727:I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. ~ Joyce Meyer, #NFDB
728:What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance. ~ Barbara Jordan, #NFDB
729:If you have a great characters, you can always have your character do nothing or do something stupid, and people will still follow them, because they're so real and so tangible. ~ Drew Magary, #NFDB
730:I still remember, I think it was with the third movie, when we went to Munich and the entire Olympic stadium was filled with fans, and just to walk in there and do nothing. ~ Robert Pattinson, #NFDB
731:The withdrawal of the king from the narrative exposes the king as an irrelevance. The one with all the power can do nothing to save. Because it is only “my God who saves. ~ Walter Brueggemann, #NFDB
732:We make choices, decisions, as long as we keep to the surface of things; once we reach the depths, we can neither choose nor decide, we can do nothing but regret the surface…. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
733:You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
734:You’re going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
735:29To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
736:Do nothing to mar its grandeur ... keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you, as the one great sight which every American should see. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, #NFDB
737:It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
738:Setting an example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing. ~ William Faulkner, #NFDB
739:This company looks cheap, that company looks cheap, but the overall economy could completely screw it up. The key is to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to do nothing. ~ David Tepper, #NFDB
740:29 To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
741:Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn't care to, or he doesn't exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
742:Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn’t care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely. ~ Sam Harris, #NFDB
743:Finally: I'm bored, and I constantly do nothing. And writing things down really seems like work. They say work makes a man good and honest. Well, here's a chance, at least. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
744:Perhaps the sentiment was best expressed by noted Holocaust survivor turned Nazi hunter, Simon Wiesenthal: “for evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.” More ~ Hourly History, #NFDB
745:We wish that we could take magic drugs, play around all day, read, and do nothing strenuous, and be the smartest, happiest people in the world. The truth is, it's all about sweat. ~ Wayne Coyne, #NFDB
746:Some days are diamonds, some days are rocks. Some doors are opened, some roads are blocked. Sundowns are golden, then fade away. And if I never do nothing, I'll get you back someday. ~ Tom Petty, #NFDB
747:Maybe it was silent because it was gone. Maybe my lake had swallowed it and neutralized it. I was inundated with maybes lately. Limp noodley things you could do nothing with. ~ Karen Marie Moning, #NFDB
748:would do nothing but appreciate how precious each moment was, each second, because now I understood that tomorrow is never promised and anything can happen at any time. Anything at all. ~ Zoe Lea, #NFDB
749:If I'm in the country, my big idea is to do nothing. It means talking, it means cooking with the leftovers in the fridge - l'art d'accommoder les restes - it means gardening. ~ Christian Louboutin, #NFDB
750:I find myself able to act … for those who do live, but who will not know a tomorrow if I stand by and do nothing."
Swanson, Cidney. The Ripple Trilogy: Book Two - Chameleon ~ Cidney Swanson,#NFDB
751:Once again it occurred to me that so many of the things I could do in New York involved eating and drinking. Had we been placed here on earth to do nothing more than eat and drink? ~ Joshua Ferris, #NFDB
752:The Line don’t do nothing but point fingers,” the man continued. He sat with his legs crossed and his arms folded. “It tells us some people are all right. Some people ain’t. ~ Michael Farris Smith, #NFDB
753:Do nothing unto anyone that you would not like to have done unto yourself. Seek peace, and never be the aggressor—but if anyone attacks you, we do not teach you to turn the other cheek. ~ Malcolm X, #NFDB
754:He knew what the Beats know and what the great tennis player knows, son: learn to do nothing, with your whole head and body, and everything will be done by what's around you. ~ David Foster Wallace, #NFDB
755:Murray kept repeating that the BEF was under the formal orders of its Commander in Chief to rest, reorganize, and await reinforcements, and he could do nothing until his return. ~ Barbara W Tuchman, #NFDB
756:As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil. ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
757:Our story is never written in isolation. We do not act in a one-man play. We can do nothing that does not affect other people, no matter how loudly we say, "It's my own business. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
758:There is nothing to do, just be. Do nothing. Be. No climbing mountains and sitting in caves. I do not even say "be yourself" since you do not know yourself. Just be. ~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, #NFDB
759:Yet the bookshelf is also conspicuous in its absence. When we enter a living room without books or bookshelves, we wonder if the people in the house do nothing but watch television. ~ Henry Petroski, #NFDB
760:Yet the bookshelf us also conspicuous in its absence. When we enter a living room without books or bookshelves, we wonder if the people in the house do nothing but watch television. ~ Henry Petroski, #NFDB
761:Each thing leapfrogs. I do a Genesis project - like now, we're just finishing off an album - and then by the time the album is doing its thing, I could do nothing or I could do a film. ~ Phil Collins, #NFDB
762:Racist people are few, in the minority. But you can do nothing to change them. You can talk, you can do what you want, but you can't do anything because they are just stupid people. ~ Mario Balotelli, #NFDB
763:We can do nothing ourselves; God must do it. To speak to Him thus is easier by nature for woman than for man because a natural desire lives in her to give herself completely to someone. ~ Edith Stein, #NFDB
764:We must be active in all that the present moment demands of us, but in everything else remain passive and abandoned and do nothing but peacefully wait the promptings of God. ~ Jean Pierre de Caussade, #NFDB
765:As muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil. ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
766:I do not want any patronage, as I do not give any. I am a lover of my own liberty, and so I would do nothing to restrict yours. I simply want to please my own conscience which is God. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
767:To be humble is to take specific actions in anticipation of your own errors. To confess your fallibility and then do nothing about it is not humble; it is boasting of your modesty. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky, #NFDB
768:We can’t focus on everything that’s wrong with the world that we can’t fix, everything we failed to do right. You’d be paralyzed with indecision and do nothing worthwhile with your life. ~ Diane Capri, #NFDB
769:Evil doesn’t have to be an overt act; it can be merely the absence of good. If you have the ability, the resources, and the opportunity to do good and you do nothing, that can be evil. ~ Yvon Chouinard, #NFDB
770:This is politics" was always the mantra, as if we could do nothing about it, as if we'd all moved to a new city on a new planet called Politics, where none of the normal rules applied. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
771:You can’t operate a company by fear, because the way to eliminate fear is to avoid criticism, and the best way to avoid criticism is to do nothing. —STEVE ROSS, FORMER CEO OF TIME WARNER ~ Josh Kaufman, #NFDB
772:I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
773:I don't get nothing but love. In every ghetto all over the world. Nothing but love. They respect that I came outta there and I'm doing it the right way. You can't do nothing but respect that. ~ Ice Cube, #NFDB
774:Therefore a sage has said, 'I will do nothing (of purpose), and the people will be transformed of themselves; I will be fond of keeping still, and the people will of themselves become correct. ~ Lao Tzu, #NFDB
775:social violence. The message is, “I am not challenging you, I will do nothing bad, you do whatever you want and I will stay out of your way.” This is exactly what a predator is looking for. ~ Rory Miller, #NFDB
776:Be very sincere and straightforward, harbour nothing within yourself which you cannot show me without fear, do nothing which you would be ashamed of before me.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, [T3],#NFDB
777:Do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
778:Let’s invent "do nothing" days, where there is no plan and no structured play. Let’s ensure that kids get bored every so often and have to use their imaginations to invent ways to escape. ~ Richard Watson, #NFDB
779:Love, oneness, is no separation between you and life. It is a progressive letting go, a progressive not fault finding. Just do nothing and love this moment. Its very beautiful and very deep. ~ Ajahn Brahm, #NFDB
780:The familiar words of Jesus are “Without me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). But these must be balanced by the insight that, in general, if we do nothing it will certainly be without him. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
781:There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them. But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
782:I don't expect too much from the afterlife, I think that I know very well what pain is. When I think of the end of my life, I think mainly: I didn't do nothing, but I could have done more. ~ Sylvia Kristel, #NFDB
783:When you do nothing you feel overwhelmed and powerless. But when you get involved you feel the sense of hope and accomplishment that comes from knowing you are working to make things better. ~ Maya Angelou, #NFDB
784:If we do nothing then Wessex will spread like a plague. There’ll be priests everywhere.” We seek the future. We stare into its fog and hope to see a landmark that will make sense of fate. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
785:I'm not someone who can lie on a beach and do nothing. I am not sure what you are supposed to do, so I get bored. I prefer to have a purpose, such as going to Alaska to see orca whales. ~ Miranda Richardson, #NFDB
786:The arguments are the same whether the subject is climate disruption, evolution, vaccination, tobacco, or sex education. The first argument is: Lacking certainty, we should do nothing. ~ Shawn Lawrence Otto, #NFDB
787:The safest course was actually the simplest-do nothing at all and hope everything turned out for the best. It wasn't a great plan, but it had the benefits of simplicity and a long tradition. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
788:The safest course was actually the simplest—do nothing at all and hope everything turned out for the best. It wasn’t a great plan, but it had the benefits of simplicity and a long tradition. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
789:The choice to 'do nothing' in response to the mounting evidence is actually a choice to continue and even accelerate the reckless environmental destruction that is creating the catastrophe at hand. ~ Al Gore, #NFDB
790:There are moments when troubles enter our lives and we can do nothing to avoid them.
But they are there for a reason. Only when we have overcome them will we understand why they were there. ~ Paulo Coelho,#NFDB
791:The safest course was actually the simplest-do nothing at all and hope everything turned out for the best. It wasn't a great plan, but it had the benefits of simplicity and a long tradition. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
792:We men do nothing but lie and make ourselves important. Speech was invented for the purpose of magnifying all of our sensations and impressions — perhaps so that we could believe in them. ~ Miguel de Unamuno, #NFDB
793:When her gaze meets mine, I see the sadness and the guilt in her eyes. I know she feels bad about wanting us both, but she feels worse because she knows I can do nothing about it, no matter what. ~ B N Toler, #NFDB
794:Marietta is good for you, Gabriel. I quite like her. Don't be a fool and let her go."
"I can do nothing but let her go, John. Sometimes love can only be given by setting someone free. ~ Anne Mallory,#NFDB
795:The man who is sincere and careful to do nothing to others that he would not have done to him, is not far from the Law. What he does not desire to be done to him, let him not himself do to others. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
796:The safest course was actually the simplest – do nothing at all, and hope everything turns out for the best. It wasn’t a great plan, but it had the benefit of simplicity, and a long tradition. ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
797:Men get out of countenance with themselves and others because they treat the means as the end, and so, from sheer doing, do nothing, or, perhaps, just what they would have avoided. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
798:Savasana—corpse pose—is the hardest pose of all. You would think, ‘What could be hard about lying on the floor?’ But the truth is that we, as humans, are not wired to be still and do nothing. ~ Jennifer Weiner, #NFDB
799:So far as we are human, what we do must be either evil or good: so far as we do evil or good, we are human: and it is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least we exist. ~ T S Eliot, #NFDB
800:You have to take a little time to appreciate being alive and breathing instead of wondering what you have to do next all the time. You have to stop and do nothing for a little while every day. ~ Roland Merullo, #NFDB
801:You must in all Airs follow the strength, spirit, and disposition of the horse, and do nothing against nature; for art is but to set nature in order, and nothing else. ~ William Cavendish 1st Duke of Newcastle, #NFDB
802:I shall do nothing to discourage my patient, Monseigneur, any more than I shall bleed him, as many good people urge me to do. The mind, too, has a kind of blood; in common speech we call it hope. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
803:I thought it would all fall into place. I've changed my mind. Do nothing, and nothing happens. Life is about decisions. You either make them or they’re made for you, but you can’t avoid them. ~ Mhairi McFarlane, #NFDB
804:The more the poet grows, the deeper the level of creative intuition descends into the density of his soul. Where formerly he could be moved to song, he can do nothing now, he must dig deeper. ~ Jacques Maritain, #NFDB
805:There were other times when she was so shattered by ideas that she could do nothing worth while; when they trampled over her like an army and she felt as if she were bleeding to death under them. ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
806:Do you use 'True Will' as an excuse to do nothing?
Have you declared yourself enlightened?
Damn your weak philosophies; a pox and a pestilence your despicable sloth and arrogance. ~ Peter J Carroll,#NFDB
807:I have a little bit of an out-of-body experience where I enjoy the scenario, and I really do like seeing a crowd turn into a mob, and I do nothing to stop it. People can become really dangerous. ~ Norm MacDonald, #NFDB
808:I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road. - Stephen Hawking “Black Holes and Baby Universes ~ Stephen Hawking, #NFDB
809:I learned that politicians are not supposed to help people. They simply listen to people, nod their heads painfully, commiserate at proper intervals, promise to do all they can, and then do nothing. ~ Pat Conroy, #NFDB
810:It was so hard to be courageous. So hard to be a coward. Going forward or going back seemed equally awful. So much easier to do nothing. But if she did nothing, she would surely perish. What was she to do? ~ Avi, #NFDB
811:But why, if you
are so clever, do you lie here like a sack and have nothing to
show for it? One time you used to go out, you say, to teach
children. But why is it you do nothing now? ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky,#NFDB
812:Now I will do nothing but listen to accrue what I hear into this song. To let sounds contribute toward it. I hear the sound I love. The sound of the human voice. I hear all sounds running together. ~ Walt Whitman, #NFDB
813:there's something about Paris that gives you a mental slap all the time, and you can't just sit still and do nothing. You've got to work, to keep up with the pace, the sting in the atmosphere. ~ Daphne du Maurier, #NFDB
814:everything has to be as it is, everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
815:Believing that other people are always better than you-better-looking, more capable, richer, more intelligent-and that it's very dangerous to step outside your own limits, so it's best to do nothing. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
816:Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
817:There are people who have too much space between their ears, and given the time, do nothing but free fall forever inside their head. It's a spooky thing to be left alone inside an angry innerverse. ~ James St James, #NFDB
818:Go home and do nothing. Sit around, watch TV, spend an entire day on the sofa. Discover that your world doesn’t implode without you going a hundred miles an hour. Get up the next day and do it again. ~ Rachel Hollis, #NFDB
819:He and I had a bridge that no one else traveled that made us artistic lovers, passionate without a touch of the flesh. He made me thrive, and valuing that, I could do nothing that would endanger it. ~ Susan Vreeland, #NFDB
820:If you start watching the oldies, you're in trouble. I feel ancient if "Grand Hotel" or "The Bride Wore Red" comes on. I have a sneaking regard for "Mildred Pierce", but the others do nothing for me. ~ Joan Crawford, #NFDB
821:...Mama used to say that when you don't know what to do, do nothing. She meant you can try too hard to solve a problem. If you give it a little time, the answer might just come to you plain as day. ~ Amy Hill Hearth, #NFDB
822:Man is the only one that knows nothing, that can learn nothing without being taught. He can neither speak nor walk nor eat, and in short he can do nothing at the prompting of nature only, but weep. ~ Pliny the Elder, #NFDB
823:Sally, do you think God has put us into the world just to be selfish, and do nothing but see after our own souls? or to help one another with heart and hand, as Christ did to all who wanted help? ~ Elizabeth Gaskell, #NFDB
824:The future has many names. For the weak, it’s unattainable. For the fearful, it’s unknown. For the bold, it’s ideal. —VICTOR HUGO To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing. —ARISTOTLE ~ Anthony Robbins, #NFDB
825:the sentence that best expresses a snail's way of life: 'The right thing to do is to do nothing, the place to do it is in a place of concealment and the time to do it is as often as possible. ~ Elisabeth Tova Bailey, #NFDB
826:Coercion from outside, strong temperamental inclinations and passions within ourselves, do nothing to effect the essence of our freedom. They simply define its action by imposing certain limits on it. ~ Thomas Merton, #NFDB
827:God scorns and mocks the devil, in setting under his very nose a poor, weak, human creature, mere dust and ashes, yet endowed with the firstfruits of the Spirit, against whom the devil can do nothing. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
828:To protect the innocent, to avoid being one of Burke's good men who do nothing, you have to accept permanent scars that cincture the heart and traumas of the mind that occasionally reopen to weep again. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
829:Don’t smile. Don’t sweat. Don’t do nothing. Don’t even breathe. It was like watching a salivating bear you knew would either lumber past and go on its way … Or rip your arm off and beat you with it. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
830:Egypt has responded to hundreds of thousands of protesters by shutting down the Internet. Just a word of advice: If you want people to stay at home and do nothing, you should turn the Internet back on. ~ Conan O Brien, #NFDB
831:I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it - keep going, keep going come what may. ~ Vincent Van Gogh, #NFDB
832:Create your vision, then systematically follow it. There are no guarantees of success. There is only the assurance that if you do nothing, you will accomplish nothing. . . . Where do you want to start?
~ Forsha (31),#NFDB
833:Don’t assume that because you know something in the future won’t happen, that you can do nothing. Sometimes the reason it doesn’t happen is you.” -Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Harold Quickly, 1997 ~ Nathan Van Coops, #NFDB
834:hugging each other at least three times a day: once before leaving for work, a second time when arriving home, and a third time before going to sleep. If you do nothing else, hug three times—but truly hug. ~ Ian Kerner, #NFDB
835:I have a rule that has served me well in life. When in doubt, do nothing. If you're not sure, don't buy it, don't comment, don't commit. Sit tight. Deviation from this maxim has usually caused me regret. ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
836:A good judge should never boast of his power, because he can do nothing but what he can do justly: he is not the master, but the minister of the law. Authority without virtue is a very dangerous state. ~ Thomas F Wilson, #NFDB
837:When I did Yoda, me and three other people worked our asses off, and I was sweating every single day, it was tough as hell. Now that it's CGI, 24 people work on Yoda, and I get all the credit -- I do nothing. ~ Frank Oz, #NFDB
838:Afflictive emotion is the oxygen of conflict. It is thus essential that we remain sensitive to others and, recognizing their equal right to happiness, do nothing that could contribute to their suffering. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
839:My lord, do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way.” There ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
840:The psychologist Paul Rozin, an expert on disgust, observed that a single cockroach will completely wreck the appeal of a bowl of cherries, but a cherry will do nothing at all for a bowl of cockroaches. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
841:To be in some riverbottom somewhere, or in a desert, or in mountains, or in some hut in Mexico or shack in Adirondack, and rest and be kind, and do nothing else, practice what the Chinese call “do-nothing. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
842:You may be sick of what you did the first half of your life, but you don't just have to walk around and play golf or do nothing... It's not like fifty is the new thirty. It's like fifty is the new chapter. ~ Sharon Stone, #NFDB
843:Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
844:Levin tried to drink a little coffee, and put a piece of roll into his mouth, but his mouth could do nothing with it. He took the piece out of his mouth, put on his overcoat and went out to walk about again. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
845:No. But it's like the argument `don't donate to third-world countries because the money mightn't get to them.' People only say that because it makes them feel better about the fact that they do nothing. ~ Melina Marchetta, #NFDB
846:the bar was the best place to hide in. time came under your control, time to wade in, time to do nothing in. no guru was needed, no god. nothing expected but yourself and nothing lost to the unexpected. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
847:The psychologist, Paul Rozin, an expert on disgust, observed that a single cockroach will completely wreck the appeal of a bowl of cherries, but a cherry will do nothing at all for a bowl of cockroaches. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
848:Don’t assume that because you know something in the future won’t happen, that you can do nothing. Sometimes the reason it doesn’t happen is you.” -Excerpt from the journal of Dr. Harold Quickly, 1997 I ~ Nathan Van Coops, #NFDB
849:Frankly - and believe me, I say this without any pretense - when I see the road I've taken, I have to say that thanks to good luck, because without good luck one can do nothing, I've come out pretty well. ~ James MacArthur, #NFDB
850:Hillary Clinton is a bigot who sees people of color only as votes, not as human beings worthy of a better future. She's going to do nothing for African-Americans. She's going to do nothing for the Hispanics. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
851:...if he lost consciousness still telling me to do nothing, I'd have to let him die. You say yourself he's rational. I have no right to go against his desires. No matter how stupid and wasteful they are. ~ Vonda N McIntyre, #NFDB
852:Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such; but for certain individuals they have a strong affection, and are helpful to them in many ways. ~ James Weldon Johnson, #NFDB
853:Without any incentives for productivity (capitalistic model), they were quite content do nothing, which unfortunately is the by-product of any system that bases wages solely on head counts (socialistic model). ~ Ben Carson, #NFDB
854:You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #NFDB
855:But the real question, boys, is this: do we have a duty to do anything to stop things we may not like? Is it all right just to do nothing, provided that we don’t do anything that makes matters worse? ~ Alexander McCall Smith, #NFDB
856:How hard to build. How easy to evacuate. How hard to capture. How easy to do nothing. How hard to achieve anything. War is action, energy & hazard. These sheep only want to browse among the daisies. ~ Winston S Churchill, #NFDB
857:Doing nothing can sometimes be the most effective form of action. If you do nothing, you'll be sending a clear message: that you're stronger than they think you are. Not to mention a lot classier. Think about it. ~ Kevin Kwan, #NFDB
858:Sometimes rescue comes to you. It just shows up, and you do nothing. Maybe you deserve it, maybe you don't. But be ready, when it comes, to decide if you will take the outstretched hand and let it pull you ashore. ~ Sara Zarr, #NFDB
859:When you're facing a difficult issue that you absolutely can do nothing about - I can't fly the plane; I can't change the weather - falling asleep, you'll either wake up and things will be fine or you won't. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
860:With younger children the greatest reward is to be able to pass on to a new stage in each subject. It is a punishment to a young child not to be allowed to use the apparatus but to sit still and do nothing. ~ Maria Montessori, #NFDB
861:But on the road that I'm on I must continue; if I do nothing, if I don't study, if I don't keep on trying, then I'm lost, then woe betide me. That's how I see this, to keep on, keep on, that's what's needed. ~ Vincent Van Gogh, #NFDB
862:Capitalism justified itself and was adopted as an economic principle on the express ground that it provides selfish motives for doing good, and that human beings will do nothing except for selfish motives ~ George Bernard Shaw, #NFDB
863:I could do nothing without my problems; they toughen my mind. In fact, I tell my assistants not to bring me their successes for they weaken me, but rather to bring me their problems, for they strengthen me. ~ Charles Kettering, #NFDB
864:I don't know who said it first, but the following is good advice: If you do nothing but read your Bible, you will dry up; if you only pray, you will blow up; but if you read your Bible and pray, you will grow up. ~ R T Kendall, #NFDB
865:The power of declaring war being with the Legislature, the Executive should do nothing necessarily committing them to decide for war in preference of non-intercourse, which will be preferred by a great many. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
866:A hero isn’t defined by winning. Loads of heroes die in the effort. Most of them never get any recognition. No, a hero is just somebody who does the right thing when it would be far, far easier to do nothing. ~ G Norman Lippert, #NFDB
867:Humans are passionate in all they do, even should they wish to do nothing. They battle, they rage, they kill, they love, they are capable of mercy in the most impossible of circumstances, and they are monstrous. ~ Pippa DaCosta, #NFDB
868:Now I will do nothing but listen
to accrue what I hear into this song.
To let sounds contribute toward it.
I hear the sound I love.
The sound of the human voice.
I hear all sounds running together. ~ Walt Whitman,#NFDB
869:The world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, famine and mass displacement that will fuel more conflict for decades. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
870:Truthfully, most directors don't direct actors. Every actor is different, so when you're asked, "How do you approach an actor?," it depends on the actor. With some, you do nothing. With some, you're very specific. ~ John Landis, #NFDB
871:What is past is past. You can do nothing about yesterday and last month and the failures of last year, but you can do everything toward making tomorrow and the rest of your life what you always dreamed it could be. ~ Og Mandino, #NFDB
872:All too often, when we see injustices, both great and small, we think, That’s terrible, but we do nothing. We say nothing. We let other people fight their own battles. We remain silent because silence is easier. Qui ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
873:Hopelessness, despair—these drive us to do nothing. Pity, empathy—those drive us to do something, like get up from our computers to act. But anger, fear, excitement, laughter, and outrage—these drive us to spread. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
874:I do not believe in inheriting your position in society based on which womb you come from... I think a rich person should leave his children enough so they can do anything, but not enough so they can do nothing. ~ Warren Buffett, #NFDB
875:I'm going to just sit down for a couple of weeks and do nothing but read who-dunnits and Art books. I feel my work is getting a bit dull and mechanical and this proposed resting should work up some enthusiasm in me. ~ E J Hughes, #NFDB
876:It's easy to be afraid of taking a plunge, because, after all, plunging is dangerous. And the fear is a safe way to do nothing at all. Wading, on the other hand, gets under the radar. It gives you a chance to begin. ~ Seth Godin, #NFDB
877:Love is more than simply being open to experiencing the anguish of another person's suffering. It is the willingness to live with the helpless knowing that we can do nothing to save the other from his pain. (23) ~ Sheldon B Kopp, #NFDB
878:She released him and Kleitos rubbed his neck, glaring at the two guards outside her door.
“And you do nothing?” he demanded.
Demetrius shrugged. “Our orders are quite specific, Chancellor—” “Never mind! ~ G A Aiken,#NFDB
879:Work is as much a necessity to man as eating and sleeping. Even those who do nothing that can be called work still imagine they are doing something. The world has not a man who is an idler in his own eyes. ~ Wilhelm von Humboldt, #NFDB
880:being meek and silent prevents social violence. The message is, “I am not challenging you, I will do nothing bad, you do whatever you want and I will stay out of your way.” This is exactly what a predator is looking ~ Rory Miller, #NFDB
881:No, I don’t buy into that you have to love them because you’re related to them tripe. Life is short. At least for you humans. Too short to waste on people who treat you badly and do nothing but make you miserable. ~ Dianne Duvall, #NFDB
882:One should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the strength and force of the opposition. This means that one should do nothing that is not natural or spontaneous; the important thing is not to strain in any way. ~ Bruce Lee, #NFDB
883:Those Russkies won’t put up with your whining and bellyaching for one second. I believe in freedom and individual rights as well as the next man but nobody has the right to live here and do nothing but run us down. ~ Fannie Flagg, #NFDB
884:You have been asking what you could do in the great events that are now stirring, and have found that you could do nothing. But that is because your suffering has caused you to phrase the question in the wrong way. ~ Steven Brust, #NFDB
885:You know...” Amaranthe dumped her dust pile outside and returned to face him. “It’s hard for me to maintain my vigor and enthusiasm for leading you when you do nothing but stand there and ooze disapproval at me. ~ Lindsay Buroker, #NFDB
886:Children turn, and must turn, against their parents, and the parents can do nothing about it, for they are subject to a law which decrees the relations among all the living: i.e., that each engenders his own enemy. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
887:The mind of a little child is fascinating, for it looks on old things with new eyes-but at about twelve this changes. The adolescent offers nothing, can do nothing, say nothing that the adult cannot do better. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
888:What this world needs is truth, not consolation. It must find itself in its ordeal and by way of its restlessness, not in the solace of edifying discourses that do nothing but pile on more testimony to its misery. ~ Jean Luc Nancy, #NFDB
889:It's absolutely essential for every generation to capture that social responsibility. Injustice grows like weeds. The injustices of the world are like weeds, and if you do nothing they'll choke your whole garden, man. ~ Luis Valdez, #NFDB
890:It was all very well being told that she could do nothing to make things better. Neverfell did not have the kind of mind that could take that quietly. She did not have the kind of mind that could be quiet at all. ~ Frances Hardinge, #NFDB
891:Live always as if you were under the very eye of the supreme and the Divine Mother. Do nothing, try to think and feel nothing that would be unworthy of the Divine Presence.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Letters On Himself And The Ashram, 852,#NFDB
892:Protect your enthusiasm from the negativity and fear of others. Never decide to do nothing just because you can only do little. Do what you can. You would be surprised at what "little" acts have done for our world. ~ Steve Maraboli, #NFDB
893:Some Republicans will see political risk in such a negotiation — a fix to Obamacare would be a tacit admission that it is here to stay. But the alternative is to do nothing, and let Obamacare continue with all its warts. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
894:The left claims that Republicans hate Hispanics, which is just the most ludicrous thing I've ever heard, and the right just claims all we need to do is close the borders and do nothing else, which is also ridiculous. ~ Raul Labrador, #NFDB
895:If you give voters a choice between a Democrat who promises to do nothing and a Republican who promises to do nothing, they’re generally going to side with the Republican, because they’re better at that than we are. ~ Martin O Malley, #NFDB
896:We all of us die, Miss Smallwood,' he interrupted. 'But we don't all of us make our lives count for something. How much better to die saving another soul than to stand safe on shore and do nothing while others perish? ~ Julie Klassen, #NFDB
897:All the passages in the Holy Scriptures that mention assistance are they that do away with "free-will", and these are countless...For grace is needed, and the help of grace is given, because "free-will" can do nothing. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
898:If you are to reach masses of people in this world, you must do it by a sign language. Whether your vehicle be commerce, literature, or politics, you can do nothing but raise signals, and make motions to the people. ~ John Jay Chapman, #NFDB
899:I will do nothing lightly. When I walk, I will walk heavily. When I fight, I will fight with conviction. When I speak, I will speak strongly. When I feel, I will feel everything. When I love, I will love with everything. ~ Evan Tanner, #NFDB
900:One good idea that comes in out of nowhere can change your entire life, but it ain’t gonna do nothing if you don’t act on it, and your subconscious is so ninja it can stop you without you even realizing what’s happening. ~ Jen Sincero, #NFDB
901:It sounds like a lot of work for my mother, but cooking was almost all she did. In suburban Connecticut, middle-class women were required to stay at home and do nothing but cook and iron. Housecleaning was for immigrants. ~ Donald Hall, #NFDB
902:Legasov didn’t want to listen. He insisted that they had to take immediate action—whether it was effective or not. “People won’t understand if we do nothing,” Legasov said. “We have to be seen to be doing something. ~ Adam Higginbotham, #NFDB
903:That was Parvateshwar’s way. If he was confronted with an ugly situation that he could do nothing about, he did not wallow in his misery. He would drown himself in his work so that he did not have to think about the crisis. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
904:Do nothing through human respect and, when it assails you, say: I shall do neither more nor less for the eyes of creatures. O my God, since I wish to please Thee alone, it suffices that Thou seest me everywhere. ~ Margaret Mary Alacoque, #NFDB
905:In the growth mindset, it’s almost inconceivable to want something badly, to think you have a chance to achieve it, and then do nothing about it. When it happens, the "I could have been" is heartbreaking, not comforting. ~ Carol S Dweck, #NFDB
906:But if you were Matched," I say softly, "what do you think she'd be life?" "You," he says, almost before I've finished. "You." We do not kiss. We do nothing bu hold on and breather, but still I know. I cannot go gently now. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
907:Let not any one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
908:Forgive me, Magnus.’
‘I don’t know if I can.’
‘You must.’
Still looking into the distance, he said, ‘You need my forgiveness?’
‘No. I’m dead. You can do nothing for me. You need to forgive me so you can live. ~ Raymond E Feist,#NFDB
909:He who shows not zeal where zeal should be shown, who young and strong gives himself up to indolence, who lets his will and intelligence sleep, that do-nothing, that coward shall not find the way of the perfect knowledge. ~ Dhammapada 280, #NFDB
910:I’m so revolted by writers taking themselves seriously that, as a kind of protest, I’ve deprioritized the role of writing in my life. I do it when I’ve not got anything better to do – and even then I often do nothing instead. ~ Geoff Dyer, #NFDB
911:In fact you need do nothing to be connected with the Law of Attraction! Whether you like it or not, since the very beginning of time, it is an unyielding, never bending, unbreakable universal rule. You cannot escape it! ~ Stephen Richards, #NFDB
912:What are we to think of the shortsightedness of the great mass of people who are content to do nothing about it, and even worse, the greed or venality of the rich and powerful who deliberately bar the way to human survival? ~ Allen W Wood, #NFDB
913:Idleness, pleasure, what abysses! To do nothing is a dreary course to take, be sure of it. To live idle upon the substance of society! To be useless, that is to say, noxious! This leads straight to the lowest depth of misery. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
914:I shall not do more than I can, and I shall do all I can to save the government, which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealing. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
915:Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it, this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What do do? where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough. ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
916:Everybody has asked the question . . . 'What shall we do with the Negro?' I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
917:How about we make a date to do nothing but curl up together after school alone and Roku a Big Bang Theory marathon.” I grinned at him. “No one but me knows what a dork you truly are.” “I need to laugh, and Sheldon makes me laugh. ~ P C Cast, #NFDB
918:I read the paper about suicides and murders and I understand it all thoroughly. I feel murderous, suicidal. I feel somehow that it is a disgrace to do nothing, to just bide one’s time, to take it philosophically, to be sensible. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
919:Paradise was unendurable, otherwise the first man would have adapted to it; this world is no less so, since here we regret paradise or anticipate another one. What to do? Where to go? Do nothing and go nowhere, easy enough. ~ Emile M Cioran, #NFDB
920:The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’” “Just checking your memory,” Cameron said, the slightest of smiles teasing at the corner of her mouth. “It’s one of my favorites,” Nathan admitted ~ Ryk Brown, #NFDB
921:Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
922:Businesses that grow by development and improvement do not die. But when a business ceases to be creative, when it believes it has reached perfection and needs to do nothing but produce no improvement, no development, it is done ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
923:But, it seems to me that there are so many older than us who are able to take care of those in need. If everyone did a little bit, then everybody would be okay, I think. Instead, most people do nothing. And that is the problem. ~ Randy Ribay, #NFDB
924:Anybody intelligent enough to realize what America is, is not going to sit around and do nothing about it. They're going to be the same way that I am. They're going to be the same way our fans are. They're going to be pissed. ~ Marilyn Manson, #NFDB
925:If you're fortunate to get a first album that sells 10 million you have nowhere to go but down. I'm just going to be honest and your measuring stick is so high that haters are licking their chops because you can't do nothing but fail. ~ Nelly, #NFDB
926:If the boat they were riding in was plunging over the falls upside down, there was nothing to do but fall with it. Tebngo could struggle all he wanted to at this point, and it would do nothing to change the flow of the river. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
927:In NFL preseason, the coaches don't use 10% of the playbook. They don't game plan. They do nothing. They don't give anything away for the regular season. They try to get everybody safely through it without anybody getting hurt. ~ Rush Limbaugh, #NFDB
928:(M)aking any choice also means relinquishing its alternative... The choice to do nothing is also a choice... The correct choice is usually also the most frightening choice because a bit more courage is needed in order to choose it. ~ Yoav Blum, #NFDB
929:Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy ~ John Piper, #NFDB
930:Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that He will provide the help we need. Prayer humbles us as needy and exalts God as wealthy. ~ John Piper, #NFDB
931:That boy,” he said. “I’ve done him ever favor I could. Some folks you can’t do nothing with. Just sorry. God knows I’ve done plenty of drinking and stuff in my time, but I be damn if I ever tried to cheat anybody out of any money. ~ Larry Brown, #NFDB
932:there is a suicidal weakness in the relationship between the democracies and war; that our first reflex, when the alarm sounds and well-armed and determined adversaries trample our values underfoot, is to do nothing at all. ~ Bernard Henri L vy, #NFDB
933:...vicinity to the sea is desirable, because it is easier to do nothing by the sea than anywhere else, and because bathing and basking on the shore cannot be considered an employment but only an apotheosis of loafing. ("Expiation") ~ E F Benson, #NFDB
934:The lessons of history show - and I'm not talking about any particular history, all history - when you see minor abuses start to build up in the intolerance space and do nothing about them, then they lead to bigger and bigger abuses. ~ Tim Kaine, #NFDB
935:When it's mutual, a man and a woman know, instinctively, wordlessly. They may do nothing about it, but the knowledge of that shared desire is out there in the world - as obvious as neon, saying: I want you, I want you, I want you. ~ William Boyd, #NFDB
936:I have a lot of time to smoke a cigar and sit around and do nothing and enjoy life-and wonder and ponder. I need time to think about how to conquer things. I am faced with the challenge of what I will do next and how will I do it. ~ Mark Gonzales, #NFDB
937:Different prayers and formulas are good and beautiful, but the essential thing . . . is the simple relationship of a child to its mother, this sense of our need for this mother, the conviction that without her we can do nothing. ~ Maximilian Kolbe, #NFDB
938:He shook his head, looked around carefully and then lowered his voice. “Pretend to be mad and talk a lot. Then—and this is the important bit—do nothing at all until you absolutely have to and then make sure everyone dies.” “Thanks, ~ Jasper Fforde, #NFDB
939:He who knows nothing loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees. The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
940:Human life has the software and hardware to go the distance. All we need to do is know our nature and mimic nature's way. Do less and accomplish more; do nothing and accomplish everything is nature's secret to the miracle of life. ~ John Douillard, #NFDB
941:As an adventurer...I try to protect against the downside. I make sure I have covered as many eventualities as I can. In the end, you have to take calculated risks; otherwise you're going to sit in mothballs all day and do nothing. ~ Richard Branson, #NFDB
942:"It is, indeed, well known that the ego not only can do nothing against the self, but is sometimes actually assimilated by unconscious components of the personality that are in the process of development and is greatly altered by them." ~ Carl Jung, #NFDB
943:The spiritual rest, which God particularly intends in this Commandment, is this: that we not only cease from our labor and trade, but much more, that we let God alone work in us and that we do nothing of our own with all our powers. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
944:Even if you do nothing, say nothing and be nothing, there will still be many who will criticise you. It is much better to be criticised for success than be condemned for failures because success rids you of the many miseries of life. ~ Awdhesh Singh, #NFDB
945:Even if you do nothing, say nothing and be nothing, there will still be many who will criticize you. It is much better to be criticized for success than be condemned for failures because success rids you of the many miseries of life. ~ Awdhesh Singh, #NFDB
946:Confucius is like the Torah, rules to follow. And Lao-Tzu is even more conservative, saying that if you do nothing you won't break any rules. You have to let tradition fall sometime, you have to take action, you have to eat bacon. ~ Christopher Moore, #NFDB
947:have learned over the years to control my emotions and, more important, my reactions during stressful, volatile situations. I may strike quickly and violently, but I do nothing without a certain level of deliberation and purpose. These ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
948:Hillary Clinton is going to do nothing for the African-American worker, the Latino worker. She's going to do nothing. Give me your vote, she says, on November 8th. And then she'll say, so long, see you in four years. That's what it is. ~ Donald Trump, #NFDB
949:If we do nothing, we are handing our children a ticking time bomb that will require they pay ever greater payroll taxes just as they are beginning their careers, starting their own families and staking their claim to the American Dream. ~ John McCain, #NFDB
950:Many talk of what they can do and what they cannot do, and I fear they miss the vital point. Faith is leaving off the can-ing and cannot-ing, and leaving it all to Christ, for he can do all things, though you can do nothing. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
951:She leaned down so she was looking right in my eyes. "You hear me, child. you can't use other folks' bad behavior to excuse your own. When we got a choice, we keep Jesus in our hearts and don't do nothing that would make him ashamed. ~ Susan Crandall, #NFDB
952:The European policy is invariably the maintenance of the status quo, and you will do nothing for the subject races unless we, by taking initiative, make you realize that helping us against the Turks is the lesser of the evils. ~ Eleftherios Venizelos, #NFDB
953:Choices will continually be necessary and -- let us not forget -- possible. Obedience to God is always possible. It is a deadly error to fall into the notion that when feelings are extremely strong we can do nothing but act on them. ~ Elisabeth Elliot, #NFDB
954:I know that I won't succeed at everything, every day. Some days have to be solely about my daughter. Some days I really try to be a good wife. Other days, I can take a few hours for myself and just do nothing but really focus on work. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
955:They know they're supposed to do something, but they're not sure what. And you know what they do when they're not sure-- of course you do: They either do the wrong thing or they do nothing, and it's a toss up as to which is worse. ~ Jill Conner Browne, #NFDB
956:It’s like looking into a full-length mirror and seeing nothing but pure beauty in the reflection…and then watching helplessly as it shatters into a thousand pieces before your eyes, knowing that you can do nothing to keep it from breaking… ~ J Sterling, #NFDB
957:My attitude when I'm in Mexico is I wake up in the morning with nothing to do and I go to bed half done. I don't wear a watch. When I live down there, I do nothing according to time. I eat when I'm hungry and go to sleep when I'm tired. ~ Jesse Ventura, #NFDB
958:Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of ‘touching’ a man’s heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
959:The greatest crime is to do nothing because we can only do a little (...) I feel nothing, because feeling is subversive and contrary to military discipline. Therefore I do not feel, but I fight and therefore I exist. (part I, chapter 10) ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
960:Third, it puts more small-scale capitalists out of business. They can do nothing but join the working class. ‘Thus’, says Marx, ‘the forest of uplifted arms demanding work becomes ever thicker, while the arms themselves become ever thinner. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
961:This is another day, O Lord...
If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely.
If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly.
If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently.
And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. ~ Kathleen Norris,#NFDB
962:I am choking in the suffocating foul air of the harbor. I want to hoist my sails in the open sea, even though a tempest may be blowing. Furled sails are always dirty. Those who would deride me are so many furled sails. They can do nothing. ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
963:I'm always wondering: Have all these time-saving devices actually saved us any time, or have they just created a million fetishes and obsessions that keep us from the quiet half hour we should be taking to sit and do nothing every day? ~ Mark Feuerstein, #NFDB
964:4. Do nothing. Instead of spending all your time focused intently on your field, make time for idleness, fun, and irrelevant interests. You will become more creative and innovative and will be more likely to come up with breakthrough ideas. ~ Emma Sepp l, #NFDB
965:Let's start wobbling, shall we? said Locke's knees, but this offer was met by a counterproposal from his better judgement to simply freeze up and do nothing, like a man treading water who sees a tall black fin coming straight at him. ~ Scott Lynch, #NFDB
966:Learn, brethren, before it be too late, that ‘without Christ you can do nothing:’ that ‘all your fresh springs are in him:’ and ‘of him must your fruit be founds:’ ‘in him alone shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.’ ~ Charles Simeon, #NFDB
967:Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good. ~ Elizabeth Edwards, #NFDB
968:If we do nothing...and turn our backs now, in future generations, when rank corruption masquerades as libery, it will be upon our shoulders. True patriots will then ask why we who were there to witness our nation at the crossroads did nothing. ~ David Liss, #NFDB
969:For who in fact seeks the salvation of souls through indulgences, and not instead money for his coffers? This is evident from the way indulgences are preached . For the commissioners and preachers do nothing but extol indulgences and incite. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
970:My future,” Joe said, “is Ox.” Ah god, that made me ache. “Is that so?” Mom asked. “How do you figure?” “He’s really nice,” Joe said seriously. “And smells good. And he makes me happy. And I want to do nothing more than put my mouth on him.” “Ah ~ T J Klune, #NFDB
971:No man is without some quality, by the due application of which he might deserve well of the world; and whoever he be that has but little in his power should be in haste to do that little, lest he be confounded with him that can do nothing. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
972:The word wait does not suggest that we sit around and do nothing. It means “to hope,” to look to God for all that we need (Isa. 26:3; 30:15). This involves meditating on His character and His promises, praying, and seeking to glorify Him. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
973:All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing as they must if they believe they can do nothing. There is nothing worse because the council of despair is declaration of irresponsibility; it is Pilate washing his hands. ~ Edmund Burke, #NFDB
974:Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
975:Most of the time—99 percent of the time—you just don’t know how and why the threads are looped together, and that’s okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
976:The media has brainwashed the electorate to expect the government to do something. The best economic policy of any government is to do nothing but reduce the size of the government, reduce the size of the laws, and reduce the size of regulations. ~ Marc Faber, #NFDB
977:When I am convinced of any principle, it is only an idea which strikes more strongly upon me. When I give the preference to one set of arguments above another, I do nothing but decide from my feeling concerning the superiority of their influence. ~ David Hume, #NFDB
978:All the great heroes of your life have taught you nothing. And they are no better than you, in any way. Politicians, actors, athletes, rock-stars, your boss, therapist, teacher, spouse, or whoever, are just skillful at what they do—nothing more. ~ Wayne W Dyer, #NFDB
979:An idiot will do anything, no matter how stupid, because he is afraid of what everybody will think of him if he does nothing. A genius, on the other hand, is content to do nothing, no matter what people think, if he can’t find anything worth doing. ~ Tom Upton, #NFDB
980:If we do nothing, we still get to a post-carbon future, but it will be bleak. However, if we plan the transition, we can have a world that supports robust communities of healthy, creative people and ecosystems with millions of other species. ~ Richard Heinberg, #NFDB
981:The big dividing line is not and has never been between those who advocate more or less militant forms of resistance, or between mainstream and grassroots activists. The dividing line is between those who do something and those who do nothing. ~ Derrick Jensen, #NFDB
982:To bring about destruction by overcrowding, mass starvation, anarchy, the destruction of our most cherished values, there is no need to do anything. We need only do nothing except what comes naturally, and breed. And how easy it is to do nothing ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
983:Wearing your red scarves, your Liverpool scarves. To support Liverpool Football Club. So I thank you, boys. I thank you. For supporting Liverpool Football Club. Because we could do nothing without you, boys –
We would be nothing without you. ~ David Peace,#NFDB
984:After his own experience in Oxford, he knew that the Christian faith was not about how one behaved but about what one believed, and if one truly believed one could do nothing to achieve salvation but believe in Jesus, one’s behavior would follow. ~ Eric Metaxas, #NFDB
985:THE MISCONCEPTION: People who are losing at the game of life must have done something to deserve it. THE TRUTH: The beneficiaries of good fortune often do nothing to earn it, and bad people often get away with their actions without consequences. ~ David McRaney, #NFDB
986:There is something profoundly cynical, my friends, in the notion of paradise after death. The lure is evasion. The promise is excusative. One need not accept responsibility for the world as it is, and by extension, one need do nothing about it. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
987:But I can tell you this, without question. She took no drugs at all, except for pot, and not too much. And during her pregnancy there was no question, she was so in love with her pregnancy she would do nothing. I’d pour a glass of wine and she ~ Vincent Bugliosi, #NFDB
988:I decided that the future most in keeping with the dark figure I planned and his journey toward war was what I call the do-nothing future, the one in which humanity clings to its old home, the continents of Earth, and waits for the money to run out. ~ Gene Wolfe, #NFDB
989:If we see each problem—be it water shortages, climate change, or poverty—as separate, and approach each separately, the solutions we come up with will be short-term, often opportunistic, “quick fixes” that do nothing to address deeper imbalances. ~ Peter M Senge, #NFDB
990:It is not a case of whether we want to wash our hands of Europe or want to help her to regain her feet. The troubles of Europe have been laid on our doorstep, so to speak, and will plague us, if we do nothing to cure them, whether we like it or not. ~ B C Forbes, #NFDB
991:The Vedantins say that the Atman is completely unattached. Sin or virtue, pain or pleasure, cannot affect it; but they can inflict sufferings on those who have attachment to the body. The smoke can soil the walls, but can do nothing to the sky. ~ Sri Ramakrishna, #NFDB
992:good women are tired of giving their love to people who do nothing but break their spirit mighty women are tired of using their strength to hold on to relationships that aren’t worthy of their energy these women are capable of walking away and they will ~ R H Sin, #NFDB
993:I am only mortal, desperate, urgent. Spirits have endless ages in which to do nothing, if they so choose, but humans have death to hurry them on. Near or far, the end is always in sight. We have no time to stand and stare. Make your choice, Fernanda. ~ Jan Siegel, #NFDB
994:It was a terrible mistake to say this. She got to screaming at me then. She'd scream like a great bird sometimes. She'd grow wings and fly around the house screaming. It was really awful. It was like arguing with a pterodactyl. You could do nothing. ~ Nico Walker, #NFDB
995:Most of the time-- 99 percent of the time-- you just don't know how and why the threads are looped together, and that's okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
996:The ultimate cause of spiritual depression is unbelief. For if it were not for unbelief, even the devil could do nothing. It is because we listen to the devil instead of listening to God that we go down before him and fall before his attacks. ~ Martyn Lloyd Jones, #NFDB
997:We’ve done nothing to earn His love and can do nothing to forfeit it. His love in Christ is eternal and unconditional. Nothing can separate us from His love, as the apostle Paul put it so eloquently. Do we really believe what Paul says to us here? ~ Jerry Bridges, #NFDB
998:Why?" said Philip. "Why are you like this? You are a great artist. You can do things most men can't dream of.'
'It leaves me. I can do nothing. I think, I shall be unable - unable - unable for the rest of my life. And then I think, why drag it out? ~ A S Byatt,#NFDB
999:Destructive thoughts and emotions undermine the very causes of peace and happiness. If you think clearly about it, it makes no sense to think you’re seeking happiness, if you do nothing to restrain angry, spiteful, and malicious thoughts and emotions. ~ Dalai Lama, #NFDB
1000:I will do nothing to superinduce sleep by putting myself at ease, or making myself more comfortable; if, however, in spite of my resistance I yield to my infirmity, then I deserve to be laughed at, and accept as punishment the mortification I feel.”19 ~ S C Gwynne, #NFDB
1001:Our biggest threat is not an asteroid about to crash into us, something we can do nothing about. Instead, all the major threats facing us today are problems entirely of our own making. And since we made the problems, we can also solve the problems. ~ Jared Diamond, #NFDB
1002:People meet in bars after work all over the world and talk about the great problems of life and death and the world and politics and they don't take themselves seriously. They can do nothing else except chat about these things in bars after work ~ Whitfield Diffie, #NFDB
1003:To Konstantin Levin the country was good first because it afforded a field for labor, of the usefulness of which there could be no doubt. To Sergey Ivanovitch the country was particularly good, because there it was possible and fitting to do nothing. ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
1004:If the jury have no right to judge of the justice of a law of the government, they plainly can do nothing to protect the people against the oppressions of the government; for there are no oppressions which the government may not authorize by law. ~ Lysander Spooner, #NFDB
1005:It is enough that you will lie beside me. That I can put my hand upon you.”
Her expression went from wary distrust to incredulity. “And do nothing?”
Hunter shared her sentiments. It was the most boisa idea he had ever come up with. ~ Catherine Anderson,#NFDB
1006:The Zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial and I feel guilty because I do nothing about it. But there it was, I wanted to see an oyster-catcher and I was no better than the people who'd caged oyster-catchers for me to see. ~ Russell Hoban, #NFDB
1007:Go ahead and do what you really love to do! Do nothing else! You have so little time. How can you think of wasting a moment doing something for a living you don't like to do? What kind of a living is that? That is not a living, that is a dying! ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1008:Do nothing” had long been viewed as an unacceptable position of helplessness by American foreign policy experts. The instinct to do something was driven by the desire to prove you were not limited to nothing. You couldn’t do nothing and show strength. ~ Michael Wolff, #NFDB
1009:Having oscillated all his life between the torments of a superficial loitering and the horrors of disinterested endeavour, he finds himself at last in a situation where to do nothing exclusively would be an act of the highest value, and significance. ~ Samuel Beckett, #NFDB
1010:Oh, I never kid about Artemis. I promised her I’d sit here and do nothing, so here I am doing nothing. Much like a really tall, bored guard dog. Personally, I’d rather be throwing myself onto an electric fence- be about the same, I think. (Acheron) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1011:Perverted quality; Moral perversion; The innate corruption of human nature due to original sin; Both the elect and the non-elect came into the world in a state of total d. and alienation from God, and can, of themselves do nothing but sin. J.H. Blunt. ~ Arundhati Roy, #NFDB
1012:So,' I said, 'when does the enchantment start?'
'It started when the earth was born.'...'It never stops. It is, always. It's just here.'
'So what do we do?'
She smiled. 'That's the secret.'...'We do nothing. Or as close to nothing as we can. ~ Jerry Spinelli,#NFDB
1013:There is more ado to interpret interpretations than to interpret things, and more books upon books than upon any other subject; we do nothing but comment upon one another. Every place swarms with commentaries; of authors there is great scarcity. ~ Michel de Montaigne, #NFDB
1014:Do not think dishonestly... Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. Pay attention even to trifles. Do nothing which is of no use. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
1015:In order to be always near me really and effectively you must become more and more sincere, open and frank towards me. Cast away all dissimulation and decide to do nothing that you could not tell me immediately. ~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother I, To Be Near Me [T3], #NFDB
1016:The question everyone debated while we were underground was always something like, “What does it say about the System if it sanctions the killing of innocent life?” but I think the real question is, “What does it say about us, if we see it and do nothing? ~ Joel Ohman, #NFDB
1017:Uncertainty as to our relationship to God is one of the most enfeebling and dispiriting of things. It makes a man heartless. It takes the pith out of him. He cannot fight; he cannot run. He is easily dismayed, and gives way. He can do nothing for God. ~ Horatius Bonar, #NFDB
1018:If you are really joyful and your joy is healthy, then that benefits other people. If you’re not joyful, not fresh, or not smiling, then that doesn’t benefit anyone. If you’re inhabited by joy and freshness, even if you do nothing, we profit from you. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1019:If you're outraged at conditions, then you can't possibly be free or happy until you devote all your time to changing them and do nothing but that. But you can't change anything if you want to hold onto a good job, a good way of life and avoid sacrifice. ~ Cesar Chavez, #NFDB
1020:- it was only then that I understood how longing for a place can take you over so that you can do nothing except return, as I did, return and pick at the city, scraping together bits of the place you once knew. But what do you do if you can never return? ~ Ahdaf Soueif, #NFDB
1021:I would rather take a nap.”
“How could you possibly want a nap?” Pandora demanded, incredulous. “We’ve done nothing but sit all day.”
Cassandra was instantly defensive. “Doing nothing is exhausting. I need to rest in case we do nothing again later. ~ Lisa Kleypas,#NFDB
1022:What are we up against here? What is the biggest challenge you face? How does making a deal with us affect things? What happens if you do nothing? What does doing nothing cost you? How does making this deal resonate with what your company prides itself on? ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
1023:But I do nothing that I don't like, such as "inventing" up to the arty or "down" to the corny. I happen to relish a certain type of corn. What I think is the really dangerous approach is the "let's be artistic" attitude. I know that artistry just happens. ~ Fred Astaire, #NFDB
1024:I don't have any way to control the Spirit or create revival. I pray that the Holy Spirit would move upon the church, but at the same time, I want to busy evangelizing. I am not one of those people who moan and pray for revival all the time, but do nothing. ~ Mark Dever, #NFDB
1025:No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great. ~ Pope Francis, #NFDB
1026:Waiting for God is not laziness. Waiting for God is not the abandonment of effort. Waiting for God means, first, activity under command; second, readiness for any new command that may come; third, the ability to do nothing until the command is given. ~ G Campbell Morgan, #NFDB
1027:What’s so curious about human beings is that we can look deeply into the future, foresee disaster, and still do nothing in the present to stop it. The majority of people on this planet, they’re overwhelmed with concerns about their immediate well being. ~ Daniel Gilbert, #NFDB
1028:Without the Spirit of God we can do nothing. We are as ships without wind or chariots without steeds. Like branches without sap, we are withered. Like coals without fire, we are useless. As an offering without the sacrificial flame, we are unaccepted. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1029:Oh, the public! There's no satisfying them! It's no use working and doing one's best! One's driven to drinking and cursing it all. . . . If you do nothing -- they're angry; if you begin doing your duty, they're angry too. There's nothing for it but drink! ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
1030:There was one thing that stood like stone among the music and moonfroth of the evening's gaieties. It was stupid, it was terrifying, it was wonderful, but it had happened and I could do nothing about it. For better or worse, I was head over ears in love... ~ Mary Stewart, #NFDB
1031:With the child already shame-based, the feeling of discouragement takes over the whole personality. As the shame-based child forms her primitive conscience, shame becomes immorality or neurotic guilt. The conforming child believes he can do nothing right, ~ John Bradshaw, #NFDB
1032:I should be in Beirut, I thought, working as a journalist, but another part of me was so wary of that old life of guns and misery. I did not want to see Tyre again, or Qana, or Baghdad. I wanted to do nothing more than move dirt from one place to another. ~ Anthony Shadid, #NFDB
1033:Meaning,you do nothing, Claire. That's an order.'"
She gave him a cocked mock salute. "Yes, sir, sorry, sir.'"
He sighed. "I liked you better when you were this timid little kid. What happened?'"
"I started living with you guys.'"
"Oh, right. ~ Rachel Caine,#NFDB
1034:No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great. ~ John Chrysostom, #NFDB
1035:You are a lady,’ he says softly, ‘and young, and handsome.—I don’t speak from gallantry now, you know that. I say only what is true. You might do anything. ’ ‘You are a man,’ I answer. ‘Men’s truths are different from ladies’. I may do nothing, I assure you. ~ Sarah Waters, #NFDB
1036:Furthermore, everyone is constantly learning, fostering a hypothesis-driven culture where the scientific method is used to ensure nothing is taken for granted—we do nothing without measuring and treating product development and process improvement as experiments. ~ Gene Kim, #NFDB
1037:God’s ways with us are all designed to establish in us this other principle, namely, that our work for Him springs out of our ministering to Him. I do not mean that we are going to do nothing; but the first thing for us must be the Lord Himself, not His work. ~ Watchman Nee, #NFDB
1038:I'm short and I have a big appetite. I can't do nothing just a little. It's the same with anything I do. It's very hard for me to love a little, have sex a little, to eat a little. I like to do everything, and I like to do it all the way that I want to do it. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1039:Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray. We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciousl y set aside time to do nothing but pray. ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
1040:The enemy of taking action is the false belief in "someday." Do the good you know you ought to do-and start now. Do it knowing that you might not have as much time as you think. The alternative is to do nothing, and that does, well, nothing. Don't wait to live. ~ Lara Casey, #NFDB
1041:All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering…. ~ Jon Krakauer, #NFDB
1042:What’s so curious about human beings is that we can look deeply into the future, foresee disaster, and still do nothing in the present to stop it. The majority of people on this planet, they’re overwhelmed with concerns about their immediate well being. ~ Daniel Todd Gilbert, #NFDB
1043:1. Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray. We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray. ~ D A Carson, #NFDB
1044:Act out being alive, like a play. And after awhile, a long while, it will be true... You're going to pass something down no matter what you do or if you do nothing. Even if you let yourself go fallow, the weeds will grow and the brambles. Something will grow. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
1045:I admire writers who have the tenacity to write a blog, and I'm told by everyone that it's an important element in remaining visible in the online world. That said, I'm personally turned off by writers' blogs that do nothing but sing their own accomplishments. ~ David Starkey, #NFDB
1046:If you are working inwardly, Nature will help you. For the man who is working, Nature is sister of charity; she brings him what he needs for his work. If you need money for your work, even if you do nothing to get it, the money will come to you from all sides. ~ G I Gurdjieff, #NFDB
1047:Dont you know that you are my Zarya? You always have been. I've been in love with you since the first day we met and you took a beating for me. Would you really ask me to watch you fly out of here, knowing you're going to die and do nothing about it? Really? ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1048:In the wake of that, Sunandi could do nothing but allow a moment of proper Gujaareen silence. There was something to the custom, she had decided some years ago, of letting a brief passage of time cleanse the air, after dangerous words and thoughts had tainted it. ~ N K Jemisin, #NFDB
1049:Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, 'I'll do nothing until I can be sure.' Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don't be one of those merchants who wont risk the ocean. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
1050:Of all powers, love is the most powerful and the most powerless. It is the most powerful because it alone can conquer that final and most impregnable stronghold which is the human heart. It is the most powerless because it can do nothing except by consent. ~ Frederick Buechner, #NFDB
1051:A man can never have too much Time to himself, nor too little to do. Had I a little son, I would christen him Nothing-To-Do; he should do nothing. Man, I verily believe, is out of his element as long as he is operative. I am altogether for the life contemplative. ~ Charles Lamb, #NFDB
1052:Any society inevitably produces its criminals, but a society at once rigid and unstable can do nothing whatever to alleviate the poverty of its lowest members, cannot present to the hypothetical young man at the crucial moment that so-well-advertised right path. ~ James Baldwin, #NFDB
1053:For heaven’s sake, please don’t trouble yourself by being proactive and pushing forward with it. Oh no, heaven forfend. Please – continue to do nothing. Go and sit in your empty little flat and watch television on your own, just like you do Every. Single. Night. ~ Gail Honeyman, #NFDB
1054:I think one must do the thing -- whatever it is (and it changes from time to time) -- that unites you to the flowing stream of the world. At any price, one must do it first. Otherwise one can do nothing, nothing at all. One is out of touch, out of grace. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh, #NFDB
1055:Should thoughts of self-praise, of self-satisfaction, occur to you, say: 'I myself am nothing; all that is good in me is accomplished by the grace of God.' What hast thou that thou didst not receive?' (I Cor. 4:7). 'Without Me ye can do nothing' (John 15:5). ~ John of Kronstadt, #NFDB
1056:And I am the rather induced to do what little I can in this way, because I can do nothing else: being prevented, by my present weakness, from either travelling or preaching. But, blessed be God, I can still read, and write, and think. O that it may be to his glory! ~ John Wesley, #NFDB
1057:Humility is truth, therefore in all sincerity we must be able to look up and say, "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me." By yourself you can do nothing, have nothing but sin, weakness and misery. All the gifts of nature and grace you have them from God. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1058:If you were an elected member of Congress and people in your constituency were losing jobs and shutting businesses and everybody in the press is saying it's all the fault of Wall Street, you can't sit idly by and do nothing, but what you do is really important. ~ Hillary Clinton, #NFDB
1059:I'm obsessed with the science of music. I'm obsessed with the way you can string notes together and they can do something, and you play the same notes in another way and they do nothing. How the essence within songs - within words, within lyrics - finds its place. ~ Jason Pierce, #NFDB
1060:No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do no good to others, you do nothing great. ~ Saint John Chrysostom, #NFDB
1061:The belief that God will do everything for man is as untenable as the belief that man can do everything for himself. It, too, is based on a lack of faith. We must learn that to expect God to do everything while we do nothing is not faith but superstition. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1062:I'm not one of those people who think you should go grey and that there is some virtue in looking wrinkly if you don't feel like it. If you do, great. If you don't, just my only caution is watch out. There are a huge number of wrinkle creams that do nothing for you. ~ Nora Ephron, #NFDB
1063:Looking up from the blank page to the blinking clock, he discovered it was only three-fifteen. He decided that today was perhaps the longest day of his life. Not only had he been called an idiot to his face, but he could do nothing to counter that opinion, because ~ Joshua Ferris, #NFDB
1064:What you are born to be, you will be, whether it be priest or sailor. So step up and be it. Let them do nothing to you. Be the one who shapes yourself. Be who you are, and eventually all will have to recognize who you are, whether they are willing to admit it or not. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
1065:People have a right to basic survival. Even if they do nothing. Even if they contribute nothing. Survival with dignity is one of the basic rights of life. I have given you enough resources to be able to guarantee that to everyone. All you have to do is share. ~ Neale Donald Walsch, #NFDB
1066:Negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for them? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made, must be kept. ~ Abraham Lincoln, #NFDB
1067:Silently the animal catches our glance. The animal looks at us, and whether we look away (from the animal, our plate, our concern, ourselves) or not, we are exposed. Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something ~ Jonathan Safran Foer, #NFDB
1068:Allah's blessings is like everyday. I can't do nothing without mentioning ALLAH or one of his words. I can't do nothing without coming across one of his blessings or doing something and be like that's Allah talking to me or something happen to me and I say Allah gave me that. ~ Rakim, #NFDB
1069:I will therefore give myself as a Christ to my neighbor, just as Christ offered himself to me; I will do nothing in this life except what I see is necessary, profitable, and salutary to my neighbor, since through faith I have an abundance of all good things in Christ. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1070:Taking one’s chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck. ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
1071:Taking one’s chances is like taking a bath, because sometimes you end up feeling comfortable and warm, and sometimes there is something terrible lurking around that you cannot see until it is too late and you can do nothing else but scream and cling to a plastic duck. ~ Lemony Snicket, #NFDB
1072:Aegistheus, the kings have another secret.... Once liberty has exploded in the soul of a man, the Gods can do nothing against that man. It is a matter for men to handle amongst themselves, and it is up to other men and to them alone to let him flee or to destroy him. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1073:I want to be sure...that nothing is done on these veterans. Is that understood?...Is the word out? That they are not to touch em, they are not to do a thing?...Get a hold of the district police; they're not to touch them, they're to do nothing: Just let em raise Hell. ~ Richard M Nixon, #NFDB
1074:So long as we think of it objectively, time is Fate or Chance, the factor in our lives for which we are not responsible, and about which we can do nothing; but when we begin to think of it subjectively, we feel responsible for our time, and the notion of punctuality arises. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
1075:The first morning after Westley's departure, Buttercup thought she was entitled to do nothing more than sit around moping and feeling sorry for herself. After all, the love of her life had fled, life had no meaning, how could you face the future, et cetera, et cetera. ~ William Goldman, #NFDB
1076:Monsters cut children open and call it progress. Monsters murder entire groups of people without blinking but get upset when they have to wash human ash from their garden strawberries. Monsters are the ones who watch other people do these things and do nothing to stop it. ~ Ryan Graudin, #NFDB
1077:I know we live in a very sexist world, and a lot of boys do nothing except get in trouble, until one day they grow up and dominate every aspect of society,” Ash said. “But girls, at least while they’re still girls and perform well, seem to do everything better for a while. ~ Meg Wolitzer, #NFDB
1078:John I can do nothing; but since all things are possible to God and God I know to be my consciousness of being, I can realize my desire in a little while. How my desire will be realized I do not (as John) know, but by the very law of my being I do know that it shall be. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1079:You must keep sending work out; you must never let a manuscript do nothing but eat its head off in a drawer. You send that work out again and again, while you're working on another one. If you have talent, you will receive some measure of success - but only if you persist. ~ Isaac Asimov, #NFDB
1080:All his [Laurent's] great powerful body wanted was to do nothing, to wallow in never-ending idleness and self-indulgence. He would have liked to eat well, sleep well, satisfy his passions liberally, without stirring from one spot or risking the misfortune of a bit of fatigue. ~ mile Zola, #NFDB
1081:And the dreams I’ve kept for so long to myself, the ones I lose myself in when I work my new job—the day shift at Red Lobster—are starting to do nothing but remind me how small I am. And time keeps barreling on. Birthdays arrive suddenly, unwelcome, like the end of summer. ~ Kenny Porpora, #NFDB
1082:. . . crop restrictions not only raise the price of corn and other crops but also tend to raise farmers’ total revenues and earnings.” Increase your corn profit by not growing corn? Here’s a wonderful kind of business where everybody can get rich if they’ll just do nothing. ~ P J O Rourke, #NFDB
1083:I’m surprised you holy people talk to me,” Wolfie said suddenly, “after what I done.” He swayed there a moment, frowning. “As a Catholic priest, I must accept men’s frailty. And as a European I am too old and tired to expend emotion upon matters I can do nothing about. ~ Peter Matthiessen, #NFDB
1084:The circumstances of her present life were desperately weary to her. She could hardly understand why it was that Lady Linlithgow should desire her presence. She was required to do nothing. She had no duties to perform, and, as it seemed to her, was of no use to any one. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1085:I looked in vain for LaRoue, my cruelty toward her now in me like a splinter, where it would sit for years in my helpless memory, the skin growing around; what else can memory do? It can do nothing; It pretends to eat the shrapnel of your acts, yet it cannot swallow or chew. ~ Lorrie Moore, #NFDB
1086:Now whenever things are so that a lot of people feel they ought to be doing something, the weak, and those who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, very pious and superior, and submit to persecution and the will of the Lord. ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
1087:She smiles. “You know you can do nothing. What will be, will be. If there is a battle”—I gasp but her smile is steady—“if there is a battle, then either your husband will win, and your son will take the throne; or your brother will win and you will be sister to the king. ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
1088:Bisi, how could you, now? You know that when you pray, you are heard, if not by God, then by yourself. When you pray, you tell yourself what you truly want, what you really need. And once you know these things, you can do nothing but go after them. Sae you understand? ~ Helen Oyeyemi, #NFDB
1089:I looked in vain for LaRoue, my cruelty towards her now in me like a splinter, where it would sit for years in my helpless memory, the skin growing around; what else can memory do? It can do nothing: It pretends to eat the shrapnel of your acts, yet it cannot swallow or chew. ~ Lorrie Moore, #NFDB
1090:There is a story that for me comes before all other stories and of which all the stories I read seem to carry an echo, immediately lost. In my readings I do nothing but seek that book read in my childhood, but what I remember of it is too little to enable me to find it again. ~ Italo Calvino, #NFDB
1091:Danger cups us under its hand, and we can do nothing but stand witness to the turning of the world. Here we walk on the balancing line between futures. Humanity always believes it decides the fate of the whole world, and so it does, but never in the moment that it thinks it does. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
1092:Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind. In this sense the most insignificant writer can serve peace, where the most powerful tribunals can do nothing. ~ Julien Benda, #NFDB
1093:To put significance in our stories, we must also take action. Being passive may feel safe. If you do nothing, nothing can go wrong. But while inaction cannot fail, it cannot succeed either. We can wait, and hope, and wish, but if we do, we miss the stories our lives could be. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
1094:Long Beach Savings was the first existing bank to adopt what was called the “originate and sell” model. This proved such a hit—Wall Street would buy your loans, even if you would not!—that a new company, called B&C mortgage, was founded to do nothing but originate and sell. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
1095:Every man of character will have that character questioned. Every man of honor and courage will be faced with unjust criticism, but never forget that unjust criticism has no impact whatsoever upon the truth. And the only sure way to avoid criticism is to do nothing and be nothing. ~ Andy Andrews, #NFDB
1096:It always seems easier to do nothing, when the harm is don elsewhere,” Dakon said. “They know their young ones will either learn a lesson and limp home – or die and stop being a problem – or prove successful. The worst that could happen is a bit of a diplomatic hiccup in history. ~ Trudi Canavan, #NFDB
1097:It was unfair that people could pretend to be one thing when they were really something else. That they would get you on their side and then do nothing but fail, and fail, and fail again. People should come with warnings, like cigarette packs: involvement would kill you overtime. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
1098:Mr. Do-Nothing Obama will say today, 'Lets think of all the poor dead people' - or 'let's honor all the dead' instead of fighting for the living. He has been really useless in terms of both HIV and gay issues. He is simply not a leader. He may be president, but he is not a leader. ~ Larry Kramer, #NFDB
1099:To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. 30 Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1100:It was unfair that people could pretend to be one thing when they were really something else. That they would get you on their side and then do nothing but fail, and fail, and fail again. People should come with warnings, like cigarette packs: involvement would kill you over time. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
1101:That’s what the shining is to them, Dick,’ she told me. ‘Food. You’re feeding that preevert. You don’t mean to, but you are. He’s like a mosquito who’ll keep circling and then landing for more blood. Can’t do nothing about that. What you can do is turn what he came for against him. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1102:The meaning of words had no longer the same relation to things... Reckless daring was held to be loyal courage; prudent delay was the excuse of a coward; moderation was the disguise of unmanly weakness; to know everything was to do nothing. Frantic energy was the true quality of man. ~ Thucydides, #NFDB
1103:Whatever they may think and say about their "egoism", the great majority nonetheless do nothing for their ego their whole life long: what they do is done for the phantom of their ego which has formed itself in the heads of those around them and has been communicated to them. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, #NFDB
1104:Semille wept not because she did something stupid; she wept because she *didn't* do something stupid. Sometimes, to do something stupid--to disobey your parents, to rush into battle, to speak out of turn, to ruin your life--is a far better thing to do than to do nothing at all. ~ Binnie Kirshenbaum, #NFDB
1105:Somebody asked me recently, 'Have you done a lot of plays?' I thought hang on. I used to do nothing but plays. I've been very fortunate that on several occasions I've had jobs where I didn't want to be anywhere else in the world whatever you had to offer - however much money you've got. ~ Bill Nighy, #NFDB
1106:a single cockroach will completely wreck the appeal of a bowl of cherries, but a cherry will do nothing at all for a bowl of cockroaches. As he points out, the negative trumps the positive in many ways, and loss aversion is one of many manifestations of a broad negativity dominance. ~ Daniel Kahneman, #NFDB
1107:Grief is a most peculiar thing; we’re so helpless in the face of it. It’s like a window that will simply open of its own accord. The room grows cold, and we can do nothing but shiver. But it opens a little less each time, and a little less; and one day we wonder what has become of it. ~ Arthur Golden, #NFDB
1108:I've been in contact with Marshal Badoglio. We agree that Italy must be saved from the abyss toward which Fascism is driving her. If we depose Mussolini, however, the new government should do nothing drastic to upset Hitler until we can secretly negotiate an armistice with the Allies. ~ Ugo Cavallero, #NFDB
1109:Lettering should be invisible. You shouldn't notice it, unless it is a determined piece of storytelling in graphic design. Whether handmade or digital, the lettering should be easy on the eye and well placed. It should help tell the story and do nothing to get in the way of it. ~ Brian Michael Bendis, #NFDB
1110:If you once believed that everything always turns out well in the end, you can be persuaded that nothing turns out well in the end. If you once did nothing because you thought progress is inevitable, then you can continue to do nothing because you think time moves in repeating cycles. ~ Timothy Snyder, #NFDB
1111:My help cometh from heaven's hills: without Jesus I can do nothing. As a branch cannot bring forth fruit except it abide in the vine, no more can I, except I abide in Him. What Jonah learned in the great deep, let me learn this morning in my closet: "Salvation is of the Lord. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon, #NFDB
1112:I know we live in a very sexist world, and a lot of boys do nothing except get in trouble, until one day they grow up and dominate every aspect of society. But girls, at least while they’re still girls and perform well, seem to do everything better for a while. Seem to get the attention. ~ Meg Wolitzer, #NFDB
1113:Instead, when a young man who was born in the ghetto and who knows little of life beyond the walls of his prison cell and the invisible cage that has become his life, turns to us in bewilderment and rage, we should do nothing more than look him in the eye and tell him the truth. We ~ Michelle Alexander, #NFDB
1114:That's what life is, pretty much: full of holes and tangles and ways to get stuck. Uncomfortable and itchy. A present you never asked for, never wanted, never chose. A present you're supposed to be excited to wear, day after day, even when you'd rather stay in bed and do nothing. ~ Lauren Oliver, #NFDB
1115:What Jesus longs to see in radical disciples is what he saw in little children: a spirit of sheer receptivity, utter dependence, and radical reliance on the power and mercy and grace of God mediated through the Spirit of Christ. He said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). ~ Brennan Manning, #NFDB
1116:I am an appearance
The world is an appearance
The bread I eat is an appearance
All wish't forth from Mind Essence
Due to Ignorance--
I don't have to exist
I don't exist, I do exist--
Who cares?
For the purposes of this world
Do nothing
Or do everything anyhow. ~ Jack Kerouac,#NFDB
1117:[I] don't like to think like everybody else, don't like to try to think like everybody else, don't like to do nothing everybody else think I'm gone do, don't like to say nothing everybody else think I'm gone say. I'm a Martian. I like to be different. And what's more different than a Martian. ~ Lil Wayne, #NFDB
1118:If you raise taxes on millionaires and billionaires, you'll do nothing to address the debt and the deficit. And the thing you might do is you might finally put this economy over another cliff. These millionaires and billionaires are the folks that try to create jobs and help grow the economy. ~ Joe Walsh, #NFDB
1119:Man can, indeed, act contrarily to the decrees of God, as far as they have been written like laws in the minds of ourselves or the prophets, but against that eternal decree of God, which is written in universal nature, and has regard to the course of nature as a whole, he can do nothing. ~ Baruch Spinoza, #NFDB
1120:Take a thousand soldiers. Four hundred will stand in a fight but do nothing. Two hundred will run given the chance. Another hundred will get confused. That leaves three hundred you can count on. Your task in commanding that thousand is all down to knowing where to put that three hundred. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1121:18 aAsk the Father in my bname in faith, believing that you shall receive, and you shall have the Holy Ghost, which manifesteth all things which are cexpedient unto the children of men. 19 And if you have not afaith, bhope, and ccharity, you can do nothing. ~ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, #NFDB
1122:All that is necessary for evil to triumph, said Burke, is for good men to do nothing; and most good men nowadays can be relied upon to do precisely that. Where a reputation for intolerance is more feared than a reputation for vice itself, all manner of evil may be expected to flourish. ~ Theodore Dalrymple, #NFDB
1123:They slept because they were exhausted and weak and because most human beings can learn to endure almost anything, even the cries of the tormented. It was not that their hearts had hardened; it was because they could do nothing about it, and powerlessness leads to its own form of serenity. ~ Tess Gerritsen, #NFDB
1124:Two ideas militate against our consciously contributing to a better world. The idea that we can do everything or the conclusion that we can do nothing to make this globe a better place to live are both temptations of the most insidious form. One leads to arrogance; the other to despair. ~ Joan D Chittister, #NFDB
1125:As I often point out to folks, today we are not only saved by grace, we are paralyzed by it. We will preach to you for an hour that you can do nothing to be saved, and then sing to you for forty-five minutes trying to get you to do something to be saved. That is confusing, to say the least. ~ Dallas Willard, #NFDB
1126:How did it ever come to this?” I asked him. “The same way it always has and—to our great misfortune—probably always will. With fierce hate harbored by a few and complacency displayed by the rest. All it takes for evil to take hold and flourish is for men and women of conscience to do nothing. ~ Lisa Shearin, #NFDB
1127:If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught to you write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well take their words out of the dirt and try to catch them from the wind. Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
1128:Speech and prose are not the same thing. They have different wave-lengths, for speech moves at the speed of light, where prose moves at the speed of the alphabet, and must be consecutive and grammatical and word-perfect. Prose cannot gesticulate. Speech can sometimes do nothing more. ~ James Kenneth Stephen, #NFDB
1129:. . . what I like doing best is Nothing."
"How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time.
"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, What are you going to do, Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing, and then you go and do it. ~ A A Milne,#NFDB
1130:And so I do. I have inter course, right there in the Hotel van Walsum dining room. I enjoy it very much, this unhurried dining experience. I sip my beer, stare into space, and, in general, do nothing--until the waiter brings the grilled salmon, indicating that, for now, my inter course is over. ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
1131:he should consider himself to be standing in the place of Adelaide’s father or brother. His wife pointed out to him that were he her father or her brother he could do nothing, — that in these days let a man behave ever so badly, no means of punishing was within reach of the lady’s friends. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1132:It came to him, the very picture: he was unshucked oyster, hurtling on the winds, all air, gonad and gut. Chances seemed in a loud hurry around him, but he could do nothing--nothing-- about them. Mestre yearned to be driven by some grand circumstance. Everything in his existence was too slack. ~ Barry Hannah, #NFDB
1133:There is a part of you, you see now, that is reckless. A part of you that still always wants to die but never really wants to go after it.
So it makes mistakes instead. Or it says, when trouble comes in and has lemonade, I wonder what this will look like. If I sit still. If I do nothing. ~ Alexander Chee,#NFDB
1134:If you loved someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well take their words out of the dirt and try to snatch them from the wind. Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
1135:We struggled against apartheid because we were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about. It is the same with homosexuality. The orientation is a given, not a matter of choice. It would be crazy for someone to choose to be gay, given the homophobia that is present. ~ Desmond Tutu, #NFDB
1136:Every summer my husband and I pack our suitcases, load our kids into the car, and drive from tense, crowded New York City to my family's cottage in Maine. It's on an island, with stretches of sea and sandy beaches, rocky coasts, and pine trees. We barbecue, swim, lie around, and try to do nothing. ~ Hope Davis, #NFDB
1137:It came to him, the very picture: he was an unshucked oyster, hurtling on the winds, all air, gonad and gut. Chances seemed in a loud hurry around him, but he could do nothing--nothing-- about them. Mestre yearned to be driven by some grand circumstance. Everything in his existence was too slack ~ Barry Hannah, #NFDB
1138:We [the USA] have a $16 trillion debt which these tax increases will do nothing to solve and you will have at least 200,000 less jobs next year than you have now. And the people who vote for that will be responsible for that decision and they will held accountable for that terrible public policy. ~ Marco Rubio, #NFDB
1139:Because being aware of what is happening in our era and choosing to do nothing about it has become unacceptable. Because we cannot allow ourselves to go on normalizing horror and violence. Because we can all be held accountable if something happens under our noses and we don’t dare even look. ~ Valeria Luiselli, #NFDB
1140:I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man... ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1141:If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all? You might as well take their words out of the dirt and try to snatch them from the wind.
Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back. ~ Ally Condie,#NFDB
1142:The English social anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer, in his 1965 Death, Grief, and Mourning, had described this rejection of public mourning as a result of the increasing pressure of a new “ethical duty to enjoy oneself,” a novel “imperative to do nothing which might diminish the enjoyment of others. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
1143:There are really two kinds of optimism. There's the complacent, Pollyanna optimism that says "don't worry - everything will be just fine" and that allows one to just lay back and do nothing about the problems around you. Then there's what we call dynamic optimism. That's an optimism based on action. ~ Ramez Naam, #NFDB
1144:And it is a terrible irony that our very liberalism allows such danger to flourish. There has to be a time when we say: No more. And thanks to Connexion, that time has now come. As Edmund Burke said—’ ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,’ Yuri quoted. ~ Peter F Hamilton, #NFDB
1145:Here is the offense: "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Apart from Jesus, our leaves will turn yellow and fall off . Apart from Jesus, the fruit we bear will be watery and acidic, unfit for anything. Apart from Jesus, we will wither up and die . . . The problem is our obsession with ourselves. ~ Hannah Anderson, #NFDB
1146:I see whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as it is, everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1147:The wish falls often warm upon my heart that I may learn nothing here that I cannot continue in the other world; that I may do nothing here but deeds that will bear fruit in heaven. ~ Jean Paul (1763–1825) Quote reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 366., #NFDB
1148:A good conscience fears no witness, but a guilty conscience is solicitous even in solitude. If we do nothing but what is honest, let all the world know it. But if otherwise, what does it signify to have nobody else know it, so long as I know it myself? Miserable is he who slights that witness. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1149:Any system which says, This is a rotten world, wait for the next, give up, do nothing, succumb--that may be the basic Lie and if we participate in believing it and acting (or rather not acting) on it we involve ourselves in the Lie and suffer dreadfully... which only reinforces that particular Lie. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
1150:Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern. ~ Henri Nouwen, #NFDB
1151:But we don’t always have to be studying something, I thought, it’s perfectly enough merely to think, to do nothing but think and give our thoughts free rein. To give in to our philosophical worldview, simply submit to our philosophical worldview, but that’s the hardest thing, I thought. Wertheimer ~ Thomas Bernhard, #NFDB
1152:If you love someone, if someone loved you, if they taught you to write and made it so you could speak, how can you do nothing at all?
You might as well take their words out of the dirt and try to snatch them from the wind.
Because once you love, it is gone. You love and you cannot call it back. ~ Ally Condie,#NFDB
1153:It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer Neither is resignation Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment. ~ Elie Wiesel, #NFDB
1154:I made my people understand the crucial difference between modesty and self-control. The modest person, I told them, will do nothing blameworthy in the light of day, but a true paragon of self-control—which we all should strive to be—avoids unworthy actions even in the deepest secrecy of his private life. ~ Xenophon, #NFDB
1155:Indeed we rarely look at religion’s benefits in limiting the intervention bias and its iatrogenics: in a large set of circumstances (marginal disease), anything that takes you away from the doctor and allows you to do nothing (hence gives nature a chance to do its work) will be beneficial. So ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
1156:The Lord said: 'Without Me you can do nothing' (Jn. 15:5). So for the duration of our life, every day and at every moment, we must keep unchanged in our heart the feeling, conviction and disposition, that on no occasion can we allow ourselves to think of relying on ourselves and trusting ourselves. ~ Lorenzo Scupoli, #NFDB
1157:The bottom line for Canada is that Kyoto will precipitate a recession that will cause a permanent reduction in employment, income and the size of our economy. And if global warming is going to happen Kyoto will do nothing whatsoever to prevent it or even slow it down. Why are we still considering it? ~ Ross McKitrick, #NFDB
1158:The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1159:There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war, who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them; who, esteeming themselves children of Washington and Franklin, sit down with their hands in their pockets, and say that they know not what to do, and do nothing.... ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1160:Photography at first was asked to do nothing but embalm our best smiles for the benefit of our friends and our best clothes for the amusement of posterity. Neither thing lasts, and photography came as a welcome salve to keep those precious, if slightly ridiculous, things a little longer in the world. ~ George Santayana, #NFDB
1161:Your body can be very female, which is something you can do nothing about, but then you can have the soul, the mind and the spirit of both male and female. The women friends I am closest to somehow have this masculine side to them, they shove their hands in their pockets when they walk: I love that side. ~ Sonia Rykiel, #NFDB
1162:Nothing that a man did yesterday excuses him today. Quite the reverse, if a man did nothing yesterday, no demands are made upon him today; if he did anything yesterday, it means that he must do more today. This certainly does not mean that it is better to do nothing. Whoever does nothing receives nothing ~ P D Ouspensky, #NFDB
1163:Occasionally I talk with people who see doctors as people who do nothing but give of themselves and never receive from anyone else - especially not from their patients. That is totally false. The longer I remain in my profession, the more I realize how much I receive from those who come to me for help. ~ Benjamin Carson, #NFDB
1164:QUESTIONS TO USE TO UNEARTH THE DEAL-KILLING ISSUES What are we up against here? What is the biggest challenge you face? How does making a deal with us affect things? What happens if you do nothing? What does doing nothing cost you? How does making this deal resonate with what your company prides itself on? ~ Chris Voss, #NFDB
1165:Past should be seen as destiny. Future should be seen as free will. This is wisdom. Wise people do like that. Otherwise what you think; you think the past was free will so you regret the past and future you think is destiny and you do nothing about it. You simply sit. We must reverse this tendency. ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, #NFDB
1166:Be patient in prayer, even though you should do nothing all your life but wait in patience, with a heart humbled, abandoned, resigned, and content for the return of your Beloved. Oh, excellent prayer! How it moves the heart of God, and obliges Him to return more than anything else! ~ Jeanne Marie Bouvier de la Motte Guyon, #NFDB
1167:But we can do nothing for the human future that we will not do for the human present. For the amelioration of the future condition of our kind we must look, not to the wealth or the genius of the coming generations, but to the quality of the disciplines and attitudes that we are preparing now for their use. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
1168:If we were not so single-minded about keeping our lives moving and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death Perhaps the world can teach us as when everything seems dead but later proves to be alive. ~ Pablo Neruda, #NFDB
1169:Therefore, I see whatever exists as good, death is to me like life, sin like holiness, wisdom like foolishness, everything has to be as it is, everything only requires my consent, only my willingness, my loving agreement, to be good for me, to do nothing but work for my benefit, to be unable to ever harm me. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
1170:If someone is aiming a blaster at your ally, do you raise your ligthsaber to prevent it, or do you do nothing because a Jedi isn’t supposed to take aggressive action? I mean, where’s the line, Jacen? We’re in a war for survival , and defense sometimes means having to eliminate the opposition.”
-Anakin Solo ~ James Luceno,#NFDB
1171:One day, you hear someone shouting rudely at a teammate. If you do nothing, you risk sending the message that you tolerate this kind of behavior. Instead, defuse tensions in the moment by asking the shouter to calm down or help them leave the room. Later, in private, tell them that what they did is unacceptable. ~ Julie Zhuo, #NFDB
1172:One of the principal goals in my life has been to avoid embarrassing my children by doing the job I do. I hope I've managed to do that, and I hope that, with the job I'm in now, they are, if not proud, at least unembarrassed by it. I must say, my three are most agreeable children, who do nothing but delight me. ~ Hugh Laurie, #NFDB
1173:Racists often take their cues on how to act from the way the government behaves. If the government is actively campaigning against racism, they hide their feelings and do nothing. If the government is indifferent to racism by not prosecuting it, then they feel it’s okay to come out of hiding and attack. ~ Kareem Abdul Jabbar, #NFDB
1174:As she lifted the skirt to examine it, Hunter stepped into the lodge, sending her scurrying for cover under the buffalo robe. Flashing her a mischievous smile, he said, “Maiden sent the clothes. Next time, you will not be wrapped in so much wannup, yes? It will take us much less time to do nothing. ~ Catherine Anderson, #NFDB
1175:I come with a primitive scream.
I can feel his body quake as he unloads inside me , but my mind is somewhere else.
Heaven, maybe.
I’m limp and helpless when he pulls out, leaving me soaking wet and sore.
I’m so exhausted, so empty now, I can do nothing but curl into a little ball and shut my eyes. ~ Ella James,#NFDB
1176:I didn’t know if there ever was a choice, really. I was already in too deep. Now that I knew — if I knew — I could do nothing about my frightening secret. Because when I thought of him, of his voice, his hypnotic eyes, the magnetic force of his personality, I wanted nothing more than to be with him right now. ~ Stephenie Meyer, #NFDB
1177:Then, madam, they do nothing.” Albert Einstein once said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Economics is long overdue for the kind of radical shift in thinking that Einstein brought to his field of physics. Does Gross National Happiness represent such a breakthrough? ~ Eric Weiner, #NFDB
1178:What is called “apathy” is, I believe, a feeling of helplessness on the part of the ordinary citizen, a feeling of impotence in the face of enormous power. It’s not that people are apathetic; they do care about what is going on, but don’t know what to do about it, so they do nothing, and appear to be indifferent. ~ Howard Zinn, #NFDB
1179:You can go back to blacksmithing in Hintindar and live a quiet happy life. Do me a favor and marry some pretty farm girl and train your son to beat the crap out of imperial knights."
"Sure," Hadrian told him. "And with any luck he'll make friends with a cynical burglar who'll do nothing but torment him. ~ Michael J Sullivan,#NFDB
1180:Paul the Apostle exhorted, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” 74 Make a mental and emotional commitment to look out for the interests of others. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
1181:The ability to be good is not the ability to do nothing. It is not negative or passive. It is the ability to do something well--to do good work for good reasons. In order to be good you have to know how--and this knowing is vast, complex, humble and humbling; it is of the mind and of the hands, of neither alone. ~ Wendell Berry, #NFDB
1182:We must learn of Jesus, how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength—in the knowledge that it is God who worketh all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing of ourselves. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1183:One of the biggest lessons I've learned recently is that when you don't know what to do, you should do nothing until you figure out what to do because a lot of times you feel like you are pressed against the wall, and you've got to make a decision. You never have to do anything. Don't know what to do? Do nothing. ~ Oprah Winfrey, #NFDB
1184:You should always be ready to apply these two rules of action, the first, to do nothing other than what the kingly and law-making art ordains for the benefits of humankind, and, the second, to be prepared to change your mind if someone is at hand to put you right and guide you away from some groundless opinion. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1185:Grace’s eyes widened in surprise and she couldn’t help a small giggle as a mental picture of this mountain of a man with soft, luscious melon-sized boobs popped into her mind. “Nature in its infinite wisdom didn’t give men tits or they would do nothing but play with them all day,” she retorted and removed his hands. ~ C L Scholey, #NFDB
1186:I don't know of any other form of life that gathers up all the food it needs in the first two-thirds of its life in order to do nothing in its last third of life. In a utopian presentist society, instead of working extra hard to put money in the bank, you'd be working to provide value for the people around you. ~ Douglas Rushkoff, #NFDB
1187:I don't like when people say, 'I'll pray for you. I'm going to pray for you. Praying for you.' You're going to pray for me? So you're going to sit at home and do nothing? 'Cause that's what your prayers are; you doing nothing while I struggle with a situation. Don't pray for me - make me a sandwich or something. ~ Hannibal Buress, #NFDB
1188:If we know, and do nothing, we are worse that the murderers hired in our name. If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own - which it is - and render impasssable with our bodies the corridor the the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night. ~ James Baldwin, #NFDB
1189:It is not the weariness of mortality, but the strength of divinity, which we have to recognize in all mighty things; and that is just what we now never recognize, but think that we are to do great things by help of iron bars and perspiration. Alas! we shall do nothing that way but lose some pounds of our own weight. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
1190:I am always on the edge of what I am doing. I do everything badly, sloppily, to get it over with so that I can get on to the next thing that I will do badly and sloppily so that I can then do nothing - which I do anxiously, distractedly, wondering all the time if there isn't something else I should be getting on with. ~ Geoff Dyer, #NFDB
1191:It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering…. ~ Jon Krakauer, #NFDB
1192:Pogroms need no reason, sir, none that can weather challenge, in any case. Difference in kind is the first recognition, the only one needed, in fact. Land, domination, pre-emptive attacks—all just excuses, mundane justifications that do nothing but disguise the simple distinction. They are not us. We are not them. ~ Steven Erikson, #NFDB
1193:There is, indeed, a viewpoint from which this “rationalization” of life is not rational. The brain is clever enough to see the vicious circle which it has made for itself. But it can do nothing about it. Seeing that it is unreasonable to worry does not stop worrying; rather, you worry the more at being unreasonable. ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
1194:It would seem to me... an offense against nature, for us to come on the same scene endowed as we are with the curiosity, filled to overbrimming as we are with questions, and naturally talented as we are for the asking of clear questions, and then for us to do nothing about, or worse, to try to suppress the questions. ~ Lewis Thomas, #NFDB
1195:Here we observe the basic obsessive fantasy of Žižek's position: do nothing, sit still, prefer not to, like Melville's Bartleby, and silently dream of a ruthless violence, a consolidation of state power into one man's hands, an act of brutal physical force of which you are the object or the subject or both at once. ~ Simon Critchley, #NFDB
1196:if we do nothing while we are feeling an emotion, there is no short- or long-term harm that can come to us. However, if we react to the emotion by making a DECISION, we may not only regret the immediate outcome, but we may also create a long-lasting pattern of DECISIONS that will continue to misguide us for a long time. ~ Dan Ariely, #NFDB
1197:In everyday life, we’re given a choice. Do the right thing, do nothing, or do the wrong thing. All too often, people choose to do nothing. And that’s all right. It’s easier. Sometimes it’s difficult to know what’s right and what’s wrong. But every so often, a few people choose to go out of their way to do the right thing ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
1198:I wouldn't be in shallow relationships, so I do nothing. I have no sex and no romance. Who needs it.? Who needs all these potential problems like disease and pregnancy.? I have no problems. No fear of disease, psychopaths, or stalkers. Why not just be with your friends and have real conversations and a good time.? ~ Candace Bushnell, #NFDB
1199:For shame! for shame!” cried the lady’s maid. “What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress’s son! Your young master.” “Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?” “No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1200:I feel as if things are falling apart within me, like so many glass partitions shattering. I walk from place to place in the grip of a fury, needing to act, yet can do nothing about it because any attempt seems doomed in advance. Failure, everywhere failure. Only suicide hovers above me, gleaming and inaccessible. ~ Michel Houellebecq, #NFDB
1201:Nixon has the audacity to tell me to do nothing in the interest of my country until he dictactes where that interest lies. At the same time he threatens me that failure to follow his so-called advice will be to jeopardize the special relations between our two countries. I say to hell with such special relations. ~ Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, #NFDB
1202:Up on the overwatch where Dai was positioned, the two sniper teams were preparing to engage with their bolt-action rifles, but Dai called out to them before they fired their first round. “No!” he said. “There must be fifty or more of them. We will just draw fire on ourselves, and we can do nothing for our comrades below. ~ Mark Greaney, #NFDB
1203:It is this country that is dangerous, with her idealistic conception of legality. The social spirit of this people is wrapped up in scrupulous prejudices and that is fatal to our work.. You talk of England being our only refuge! So much the worse. What do we want with refuges ? Here you talk, print, plot, and do nothing. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1204:It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering. ~ Judith Lewis Herman, #NFDB
1205:Most of the time we do nothing, myself included, I think the lesson I learned from [playing humanitarian Tessa in The Constant Gardner] is that a lot of drops make up an ocean. If people would stand up and say what they believe in maybe we can make a difference. Helping one person is better than nothing. Just do something. ~ Rachel Weisz, #NFDB
1206:There are three necessary elements in a story - exposition, development, and drama. Exposition we may illustrate as "John Fortescue was a solicitor in the little town of X"; development as "One day Mrs Fortescue told him she was about to leave him for another man"; and drama as "You will do nothing of the kind," he said. ~ Frank O Connor, #NFDB
1207:I learned that politicians are not supposed to help people. They simply listen to people, nod their heads painfully, commiserate at proper intervals, promise to do all they can, and then do nothing. It was very instructive. I could probably have enlisted more action from a bleached jellyfish washed ashore in a seasonal storm. ~ Pat Conroy, #NFDB
1208:The most incredible thing is that so much happens outside of the will. You can't will anything. Not even solitude is an act of will. You simply endure it. You must hold on until the very end, without weakening. You can do nothing else. But you must not believe that because you accept being nothing, you are anyone special. ~ Bram van Velde, #NFDB
1209:To be humble means for the mind, the vital and the body never to forget that without the Divine they know nothing, are nothing and can do nothing; without the Divine they are nothing but ignorance, chaos and impotence. The Divine alone is Truth, Life, Power, Love, Felicity.
~ The Mother, Words Of The Mother II, Purity and Humility, 152,#NFDB
1210:Jeremy had a plan for getting Clay back and I wasn't allowed to know anything about it or allowed to help him carry it out. As one might expect, I accepted this news with grace and understanding. "That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard!" I snarled for the dozenth time that hour. "I won't just sit here and do nothing. ~ Kelley Armstrong, #NFDB
1211:To be feminist doesn't mean simply to do nothing, to reduce yourself to total impotence under the pretext of refusing masculine values. There is a problematic, a very difficult dialectic between accepting power and refusing it, accepting certain masculine values, and wanting to transform them. I think it's worth a try. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
1212:Better, I thought, not to touch at all than to touch and bring hurt upon myself and others. Better to do nothing than to make a move and have it be the wrong one. But even deciding to not touch or to be nothing is a decision, Vanyel, and by deciding not to touch, so as to avoid hurt, I then hurt those who tried to touch me. ~ Mercedes Lackey, #NFDB
1213:You fight, work, sweat, nearly kill yourself, sometimes do kill yourself, trying to accomplish something — and you can’t. Not from any fault of yours. You simply can do nothing, neither great nor little — not a thing in the world — not even marry an old maid, or get a wretched 600-ton cargo of coal to its port of destination. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1214:God wants to be our partner throughout life. Too often we are tempted to either carry the entire load ourselves or give everything to God and do nothing. God doesn't like either strategy. Sometimes He moves before us and sometimes after us - but He doesn't move without us. Without God... we cannot. Without us... God will not. ~ John C Maxwell, #NFDB
1215:It's very easy to attack ourselves. Even comforting in its familiarity, but you must resist this urge at all costs. Dwelling on the past or your perceived flaws will do nothing but keep you under emotional house arrest and hamper your progress. Commit yourself to growth and reward yourself with kindness for choosing to do so! ~ Chris Hardwick, #NFDB
1216:Wait until you’re really sick,” could be the motto of doctors and hospitals in the current system. “We can do nothing for you until your symptoms surpass the subclinical and reveal themselves in pain, loss of function, or a particularly worrisome test result. Until then, keep calm and keep eating the Standard American Diet. ~ T Colin Campbell, #NFDB
1217:The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. ~ G K Chesterton, #NFDB
1218:I don't like showing the technique. I don't like people who say, "Here, I'm going to act, but first I have to bounce off this wall." If you have to bounce off the wall, do it by yourself. Don't feature the technique. My old drama coach used to say, "Don't just do something, stand there." Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
1219:Enoch explained, “When we were in the midst of the Gigantomachy, I knew that everything that I had believed in was a lie. I understood for the first time in my life that the only way that evil was allowed to spread its talons over the earth was for righteous men to do nothing. We will no longer do nothing. We will fight this evil. ~ Brian Godawa, #NFDB
1220:Jeremy had a plan for getting Clay back and I wasn't allowed to know anything about it or allowed to help him carry it out. As one might expect, I accepted this news with grace and understanding.
"That is the stupidest idea I've ever heard!" I snarled for the dozenth time that hour.
"I won't just sit here and do nothing. ~ Kelley Armstrong,#NFDB
1221:Cedric smiled and sat back again. 'You only think that because you think heroes always win. Trust me on this one, James. A hero isn’t defined by winning. Loads of heroes die in the effort. Most of them never get any recognition. No, a hero is just somebody who does the right thing when it would be far, far easier to do nothing. ~ G Norman Lippert, #NFDB
1222:I feel as if things are falling apart within me,
like so many glass partitions shattering. I walk from place to place in the grip of a
fury, needing to act, yet can do nothing about it because any attempt seems doomed
in advance. Failure, everywhere failure. Only suicide hovers above me, gleaming and
inaccessible. ~ Michel Houellebecq,#NFDB
1223:I wish more of the web had stayed nonprofit. But the advertising model took over and I think has delivered us to where we are, along with the development of content, which is designed to do nothing else but make you click on it or share it. And I think it's kind of a low goal for content, and I think that's taken us to our current abyss. ~ Tim Wu, #NFDB
1224:IF THEN there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1225:I know that the materials found on the streets is rich and wonderful, but my experience is that the way I am accustomed to work, slowly planning my composition etc. is not suited for such work. By the time I have the composition or expression right, the picture is gone. I guess I want to do the impossible and therefore I do nothing. ~ Tina Modotti, #NFDB
1226:A young woman, newly wed, may find herself in the delightful position of wanting to do nothing without the company of her darling husband. She may indeed discover that she spends all her waking hours with her fellow to the exclusion of every other friend or family member. This is understandable, but wholly unacceptable, to society. ~ Anna Godbersen, #NFDB
1227:So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1228:To most theistic believers, human life can have no meaning in a universe without God. Quite sincerely, and with understandable yearning for a meaning to their existence, they reject the possibility of no God. In their minds, only a purposeful universe based on God is possible and science can do nothing else but support thistruth. ~ Victor J Stenger, #NFDB
1229:We have seen recently, almost every major head of state goes to India and says, we believe India should be in the Council. They go back home and do nothing about it. But this cannot be sustained for long. If they want to keep the UN as a global forum where they discuss incidents and take some meaningful decisions, they should [reform]. ~ Kofi Annan, #NFDB
1230:It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1231:The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
1232:She sifted, sighed, and stared up at the ceiling, trying to think about anything but Lord Maccoon, her current predicament, or Lord Akeldama's safety. Which meant she could do nothing but reflect on the complex plight of her mama's more recent embroidery project. Thins, in itself, was a worse torture than any her captors could devise. ~ Gail Carriger, #NFDB
1233:If we do nothing, as the Republicans suggest, we're going to see health care costs reach a point where small businesses can't afford it and families can't afford it. We're going to see people turned down from pre-existing conditions. We're going to find the Medicare doughnut hole - a gap in coverage that's going to hurt a lot of seniors. ~ Dick Durbin, #NFDB
1234:This massacre in Orlando is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school or in a house of worship or a movie theater or in a nightclub. And we have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision, as well. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1235:Did they not find a connection between their obscene wealth and the obscene poverty all around them? Perhaps it was too much to suggest the fault was theirs alone. The upper class was too goddamn stupid to be blamed, frankly. But how could they do nothing? How could they look upon their fellow creatures suffering and do absolutely nothing? ~ Sunil Yapa, #NFDB
1236:I believe in love. I believe in good stories. I play really hard on the weekends because I like to have those stories. My wife and I go off and do craziness all the time. We're just like, 'What can we go get into this weekend?' Then we have other ones where we just sit and do nothing and then we have work that we do. It's all memories. ~ Channing Tatum, #NFDB
1237:Tessa distinguished absolutely between pain observed and pain shared. Pain observed is journalistic pain. It’s diplomatic pain. It’s television pain, over as soon as you switch off your beastly set. Those who watch suffering and do nothing about it, in her book, were little better than those who inflicted it. They were the bad Samaritans. ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
1238:ts very simple. In everyday life, we're given a choice. Do the right thing, do nothing, or do the wrong thing. All too often, people choose to do nothing. And that's all right and what's wrong. Sometimes it's difficult to know what's right and what's wrong. But every so often, a few people choose to go out of their way to do the right thing. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
1239:It is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams,” he preaches in his inaugural address. “We’re not, as some would have us believe, doomed to inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. “I believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing.” * ~ Bill O Reilly, #NFDB
1240:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees...The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love...Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
1241:I thought for a moment about the dog. Miffy. I guess no matter how much Rube and I complained about him, we knew we'd sort of miss him if something happened to him. It's funny how there are things in this world that do nothing but annoy you, but you know you'd miss them when they're gone. Miffy, the Pomeranian wonderdog, was one such thing. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1242:Code is not like other how-computers-work books. It doesn't have big color illustrations of disk drives with arrows showing how the data sweeps into the computer. Code has no drawings of trains carrying a cargo of zeros and ones. Metaphors and similes are wonderful literary devices but they do nothing but obscure the beauty of technology. ~ Charles Petzold, #NFDB
1243:If you want to become a man of letters and perhaps write some Histories one day, you must also lie and invent tales, otherwise your History would become monotonous. But you must act with restraint. The world condemns liars who do nothing but lie, even about the most trivial things, and it rewards poets, who lie only about the greatest things. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
1244:Punitive measures whether administered by police, teachers, spouses or parents have well known standard effects: (1) escape-education has its own name for that: truancy, (2) counterattack-vandalism on schools and attacks on teachers, (3) apathy-a sullen do-nothing withdrawal. The more violent the punishment, the more serious the by-products. ~ B F Skinner, #NFDB
1245:Because you don't see what can be done, you say God can do nothing—which is as much as to say there cannot be more within his scope than there is within yours! One thing is clear, that, if he saw no more than what lies within your ken, he could not be God. The very impossibility you see in the thing points to the region wherein God works. ~ George MacDonald, #NFDB
1246:But Scarlett had already been broken. For years her father tore her down. Over and over, she had let him. She’d allowed him to make her feel worthless and powerless. But she was neither of those things. She was done allowing her fear to make her weaker, to eat away at the meat on her bones until she could do nothing but whimper and watch. ~ Stephanie Garber, #NFDB
1247:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees....The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love....Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
1248:Too much on my mind. Too many directions to think in all at once. I sometimes feel that if I had time to focus my mind on just one problem, I could solve it. And then go on to solve the others.” “Every man believes that. It isn’t so. Slay the ones you can as they come to hand, and after a while you get used to the ones you can do nothing about. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
1249:But I doubt very much that Sheba’s comic oddity will actually earn her more lenience from the court. In all likelihood, she’ll receive exactly the same punishment as a man. The guardians of gender equality won’t stand for anything else. In the end, I suspect, being female will do nothing for Sheba except deny her the grandeur of genuine villainy. ~ Zo Heller, #NFDB
1250:Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?... It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light... My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt. ~ Anna Sewell, #NFDB
1251:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also
loves, notices, sees … The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love.… Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes. ~ Paracelsus,#NFDB
1252:[Donald] Trump has been very inconsistent on many things; on Twitter he's been all over the place, but some of it is very consistent. That is: Do nothing about climate change except make it worse. And he's not just speaking for himself, but for the whole Republican Party, the whole leadership. It's already had impact, it will have worse impact. ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
1253:If we get setbacks and if something happens where the Civil Rights Bill is watered down, for instance, if the Negro feels that he can do nothing but move from one ghetto to another and one slum to another, the despair and the disappointment will be so great that it will be very difficult to keep the struggle disciplined and nonviolent. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1254:If you do nothing, if a mother doesn't come for care, if she breastfeeds her baby, the chances of the baby getting HIV are about 40%. So it's about the difference between 40% and zero. This is almost totally preventable. But it requires mothers coming for care and getting the medicines they need, and getting the education and support they need. ~ Annie Lennox, #NFDB
1255:This is very important -- to take leisure time. Pace is the essence. Without stopping entirely and doing nothing at all for great periods, you're gonna lose everything...just to do nothing at all, very, very important. And how many people do this in modern society? Very few. That's why they're all totally mad, frustrated, angry and hateful. ~ Charles Bukowski, #NFDB
1256:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who can do nothing understands nothing. He who understands nothing is worthless. But he who understands also loves, notices, sees ... The more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the greater the love.... Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries knows nothing about grapes. ~ Paracelsus, #NFDB
1257:This is fine living, indeed," Neddie cried. "Poor Collingforth is charged with murder, and you can do nothing but consume a quantity of cake!"
I closed my book and surveyed him narrowly.
"Lizzy had informed me the you are invariably peevish when suffering the pangs of hunger. Call for some more cake, I beg, and tell me of the inquest. ~ Stephanie Barron,#NFDB
1258:The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
1259:Too many scholars think of research as purely a cerebral pursuit. If we do nothing with the knowledge we gain, then we have wasted our study. Books can store information better than we can--what we we do that books cannot is interpret. So if one is not going to draw conclusions, then one might as well just leave the information in the texts. ~ Brandon Sanderson, #NFDB
1260:I can't help comparing what I have with Gale to what I'm pretending to have with Peeta. How I never question Gale's motives while I do nothing but doubt the latter's. It's not a fair comparison really. Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other's survival means our own death. How do you sidestep that? ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1261:We see how boredom arises as a special, terrible problem for smart people. A smart person has a lively brain; that brain wants to work; it is primed to think; and if you give it nothing to do, it will do nothing for as long as it can bear to do nothing, but it will not be happy. It will be bored and, worse, begin to doubt the meaningfulness of life. ~ Eric Maisel, #NFDB
1262:What is truth?" Sometimes people ask this question because they wish to do nothing. Generic cynicism makes us feel hip and alternative even as we slip along with our fellow citizens into a morass of indifference. It is your ability to discern facts that makes you an individual, and our collective trust in common knowledge that makes us a society. ~ Timothy Snyder, #NFDB
1263:If you have been expending lots of energy mingling, counseling, or socializing, you need some down time to recover. Put it on your calendar so you can be intentional about it. And for an hour or so, go to a place by yourself. Read, relax, or do nothing. No one is there to talk to you for those minutes. Enjoy your blessed aloneness for a brief season. ~ Thom S Rainer, #NFDB
1264:The urge to pass new laws must be seen as an illness, not much different from the urge to bite old women. Anyone suspected of suffering from it should either be treated with the appropriate pills or, if it is too late for that, elected to parliament [or congress, as the case may be] and paid a huge salary with endless holidays, to do nothing whatever. ~ Auberon Waugh, #NFDB
1265:But today is not yesterday, and the Reb could do nothing but listen to the worst imaginable words—We couldn’t save her—told to him by a doctor he had never met before that night. How could this happen? She had been perfectly normal earlier in the day, a playful child, her whole life before her. We couldn’t save her? Where is the logic, the order of life? ~ Mitch Albom, #NFDB
1266:Sitting meditation, walking meditation, and mindful eating are good opportunities for resting. When you feel agitated, if you are able to go to a park or a garden, it is an opportunity for rest. If you walk slowly and remember to take it easy, if you are able to sit and do nothing from time to time, you can rest deeply and enter a state of true ease. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
1267:But why, if you are so clever, do you lie here like a sack and have nothing to show for it? One time you used to go out, you say, to teach children. But why is it you do nothing now?" "I am doing..." Raskolnikov began sullenly and reluctantly. "What are you doing?" "Work..." "What sort of work?" "I am thinking," he answered seriously after a pause. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1268:You don't have to do anything. This is what you don't understand! You don't know any older magicians except our professors. It's a wasteland out there. Out here. You can do nothing or anything or everything, and none of it matters. You have to find something to really care about to keep from running totally off the rails. A lot of magicians never find it. ~ Lev Grossman, #NFDB
1269:I can’t help comparing what I have with Gale to what I’m pretending to have with Peeta. How I never question Gale’s motives while I do nothing but doubt the latter’s. It’s not a fair comparison really. Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other’s survival means our own death. How do you sidestep that? Effie’s ~ Suzanne Collins, #NFDB
1270:The Difference Engine can in reality (as has been already partly explained) do nothing but add; and any other processes, not excepting those of simple subtraction, multiplication and division, can be performed by it only just to that extent in which it is possible, by judicious mathematical arrangement and artifices, to reduce them to a series of additions. ~ Ada Lovelace, #NFDB
1271:The modern world is also fascinated by innovation but scornful to tradition. Like the Athenians in Paul's day, many people do nothing but get involved in the latest fads (Acts 17:21). People stand in line to purchase the latest gimmicks, and no sooner do they learn how to use them than the manufacturers declare the models obsolete. Innovation! Progress! ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
1272:We live well in the houses, well enough, but we are ruled utterly by fear. There was a time we sailed in ships between the stars. Now, we dare not go 100 miles from home. We keep a little knowledge and do nothing with it, but once we used that knowledge to weave the pattern of life like a tapestry across night and chaos. We enlarged the chances of life. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1273:I’d said it casually, but the phrase caught hold and was amplified across the press. Some Americans seemed to embrace it, understanding all too well the amount of organization and drive it takes to raise children. Others, meanwhile, seemed vaguely appalled, presuming it to mean that as First Lady I’d do nothing but pipe-cleaner craft projects with my kids. ~ Michelle Obama, #NFDB
1274:The end and object of a rational constitution is, to do nothing rashly, to be kindly affected towards men, and in all things willingly to submit unto the gods. Casting therefore all other things aside, keep thyself to these few, and remember withal that no man properly can be said to live more than that which is now present, which is but a moment of time. ~ Marcus Aurelius, #NFDB
1275:Whatever reality is there - and you can see most of your realities as the result of your choices - you can make a glorious experience, or you can be victimized by not tuning in, and by judging it in unreal terms.
Think of the logic here.
How foolish ever to allow yourself to be upset or immobilized over things when your upset will do nothing. ~ Wayne W Dyer,#NFDB
1276:I find it ironic that Republicans have such disdain for the lazy, and yet their solution to every problem is do nothing. Their answer to wealth inequality, do nothing. Health care? Do nothing. Climate change? Nothing. Racism? Doesn’t exist. For a group of people so head over heels in love with self-reliance, they sure do recommend a lot of sitting on their ass. ~ Bill Maher, #NFDB
1277:The time will come when human drones will be ostracized from society as nobodies, as thieves of honest men's efforts, thieves of the results of honest men's labor. The coming civilization will not tolerate these thieves of society, these lazy vagabonds who do nothing but steal the products of their labor and demoralize society by their vicious example. ~ Orison Swett Marden, #NFDB
1278:I wish you'd go a a little easier on him,” she said.
“He came in here thrashing a sword around. Was I supposed to stand idly by and do nothing?” he huffed.
“Well, you weren't supposed to try and rearrange his face with your fist.”
“I wasn't,” Nicholas protested. “He lunged up into it several times. I was only in the way.”
“You're ridiculous. ~ Alexandra Bracken,#NFDB
1279:On Sundays she got up early in order to have more time to do nothing.
The worst moment of her life was on that day at the end of the afternoon: she'd lapse into worried meditation, the emptiness of dry Sunday. She sighed. She missed being little—manioc flour—and thought she'd been happy. Actually even the worst childhood is always enchanted, how awful. ~ Clarice Lispector,#NFDB
1280:And I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing, in fact, I'm able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don't need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they've got a couple thousand dollars less in grants or student loans. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1281:I love you, Mary," he says, and that is when I let the tears come. The great heaving sobs of terror and pain that shake my body until I can do nothing but grab on to Travis to anchor me to this spot. He pulls me toward him and I curl around his body as I weep. I fall into darkness with his fingers trailing through my har, my cheeks still wet and my body heaving. ~ Carrie Ryan, #NFDB
1282:Minnesotans who bought scenic art usually avoided winter scenes. Hannah didn't find that surprising. Minnesota winters were long. Why would they want to buy a painting that would constantly remind them of the bone-chilling cold, the heavy snow that had to be shoveled, and the necessity of dressing up in survival gear to do nothing more than take out the garbage? ~ Joanne Fluke, #NFDB
1283:I was called before the head matron, a tall woman with a stolid face. She began taking my pedigree. What religion? was the first question. None, I am an atheist. Atheism is prohibited here. You will have to go to church. I replied that I would do nothing of the kind. I did not believe in anything the Church stood for and, not being a hypocrite, I would not attend. ~ Emma Goldman, #NFDB
1284:When we let our mind relax, a moment will come when we rest without thoughts. This stable state is like an ocean without waves. Within this stability a thought arises. This thought is like a wave which forms on the surface of the ocean. When we leave this thought alone, do nothing with it, not "seizing" it, it subsides by itself into the mind where it came from. ~ Bokar Rinpoche, #NFDB
1285:All too often, when we see injustices, both great and small, we think, That's terrible, but we do nothing. We say nothing. We let other people fight their own battles. We remain silent because silence is easier. Qui tacet consentire videtur is Latin for 'Silence gives consent.' When we say nothing, when we do nothing, we are consenting to these trespasses against us. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
1286:All too often, when we see injustices, both great and small, we think, That’s terrible, but we do nothing. We say nothing. We let other people fight their own battles. We remain silent because silence is easier. Qui tacet consentire videtur is Latin for “Silence gives consent.” When we say nothing, when we do nothing, we are consenting to these trespasses against us. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
1287:She wanted to cry again. She wanted to do nothing and forget those two calm strangers had ever said anything to her. But she had no choice now, did she? The secret had been thrust in her face. She couldn’t put that horse back in the barn, to mix her metaphors. It was a parental paradox probably as old as time: She didn’t want to know, but she did want to know. When ~ Harlan Coben, #NFDB
1288:The fact is that we have been consistent in a predictable 60-year commitment to national security, while our friends and former enemies - by intent or default - have followed different paths since 1989. We stayed mostly the same as they became hypopowers that, to take a small example, would and could do nothing should a madman in Korea wish to kill millions. ~ Victor Davis Hanson, #NFDB
1289:There's lots will take things as they are--fat and stupid; and lots will be worried by a sort of feeling that it's all wrong, and that they ought to be doing something. Now whenever things are so that a lot of people feel they ought to be doing something, the weak, and those who go weak with a lot of complicated thinking, always make for a sort of do-nothing religion, ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
1290:Disengage,” she whispered, pulling the red tab on her wristband. Immediately Avery’s weapons were rendered inactive and she became invisible to everyone in the augmented reality game, able to do nothing except walk back to the staging room until she reactivated. It was like she wasn’t even there, like she’d suddenly erased herself. Which was exactly how she felt. ~ Katharine McGee, #NFDB
1291:1. Do not think dishonestly. 2. The Way is in training. 3. Become acquainted with every art. 4. Know the Ways of all professions. 5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. 6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. 7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. 8. Pay attention even to trifles. 9. Do nothing which is of no use. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
1292:Most Americans are born drunk, and really require a little wine or beer to sober them. They have a sort of permanent intoxication from within, a sort of invisible champagne. Americans do not need to drink to inspire them to do anything, though they do sometimes, I think, need a little for the deeper and more delicate purpose of teaching them how to do nothing. ~ Gilbert K Chesterton, #NFDB
1293:1. Do not think dishonestly. 2. The Way is in training. 3. Become acquainted with every art. 4. Know the Ways of all professions. 5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. 6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. 7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. 8. Pay attention even to trifles. 9. Do nothing which is of no use. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
1294:Mmmmmnobaconeggsgottagostore…” She slowly ran her hand down his forearm and gave him a sleepy smile as she sat up. Her eyes remained closed as she rested her hand on his shoulder and before he could realize her intention or even remember his manners and stop her, her mouth was on his in a kiss that was so soft and sweet Alessandro could do nothing but fall into it with her. ~ E Jamie, #NFDB
1295:the bigger the goal, the more effort it requires, the more dopamine we get. This is why it feels really good to work hard to accomplish something difficult, while doing something quick and easy may only give us a little hit if anything at all. In other words, it feels good to put in a lot of effort to accomplish something. There is no biological incentive to do nothing. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
1296:Be patient, do nothing, cease striving. We find this advice disheartening and therefore unfeasible because we forget it is our own inflexible activity that is structuring the reality. We think that if we do not hustle, nothing will happen and we will pine away. But the reality is probably in motion and after a while we might take part in that motion. But one can't know. ~ Paul Goodman, #NFDB
1297:For John was running, and this was terrible. Because if you ran, time ran. You yelled and screamed and raced and rolled and tumbled and all of a sudden the sun was gone and the whistle was blowing and you were on your long way home to supper. When you weren’t looking, the sun got around behind you! The only way to keep things slow was to watch everything and do nothing! ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1298:There are millions of people in the modern world who have earned enough money to be able to live their lives comfortably without doing anything for a living. 228 | 31 Ways to Happiness Conquer Your Boredom | 229 However, most of them fail to live happily because they get bored if they do nothing. Many people don’t work for the sake of money. They work to avoid boredom. ~ Awdhesh Singh, #NFDB
1299:But how is it now? All we get is orders; and the laws go out of the state. Them legislators set up there at Austin and don't do nothing but makes laws against kerosene oil and schoolbooks being brought into the state. I reckon they was afraid some man would go home some evening after work and light up and get an education and go to work and make laws to repeal aforesaid laws. ~ O Henry, #NFDB
1300:He who knows nothing, loves nothing. He who
can do nothing understands nothing. He who
understands nothing is worthless. But he who
understands also loves, notices, sees. . . . The
more knowledge is inherent in a thing, the
greater the love. . . . Anyone who imagines
that all fruits ripen at the same time as the
strawberries knows nothing about grapes. ~ Paracelsus,#NFDB
1301:Remember that Jesus only did what he saw his Father doing (John 5:19). The miraculous ministry of Jesus was absolutely dependent on his intimacy with his Father. Likewise, the ministry of the apostles was absolutely dependent on their intimacy with Jesus, for without him they could do nothing (John 15:5). Therefore, the loss of intimacy means the loss of power for ministry. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1302:We keep waiting to be crowned,
Waiting for the world to judge us worthy of offering our brightest, most empowered and beautiful stuff.
But that won’t happen.
Your next certification or ordination or degree will do nothing for your expression in the world until you accept how unspeakably worthy and valuable you already are to be here and share yourself with us. ~ Jacob Nordby,#NFDB
1303:As Beaumarchais gathered blankets and grenades in France, William Howe’s redcoats came ashore and slaughtered Washington’s forces on Long Island, in Brooklyn, and then in Manhattan. A humiliated Washington could do nothing to stop his troops’ shoddy retreat from Kips Bay, swatting at them with his horsewhip and howling, “Are these the men with which I am to defend America? ~ Sarah Vowell, #NFDB
1304:We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organ of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing by ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. If we ask whence this comes, if we seek to pry into the soul that causes, all philosophy is at fault. Its presence or its absence is all we can affirm. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
1305:And he’d do nothing for ten minutes but look at the lock, and then he’d select a piece of bent metal from a ring of several hundred almost identical pieces, and under an hour later he’d be walking away with a neat ten percent of the takings. Of course, you didn’t have to use Mr. Brown’s services. You could always opt to spend the rest of your life looking at a locked door ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1306:It’s okay that you have flaws. How could our lives be as clean and white as a blank sheet of paper? Life naturally takes its toll on our bodies, our minds, and our relationships. rather than choosing a life in which you do nothing for fear of making a mistake, choose a life that improves through failure and pain. And shout out loud to your struggling self, I love you so much ~ Haemin Sunim, #NFDB
1307:I mean supposing we—the self-satisfied, successful members of society—are responsible for the injustice visited upon the heads of our less fortunate “brothers-inChrist” because of our shameful indifference to it. We see misery all around us and we do not care. We do nothing to prevent it. Are we not then, in part at least, responsible for it? Have you ever thought of that? ~ Eugene O Neill, #NFDB
1308:While mediocre parents complain often but do nothing to improve their situations, successful parents look at their own individual role in every situation and analyze how they could be better. They find the right resources, and more importantly, they intentionally seek to acquire the skills necessary to build healthy family relationships that are so important in raising children. ~ Hal Elrod, #NFDB
1309:That's the biggest problem existing in this country! People are always mixing up the word free and freedom. Free is something you get for nothin.' Freedom is a responsibility. We think freedom means do nothing, don't be responsible for your actions.... I think its time for adult Americans to be responsible for themselves, to take back the responsibility of being a free nation. ~ Aaron Tippin, #NFDB
1310:The hardest thing we are asked to do in this world is to remain aware of suffering, suffering about which we can do nothing. Every human instinct is to turn away. Not see. It is, I’m afraid, exemplified by Reagan who refuses to imagine the suffering of twelve million unemployed and the degradation of men and women who are deprived of work and treated in this country like pariahs. ~ May Sarton, #NFDB
1311:God is the life behind your life, the sight behind your eyes, the taste behind your tongue, and the love behind your love. To realize this to the fullest extent is Self-realization. Without God's power you can do nothing. If you always hold this thought, you cannot go wrong, because you will have purified the temple of your mind and your soul with the vibrations of God. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1312:I do not much care for childhood; it is a state of terrible vulnerability. It is therefore unnatural and incompatible with human life. Everyone will cut you, strike you, cheat you. Everyone will offer you suffering when goodness should reign. And because children can do nothing for themselves, they need good advocates, good parents. But a good parent is as rare as snow in summer. ~ Esi Edugyan, #NFDB
1313:Many politicians in the West cling to the notion of a partnership with Russia. They want to include [Vladimir] Putin, make compromises and constantly negotiate new deals with him. But history has taught us that the longer we pursue appeasement and do nothing, the higher the price will be later on. Dictators don't ask "Why?" before they seize even more power. They ask: "Why not?" ~ Garry Kasparov, #NFDB
1314:"The pattern established at the outset has remained to this day, and the Spaniards still do nothing save tear the natives to shreds, murder them and inflict upon them untold misery, suffering and distress, tormenting, harrying and persecuting them mercilessly." According to Las Casas, atrocities continued unabated in the Americas, even half a century after the discovery. ~ Bartolome de las Casas, #NFDB
1315:Thus, after so many years, I feel I have found the solution to the only real problem we have on earth. I have recognized my powerlessness and this was grace. In faith, hope and love I have contemplated the all-power-fulness of God and this, too, was grace. God can do everything and I can do nothing. But if I offer this nothing in prayer to God, everything becomes possible in me. ~ Carlo Carretto, #NFDB
1316:I came in at half past eleven. Since then I have been sitting in an easy chair like a fool. I could do nothing. I hear nothing but your voice. I am like a fool hearing you call me 'Dear.' I offended two men today by leaving them coolly. I wanted to hear your voice, not theirs. When I am with you I leave aside my contemptuous, suspicious nature. I wish I felt your head on my shoulder. ~ James Joyce, #NFDB
1317:I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?' That is a hard question,' said Candide. ~ Voltaire, #NFDB
1318:Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come. ~ J I Packer, #NFDB
1319:You will see in this my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting to merit heaven by them. By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree, and eternal in duration. I can do nothing to deserve such rewards... Even the mixed imperfect pleasures we enjoy in this world, are rather from God's goodness than our merit, how much more such happiness of heaven! ~ Benjamin Franklin, #NFDB
1320:What is it that is most beautiful? - The Universe; for it is the work of God. What is most powerful? - Necessity; because it triumphs over all things. What is most difficult? - To know one's self. What is most easy? - To give advice. What method must we take to lead a good life? - To do nothing we would condemn in others. What is necessary to happiness? - A sound body and a contented mind. ~ Thales, #NFDB
1321:Hear Mass daily; it will prosper the whole day. All your duties will be performed the better for it, and your soul will be stronger to bear its daily cross. The Mass is the most holy act of religion; you can do nothing that can give greater glory to God or be more profitable for your soul than to hear Mass both frequently and devoutly. It is the favorite devotion of the saints. ~ Peter Julian Eymard, #NFDB
1322:It was ironic, but when you scratched the surface, most successful men were working for one thing only--to retire--and the sooner the better. Whereas women were the complete opposite. She had never heard a woman say she was working so she could retire to a desert island or to live on a boat. It was probably, she thought, because most women didn't think they deserved to do nothing. ~ Candace Bushnell, #NFDB
1323:I should like to know which is worse: to be ravished a hundred times by pirates, and have a buttock cut off, and run the gauntlet of the Bulgarians, and be flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, and be dissected, and have to row in a galley -- in short, to undergo all the miseries we have each of us suffered -- or simply to sit here and do nothing?'
That is a hard question,' said Candide. ~ Voltaire,#NFDB
1324:I've always been really selective. I just didn't have the right to be as selective in other years, I guess. It's very difficult to commit so much of your life to go shoot something that you think sucks, so I'd rather do nothing than go work on something that I really hate. Obviously, there are moments where you have to take jobs for money, everybody needs to pay their rent or whatever. ~ Lizzy Caplan, #NFDB
1325:Men fear thought as they do nothing else on Earth, more than ruin, more even than death... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible. Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
1326:We cannot, we must not, think of entering upon a day, or upon an enterprise, without first saying, “Bring here the ephod: let us ask counsel of the Lord!” We can do nothing without our God! Let us attempt nothing without Him. So the Savior rises a great while before day and gets alone with His God, that for Him prayer might perfume the morning dew and sweeten the first breath of the dawn. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1327:This makes it much easier to institute radical departures in public policy. In complex or divided societies, the chances are that a minority—or even a majority—will be forced to concede, often against its will. This makes collective policymaking contentious and favors a minimalist approach to social reform: better to do nothing than to divide people for and against a controversial project. ~ Tony Judt, #NFDB
1328:Waiting for God means power to do nothing save under command. This is not lack of power to do anything. Waiting for God needs strength rather than weakness. It is power to do nothing. It is the strength that holds strength in check. It is the strength that prevents the blundering activity which is entirely false and will make true activity impossible when the definite command comes. ~ G Campbell Morgan, #NFDB
1329:when traumatic events are of human design, those who bear witness are caught in the conflict between victim and perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement and remembering. ~ Judith Lewis Herman, #NFDB
1330:Elizabeth had never been more at a loss to make her feelings appear what they were not. It was necessary to laugh, when she would rather have cried. Her father had most cruelly mortified her, by what he said of Mr. Darcy's indifference, and she could do nothing but wonder at such a want of penetration, or fear that perhaps, instead of his seeing too little, she might have fancied too much. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1331:In interviews, the first question I get in America is always: 'What do you do to stay young?' I do nothing. I don't think aging is a problem ... I'm so surprised that the emphasis on aging here is on physical decay, when aging brings such incredible freedom. Now what I want most is laughs. I don't want to hurt anybody by laughing -- there is no meanness to it. I just want to laugh. ~ Isabella Rossellini, #NFDB
1332:The 2014 election has given the GOP the rare opportunity to retroactively redeem its brand. The conventional perception, incessantly repeated by Democrats and the media, is that Washington dysfunction is the work of the Party of No. Expose the real agent of do-nothing. Show that, when Harry Reid can no longer consign House-passed legislation to oblivion, Congress can actually work. ~ Charles Krauthammer, #NFDB
1333:What ever the course of our lives, we should recieve them as the highest gift from the hand of God, in which equally reposed the power to do nothing whatever for us. Indeed, we should accept misfortune not only in thanks, but in infinite gratitude to Providence, which by such means detaches us from an excessive love for Earthly things and elevates our minds to the celestial and divine. ~ Galileo Galilei, #NFDB
1334:What I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it. It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering." "Oh!" said Pooh. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
1335:I am at a loss to figure out how to rid my e-mail of those bottom-feeders of the electronic world, the generators of spam.... If I were Emperor of the World, I would lock all the spammers in a room and force them to watch nothing but TV commercials for the rest of their miserable lives, and I would condemn the people who respond to spammers to do nothing but clean the toilets in this room. ~ Richard Turner, #NFDB
1336:I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,” Whitman writes. And then for two pages, he’s just hearing: hearing a steam whistle, hearing people’s voices, hearing an opera. He sits on the grass and lets the sound pour through him. And this is what I was trying to do, too, I guess: to listen to all the little sounds of her, because before any of it could make sense, it had to be heard. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1337:Suppose you stand on a high place to enjoy the beauty of the sparkling sea below. You need do nothing to create that beauty; you need only BE IN THE SAME PLACE WHERE IT IS, and let nature do the rest. So it is with the inner life. There is nothing we can DO to gain psychic beauty. It already exists without our effort. We need only be where we belong, that is, in self-union. Then, beauty IS. ~ Vernon Howard, #NFDB
1338:What is the price-current of an honest man and patriot to-day? They hesitate, and they regret, and sometimes they petition; but they do nothing in earnest and with effect. They will wait, well disposed, for others to remedy the evil, that they may no longer have it to regret. At most, they give only a cheap vote, and a feeble countenance and Godspeed, to the right, as it goes by them. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1339:God knows; I won't be an Oxford don anyhow. I'll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I'll be famous, and if not famous, I'll be notorious. Or perhaps I'll lead the life of pleasure for a time and then—who knows?—rest and do nothing. What does Plato say is the highest end that man can attain here below? To sit down and contemplate the good. Perhaps that will be the end of me too. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
1340:My response to these early cries, in other words, is formative. I should do nothing that I don’t intend to continue doing, should make no false moves, lest I find myself co-habiting in the months and years to come with the terrible embodiment of my weaknesses, a creature formed from the patchwork of my faults held together by the glue of her own apparently limitless, denatured, monstrous will. ~ Rachel Cusk, #NFDB
1341:I don't think that stability and the status quo go together at all, not in a flat world where people are integrated, where women are assuming new roles, where young people want to be consulted and participate. I think the trick is to open up, move down the path of reform, do it in a way that is consistent with your own society's stability and culture, and just don't think you can do nothing. ~ Thomas Friedman, #NFDB
1342:so much is happening now; you must be patient like someone who is sick, and confident like someone who is recovering; for perhaps you are both. And more: you are also the doctor, who has to watch over himself. But in every sickness there are many days when the doctor can do nothing but wait. And that is what you, insofar as you are your own doctor, must now do, more than
anything else. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke,#NFDB
1343:That means letting them read books that are too easy for them, or too hard for them. That means letting them read books that challenge them, or do nothing but entertain them. And yes, it means letting students read books with things in them we might disagree with and letting them make up their own minds about things, which is downright scary sometimes. But that’s what good education is all about. ~ Alan Gratz, #NFDB
1344:Think about every time you've seen someone being objectified, abused, enslaved. We see it constantly on the TV, in magazines, on the Internet. We've become numb, so we do nothing. The accumulation of passivity might make reading about that exploitation uncomfortable. And sometimes when I'm writing, I think of it like this: "People seem to like garbage, so here is what garbage smells like..." ~ Ottessa Moshfegh, #NFDB
1345:How did you get in here?” Sterling asked, wishing his words didn’t sound quite so slurred. He was having more difficulty than usual bringing his shadowed world into focus. Damnation, why hadn’t he lit more lamps or poured himself fewer snifters of brandy?
“Not important,” Jack Dodger said. “What is important is for you to realize that you can do nothing to keep us out if we decide we want in. ~ Lorraine Heath,#NFDB
1346:It is an invaluable possession for every living being to have learnt to know himself and to master himself. To know oneself means to know the motives of one's actions and reactions, the why and the how of all that happens in oneself. To master oneself means to do what one has decided to do, to do nothing but that, not to listen to or follow impulses, desires or fancies. ~ The Mother, On Education, Teachers [T3], #NFDB
1347:But Hans Junior wasn’t finished. He stepped closer and said, “You’re either for the Führer or against him—and I can see that you’re against him. You always have been.” Liesel watched Hans Junior in the face, fixated on the thinness of his lips and the rocky line of his bottom teeth. “It’s pathetic—how a man can stand by and do nothing as a whole nation cleans out the garbage and makes itself great. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1348:It's good to be able to deal with it [anger] somehow other than drinking, fighting, crashing cars, hitting your kid, your wife, your husband, your whatever. Paintbrushes, pens, movie cameras, guitars, microphones, typewriters -- these are good things. Weights. These are positive ways, good ways to deal with anger, frustration, alienation, rage. 'Cause all the other ways do nothing but hurt people. ~ Henry Rollins, #NFDB
1349:The purpose of the practice of meditation is to experience the gaps. We do nothing, essentially, and see what that brings—either discomfort or relief, whatever the case may be. The starting point for the practice of meditation is the mindfulness discipline of developing peace. The peace we experience in meditation is simply this state of doing nothing, which is experiencing the absence of speed. ~ Ch gyam Trungpa, #NFDB
1350:With the world in the state it is, it’s such a small, small thing. But I think the sad fact is that I’m about as happy in my life as you are in yours. I do my best for my mother—or, I tell myself that I do. Sometimes I seem to do nothing but scold her; we cross each other like a pair of scissors. She isn’t happy, either. How could she be? I think she’s simply marking time. Well, perhaps we all are. ~ Sarah Waters, #NFDB
1351:The poor fatherless baby of eight months is now the utterly broken-hearted and crushed widow of forty-two! My life as a happy one is ended! the world is gone for me! If I must live on (and I will do nothing to make me worse than I am), it is henceforth for our poor fatherless children - for my unhappy country, which has lost all in losing him - and in only doing what I know and feel he would wish. ~ Queen Victoria, #NFDB
1352:The first symptom of the process of our killing our dreams is the lack of time,’ Petrus continued. ‘The busiest people I have known in my life always have time enough to do everything. Those who do nothing are always tired and pay no attention to the little amount of work they are required to do. They complain constantly that the day is too short. The truth is, they are afraid to fight the good fight. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1353:Il bel far niente means 'the beauty of doing nothing'... [it] has always been a cherished Italian ideal. The beauty of doing nothing is the goal of all your work, the final accomplishment for which you are most highly congratulated. The more exquisitely and delightfully you can do nothing, the higher your life's achievement. You don't necessarily need to be rich in order to experience this, either. ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, #NFDB
1354:One’s self is the basis of everything. Every action is a manifestation of the self. A person who doesn’t know himself can do nothing for others.” “What I meant—I wasn’t acting to satisfy my own desires.” “Shut up! Don’t you see you’re barely grown? There’s nothing more frightening than a half-baked do-gooder who knows nothing of the world but takes it upon himself to tell the world what’s good for it. ~ Eiji Yoshikawa, #NFDB
1355:The Master said, 'Can men refuse to assent to the words of strict admonition? But it is reforming the conduct because of them which is valuable. Can men refuse to be pleased with words of gentle advice? But it is unfolding their aim which is valuable. If a man be pleased with these words, but does not unfold their aim, and assents to those, but does not reform his conduct, I can really do nothing with him. ~ Confucius, #NFDB
1356:My greatest urge in life is to do nothing. It's not even an absence of motivation, a lack, for I do have a strong urge: to do nothing. To down tools, to stop. Except I know that if I do that I will fall into despair, and I know that it is worth doing anything in one's power to avoid depression because from there, from being depressed, it is only an imperceptible step to despair: the last refuge of the ego. ~ Geoff Dyer, #NFDB
1357:Perhaps it is impossible to understand one’s own face. Or perhaps it is because I am a single man? People who live in society have learned how to see themselves in mirrors as they appear to their friends. I have no friends. Is that why my flesh is so naked? You might say—yes you might say, nature without humanity. I have no taste for work any longer, I can do nothing more except wait for night. 5.30: ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1358:The manner of the woman was ungracious; but her words were true. They saw that their presence could do nothing towards the alleviation of the misery they witnessed; and they felt that mere curiosity would not authorize a longer intrusion. So soon, therefore, as they had relieved, according to their power, the poverty that seemed to be the least evil of this cottage, they emerged into the open air. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne, #NFDB
1359:Wildlife is and should be useless in the same way art, music, poetry and even sports are useless. They are useless in the sense that they do nothing more than raise our spirits, make us laugh or cry, frighten, disturb and delight us. They connect us not just to what’s weird, different, other, but to a world where we humans do not matter nearly as much as we like to think.
And that should be enough. ~ Richard Conniff,#NFDB
1360:Money is a sort of instinct. It's a sort of property of nature in a person to make money. It's nothing you do. It's no trick you play. It's a sort of permanent accident of your own nature; once you start, you make money, and you go on. . . But you've got to begin. . . You've got to get in. You can do nothing if you are kept outside. You've got to beat your way in. Once you've done that, you can't help it! ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
1361:This was Josie’s preferred method of parenting: go someplace like this, with grand scale and much to be discovered, and watch your children wander and injure themselves but not significantly. Sit and do nothing. When they come back to show you something, some rock or mop of seaweed, inspect it and ask questions about it. Socrates invented the ideal method for the parent who likes to sit and do very little. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
1362:She catches hold, then of this word "nothing," and stabs at it with a multitude of words and examples, and by means of a suitable interpretation, reduces it to this, that "nothing" can mean the same as "only a little thing" or "an imperfect thing;" she expounds in other words what the Sophists have hitherto taught regarding this passage: "Apart from me you can do nothing," that is to say "nothing perfectly. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1363:It is inherently dangerous to allow a country, such as Iraq, to retain weapons of mass destruction, particularly in light of its past aggressive behaviour. If the world community fails to disarm Iraq we fear that other rogue states will be encouraged to believe that they too can have these most deadly of weapons to systematically defy international resolutions and that the world will do nothing to stop them. ~ Stephen Harper, #NFDB
1364:I think you may judge of a man’s character by the persons whose affection he seeks. If you find a man seeking only the affection of those who are great, depend upon it he is ambitious and self-seeking; but when you observe that a man seeks the affection of those who can do nothing for him, but for whom he must do everything, you know that he is not seeking himself, but that pure benevolence sways his heart. ~ Charles Spurgeon, #NFDB
1365:This Administration also puts forward a false choice between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand... That means no more illegal wire-tapping of American citizens. No more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war. No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. ~ Barack Obama, #NFDB
1366:We all have to accept reality, yes, that's true. But just to accept reality and do nothing else, that is the attitude of human beings who have lost the ability to develop and grow, because human beings also have the ability to create new realities. And if there are no longer people who want to create new realities, then perhaps the word progress should be removed altogether from humankind's vocabulary. ~ Pramoedya Ananta Toer, #NFDB
1367:Behind us, our paths stretch, long and worn deep. There is bitter pathos in the prospect of retracing them. Yet, for those of us who remain... awake, it seems we do nothing but just that. An endless retracing of paths, yet each step we take is forward, for the path has proved itself to be a circle. Yet- and here is the true pathos- the knowledge never slows our steps.
"Wide-eyed stupid", the Malazans say. ~ Steven Erikson,#NFDB
1368:God-realization is the most difficult state to reach. Let no one fool himself, nor think that someone else can "give" it to him. Whenever I fell into a state of mental stagnation, my Master could do nothing for me. But I never gave up trying to keep in tune with him by cheerfully performing whatever he asked me to do. "I have come to him for God-realization," I reasoned, "and I must listen to his advice." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda, #NFDB
1369:I am thoroughly convinced that there are people who cross our paths every day that do nothing but discourage us and make us lose focus on the big picture of what God has called us to do. If we allow them, they will steal our joy, our enthusiasm, and our calling. When you come across people like that, give them no time or opportunity. God is the source of our joy, and we must spend our energies focused on Him alone. ~ Ron Lambros, #NFDB
1370:Beginning today, I will create a new future by creating a new me. No longer will I dwell in a pit of despair, moaning over squandered time and lost opportunity. I can do nothing about the past. My future is immediate. I will grasp it in both hands and carry it with running feet. When I am faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, I will always choose to act! I seize this moment. I choose now. ~ Andy Andrews, #NFDB
1371:What I like doing best is Nothing."
"How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.
"Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?' and you say, 'Oh, Nothing,' and then you go and do it.
It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."
"Oh!" said Pooh. ~ A A Milne,#NFDB
1372:One will seem to promote virtue better by using encouragement and persuasion of speech than law and necessity. For it is likely that he who is held back from wrongdoing by law will err in secret but that he who is urged to what he should by persuasion will do nothing wrong either in secret or openly. Therefore he who acts rightly from understanding and knowledge proves to be at the same time courageous and right-minded. ~ Democritus, #NFDB
1373:Flashing her a mischievous smile, he said, “Maiden sent the clothes. Next time, you will not be wrapped in so much wannup, yes? It will take us much less time to do nothing.”
He turned and left the lodge before Loretta realized he had made a joke. It took even longer before she smiled. There was a promise behind the lightly spoken words. Next time, it would take them much less time to do nothing. ~ Catherine Anderson,#NFDB
1374:It having been said above that God bends all the reprobate, and even Satan himself, at his will, three objections are started. First, that this happens by the permission, not by the will of God. To this objection there is a twofold reply, the one, that angels and men, good and bad, do nothing but what is appointed by God; the second, that all movements are secretly directed to their end by the hidden inspiration of God. ~ John Calvin, #NFDB
1375:There are so many examples of human misuse of the Earth that even phrasing this question chills me. If there is life on Mars, I believe we should do nothing with Mars. Mars then belongs to the Martians, even if the Martians are only microbes. The existence of an independent biology on a nearby planet is a treasure beyond assessing, and the preservation of that life must, I think, supersede any other possible use of Mars. ~ Carl Sagan, #NFDB
1376:...there is no real advance in human reason, for what we gain in one direction we lose in another; for all minds start from the same point, and as the time spent in learning what others have thought is so much time lost in learning to think for ourselves, we have more acquired knowledge and less vigor of mind. Our minds like our arms are accustomed to use tools for everything, and to do nothing for themselves. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
1377:This time, when she reached the edge, just as she was about to tip over, he slid deep into her in one long, smooth stroke, stretching her. Filling her. Gloriously. And she was lost, over the precipice, safe in his arms as they rocked together and she cried his name and she begged for more, and he gave it to her over and over until she could not breathe and could not speak and could do nothing but collapse in his arms. ~ Sarah MacLean, #NFDB
1378:Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing. I get some of my best ideas when I'm bored, which is why I never take my shirts to the cleaners. I love ironing my shirts-it's so boring, I almost always get good ideas. If you're out of ideas, wash the dishes. Take really long walk. Stare at a spot on the wall for as long as you can. As the artist Maira Kalman says, "Avoiding work is the way to focus my mind. ~ Austin Kleon, #NFDB
1379:Part of the true luxury of "earned laziness" are the braggin rights that come along with being purposefully and publicly lazy. It is a badge of distinction, an emblem of success, without having to say too much about it. It labels us, affords us kudos, and raises our profile in the "pecking order" of our fellow troglodytes. It says to others, "See, I've done so well that I can afford to do nothing at all whenever I so choose! ~ Al Gini, #NFDB
1380:It is morally impossible to remain neutral in this conflict. The bystander is forced to take a side.
It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demand action, engagement, and remembering... ~ Jon Krakauer,#NFDB
1381:Or, if I have to work, I find it preferable (and less painful) to work intensely for very short hours, then do nothing for the rest of the time (assuming doing nothing is really doing nothing), until I recover completely and look forward to a repetition, rather than being subjected to the tedium of Japanese style low-intensity interminable office hours with sleep deprivation. Main course and dessert are separate. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb, #NFDB
1382:wyoming forever. You could wyom all day and not make any progress. To wyom was to go from nowhere to nowhere. Through nowhere. To see nothing. To do nothing but sit. You turn on the radio and wyom through the dial slowly, carefully in search of a sliver of civilization only to find a man talking about the price of stock animals and feed. You listen to a dour preacher wyoming about your bored and dying and wyoming soul. ~ Smith Henderson, #NFDB
1383:In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1384:Just as the historian can teach no real history until he has cured his readers of the romantic delusion that the greatness of a queen consists in her being a pretty woman and having her head cut off, so the playwright of the first order can do nothing with his audience until he has cured them of looking at the stage through the keyhole, and sniffing round the theatre as prurient people sniff round the divorce court. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #NFDB
1385:What sensitive, sane soul can stand in the presence of such insanity and do nothing? Yet to expose the slaughter of seals in Canada is to deliver oneself into the hands of a bureaucratic inquisition. To witness the killing of a seal is a crime. To film or photograph the slaughter is a felony. To oppose the massacre is to subject oneself to jail time, beatings, heavy fines, and officially sanctioned harassment. - Paul Watson ~ Paul Watson, #NFDB
1386:Contact with like-minded painters - a group means a great deal to me: nothing comes in isolation. We have worked out our ideas largely by talking them through. Shutting myself away in the country, for instance, would do nothing for me. One depends on one's surroundings. And so the exchange with other artists - and especially the collaboration with Lueg and Polke - matters a lot to me: it is part of the input that I need. ~ Gerhard Richter, #NFDB
1387:No one "discovers" the future. The future is not a discovery. The future is not a destiny. The future is a decision, an intervention. Do nothing and we drift fatalistically into a future not driven by technology alone, but by other people's need, greed, and creed. The future is not some dim and distant region out there in time. The future is a reality that is coming to pass with each passing day, with each passing decision. ~ Leonard Sweet, #NFDB
1388:Unbelievable. A five-year-old held me captive in a bed where I could do nothing but listen, mesmerized by her litany of observations, opinions, and requests, and praying for some way to escape. She gave me quite the disgusted look too with that last bit. Sort of along the lines of, “What in the hell is wrong with you, Uncle Ethan?” And really, I had to agree with her five-year-old logic too. A hell of a lot was wrong with me. ~ Raine Miller, #NFDB
1389:He may make me feel like a fool, and like a woman who can do nothing, but what I can do I will. In my jewellery box is a dark locket of black tarnished silver and inside it locked in the darkness, I have his name: Richard Neville and that of George, Duke of Clarence, written in my blood on a piece of paper from the corner of my father's last letter. These are my enemies, I have cursed them. I will see them dead at my feet. ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
1390:I see capital through the flurry
On this Monday night twenty-first.
Some do-nothing has made up the story
That love exists on the earth.
And from laziness or from boredom
All believed, and thus they live:
Wait for meeting, fear the parting,
And sing songs of love.
But to others opens a secret
And upon them descends a still.
I by accident came upon this
And since then am as if I'm ill. ~ Anna Akhmatova,#NFDB
1391:You give me offense, and I take it. I take offense to the fact that you would stand here and belittle Simone’s beliefs and her work to correct what she feels are grave wrongs when you take no action to fight for your beliefs. It is one thing to compare or even belittle sacred truths when both parties are working toward rectifying wrongs. But it is quite another to rail against a person who is doing something when you do nothing. ~ Penny Reid, #NFDB
1392:And have you never known the pleasure and triumph of a lucky guess?—I pity you.—I thought you cleverer—for, depend upon it a lucky guess is never merely luck. There is always some talent in it. And as to my poor word 'success,' which you quarrel with, I do not know that I am so entirely without any claim to it. You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a third—a something between the do-nothing and the do-all. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
1393:Get scared. It will do you good. Smoke a bit, stare blankly at some ceilings, beat your head against some walls, refuse to see some people, paint and write. Get scared some more. Allow your little mind to do nothing but function. Stay inside, go out - I don't care what you'll do; but stay scared as hell. You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1394:Get scared. It will do you good. Smoke a bit, stare blankly at some ceilings, beat your head against some walls, refuse to see some people, paint and write. Get scared some more. Allow your little mind to do nothing but function. Stay inside, go out - I don’t care what you’ll do; but stay scared as hell. You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1395:The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed. – Lloyd Jones There are many reasons why people don’t set goals, including: 1. A pessimistic attitude—Looking for the pitfalls rather than the possibilities. 2. Fear of failure—thinking. “What if I don’t make it?” Subconsciously people feel that if they don’t set goals and don’t achieve them, they feel they haven’t failed. ~ Shiv Khera, #NFDB
1396:Stress is caused by being "here" but wanting to be "there", or being in the present moment but wanting to be in the future. You can move fast, work fast, or run without projecting yourself into the future and without resisting the present. As you move, do it totally, enjoying the flow of energy at that moment. Or when you do nothing and the mind says "you should be working. You are wasting time" - observe the mind. Smile at it! ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1397:To carry the spirit of peace into war is a weak and cruel policy. When an extreme case calls for that remedy which is in its own nature most violent, and which, in such cases, is a remedy only because it is violent, it is idle to think of mitigating and diluting. Languid war can do nothing which negotiation or submission will do better: and to act on any other principle is, not to save blood and money, but to squander them. ~ Thomas B Macaulay, #NFDB
1398:For John was running, and this was terrible. Because if you ran, time ran. You yelled and screamed and raced and rolled and tumbled and all of a sudden the sun was gone and the whistle was blowing and you were on your long way home to supper. When you weren't looking, the sun got around behind you! The only way to keep things slow was to watch everything and do nothing! You could stretch a day to three days, sure, just by watching! ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1399:want to be. I will practice "acting like" and "feeling like" this new personality. 5. I will not let my own opinion color facts in a pessimistic or negative way. 6. I will practice smiling at least three times during the day. 7. Regardless of what happens, I will react as calmly and as intelligently as possible. 8. I will ignore completely and close my mind to all those pessimistic and negative "facts" which I can do nothing to change ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1400:It appeared that the deference which, on my grandmother’s authority, we owed to Mme. de Villeparisis imposed on her the reciprocal obligation to do nothing that would render her less worthy of our regard, and that she had failed in her duty in becoming aware of Swann’s existence and in allowing members of her family to associate with him. “How should she know Swann? A lady who, you always made out, was related to Marshal Mac-Mahon! ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
1401:Maybe that's the problem. But whether they've heard it of not. The issue is the train that is going off the cliff. After we save the country, after we keep the train from going off the cliff, I would welcome, quite frankly, a discussion of morality in this country. I think it would be a wonderful thing if we bring back our Judeo-Christian values once again. I think it could do nothing but help us. I would be all in favor of that. ~ Benjamin Carson, #NFDB
1402:When someone doesn’t reckon you with the seriousness that you’d like, the impulse is to correct them. (As we all wish to say: Do you know who I am?!) You want to remind them of what they’ve forgotten; your ego screams for you to indulge it. Instead, you must do nothing. Take it. Eat it until you’re sick. Endure it. Quietly brush it off and work harder. Play the game. Ignore the noise; for the love of God, do not let it distract you. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
1403:I mean, what are you going to do to him for shooting your dog?” “I will do nothing. I won’t hurt my brother. He acted like a child. He did a bad thing. But he is drunk and his head is not working well. He should not have hurt my dog. It is like my child.” Even when provoked, as Kaaboogí was now, the Pirahãs were able to respond with patience, love, and understanding, in ways rarely matched in any other culture I have encountered. ~ Daniel L Everett, #NFDB
1404:I went back into politics only when it was clear that things weren't going as they should have in my party. I was always arguing, I argued with everyone - with my father, with the leaders I had known since I was a child...and one day, it was in 1955, one of them exclaimed, 'You do nothing but criticize! If you think you can correct things, correct them. Go ahead, why don't you try?' Well, I could never resist a challenge, so I tried. ~ Indira Gandhi, #NFDB
1405:Some urge we do nothing because we can't be certain how bad the (climate) problem might become or they presume the worst effects are most likely to occur in our grandchildren's lifetime. I'm a proud conservative, and I reject that kind of live-for-today, 'me generation,' attitude. It is unworthy of us and incompatible with our reputation as visionaries and problem solvers. Americans have never feared change. We make change work for us. ~ John McCain, #NFDB
1406:After listening to all this information we came to the conclusion that the world of Sir John Mandeville has by no means disappeared, that the world of two-headed men and flying serpents has not disappeared. And, indeed, while we were away the flying saucers appeared, which do nothing to overturn our thesis. And it seems to us now the most dangerous tendency in the world is the desire to believe a rumor rather than to pin down a fact. ~ John Steinbeck, #NFDB
1407:If this is what you suffered, you then grew up feeling that no one likes you. No one ever listened to you or seemed to want you around. No one had empathy for you, showed you warmth, or invited closeness. No one cared about what you thought, felt, did, wanted or dreamed of. You learned early that, no matter how hurt, alienated, or terrified you were, turning to a parent would do nothing more than exacerbate your experience of rejection. ~ Pete Walker, #NFDB
1408:I will explain; the enjoyment was just from the too intense consciousness of one’s own degradation; it was from feeling oneself that one had reached the last barrier, that it was horrible, but that it could not be otherwise; that there was no escape for you; that you never could become a different man; that even you did wish to, even then you would do nothing; because per- haps in reality there was nothing for you to change into. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1409:Blessed," he says, "are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Mt 5:9). Consider carefully that it is not the people who call for peace but those who make peace who are commended. For there are those who talk but do nothing (Mt 23:3). For just as it is not the hearers of the law but the doers who are righteous (Rom 2:13), so it is not those who preach peace but the authors of peace who are blessed. ~ Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, #NFDB
1410:I have seen something like it happen in battle. A man was coming at me, I at him, to kill. Then came a sudden great gust of wind that wrapped out cloaks over our swords and almost over our eyes, so that we could do nothing to one another but must fight the wind itself. And that ridiculous contention, so foreign to the business we were on, set us both laughing, face to face - friends for a moment - and then at once enemies again and forever. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1411:I really would like to stop working forever–never work again, never do anything like the kind of work I’m doing now–and do nothing but write poetry and have leisure to spend the day outdoors and go to museums and see friends. And I’d like to keep living with someone — maybe even a man — and explore relationships that way. And cultivate my perceptions, cultivate the visionary thing in me. Just a literary and quiet city-hermit existence. ~ Allen Ginsberg, #NFDB
1412:The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Again, "I can of my own self do nothing." And he then speaks of his purpose, his aim: "I am come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly." A little later he adds: "The works that I do ye shall do also." Now again, these things mean something of a very definite nature, or they mean nothing at all. ~ Ralph Waldo Trine, #NFDB
1413:Things must be negative but not too negative. Hopelessness, despair—these drive us to do nothing. Pity, empathy—those drive us to do something, like get up from our computers to act. But anger, fear, excitement, or laughter—these drive us to spread. They drive us to do something that makes us feel as if we are doing something, when in reality we are only contributing to what is probably a superficial and utterly meaningless conversation. ~ Ryan Holiday, #NFDB
1414:Whereas certain people start with a recollection or an experience and paint that experience, to some of us the act of doing is the experience; so that we are not quite clear why we are engaged on a particular work. And because we are more interested in plastic matters than we are in matters of words, once can begin a painting and carry it through and stop it and do nothing about the title at all. All pictures are full of association. ~ William Baziotes, #NFDB
1415:It is time for us to part, my friend. Perhaps our time together will bring more understanding to your life’s journey. I can do nothing to alleviate your struggles and would not if I were able. It is never the duty of a leader to struggle for someone else; a leader must encourage others to struggle and assure them that the struggles are worthwhile. Do battle with the challenges of your present, and you will unlock the prizes of your future. ~ Andy Andrews, #NFDB
1416:Here Tchaikovsky was, writing to one brother about the composition of his famous Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 35: “It goes without saying that I would have been able to do nothing without him. He plays it marvellously. When he caresses me with his hand, when he lies with his head inclined on my breast, and I run my hand through his hair and secretly kiss it . . . passion rages within me with such unimaginable strength. . . .” Sparrow ~ Madeleine Thien, #NFDB
1417:I tried many, many times to run away while my little brother was asleep. But at those moments, I always ended up thinking this--
My brother has only me in this world. Vince wants only me and needs only me. However... when he is gone, will there really be anyone else who needs me?
When I thought about that, it scared me. It truly scared me. Cowardly, I could do nothing but hold my brother's tiny body while hiding my ugly emotions. ~ Jun Mochizuki,#NFDB
1418:Most of the time—99 percent of the time—you just don’t know how and why the threads are looped together, and that’s okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes.
And very, very rarely—by some miracle of chance and coincidence, butterflies beating their wings just so and all the threads hanging together for a minute—you get the chance to do the right thing. ~ Lauren Oliver,#NFDB
1419:Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us so that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing. ~ Saint Augustine of Hippo, #NFDB
1420:The vast majority of psychopaths, like an iceberg, are underwater, and like an iceberg, they are inert. They do nothing. They're just there. They torment their spouse by being unempathic, but they don't beat her or kill her. They bully coworkers, but they don't burn the office. They are not dramatic. They are pernicious. Most psychopaths are subtle. They are more like poison than a knife, and they are more like slow-working poison than cyanide. ~ Sam Vaknin, #NFDB
1421:He could do little. Brandy might help, he thought, but when he poured some into the hurt man’s mouth it ran back out again. Presently a colonel, Johnston’s chief of staff, came hurrying into the ravine. But he could do nothing either. He knelt down facing the general. “Johnston, do you know me? Johnston, do you know me?” he kept asking, over and over, nudging the general’s shoulder as he spoke. But Johnston did not know him. Johnston was dead. ~ Shelby Foote, #NFDB
1422:Your natural life is derived from your parents; that does not mean it will stay there if you do nothing about it. You can lose it by neglect, or you can drive it away by committing suicide. You have to feed it and look after it: but always remember you are not making it, you are only keeping up a life you got from someone else. In the same way a Christian can lose the Christ-life which has been put into him, and he has to make efforts to keep it. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
1423:He said I owed him for the car. He really only mentioned it but I became crazed, hysterical. For the first time in my life, I shouted at my father - not about the car but about the Weavers. I was so suffocated by rage, my words didn't come out as words, but as choking, sputtering sobs. Why are you like this? Why did you terrify us like that? Why did you fight so hard against made-up monsters, but do nothing about the monsters in your own house? ~ Tara Westover, #NFDB
1424:I can understand where he's coming from... I too was once secretly in love with you, and I could do nothing but watch from afar. Being close to you while pretending that we're nothing more than friends. The first time I touched you with sexual intention, it was like an electrical current flowing through my fingertips and it paralyzed me. I wanted to make your senses go numb with pleasure. Not only physical pleasure, but desire too, deep inside. ~ Yonezou Nekota, #NFDB
1425:It’s absolutely obvious that global warming has started,” France’s president, Jacques Chirac, said after attending the 2004 summit of leaders of the world’s major industrial powers—the Group of 8. “And so we have to act responsibly, and, if we do nothing, we would bear a heavy responsibility. I had the chance to talk to the United States president about this. To tell you that I convinced him would be a total exaggeration, as you can imagine. ~ Elizabeth Kolbert, #NFDB
1426:I yawned and I stretched. I sure was needing some sleep, but I guess I'm always in need of sleep like I'm always in need of food. Because my labors were mighty ones--ol' Hercules didn't know what hard work was--and what is there to do but eat and sleep? And when you're eatin' and sleepin' you don't have to fret about things you can't do nothing about. And what else is there to do but laugh an' joke...how else can you bear up under the unbearable? ~ Jim Thompson, #NFDB
1427:A new social type was being created by the apartment building, a cool, unemotional personality impervious to the psychological pressures of high-rise life, with minimal needs for privacy, who thrived like an advanced species of machine in the neutral atmosphere. This was the sort of resident who was content to do nothing but sit in his over-priced apartment, watch television with the sound turned down, and wait for his neighbours to make a mistake. ~ J G Ballard, #NFDB
1428:Do not think dishonestly. The Way is in training. Become acquainted with every art. Know the Ways of all professions. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. Pay attention even to trifles. Do nothing which is of no use. It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train in the Way of strategy. ~ Miyamoto Musashi, #NFDB
1429:Even if you tell yourself "Today I'm going to drink coffee the wrong way ... from a dirty boot." Even that would be right, because you chose to drink coffee from that boot. Because you can do nothing wrong. You are always right. Even when you say, "I'm such an idiot, I'm so wrong..." you're right. You're right about being wrong. You're right even when you're an idiot. No matter how stupid your idea, you're doomed to be right because it's yours. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
1430:There are two natures in the believer, and so two ways of seeking holiness, as we allow the principles of the one or the other nature to guide us. The one is the carnal way, in which we put forth our utmost efforts and resolutions, trusting Christ to help us in doing so. The other is the spiritual way, in which, as those who have did and can do nothing, our one care is to receive Christ day by day and at every step to let Him live and work in us. ~ Andrew Murray, #NFDB
1431:When we can't find my sister, we know / she is under the kitchen table, a book in her hand, / a glass of milk and a small bowl of peanuts beside her. / We know we can call Odella's name out loud, / slap the table hard with our hands, / dance around it singing 'She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain' / so many times the song makes us sick / and the circling makes us dizzy / and still / my sister will do nothing more / than slowly turn the page. ~ Jacqueline Woodson, #NFDB
1432:Any serious consideration of the world as it is around us today must tell us that maintaining common decency, much less peace and harmony, among living contemporaries is a major challenge, both among nations and within nations. To admit that we can do nothing about what happened among the dead is not to give up the struggle for a better world, but to concentrate our efforts where they have at least some hope of making things better for the living. ~ Thomas Sowell, #NFDB
1433:So your desire is to do nothing? Well, you shall not have a week, a day, an hour, free from oppression. You shall not be able to lift anything without agony. Every passing minute will make your muscles crack. What is feather to others will be a rock to you. The simplest things will become difficult. Life will become monstrous about you. To come, to go, to breathe, will be so many terrible tasks for you. Your lungs will feel like a hundred-pound weight. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
1434:Most of the time - 99 percent of the time - you just don't know how and why the threads are looped together, and that's okay. Do a good thing and something bad happens. Do a bad thing and something good happens. Do nothing and everything explodes.
And very, very rarely - by some miracle of chance and coincidence, butterflies beating their wings just so and all the threads hanging together for a minute - you get the chance to do the right thing. ~ Lauren Oliver,#NFDB
1435:Over time I learned that objects and animals are true friends. In the forest I was surrounded by trees, bushes, birds, and small animals. I was not afraid of them. I was sure that they would do nothing harmful to me. I became familiar with cows and with horses, and they provided me with a warmth that has remained with me to this very day. Sometimes it seemed to me that what saved me were the animals I encountered along the way, not the human beings. ~ Aharon Appelfeld, #NFDB
1436:The paradox of the modern world is this: Not only do we do less, physically, than ever before, but we also almost never do nothing. Our bodies, deprived of large movements, are inundated with subtle-yet-continuous physical stimulation from noise, light, data, etc. This constant stream of input is a two-fold stressor, as not only is the frequency of certain environmentally induced loads extremely high, the types of input we are experiencing are unnatural. ~ Katy Bowman, #NFDB
1437:Whitby’s often silent, and when he speaks his questions and concerns do nothing to alleviate the pressure of that gloom, the sense of intent eternal and everlasting that occupies this stretch of land, that predates Area X. The still, standing water, the oppressive blackness of a sky in which the blue peers down through the trees at startling intervals, only to be taken away again, and only ever seeming to come to you from a thousand miles off anyway. ~ Jeff VanderMeer, #NFDB
1438:If a writer believes that women do nothing, then he will have to fantasize about their lives to make a good story. If a writer believes that women are weak, rivalrous, and moody, then she will produce an account of them in which they cannot work together, or be trusted. But I know from my reading and from my own life that women are powerful agents of change who can collaborate together, who may love each other, and I base my story on the reality. But ~ Philippa Gregory, #NFDB
1439:It was from feeling oneself that one had reached the last barrier, that it was horrible, but that it could not be otherwise; that there was no escape for you; that you never could become a different man; that even if time and faith were still left you to change into something different you would most likely not wish to change; or if you did wish to, even then you would do nothing; because perhaps in reality there was nothing for you to change into. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky, #NFDB
1440:Never fear. It is much easier for men to act than to refrain from acting. We will continue to do good and to do evil. But if there were a king over us all again and he sought the counsel of a mage, as in the days of old, and I were that mage, I would say to him: My lord, do nothing because it is righteous or praiseworthy or noble to do so; do nothing because it seems good to do so; do only that which you must do and which you cannot do in any other way ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
1441:This is the way for men who want to learn my strategy:
1. Do not think dishonestly.
2. The Way is in training.
3. Become acquainted with every art.
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use. ~ Miyamoto Musashi,#NFDB
1442:The first phrase of the First Amendment spoke to the freedom uppermost in Jefferson's mind when it provided that, 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Here a double guarantee could be found: first, that government would do nothing to give official endorsement to a religion or to set one faith above another; second, that government would do nothing to inhibit the freedom of religion. ~ Edwin Gaustad, #NFDB
1443:You fellows know there are those voyages that seem ordered for the illustration of life, that might stand for a symbol of existence. You fight, work, sweat, nearly kill yourself, sometimes do kill yourself, trying to accomplish something — and you can’t. Not from any fault of yours. You simply can do nothing, neither great nor little — not a thing in the world — not even marry an old maid, or get a wretched 600-ton cargo of coal to its port of destination. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1444:I suggested that he write from 11:00 to 1:00 every weekday. During that time, he was to write or do nothing. No email; no calls; no research; no clearing off a desk; no hanging out with Jack, my adorable, three-year-old, train-obsessed nephew. Write, or stare out the window. “Remember,” I added, “working is one of the most dangerous forms of procrastination. You want to use your writing time for writing only. Nothing else, including no other kinds of work. ~ Gretchen Rubin, #NFDB
1445:Ivanov: Once I worked hard and thought a lot but I never got tired; now I do nothing and think of nothing, but I'm tired in body and spirit. My conscience aches day and night, I feel deeply guilty but I don't understand where I am actually at fault. And add to that my wife's illness, my lack of money, the constant bickering, gossip, unnecessary conversations, that stupid Borkin... My home has become loathsome to me and I find living there worse than torture. ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
1446:When you are thinking something, you have the feeling that the thoughts do nothing except inform you the way things are and then you choose to do something and you do it. That's what people generally assume. But actually, the way you think determines the way you're going to do things. Then you don't notice a result comes back, or you don't see it as a result of what you've done, or even less do you see it as a result of how you were thinking. Is that clear? ~ David Bohm, #NFDB
1447:Even if you tell yourself "Today I'm going to drink coffee the wrong way ... from a dirty boot." Even that would be right, because you chose to drink coffee from that boot.
Because you can do nothing wrong. You are always right. Even when you say, "I'm such an idiot, I'm so wrong..." you're right. You're right about being wrong. You're right even when you're an idiot.
No matter how stupid your idea, you're doomed to be right because it's yours. ~ Chuck Palahniuk,#NFDB
1448:If I tell you that Mrs. Robbins had bad teeth and looked like a horse, you will laugh at me as a cliché-monger; yet it is the truth. I can do nothing with the teeth; but let me tell you that she looked like a French horse, a dark, Mediterranean, market-type horse that has all its life begrudged to the poor the adhesive-tape on a torn five-franc note - that has tiptoed (to save its shoes) for centuries along that razor-edge where Greed and Caution meet. ~ Randall Jarrell, #NFDB
1449:...I've learned that doing what you think is right doesn't always make you feel good. For another, I've learned that sometimes you just have to keep on going when you want to do nothing but drop. And that just doing the everyday things, like keeping a shop running or getting up every morning, will keep the work going until things can straighten out again. And doing those things right every day soon becomes more important than the more pressing issues of the time. ~ Ann Rinaldi, #NFDB
1450:I want to live my life, carrying my memories with me. Even if those memories are painful, even if those memories do nothing but hurt me, even if I wish I could forget those memories… As long as I keep carrying them with me, and don’t run away from them… Someday, I believe I will get to the point where I’m not oppressed by those memories. That’s what I want to believe. I’d like to think that there’s not a single memory that I have which would be okay to forget. ~ Natsuki Takaya, #NFDB
1451:Ok. Listen. I not know where all you morons come from but holy water no hurt Bigfoot. Garlic and Crucifix also no. Fire, Pitchfork, Silver Bullet OK. Cryptonite do nothing. It not even real. Please stop sending letters asking "What you vulnerability? What Bigfoot?" Like I tell. What next me bank account number? Why not you invest time in moving out of parent basement? Maybe have sex or something. Yes I be talking to you Steve. Youuu! Stalking is a crime Steve. ~ Graham Roumieu, #NFDB
1452:A guy I worked with and I talked it over about what you do with drunks. His dad was a reformed drunk. He told me you got to stop trying to help them out. You got to stop making excuses for them and not take excuses from them. You got to put them on a spot where they can’t do nothing but face the truth because they aren’t going to change a bit till they decide to do it. They got to be the ones who believe they’ve turned into dregs and something has got to be changed. ~ Glen Cook, #NFDB
1453:No more soul-destroying doctrine could well be devised than the doctrine that sinners can regenerate themselves, and repent and believe just when they please...As it is a truth both of Scripture and of experience that the unrenewed man can do nothing of himself to secure his salvation, it is essential that he should be brought to practical conviction of that truth. When thus convinced, and not before, he seeks help from the only source whence it can be obtained. ~ Charles Hodge, #NFDB
1454:The work we do is nothing more than a means of transforming our love for Christ into something concrete. I didn’t have to find Jesus. Jesus found me and chose me. A strong vocation is based on being possessed by Christ. He is the Life that I want to live. He is the Light that I want to radiate. He is the Love with which I want to love. He is the Joy that I want to share. He is the Peace that I want to sow. Jesus is everything to me. Without Him, I can do nothing. ~ Mother Teresa, #NFDB
1455:You may think that you are insignificant in the great plan of God, but you are not. You are tremendously important to God—so much so that Jesus died for you, and the Holy Spirit lives in you. You may seem small in your own eyes, and this is good; because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. However, don’t let your humility become sin by making you believe you can do nothing for God. God can use you to help Him accomplish His will on this earth. ~ Warren W Wiersbe, #NFDB
1456:Your Financial Mission To secure your basic needs both now and in the future, and to do nothing that would harm your ability to secure them on an ongoing basis. Three Strategies to Accomplish Your Mission 1. Live below your means and save the rest for a rainy day. 2. If at all possible, live without using debt. 3. Follow a financial road map. A Financial Road Map That Supports Your Mission Step 0: On a monthly basis, make sure you are not spending more than you earn. ~ Erik Wecks, #NFDB
1457:As a Muslim author crowed a few years afterward, Christianity was self-evidently the religion of losers: “[Islam] has blotted out their strong and well defended kingdoms, and their lofty and towering fortifications, and has turned them into refugees in hiding.” When Latin Christians invited Kublai Khan to convert, he scoffed: “How do you wish me to make myself a Christian? You see Christians in these parts are so ignorant that they do nothing and have no power.”21 ~ Philip Jenkins, #NFDB
1458:A farmer is helpless to grow grain; all he can do is provide the right conditions for the growing of grain. He cultivates the ground, he plants the seed, he waters the plants, and then the natural forces of the earth take over and up comes the grain...This is the way it is with the Spiritual Disciplines - they are a way of sowing to the Spirit... By themselves the Spiritual Disciplines can do nothing; they can only get us to the place where something can be done. ~ Richard J Foster, #NFDB
1459:the words of President Kennedy, uttered on June 11, 1963, only a few months before his tragic death: “We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution. The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities . . . Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1460:When my friends began to have babies and I came to comprehend the heroic labor it takes to keep one alive, the constant exhausting tending of a being who can do nothing and demands everything, I realized that my mother had done all of these things for me before I remembered. I was fed; I was washed; I was clothed; I was taught to speak and given a thousand other things, over and over again, hourly, daily, for years. She gave me everything before she gave me nothing. ~ Rebecca Solnit, #NFDB
1461:The senior British economic thinker on climate, Sir Nicholas Stern, has estimated that if we don't reverse climate change, the costs of dealing with the resulting catastrophe would be as much as twenty percent of the world's Gross Domestic Product. He's saying that if we do nothing about climate change, then we will have to spend a full fifth of our planet's economic energy on dealing with the floods, hurricanes, droughts, food shortages, and epidemics that will result. ~ Colin Beavan, #NFDB
1462:Gary managed to stay under the radar as a student, so most of the professors, and most of the students, didn’t have the slightest idea who he was. He maintained a C average, never joined any other club, and never wrote a significant paper on any subject. However, the major players on campus knew exactly who he was, and why he was there. Some weren’t too happy about it, but, could do nothing about it. There was just no way to prove that Gary was the power behind the scenes. ~ Cliff Ball, #NFDB
1463:People inside the theaters usually, not 100 percent but most of them, enjoy the movie. Usually they come with a small negative view. In a way, they're prepared to get bored because it's silent and because it's black and white. So they are much more pleased to be entertained in a way. They're very happy when they go out. This was my job. For the other ones, I can do nothing except screen the movie and hope that they will say to their friends that it's not so [bad]. ~ Michel Hazanavicius, #NFDB
1464:5. Non-identification. Can you let the emotional feeling do its thing without taking it personally? Try to see your emotions like you see the weather: not as something to judge yourself for but, rather, as part of the natural atmospheric conditions of the moment. This is a deeper form of allowing. After you’ve let this happen for a while, go back to the breath or to your home or rest sensation for a bit. Before you open your eyes, take a few minutes to relax and do nothing. ~ Dan Harris, #NFDB
1465:The use of violence in our struggle would be both impractical and immoral. To meet hate with retaliatory hate would do nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe. Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love; we must meet physical force with soul force. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. ~ Martin Luther King Jr, #NFDB
1466:It is like an illness: the desire to see someone, the strong, deep yearning. No, I have not explained it. I was working today, writing. My head was busy: my mind was filled with the work. Yet all the while I was conscious of a physical pain–a gnawing–as if a piece of me had been cut off. And the mind could do nothing about it. It was physical: it was in the veins, in the blood, in the skin. That is why human relationships are dangerous–because the mind has no power over them. ~ Ana s Nin, #NFDB
1467:You do nothing, and everyone does what they want,” said Brad. “You do something and you can influence behavior. But, by creating the tool, do we incentivize behavior we want to eliminate? By shining the light, do we create a gray zone, just outside the light? Is it like Reg NMS, where you create the very thing you’re trying to get rid of?” “Shining a light creates shadows,” said Don. “If you try to create this bright line, you are going to create gray zones on either side. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
1468:Friendship Never explain -- your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe it anyway. A real friend never gets in your way, unless you happen to be on the way down. A friend is someone you can do nothing with and enjoy it. However much we guard ourselves against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. It is not so much the example of others we imitate, as the reflection of ourselves in their eyes and the echo of ourselves in their words. ~ Eric Hoffer, #NFDB
1469:It is pure fatalism, undiluted by environmental variability. Good living, good medicine, healthy food, loving families or great riches can do nothing about. Your fate is in your genes. Like a pure Augustinian, you go to heaven by God’s grace, not by good works. It reminds us that the genome, great book that it is, may give us the bleakest kind of self-knowledge: the knowledge of our destiny, not the kind of knowledge that you can do something about, but the curse of Tiresias. ~ Matt Ridley, #NFDB
1470:Some of us, white and black, know how great a price has already been paid to bring into existence a new consciousness, a new people, an unprecedented nation. If we know, and do nothing, we are worse than the murderers hired in our name.
If we know, then we must fight for your life as though it were our own - which it is - and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night. ~ James Baldwin,#NFDB
1471:I can give her no greater power than she has already, said the woman; don't you see how strong that is? How men and animals are obliged to serve her, and how well she has got through the world, barefooted as she is. She cannot receive any power from me greater than she now has, which consists in her own purity and innocence of heart. If she cannot herself obtain access to the Snow Queen, and remove the glass fragments from little Kay, we can do nothing to help her. ~ Hans Christian Andersen, #NFDB
1472:may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living whatever they sing is better than to know and if men should not hear them men are old may my mind stroll about hungry and fearless and thirsty and supple and even if it's sunday may i be wrong for whenever men are right they are not young and may myself do nothing usefully and love yourself so more than truly there's never been quite such a fool who could fail pulling all the sky over him with one smile ~ e e cummings, #NFDB
1473:It may be true that “expressing ourselves,” giving free rein to our “natural” impulses, gives us momentary relief from our inner tensions, but we remain trapped in the endless circle of our usual habits. Such a lax attitude doesn’t solve any serious problems, since in being ordinarily oneself, one remains ordinary. As the French philosopher Alain has written, “You don’t need to be a sorcerer to cast a spell over yourself by saying ‘This is how I am. I can do nothing about it. ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
1474:And perhaps the only way to grant any justice—were that even possible—is by hearing and recording those stories over and over again so that they come back, always, to haunt and shame us. Because being aware of what is happening in our era and choosing to do nothing about it has become unacceptable. Because we cannot allow ourselves to go on normalizing horror and violence. Because we can all be held accountable if something happens under our noses and we don’t dare even look. ~ Valeria Luiselli, #NFDB
1475:Half the evil in this world occurs while decent people stand by and do nothing wrong. It’s not enough to refrain from evil, Trell. People have to attempt to do right, even if they believe they cannot succeed.” “Even when it’s stupid to try?” he asked with savage sarcasm. “Especially then,” she replied sweetly. “That’s how it’s done, Trell. You break your heart against this stony world. You fling yourself at it, on the side of good, and you do not ask the cost. That’s how you do it. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
1476:If we see anyone who renounces his rights in regard to worldly matters and forgives even strangers, not to speak of relations, we should think of him as a good man. If we desist from beating up a thief or any other felon, do nothing to get him punished but, after admonishing him and recovering from him the stolen article, let him go, we would be credited with humanity and our action would be regarded as an instance of non-violence; a contrary course would be looked upon as violence. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
1477:They do not care if you are good. They barely care if you are wicked. The only thing that makes them listen is power. It is not enough to be an uncle’s favorite, to please some god in his bed. It is not enough even to be beautiful, for when you go to them, and kneel and say, ‘I have been good, will you help me?’ they wrinkle their brows. Oh, sweetheart, it cannot be done. Oh, darling, you must learn to live with it. And have you asked Helios? You know I do nothing without his word. ~ Madeline Miller, #NFDB
1478:Let the soldier be abroad if he will, he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage,—a personage less imposing in the eyes of some, perhaps insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad, and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier, in full military array. ~ Lord Brougham, Speech. Jan. 29, 1828. Phrase "Look out, gentlemen, the schoolmaster is abroad" first used by Brougham, in 1825, at London Mechanics' Institution, referring to the secretary, John Reynolds, a schoolmaster., #NFDB
1479:Sometimes you laughed, and then my glove puppet would weep piteously. When you took the glove puppet he alternated between flirtatious and suicidal, hell-bent on flinging himself from great heights and out of the windows. I noticed that you didn't make a voice or a history for the puppet, but you became its voice and history. I'd have liked to admire that but felt I was watching a distressing form of theft, since the puppet could do nothing but suffer being forced open like an oyster. ~ Helen Oyeyemi, #NFDB
1480:The Jewish people trusted thmself to do nothing except that what was commanded by God; they were without will even in external things; the authority of religion extended itself even to their food. The Christian religion, on the other hand, in all external things made humankind dependent on itself, i.e. placed in it what Judaism placed out of it. … Thus do things change. What yesterday was still religion is no longer such to-day; and what to-day is atheism, to-morrow will be religion. ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
1481:The real test is this one: When you're alone in a room, when you're in a private place and nobody else can see you, what do you choose to do? Eat well, or eat poorly? Exercise, or watch television? Practice something, or do nothing? The best version of the truth appears to you and you alone, when nobody else can see. This is the test of discipline, and it's what makes the difference in your life. It's what regulates your own system and guides it. The individual alone comprehends it. ~ Georges St Pierre, #NFDB
1482:The sign of a good leader is easy to recognize, though it is hardly ever seen. For the greatest leaders are those who share as equals in the trials and struggles, the demands and expectations, the hills and trenches, the laws and punishments placed upon the backs of those governed. A great leader is motivated not by power but by compassion. Therefore he can do nothing but make himself a servant to those whom he rules. Such a leader is unequivocally respected, and loved for loving. ~ Richelle E Goodrich, #NFDB
1483:I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD, that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord GOD.” The reminder of our preatonement sin confounds us by grace, and we stop comparing ourselves to others. Or to use Paul’s words, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves” (Phil. 2:3). ~ Tony Reinke, #NFDB
1484:We now have two options: We can commence operations at the Hotspots in Italy and Greece and continue to do nothing - in which case they would soon be overflowing. Or we can show responsibility and organize a distribution system that takes into account the limits of each individual member state. Migrants, for their part, must recognize that, while they have a right to protection, they do not have the right to freely choose the country. In addition, it is clear: Not everybody can come to us. ~ Martin Schulz, #NFDB
1485:To some people, surrender may have negative connotations, implying defeat, giving up, failing to rise to the challenges of life, becoming lethargic, and so on. True surrender, however, is something entirely different. It does not mean to passively put up with whatever situation you find yourself in and to do nothing about it. Nor does it mean to cease making plans or initiating positive action. Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
1486:The Jewish people trusted themself to do nothing except that what was commanded by God; they were without will even in external things; the authority of religion extended itself even to their food. The Christian religion, on the other hand, in all external things made humankind dependent on itself, i.e. placed in it what Judaism placed out of itself. … Thus do things change. What yesterday was still religion is no longer such to-day; and what to-day is atheism, to-morrow will be religion. ~ Ludwig Feuerbach, #NFDB
1487:If you are seeking the work God has made you to do, search for the deepest inclination of your heart and follow it to where it meets the suffering of the world.107 Or in the words of Mother Teresa, “Find your own Calcutta.” If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed the one God places in front of you. You must resist the temptation to do nothing because you can do only a little or because you can’t be like someone else who seems more radical. It takes many tiny candles to overcome the darkness. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1488:if you want to be comforted when your conscience plagues you or when you are in dire distress, then you must do nothing but grasp Christ in faith and say, “I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, who suffered, was crucified, and died for me. In his wounds and death, I see my sin. In his resurrection, I see the victory over sin, death, and the devil. I see righteousness and eternal life as well. I want to see and hear nothing except him.” This is true faith in Christ and the right way to believe. ~ Martin Luther, #NFDB
1489:Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment...'dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of the love -- which is to transform us.' Many people want love to function like a drug, giving them an immediate and sustained high. They want to do nothing, just passively receive the good feeling. ~ Bell Hooks, #NFDB
1490:Genuine love is rarely an emotional space where needs are instantly gratified. To know love we have to invest time and commitment...'dreaming that love will save us, solve all our problems or provide a steady state of bliss or security only keeps us stuck in wishful fantasy, undermining the real power of the love -- which is to transform us.' Many people want love to function like a drug, giving them an immediate and sustained high. They want to do nothing, just passively receive the good feeling. ~ bell hooks, #NFDB
1491:Recognize those times when it's best to do nothing. The weeks and months following a significant loss, including death, divorce, or the incapacitation of a loved one, are fraught with emotions. We typically do not make our best decisions under circumstances such as these. **Avoid the inclination to immediately put your house on the market** cash in all your savings, and move to the south of France, or trust the first person who comes along who says he or she can give you all the help you need. ~ Lois P Frankel, #NFDB
1492:True humility is humility before the Divine, that is, a precise, exact, living sense that one is nothing, one can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine, that even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the divine Consciousness, and this sense one must always keep, because then one always has the true attitude of receptivity - a humble receptivity that does not put personal pretensions in opposition to the Divine. ~ The Mother, Questions And Answers 1953, #NFDB
1493:People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary. ~ Adam Smith, #NFDB
1494:It's the old who need work. They've lost their spring and their zest for life, and need something to hold on to. It's all wrong, the way we arrange it - making the young work and the old sit idle. It should be the other way about. Girls and boys don't get bored with perpetual holidays; they live each moment of them hard; they would welcome the eternal Sabbath; and indeed I trust we shall all do that, as our youth is to be renewed like eagles. But old age on this earth is far too sad to do nothing in. ~ Rose Macaulay, #NFDB
1495:Self-surrender is essential and by that is meant the confession of personal impotence. “I can of mine own self do nothing.” Since creation is finished it is impossible to force anything into being. The example of magnetism previously given is a good illustration. You cannot make magnetism, it can only be displayed. You cannot make the law of magnetism. If you want to build a magnet, you can do so only by conforming to the law of magnetism. In other words, you surrender yourself or yield to the law. ~ Neville Goddard, #NFDB
1496:found out I was singing, and he couldn’t resist the chance to see me embarrass myself. The play was supposed to start at 8: 00, but it got delayed because Rodney James had stage fright. You’d figure that someone whose job it was to sit on the stage and do nothing could just suck it up for one performance. But Rodney wouldn’t budge, and eventually, his mom had to carry him off. The play finally got started around 8: 30. Nobody could remember their lines, just like I predicted, but Mrs. Norton kept things ~ Jeff Kinney, #NFDB
1497:..."But what I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing?" asked Pooh, after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, What are you going to do Christopher Robin, and you say, Oh, nothing, and you go and do it." "Oh, I see," said Pooh. "This is a nothing sort of thing that we're doing right now." "Oh, I see," said Pooh again. "It means just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear and not bothering." "Oh!" said Pooh. ~ A A Milne, #NFDB
1498:Everybody has asked the question, ... 'What shall we do with the Negro?' I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! You're doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, ... let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. ~ Frederick Douglass, #NFDB
1499:Yousef had been lighthearted during his questions, but there was something very serious and sad under his smile, and Alan knew what it was. It was the knowledge that there would be no fighting, and there would be no struggle, no stand taken, and that the two of them, because they were not lacking materially, because despite injustices in their countries they were the recipients of preposterous bounty, would likely do nothing. They were content, they had won. The fighting would be done by others, elsewhere. ~ Dave Eggers, #NFDB
1500:Our feelings of anxiety are genuine but confused signals that something is amiss, and so need to be listened to and patiently interpreted -- processes which are unlikely to be completed when we have to hand, in the computer, one of the most powerful tools of distraction ever invented. The entire internet is in a sense pornographic, a deliverer of a constant excitement that we have no innate capacity to resist, a seducer that leads us down paths that for the most part do nothing to answer our real needs. ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
124 Integral Yoga
11 Poetry
11 Christianity
10 Philosophy
10 Fiction
9 Occultism
5 Psychology
3 Yoga
2 Science
1 Sufism
1 Islam
1 Integral Theory
1 Education
86 The Mother
34 Satprem
24 Sri Aurobindo
16 Nolini Kanta Gupta
9 H P Lovecraft
6 A B Purani
5 Saint Teresa of Avila
4 Walt Whitman
4 Saint Augustine of Hippo
4 Carl Jung
4 Aleister Crowley
3 Sri Ramakrishna
3 Plotinus
3 Plato
2 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
2 Jordan Peterson
2 Friedrich Nietzsche
13 Questions And Answers 1953
9 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
9 Lovecraft - Poems
8 Letters On Yoga IV
8 Agenda Vol 01
7 Questions And Answers 1956
6 Questions And Answers 1955
6 Questions And Answers 1954
6 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
6 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
5 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
5 Letters On Yoga II
5 Agenda Vol 12
4 Whitman - Poems
3 The Way of Perfection
3 Some Answers From The Mother
3 Prayers And Meditations
3 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
3 Magick Without Tears
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
3 City of God
3 Agenda Vol 13
3 Agenda Vol 08
3 Agenda Vol 06
3 Agenda Vol 05
2 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
2 The Synthesis Of Yoga
2 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
2 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
2 The Future of Man
2 The Bible
2 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
2 Record of Yoga
2 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
2 Mysterium Coniunctionis
2 Maps of Meaning
2 Agenda Vol 04
2 Agenda Vol 03
2 Agenda Vol 02
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
know nothing, I can do nothing, I am good for nothing.
Having recognised this, I have lost all joy in action.
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
certainty, that by oneself one is nothing and can do nothing.
Only the Divine is the life of our life, the consciousness of our
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This spiritual march or progress can also be described as a growing into the likeness of the Lord. His true self, his own image is implanted within us; he is there in the profoundest depth of our being as Jesus, our beloved and our soul rests in him in utmost bliss. We are aware neither of Jesus nor of his spouse, our soul, because of the obsession of the flesh, the turmoil raised by the senses, the blindness of pride and egoism. All that constitutes the first or old Adam, the image of Nought, the body of death which means at bottom the "false misruled love in to thyself." This self-love is the mother of sin, is sin itself. What it has to be replaced by is charity that is the true meaning of Christian charity, forgetfulness of self. "What is sin but a wanting and a forbearing of God." And the whole task, the discipline consists in "the shaping of Christ in you, the casting of sin through Christ." Who then is Christ, what is he? This knowledge you get as you advance from your sense-bound perception towards the inner and inmost seeing. As your outer nature gets purified, you approach gradually your soul, the scales fall off from your eyes too and you have the knowledge and "ghostly vision." Here too there are three degrees; first, you start with faith the senses can do nothing better than have faith; next, you rise to imagination which gives a sort of indirect touch or inkling of the truth; finally, you have the "understanding", the direct vision. "If he first trow it, he shall afterwards through grace feel it, and finally understand it."
It is never possible for man, weak and bound as he is, to reject the thraldom of his flesh, he can never purify himself wholly by his own unaided strength. God in his infinite mercy sent his own son, an emanation created out of his substancehis embodied loveas a human being to suffer along with men and take upon himself the burden of their sins. God the Son lived upon earth as man and died as man. Sin therefore has no longer its final or definitive hold upon mankind. Man has been made potentially free, pure and worthy of salvation. This is the mystery of Christ, of God the Son. But there is a further mystery. Christ not only lived for all men for all time, whether they know him, recognise him or not; but he still lives, he still chooses his beloved and his beloved chooses him, there is a conscious acceptance on either side. This is the function of the Holy Ghost, the redeeming power of Love active in him who accepts it and who is accepted by it, the dynamic Christ-Consciousness in the true Christian.
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
to what one ought to know, that one can do nothing compared
to what one ought to do, that one is nothing compared to what
0 1955-06-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If only I could see a distinct error blocking my path which I could clearly attack But I feel that I am not responsible, that it is not my personal fault if I remain without aspiration, stagnating. I feel like a battlefield of contending forces that are beyond me and against which I can do nothing. Oh Mother, it is not an excuse for a lack of will, or at least I dont think so I profoundly feel like a helpless toy, totally helpless.
If the divine force, if your grace, does not intervene to shatter this obscure resistance that is drawing me downwards in spite of myself, I dont know what will become of me Mother, I am not blackmailing you, I am only expressing my helplessness, my anguish.
0 1956-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I am broken and battered in the depths of my being as I was in my flesh in the concentration camps. Will the divine grace take pity on me? Can you, do you want to help me? Alone I can do nothing. I am in an absolute solitude, even beyond all rebellion, at my very end.
Yet I love you in spite of all that I am.
0 1958-07-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
You see, the human species is a part of Nature, but as Sri Aurobindo has explained, from the moment mind expressed itself in man, it put him into a relationship with Nature very different from the relationship all the lower species have with her. All the lower species right up to man are completely under the rule of Nature; she makes them do whatever she wants, and they can do nothing without her consent. Whereas man begins to act and to live as an equal; not as an equal in terms of power, but from the standpoint of consciousness (he is beginning to do so since he has the capacity to study and to find out Natures secrets). He is not superior to her, far from it, but he is on an equal footing. And so he has acquiredthis is a fac the has acquired a certain power of independence that he immediately used to put himself under the influence of the hostile forces, which are not terrestrial but extra-terrestrial.
I am speaking of terrestrial Nature. Through their mental power, men had the choice and the freedom to make pacts with these extraterrestrial vital forces. There is a whole vital world that has nothing to do with the earth, it is entirely independent or prior to earths existence, it is self-existentwell, they have brought that down here! They have made what we see! And such being the case This is what terrestrial Nature told me: It is beyond my control.
0 1958-08-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I think of the time the hatha yogis devote to the work on the bodythey do nothing but that; they do nothing but that all the time, until they have attained a certain point. This is in fact the reason why Sri Aurobindo wanted none of it: he found that it took a lot of time for a rather meager result.
***
0 1959-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have no other details to give you, except that I am not happy. The fact is that these last three years I have been tied down by my penury, otherwise I would be travelling along other roads, far from herewith no greater hope in my heart, but with space before me, at least. I am only here to render you service, but I do not know if I shall be able to repress my need for space much longerit has already been going on too long. This is the undisguised truth. But what can I do?I am tied down. If I truly loved, things would be different, but it seems I love no one, not even myself, and the only love of which I am capable, human love, is forbidden to me. So I can do nothing, not on any plane, and I have no hope in anything. Forgive me, I do not wish to pain you, but neither can I pretend any longer to be happy with my lot.
Signed: Satprem
0 1959-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
7) X wants to send me back to Pondicherry this Sunday (Sunday the 18th, arriving Monday the 19th morning). He says it is useless for me now to remain here any longer since his house is not ready and he can do nothing. But, he said, I will have you come to my house for 3 months and I shall give you a training by which you can know Past, Present and Future, and have the same qualifications as me!
8) He gave me certain methods to follow, about which I shall speak to you in person.
0 1960-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I see Z every day, yet he asked me, Why do you do nothing for me?!! Each time you come here, I told him, I am NECESSARILY doing something for you, it cannot be otherwise! But since its just a part of his work,1 it doesnt count!
Of course, I dont say, All right, now lets meditate! So on his birthday Ill have to sit down and tell him, Now we are going to meditate that way hell feel sure. What childishness!
0 1960-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I have quite the feeling that I myself do nothing at all, absolutely nothing. The only thing I do is this (gesture of offering upwards), constantly this, in everythingin thoughts, feelings, sensations, in the bodys cells, all the time: You, You, You. Its You, its You, its You Thats all. And nothing else.
In other words, a more and more complete, a more and more integral assent, more and more like this (gesture of letting herself be carried). Thats when you have the feeling that you must be ABSOLUTELY like a child.
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have asked to be forewarned, not for reasons of. It can happen any time at all, I am always ready. I can do nothing more for the work than what I am doing now, and I havent a single practical measure to take because I have already taken them all. So that isnt why, but to AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE to withdraw from the body all that has been put into it. There is such an accumulation inside it of force, consciousness, power, oh! All the cells are impregnated and it would take some time if it all had to be taken out.
But I have had no indication of this, neither by night nor by day, neither awake nor in tranceno indication. The indication rather points to all that must be clarified, purified so the physical may keep what it received from that experience [of January 24, 1961].
0 1961-06-06, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And THERE the conscious will can do nothing. Nothing. All it could do it has done, and it continues to do all it can at each minute, and its nothing, it is not THATwhat is it??
That is a true Secret. How splendid it will be when it is found.
0 1962-01-12 - supramental ship, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Not that the problem hasnt been partially solved: hatha yogis have solved it, partiallyprovided you do nothing else (thats the trouble). Yet having the knowledge, we should have the power to do whats necessary without making it our exclusive preoccupation. At any rate, this possibility is certainly not altogether unknown; for the first few months after I retired to my room,4 when I had cut all contact with the outside, it was working very well even extraordinarily so! Lots of disorders in my body were surmounted, and I had many fairly precise indications that if I continued like that long enough I would regain everything that had been lost, and with an even better equilibrium. I mean that the functional equilibrium was far superior. Only when I came back into contact with the world did it all come to a halt and begin to deteriorateall the more so as it was aggravated by this discipline of expansion making me constantlyCONSTANTLYabsorb mountains of difficulties to be resolved. And so.
With the mind, its rather easyyou can put things back in order in five minutes, its not difficult. With the vital its already a bit more troublesome, it takes a little longer. But when you come to the material level, well. Theres a CONTAGION of wrong cellular functioning and a kind of internal disorganizationthings not staying in their proper places. Each vibration absorbed from the outside instantly creates a disorder, dislocates everything, creates wrong contacts and disrupts the organization; it sometimes takes HOURS to put it all back in order. Consequently, if I really want to make use of this bodys possibility without having to face the necessity of changing it because it cant follow along, then, materially, I would really need, as much as possible, to stop having to gulp down all sorts of things that drag me years backwards.
0 1962-03-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He mentions it when he explains mental equality3that a state is reached where one is unable to initiate any activity; only the stimulus of an impulsion from above can move you. So you do nothing, you just stay like that, perfectly immobile in your mind (not only physicallyespecially in your mind): you dont initiate anything.
Before, the mind was always creating, setting actions, wills and movements into motion, producing consequences; and its very frightening when that stopsyou feel youre becoming an idiot. But its quite the opposite! No more ideas, no more will, no more impulsions, nothing. You act only when something makes you act, without knowing why or how.
0 1963-06-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was very strange because I was in that state all the time, saying to myself, I must find something, I must find something, theres something to find. And I tried to call down the experiences of the higher beings,1 but it couldnt reach downit couldnt reach down, couldnt make contact. So when I saw that old man come (I knew perfectly well that he could do nothing whatsoever, but I thought, I must ask him, I must ask him just the same, I must ask him), I asked himalthough I knew perfectly well that he couldnt give me the key. There was that double thing: the knowledge that all that goes on there2 is useless, useless, that thats not where the solution lies; and yet you should neglect nothing, overlook nothing, leave no stone unturned. Give everything a try.
(silence)
0 1963-12-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
December 2nd was interestingsports day1: the day before, the 1st, the weather was wonderful, and insofar as I gave it thought I was convinced that on the 2nd it would be just as fine. But in the morning I saw it was nothing of the sort, and as the day went by, it became worse and worse. In the beginning my first movement was to say to myself, Well, I didnt see to it, I should have given it thought, but then I saw that was absurd. Then I told the Lord, Why are You doing this? Its not very nice! Those children have worked so hard, they have taken great pains. And just as I said it, the consciousness was looking at what I said, smiling, Oh, my! How silly still to be that way! And then there was yet another thing (its becoming very, very complete), something that wasnt exactly the Lord, but like an expression of the Lord, telling me (not with words, of course, but how can I explain? Sri Aurobindo describes it very well in the Yoga of Self-Perfection: its a very new thing which has to do with action, feeling, sensation and consciousness all at the same time; its all of them togethernone of those things, yet all of them), so it was there, telling me (I am putting it into words, but that distorts it entirely), So what! What if its a test, what do you have to say about it? So immediately in the consciousness here the consciousness at work here the thought awakened, Ah, it has to become a test, then. In THEIR consciousness it has to become a test. (Because at first I had made a kind of attempt to stop the rain; then I saw it didnt correspond to the Truth and that the rain had to be acceptedwhy accepted? To do nothing after having worked so hard? And to accept is easy, its nothing, its not interesting, nothing new.) So a test, all right. If they take it as a test, they will go through it victoriously and it will be very good. And all the time, I was so concentrated on them [at the sports ground] that I no longer knew what I was doing or where I was. It lasted from 4 P.M. to 8 P.M. Around 8 P.M., I received the news: they had gone on with the performance just the same, the important visitors had remained till the end, so ultimately it was a real success.
There was only one difficulty: the little children, who cannot be conscious of a test, of course, and who remained four and a half hours in the rain. I didnt want it to do any damage there were about a hundred small ones, tiny tots. I spent the night in concentration to bring into their material sensation the true reaction (because, for a short while, children love rain, they have a lot of fun in it), so I said to myself, That part of their consciousness should predominate so there is no damage. And I waited for the day after. The day after, no one was sick.
0 1964-08-11, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is no greater joy than to know that you can do nothing and are absolutely helpless, that youre not the one who does, and that what little is donelittle or big, it doesnt matteris done by the Lord; and the responsibility is fully His. That makes you happy. With that, you are happy.
Voil.
0 1964-09-16, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I have observed it in the bodys cells: they would seem to be forever in a hurry to do what they have to do for fear of not having the time to do it. So they do nothing properly. Clumsy people (there are people who bump into everything, their gestures are brusque and clumsy) have this to a high degreethis sort of haste to do things quickly, quickly, quickly. Yesterday, someone was complaining of rheumatic pains in his back and said to me, Oh, it makes me waste so much time, I do things so slowly! I said to him (Mother laughs), So what! He wasnt happy. You understand, to complain if you have pain means youre soft, thats all, but to say, Im wasting so much time, I do things so slowly! was the very clear picture of that haste in which people livethey hurtle through life where to? to end up in a crash!
Whats the use?
0 1964-10-10, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its the cells that feel this the thought has said it says all sorts of things, the earth is full of (when you see it in its totality, its really interesting!), the earth is full of all the human imaginings (which have been turned into statements of facts), even the most fantastic, the most contradictory, the most unexpectedits full of all that, it lives on that, it swarms with thatand the result is that the material world is convinced that all by itself, it can do nothing! Nothing. Nothing, nothing but that: that inextricable and apparently senseless jumble, which is nothing, which is an unbridled imagination in comparison with what can be.
And then, this faith (its a faith in Matter) that in a flash (a flash we dont know, of course, it isnt a question of time as we understand it materially), a trigger and everything can be changed. Changed into the harmonious Rhythm of a Will expressing itself; and a Will which is a Vision: a Vision expressing itself, thats really it; the harmonious Rhythm of a Vision expressing itself.
0 1965-06-14, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We are putting together (what can I call it?) a set of rules (oh, thats an ugly word) for admission to the Ashram. Yes! Not that if you accept the rules youre admitted, its not that, but when someone is admitted, we tell him, But, you know, here is (when he is potentially admitted), here is what you are committing yourself to by becoming a member of the Ashram. Because requests for admission are pouring in like locusts, and at least ninety-nine times out of a hundred, its from people who want to come here to be comfortable and rest and do nothingone in a hundred comes because he has a spiritual aspiration (oh, and even then its mixed). So they shouldnt tell us afterwards (because weve had such experiences), Oh, but I didnt know it was that way, with the excuse that they hadnt been told. For instance, I didnt know we werent allowed to (Mother questions herself for a moment) What isnt allowed? (Then, laughing, she points to Satprem:) Smoking isnt allowed. And drinking alcohol isnt allowed, being married isnt allowed, except nominally, and so on. And then you have to work, and all your desires arent automatically satisfied. So they send me letters, But you told me that (oh, things I never said, naturally), at such-and-such a date (you understand, sufficiently far back for me not to remember!), you told me that And from what they write I see very clearly what I said and how they turned it upside down. So now well prepare a paper that well give them to read, and well ask them, Have you clearly understood? And when they have said theyve clearly understood and have signed, at least well keep the paper, and when they start being a nuisance, we can show it to them and tell them, Beg your pardon, we told you this wasnt a (whats the word?) an Eden where you can stay without doing anything and where your bread is buttered on both sides!
So I put as first condition (I wrote it in English): the sole aim of life is to dedicate oneself to the divine realization (I didnt put it in these terms, but thats the idea). You must first (you may deceive yourself, but that doesnt make any difference), first be convinced that this is what you want and you want this aloneprimo. Then Nolini told me that the second condition should be that my absolute authority had to be recognized. I said, Not like that!, we should put that Sri Aurobindos absolute authority is recognized (we can add [laughing], represented by me, because he cannot speak, of course, except to meto me he speaks very clearly, but others dont hear!). Then there are many other things, I dont remember, and finally a last paragraph that goes like this (Mother looks for a note). Previously, I remember, Sri Aurobindo had also put together a little paper to give people, but its outdated (it was about not quarreling with the police! And what else, I dont rememberits outdated). But I didnt want to put prohibitions in, because prohibitions first of all, its an encouragement to revolt, always, and then there is a good proportion of characters who, when they are forbidden to do something, immediately feel an urge to do itthey might not even have thought of it otherwise, but they just have to be told about it to Ah, but I do as I like. All right.
0 1965-08-04, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Till then, you are forever wondering if you are doing the right thing. But it has become like that: Do this. And when there is nothing, I do nothing. But I have noticed that when necessary, it comes, and constantly, even at night! Even when I sleep, it becomes like that: Do this, do thatnot with words, but its very clear, you cant make a mistake.
It took a long, long time for it to come like that. But that state you are referring to, I knew it for years: you sit there, wondering Because, as I said, in order to be absolutely blank and immobile, you must be withdrawn from the world, seeing no one, doing nothing; then you can perceive clearly; but otherwise, when you are in the world and all those suggestions keep coming all the time, you must allow what is called the personal will to express itself when you dont receive a very precise Command.
0 1965-09-25, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just yesterday I was looking at this body, and there were no the reactions that might be called personal were truly reduced to an imperceptible minimum, which means there was a sense I cant say a universal sense because its not certain that Matter in other universes follows the same law, I dont know (I dont know I once knew: there was a time when I was in contact with this and that and I could have said, but now I dont want to concern myself with it: I am concerned only with the earth). Because this is always there, too: the possibility of escaping by going elsewhere. Lots of people did that in fact: they went off elsewhere, into another, more or less subtle world. Of course, there are millions of ways to escape there is only one way to stay, and thats to truly have courage and endurance, to accept all the appearance of infirmity, the appearance of powerlessness, the appearance of incomprehension, the appearance, yes, of a negation of the Truth. But if one doesnt accept all that, nothing will ever be changed! Those who want to remain great, luminous, strong, powerful and what have you, well, let them stay up there, they can do nothing for the earth.
And its a very small thing (a very small thing because the consciousness is sufficient not to be affected in the least), but the incomprehension is so general and total! In other words, you receive abuse, expressions of contempt and all the rest, precisely because of what you do, because according to them (all the great intelligences of the earth), you have renounced your divinity. They dont say it like that, they say, What? You claim to have a divine consciousness, and then And this manifests in everyone and every circumstance. Now and then, someone for a moment has a flash, but thats quite exceptional, while Well, show your power!, thats everywhere.
0 1967-08-02, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a sort of not anxiety, but above all a vigilance, as if they were on the alert: May we do nothing but what You want, think nothing but what You want, feel nothing but what You want, say nothing but what You want. Constantly, uninterruptedly, night and day, whether in the middle of activity or in the middle of rest, To be what You want, to feel what You want, to do what You want, to exist without distinction.
The slightest pain, any discomfort, the slightest clumsy gesture, the slightest thing, and immediately, Ah! (with a start) This isnt You.
0 1967-08-26, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This World Union, oh, how outmoded they are! There are hundreds and hundreds of such groups that chatter, do nothing and change absolutely nothing whatsoever.
Yes, it has always seemed to me childishness and chatter.
0 1967-09-13, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its very simple: when you say to people, Be humble, they immediately think of being humble towards others, and that humility is bad. True humility is humility towards the Divine, that is, the precise, exact, LIVING sense that you are nothing, can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine, that even if you are an exceptionally intelligent and capable being, that is NOTHING in comparison with the divine Consciousness and one must keep that constantly, because then one constantly has the true attitude of receptivity. A humble receptivity that sets no personal pretension against the Divine.
***
0 1968-10-16, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I do nothing but cough all the time.
This state I am in now began this morning, its quite new. Yesterday, I was in pain, but it was physical. This is something different.
0 1971-04-28, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes. But I need to know the number of people in the group, both those who work and those who do nothing. And then.
(silence)
0 1971-10-13, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have more and more the impression that we know nothing, that we can do nothing, that we. Were really (helpless gesture)we know nothing. All our so-called knowledge is.
We dont even know our own destiny.
0 1971-10-16, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just last night, I stayed for hours. (nowadays I sleep very, very, very little, I spend hours in a kind of state that is not sleep and not activity, its something rather new), and in that state the body became conscious that it was nothing, that it knew nothing, that it could do nothing, that it a kind of almost total nullity. It had that for hours. And then slowly that feeling changed it changed into a something like a sensation (its not an ordinary sensation, but its something similar to a sensation); the nothing the nothingness, the total nullitybegan to feel that it existed only THROUGH the Divine; and then gradually, FOR the Divine, and a kind of peace settled in (Mother closes her eyes with a smile then she opens her eyes wide), an all-powerful peace.
And everything that was painful disappeared.
0 1971-10-23, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It depends on the case. Theres a slight difference. There are cases when nothing comesnothing, everything is stopped. So there you have to wait until it runs its course. There are cases where you are NATURALLY led to do one thing or another, which seems totally indifferent but is part of the Action (I dont know how to say it). I have experienced both. It depends on the case. There are cases where nothing is needed. There are cases where its simply as though you put the Divine ON the thing (Mother makes a gesture of aiming a beam). You know, youre like not an intermediary, I dont know its like a power of concentration on something; then the Divine Force flows through and is focused (same gesture of aiming a beam), but you yourself do nothingyet the thing is done. Sometimes, if there is a word to be said, then the word comes to you; or if there is something to be done (it may seem like a very small, indifferent thing), you just have to do it quietlyyou are LED to do it.
Youre led, yes, I understand.
0 1971-12-29b, #Agenda Vol 12, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The fastest way for me was (how shall I put it?) the growing sense of my own nonentitynonexistence. To feel I could do nothing, knew nothing, wanted nothing; but then the WHOLE being filled with its not even an aspiration now, its like this (gesture of surrender, hands open), an inescapable fact: Without the Divine, nothing, nothing I am nothing, I understand nothing, I can do nothing. Without the Divine, nothing. To be like this (same gesture, hands open). And then a Peace a luminous Peace and so powerful! And when I am quiet (I saw it again very interestingly, because before when I gave a meditation to X, there was still an effort, an effort to meditate, an effort to), while this time (Mother sharply lowers her hands), it was compelling. A compelling Presencecompelling. Extraordinary. In fact I wondered what the meditation would be like, if it was going to be like beforenot at all, its like this (Mother sharply lowers her hands).
So, its going well.
But first there must be an absolute sincerity, that is, a CONVICTION: I am nothing, nothing I can do nothing, I know nothing, I have absolutely NOTHING (Mother raises an index finger) except the Divine. Then its all right.
As I told you, its so strong that at times I cant even eat; whereas when its like this, when the consciousness becomes like this (gesture of surrender, hands open), I finish my dinner without even knowing I am eating. Its inexpressible. But wonderful.
0 1972-04-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The consciousness own attitude towards the Divine is to be as if nestling in the Divine I could even say engulfed in the Divine: what You will, what You will, what You will, what You will. As a basic attitude its very good, I could say. But when suddenly, something in the body goes wrong, and you dont know why (oh, most of the time its due to an outside cause, like a disorder coming from outside), so then you dont know what to dothere is no longer a mind to decide what to do; while the consciousness remains like this (hands open upwards). But then you dont know what to do, so you do nothing.
There is certainly something to be learned.
0 1972-05-24, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All depends ABSOLUTELYabsolutely and uniquelyon the divine Will. If He has decided we will be transformed, we will be transformed. I can do nothing there is no I, it doesnt exist as this! (indicating her body) For those who cling to me, its the same as clinging to the Divine, because (Mother smiles exquisitely). Ultimately, what happens is His will.
(Mother goes into contemplation for forty minutes, while holding Satprems hands. That day there was realization.)
0 1972-07-22, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, nothing. And also for Sri Aurobindos books thats where theyre directly deceiving you. They dont lift a finger, they simply do nothing. They wont give the least information about what theyre doingwhat are they HIDING, these people, Id like to know? As long as theyre told words, its completely ineffective. I wonder what action will make them move?
(silence)
03.08 - The Standpoint of Indian Art, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Indian art, too, possesses a perspective and an anatomy; it, too, has a focus of observation which governs and guides the composition, in the ensemble and in detail. Only, it is not the physical eye, but an inner vision, not the angle given by the retina, but the angle of a deeper perception or consciousness. To understand the difference, let us ask ourselves a simple question: when we call back to memory a landscape, how does the picture form itself in the mind? Certainly, it is not an exact photograph of the scenery observed. We cannot, even if we try, re-form in memory the objects in the shape, colour and relative positions they had when they appeared to the physical eye. In the picture represented to the mind's eye, some objects loom large, others are thrown into the background and others again do not figure at all; the whole scenery is reshuffled and rearranged in deference to the stress of the mind's interest. Even the structure and build of each object undergoes a change; it does not faithfully re-copy Nature, but gives the mind's version of it, aggrandizing certain parts, suppressing others, reshaping and recolouring the whole aspect, metamorphosing the very contour into something that may not be "natural" or anatomical figure at all. Only we are not introspective enough to observe this phenomenon of the mind's alchemy; we think we are representing with perfect exactitude in the imagination whatever is presented to the senses, whereas in fact we do nothing of the kind; our idea that we do it is a pure illusion.
All art is based upon this peculiar virtue of the mind that naturally and spontaneously transforms or distorts the objective world presented to its purview. The question, then, is only of the degree to which the metamorphosis has been carried. At the one end, there is the art of photography, in which the degree of metamorphosis is at its minimum; at the other, there seems to be no limit, for the mind's capacity to dissolve and recreate the world of sense-perception is infinite and many modern schools of European art have gone even beyond the limit that the "unnatural" Indian art did not consider it necessary to transgress. Now, the classical artist selects a position as close as he can to the photographer, tries to give the mind's view of Nature and creation, as far as possible, in the style and norm of the sense-perceptions. He takes his stand upon these and from there reaches out towards whatever imaginative reconstructions are justified within the bounds laid out by them. The general ground-plan is, almost rigorously, the form given by the physical eye. The art of the East, and even, to a large extent, the art of mediaeval Europe, followed a different line. Here the scheme of the sense-perceptions was rejected, the artist sought to build on other foundations. His procedure was, first, to get a focus within the mind, to discover a psychological standpoint, and from there and in accordance with the subtler laws and conventions of an inner vision create a world that is unique and stands by itself. The aim was always to build from within, at the most, from within outwards, but not from without, not even from without inwards. This inner world has its own laws and they differ from the laws of optics which govern the physical sight; but there is no reason why it should be called unnatural. It is unnatural only in the sense that it does not copy physical Nature; it is quite natural in the 1 sense that it is a faithful reproduction of another, a psychological Nature.
03.13 - Dynamic Fatalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
If it is so, then what is the necessity at all of work and labour and travailthis difficult process of sadhana? The question is rather naive, but it is very often asked. The answer also could be very simple. The change decreed is precisely worked out through the travail: one is the end, the other is the means; the goal and the process, both are decreed and inevitable. If it is argued, supposing none made the effort, even then would the change come about, in spite of man's inaction? Well, first of all, this is an impossible supposition. Man cannot remain idle even for a moment: not only the inferior Nature, but the higher Nature too is always active in himremember the words of the Gita though behind the veil, in the inner consciousness. Secondly, if it is really so, if man is not labouring and working and making the attempt, then it must be understood that the time has not yet come for him to undergo the change; he has still to wait: one of the signs of the imminence of the change is this very intensity and extensiveness of the labour among mankind. If, however, a particular person chooses to do nothing, prefers to wait and seehopes in the end to jump at the fruit all at once and possess it or hopes the fruit to drop quietly into his mouthwell, this does not seem to be a likely happening. If one wishes to enjoy the fruit, one must share in the effort to sow and grow. Indeed, the process itself of reaching the higher consciousness involves a gradual heightening of the consciousness. The means is really part of the end. The joy of victory is the consummation of the joy of battle.
Man can help or retard the process of Nature, in a sense. If his force of consciousness acts in line with Nature's secret movement, then that movement is accelerated: through the soul or self that is man, it is the Divine, Nature's lord and master who drives and helps Nature forward. If, on the contrary, man follows his lesser self, his lower ego, rajasic and tamasic, then he throws up obstacles and barriers which hamper and slow down Nature's march.
05.02 - Gods Labour, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Divine acts in three different ways in his three well-known aspects. As the transcendent Reality he is above and beyond creation, he is the Unmanifest, although he may hold within either involved or dissolved the entire manifestation. Next, he is the manifestation, the cosmic or the universal; he is one with creation, immanent in it, still its master and lord. Finally, he has an individual aspect: he is a Person with whom human beings can enter into relations of love and service. The Divine incarnate as a human being, is a special manifestation of the Individual Divine. Even then, as an embodied earthly person, he may act in a way characteristic of any of the three aspects. The Divine descended upon earth, as viewed by Sri Aurobindo, does not come in his transscendental aspect, fundamentally aloof and away, in his absolute power and consciousness, working miracles here; for transcendence can do nothing but that in the midst of conditions left as they are. Nor does he manifest himself only as his cosmic power and consciousness, imbedded in the creation and all-pervading, exercising his influence through the pressure of Universal Law, perhaps in a concentrated form, still working gradually, step by step, as though through a logical process, for the maintenance of the natural order and harmony, lokasagraha. God can be more than that, individualised in a special, even a human sense. His individual being can and does hold within itself his cosmic and transcendental self covertly in a way but overtly too in a singular manner at the same time. The humanised personality of the Divine with his special role and function is at the very centre of Sri Aurobindo's solution of the world enigma. The little poem A God's Labour in its short compass outlines and explains beautifully the grand Mystery.
The usual idea of God (as the theists hold, for example) is that he is an infinite eternal impassible being, aloof from human toils and earthly turmoils, himself untouched by these and yet, in and through them, directing the world for an inscrutable purpose, unless it is for leaning towards it and stretching out the hand of Grace to those of the mortals who wish to come out of the nightmare of life, sever the coils of earthly existence. But the Divine in order to be and remain divine need not hold to his seat above and outside the creation, severely separated from his creatures. He can, on the contrary, become truly the ordinary man and labour as all others, yet maintaining his divinity and being conscious of it. After all, is not man, every human being, built in the same pattern, a composite of the earthly human element supported and infused by a secret divine element? However, God, the individual Divine, does become man, one of them and one with them. Only, his labour thereby increases manifold, hard and heavy, although for that very reason full of a bright rich multiple promise. The Divine's self-hurilanisation has for it a double purpose: (I) to show man by example how he can become what he truly is, how he can divinise himself: the Divine as man lives out the life of a sadhakawholly and completely; (2) to help concretely by his own force of consciousness the world and man in their endeavour for progress and evolution, to give the help wholly and completely from the innermost status of the self down to the most external physical body and the material field. This help again is a twofold function. The first is to make available, gather within easy reach, the high realisations, the spiritual treasures that are normally stored in a heaven somewhere else. The Divine Man brings down the divine attributes close to our earth, turns them from mere far possibilities into near probabilities, even imminent realities. They are made part and parcel, constituent elements of the earthly atmosphere, so that one has only to open one's mouth to brea the in, extend one's arms to seize and possess them: even to this opening and this gesture man is helped by the concrete touch and presence of the Divine. Further, the help and succour come in another way which is more intimate, more living and appealing to man.
05.07 - Man and Superman, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now, one may ask, what would be the relation between the two humanities the human and the divine? And what would be the effect of the appearance of the new race upon the older stock? Here again we can take up the animal analogy. How has the advent of man affected the animal kingdom? It has affected to a certain extent, even to a considerable extent, one may venture to say. First of all, man has parked around him a fairly large group of animals, domesticated them, as it is termed, employing them in his service, using them for his purposes. Furthermore, he has gone out into the woods, the forests and mountains, ice-bound regions and deep seas, and there extended his sphere of influence, hunting and capturing animals that were so long free and unmolested, bringing about a change in the conditions of life even among wild animals. We do not say that the superman will deal with man in the same way (although something of the kind may be found in the Nietzschean ideology). For man was a creature of Ignorance, and his behaviour and influence were naturally of the ignorant kind. The superman, however, being delivered of ignorance and living in perfect knowledge, has a different nature and outlook. He is one with the universe, with all its creatures; united with the Divine, he finds and realises his own self in each and every creature and thing: his character and conduct are the automatic expression of this sense of perfect identity. So he can do nothing that may seek to enslave or do real injury to mankind. On the contrary, his love and his knowledge, being one with the cosmic existence, will inevitably work for the progress and welfare of man too; indeed, his will be the perfect aid that even ordinary humanity can ask for and receive.
In spite of all the achievements he has had in the past, and in spite of the cul-de-sac or the blind alley into which he seems now to be stagnating, there is yet possibility enough for man to progress further, that is to say, even as a human being without taking the more audacious jump into supermanhood. The present miseries of human society, the maldistribution of the necessities of life, the ravages of illness and disease, the prevalence of ignorance, are not and need not after all be a permanent and irrevocable feature of human organisation. They can be remedied to a large extent, and society made more decent to live in, even though it may not be transfigured into the City of God. Man, without foregoing his present human nature, can yet be a more humane and humanistic creature, that is to say, more truly human and less animal and demoniac that he is trying to be. To this end the advent and the presence of the divine race will surely contri bute in a large measure. The influence which the individuals of such a race will exert by the force of their luminous consciousness and the impact of their purified living, the sympathy and knowledge and comprehension which their very presence carries, will materially alter the nature and composition of the normal man and his society. There will emerge a sort of higher humanityan intermediary between the present more or less animal, degraded humanity and the divine humanity of the future. The two humanities may very well live amicably together and be of help and service to each other.
05.08 - True Charity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
True charity consists in laying the healing balm upon the sore that lies hidden behind all external miseries which derive from that source and sustainer. And it is in the sole possession of him alone who has found the bliss of the Spirit and dwells in it always. Such a person does not require external accessories for his work of healing and comforting. He need do nothing apparently; he may even appear to be aloof and indifferent. But his presence itself is a healing power: the patient feels it and wonders at the ease and happiness that come into him as if from nowhere. Many physicians have this kind of healing power; indeed without that, a mere medical man, with his pharmacopoeia, is no physician. It may not be well known and recognised, but it is a fact that a good part of the efficacy of medicines lies in the subtle influence, the vital health, that the doctor puts into his medicine or even directly into the body of his patient. And in the case of a spiritual Bhishak, the power can be raised to the nth degree. The healer need not even be present at all physically near the patient; his influence can act very well from any distance. It is quite natural and inevitable that it should be so. For the healing power is in the spiritual consciousness, the inalienable bliss of one's status in the Spirit. One becomes identified with each and every objectperson or thingin one's own self, in the true being and substance; and the light and happiness that one possesses there inalienably go out in a spontaneous flow to others who are not really others but integral parts and portions of the same self.
This condition is attained, fully and sovereignly, when there is absolute egolessness, when there is no consciousness of a separate person, the dual consciousness of the helper and the helped, the reformer and the reformed, the doctor and the patient. The normal human sense of values is based upon such a division, upon egohood, mamatvam. A philanthropic man helps others through a sense of sympathy giving rise to a sense of duty and obligation. This feeling of pity, of commiseration is dangerous, for it puts you in a frame of mind that tends to make you look down upon, take a superior air towards your object of pity. You become self-conscious, with the consciousness of your inferior self, that you are helping others, doing good to the world, doing something that raises your value: this sense of personal merit is only another name for vanity. Vanity and ambition are the motive powers that lie behind the philanthropical spirit born of sympathy. To denote a shade of meaning different from what is usually conveyed by the word sympathy, modern psychology has I found another wordempathy. Sympathy may be said to be the relation or contact between two egos; it is a link or bridge between two separate and independent entities; empathy, on the other hand, means the entering into the I very being and consciousness of another, becoming that other one; it is identification and identity. This again is what I spiritual consciousness alone can do. Sympathy leads to! philanthropy, empathy is the origin of true charity, the spiritual I compassion of a Buddha or a Christ. Philanthropy is human, I charity (caritas) is divine.
05.23 - The Base of Sincerity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Once this centre has been aspectedin whatever manner, to whatever degree, even faintly and feeblyone has always to come back to it, as the mariner to the pole-star, try to connect all external happenings as well as one's inner movements with this fountain-head. That is to say, one must think, feel or do nothing that is contrary to the truth it is, that is not in accord with its rhythm and law: indeed one must always endeavour to think only that thought, feel only that feeling, do only that act which is the spontaneous and inevitable outcome and expression of that innermost and topmost reality.
That is the definition of sincerity: to be transparent and single-pointed to your soul-consciousness, to your deity. And that also is the only way by which there can be realised in you, the highest and largest, the most intimate and absolute harmony you are capable of and that is demanded of you. The perfect organisation of the individual life can be obtained in and through the harmony inherent in the central reality, in the natural order of its activities. In the scheme or pattern laid out in the inmost consciousness, each element has its own orbit and its own quantum of energy, each force its allotted function: the will in each is exactly commensurable with what should be the expression in it of the total reality, each is the whole and rounded articulation of an aspect or figure put forth by the central truth in its self-display. As in a musical theme, each note has a definite pitch, amplitude, tone which give it its perfect form in order to constitute a common pattern the highest pitch, the largest amplitude or the most vibrant tone is not needed, not only not needed, would be a bar on the contraryeven so, the individual man when he attains perfection realises in himself a harmony which gives the true expression of all his limbs, the fullest and fairest expression of each and every one as demanded by the divine role destined for him.
06.32 - The Central Consciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The first condition, however, to arrive at the crucial or synthetic state of consciousness (which is, in fact, the basic supramental consciousness, as Sri Aurobindo calls it) is the realisation that the world, that is to say, physical consciousness does not exist by itself. By itself, it is nothing. As the Prayer says, it knows nothing, it can do nothing, it is nothing.1 This realisation must not be merely a mental perception, a perception in the inner consciousness alone; but the body, the physical existence itself must be conscious and in that consciousness see and experience the truth that by itself it is a void, non-existence: it becomes so however only to find that it is real, supremely real when it is suffused with its true substance, when it is the embodiment or vehicle of the supramental consciousness.
The Mother: Prayers and Meditations, 19 May 1914
06.34 - Selfless Worker, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Prayer says: I look for my conscious mind and I find it no more. . .1 Normally one is conscious of oneself. Whatever one does or whenever one does something, the consciousness always remains behind, I am here, I am doing. And if this sense of I am is not there, one can do nothing. All action stops automatically if I do not see or feel that I am acting. But that is the nature of ordinary consciousness; in the spiritual consciousness things are otherwise. Spiritual consciousness means the consciousness in which this sense of I am doing or even I am has disappeared, got dissolved. Truly, the work is done not by me, by the sense of illness, but by Prakriti, Nature, apparently by Lower Nature, secretly by Higher Nature. When the I disappears, the force that has been working continues to work, only the sense of I attached to it (in ignorance and by ignorance) is no longer there. Or, the I has completely merged itself into the working Force and is one with it. What is conscious is not the personality or the individual I, but the Force of action.
The Mother: Prayers and Meditations, 7 April 1914
07.30 - Sincerity is Victory, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is, I say, the very beginning of sincerity, its rudiments. And if you look into yourself with keener eyes, you will discover thousands of insincerities, more subtle, none the less seizable. Try to be sincere, occasions will multiply when you catch yourself insincere: you will know how difficult a thing it is. You say you belong to the Divine, to the Divine alone and to nothing or to nobody else; it is the Divine who moves me and does everything in me. And then you do whatever pleases you; you use the Divine as a cloak to cover your indulgence of desires and passions. This also is a gross insincerity and it should not be difficult for you to detect it. Although this is a very common deception, more perhaps to deceive others than to deceive oneself. The mind catches hold of an idea, all this is Brahman,I am Brahman, and you believe or pretend to believe that you have realised it and you can do nothing wrong. There are, however, subtler movements of insincerity or want of sincerity, even when you have not put on the divine cloak as the cover for your lapses. Even when you think you are sincere there may be movements which are not quite straight, behind which, if you probe unflinchingly, you will find lurking something undesirable. Look to the little movements, thoughts, sensations and impulses, that crowd the margin of your daily life; how many of them are solely turned to the Divine, how many of them are fired with an aspiration towards something higher? You should consider yourself fortunate if you find a few of the kind.
When I say that if you are sincere you are sure of victory, I mean that kind of sincerity, whole and undivided: the pure flame that burns like an offering, the intense joy of existing for the Divine alone where nothing else exists, nothing has any meaning or reason for existence but in the Divine. Nothing has value or interest if it is not this call, this aspiration, this opening to the supreme truth; all this that we call the Divine. You must serve the only reason for which the universe exists: take it away, all disappears.
08.16 - Perfection and Progress, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In any case, that is what I mean by sincerity. That is to say, if you regard the new realisation as the only thing truly worth living for, if what is is intolerable, not only for oneself, perhaps not so much for oneself as for the whole world, one feels the need of it if one is not small and egoistic; one feels that the present has lasted too long and one can do nothing but take up all that one is, all that one can do and hurl oneself completelyhead foremost, without looking backward, without considering what may happen or notinto the adventure. It is far better to jump into the abyss, than to stand on the brink shivering.
***
08.17 - Psychological Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Or you say, you have faith in the Divine, but as to this world, you know what it is and you put no trust in it. You say: "In the first instance, I suffer much, I am unlucky, much more unlucky than any other person"one is always more miserable than one's neighbour, be sure"life has been unkind to me. Now, if the Divine is divine, all kindness, all generosity, all love and harmony, how is it that I am so unfortunate? The Divine must then be powerless. Otherwise, how can he leave me in unhappiness, if he is so kind?" That is the second stumbling-block. The third one is this. There are people who are too modest, full of an excessive and misguided humility, who say: "Surely the Divine has rejected me, I am good for nothing, He can do nothing with me, it is better for me to give it all up." Such difficulties will always crop up, if along with faith you do not have complete trust in the Divine.
Next in the series comes Devotion. Certainly, devotion is very good; but here too, unless it is accompanied with many other things, it can lead you into much error. For with devotion one keeps one's ego also. Out of devotion you may behave most egoistically. You think of your devotion, only of your devotion, that is to say, you think of yourself alone, you do not think of others, of the world, of the work that you do and ought to doyou become formidably egoistic. And when you see that the Divine, for some reason or other, does not respond to your devotion with an enthusiasm you expect of him, you despair and fall into one or all of the three difficulties I spoke of just now. Either the Divine must be cruelwe know of devotees who throw all their anger upon the Divine, accusing him of neglect and cruelty; or then they think, "I must have made a grave, blunder, I am hopeless in his eyes and I am rejected."
1.011 - Hud, #Quran, #unset, #Zen
50. And to Aad, their brother Hud. He said, “O my people, worship God, you have no other god besides Him. You do nothing but invent lies.”
51. “O my people, I ask you no wage for it; my wage lies with Him who originated me. Do you not understand?”
1.01 - The Ego, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
known that the ego not only can do nothing against the self, but
is sometimes actually assimilated by unconscious components
1.01 - What is Magick?, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
(Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant over his speech, by using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly utters a chosen word. He may serve the same purpose by resolving that every incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing, Making every impression the starting point of a connected series of thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote his whole energies to some particular object, by resolving to do nothing at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage of that object.)
18. He may attract to himself any force of the Universe by making himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing a connection with it, and arranging conditions so that its nature compels it to flow toward him.
10.23 - Prayers and Meditations of the Mother, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is always good to look within ourselves from time to time and see that we are nothing and can do nothing, but we must then turn our look towards Thee, knowing that Thou art all and that Thou canst do all.
We must at each moment shake off the past like falling dust, so that it may not soil the virgin path which, also at each moment, opens before us.
1.028 - Bringing About Whole-Souled Dedication, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
We have three kinds of prarabdha the tamasica, the rajasica and the sattvica. The tamasica and rajasica prarabdhas will not allow even the rise of aspiration for God. The tamasica prarabdha will always bring the most intense form of obstacles, including a mood of lethargy, indolence, sleepiness, and even doubt of the possibility of gaining any such realisation at all, as yoga promises. Atheism, materialism and lack of faith are due to the working of tamasica prarabdhas. As long as these types of prarabdha function, as long as the tamasica prarabdhas are active, there is no question of the practice of yoga we can do nothing.
Even the rajasic prarabdha, which is a little better than that which is tamasica, does not allow us to do any practice, because it fills us with desires and distracting characteristics and does not allow us to sit in one place. We cannot sit continuously in one posture, even for a few minutes, if the rajasic prarabdha is working very actively.
1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
Know, however, that there is an immense distance and wide interval between perceiving the beauty of the Lord, and understanding that which constitutes its soul, marrow and essence. O seeker of the divine mysteries, those impotent astrologers and physicists, who, shut out from the knowledge of God, ascribe changes and events to the stars and to nature, resemble an ant, that seeing a pen making marks upon paper, should be overjoyed and cry out, "I have found out the secret of the effect. It is the pen that causes the marks." This class of men in another point resembles the natural man, who ascribes the influences in nature to heat and cold, water and earth: so a second ant looking on with attention, sees that the pen does not move of itself, but rather by the will of the hand: and he turns and says tp the first ant, "You were mistaken; you did not perceive the real nature of the thing: you thought the marks and movements were caused by the pen. It is not so; the whole influence proceeds from the fingers and the pen is subject to the fingers." Beloved, this ant resembles the astrologer, who ascribes effects to the constellations. He does not know that he also is mistaken, and that the stars and the constellations are subject to the angels, and that the angels can do nothing without the command of God.
In the same manner as there is falsity, in the way in which the material world is regarded by the natural man and the astrologer, there is also a diversity of views among those who survey the spiritual world. There are some who, just as they are upon the point of entering upon the vision of the spiritual world, seeing that they discover nothing, descend back to their old sphere. There is also a difference of view between those who do succeed in reaching the spiritual or invisible world by meditation, for some have an immense amount of light veiled from them. Every [51] one in the sphere to which he attains, is still veiled with a veil. The light of some is as of a twinkling star. Others see as by the light of the moon. Others are illuminated as if by the world-effulgent sun. To some the invisible world is even perfectly revealed, as we read in the holy word of God: "And thus we caused Abraham to see the heaven and the earth."1 And hence it is that the prophet says, "There are before God seventy veils of light; if he should unveil them, the light of his countenance would burn everything that came into his presence." 2
1.02 - The Human Soul, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
5.: This is what we must dread and pray God to deliver us from, for we are weakness itself, and unless He guards the city, in vain shall we labour to defend it.20' The person of whom I spoke21' said that she had learnt two things from the vision granted her. The first was, a great fear of offending God; seeing how terrible were the consequences, she constantly begged Him to preserve her from falling into sin. Secondly, it was a mirror to teach her humility, for she saw that nothing good in us springs from ourselves but comes from the waters of grace near which the soul remains like a tree planted beside a river, and from that Sun which gives life to our works. She realized this so vividly that on seeing any good deed performed by herself or by other people she at once turned to God as to its fountain head-without whose help she knew well we can do nothing-and broke out into songs of praise to Him. Generally she forgot all about herself and only thought of God when she did any meritorious action.
6.: The time which has been spent in reading or writing on this subject will not have been lost if it has taught us these two truths; for though learned, clever men know them perfectly, women's wits are dull and need help in every way. Perhaps this is why our Lord has suggested these comparisons to me; may He give us grace to profit by them!
1.03 - Tara, Liberator from the Eight Dangers, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
difculties, and thus we do nothing to extinguish the re of anger.
Under the inuence of hatred and rage, we harm ourselves as well as
1.03 - THE GRAND OPTION, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
the future and assessing the value of things, we cannot do nothing,
since our very refusal to decide is a decision in itself.
1.03 - To Layman Ishii, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Zen
Way is immeasurably vast. Some priests do nothing but seek fame and success until their dying day, never showing the slightest interest in the path of Zen or the Buddha's Dharma. Others become enthralled in literary pursuits or become addicted to sake or women, oblivious of the hell fires
flaming up under their very noses. Some, relying on insignificant bits of knowledge they pick up, shamelessly try to deny the law of cause and effect, though woefully lacking any grasp of its working.
1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. John
15:5). Satan, by contrast, is something that lurks in the forbidden tree. The (devastating) wisdom he
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
metal with which you can do nothing and make it accessible to transformation by the use of certain
liquids. The alchemists therefore wrote about it in the naive form which I am now describing and did not
1.06 - Quieting the Vital, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Having brought this mechanism to light, we will have found, at the same time, the true method toward vital mastery, which is not surgical but calming; the vital predicament is not overcome by struggling vitally against it, which can only exhaust our energies without exhausting its universal existence, but by taking another position and neutralizing it through silent peace: If you get peace, Sri Aurobindo wrote to a disciple, then to clean the vital becomes easy. If you simply clean and clean and do nothing else, you go very slowly for the vital gets dirty again and has to be cleansed a hundred times. The peace is something that is clean in itself, so to get it is a positive way of securing your object. To look for dirt only and clean is the negative way.63
The Adverse Forces There is yet another difficulty. The vibrations coming from people or 60
1.07 - ON READING AND WRITING, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
reader will henceforth do nothing for the reader. Another century of readers-and the spirit itself will
stink.
1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
:::For the sense of being which in calm hour arises, we know not how, in the Soul, is not diverse from things, from space, from light, from time, from man, but one with them and proceeds obviously from the same source whence their life and being also proceed. . . . Here is the fountain of action and of thought. Here are the lungs of that inspiration which giveth man wisdom. . . . We lie in the lap of immense intelligence, which makes us receivers of its truth and organs of its activity. When we discern justice, when we discern truth, we do nothing of ourselves, but allow a passage to its beams. . . .
:::The relations of the Soul to the divine spirit are so pure that it is profane to seek to interpose helps. It must be that when God speaketh he should communicate, not one thing, but all things; should fill the world with his voice; should scatter forth light, nature, time, souls, from the center of the present thought; and new date and new create the whole. Whenever a mind is simple and receives a divine wisdom, old things pass away-means, teachers, texts, temples fall; it lives now and absorbs past and future into the present hour. All things are made sacred by relation to it-one as much as another. All things are dissolved to their center by their cause, and in the universal miracle petty and particular miracles disappear.
1.11 - The Reason as Governor of Life, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This is the cause why all human systems have failed in the end; for they have never been anything but a partial and confused application of reason to life. Moreover, even where they have been most clear and rational, these systems have pretended that their ideas were the whole truth of life and tried so to apply them. This they could not be, and life in the end has broken or undermined them and passed on to its own large incalculable movement. Mankind, thus using its reason as an aid and justification for its interests and passions, thus obeying the drive of a partial, a mixed and imperfect rationality towards action, thus striving to govern the complex totalities of life by partial truths, has stumbled on from experiment to experiment, always believing that it is about to grasp the crown, always finding that it has fulfilled as yet little or nothing of what it has to accomplish. Compelled by nature to apply reason to life, yet possessing only a partial rationality limited in itself and confused by the siege of the lower members, it could do nothing else. For the limited imperfect human reason has no self-sufficient light of its own; it is obliged to proceed by observation, by experiment, by action, through errors and stumblings to a larger experience.
But behind all this continuity of failure there has persisted a faith that the reason of man would end in triumphing over its difficulties, that it would purify and enlarge itself, become sufficient to its work and at last subject rebellious life to its control. For, apart from the stumbling action of the world, there has been a labour of the individual thinker in man and this has achieved a higher quality and risen to a loftier and clearer atmosphere above the general human thought-levels. Here there has been the work of a reason that seeks always after knowledge and strives patiently to find out truth for itself, without bias, without the interference of distorting interests, to study everything, to analyse everything, to know the principle and process of everything. Philosophy, Science, learning, the reasoned arts, all the agelong labour of the critical reason in man have been the result of this effort. In the modern era under the impulsion of Science this effort assumed enormous proportions and claimed for a time to examine successfully and lay down finally the true principle and the sufficient rule of process not only for all the activities of Nature, but for all the activities of man. It has done great things, but it has not been in the end a success. The human mind is beginning to perceive that it has left the heart of almost every problem untouched and illumined only outsides and a certain range of processes. There has been a great and ordered classification and mechanisation, a great discovery and practical result of increasing knowledge, but only on the physical surface of things. Vast abysses of Truth lie below in which are concealed the real springs, the mysterious powers and secretly decisive influences of existence. It is a question whether the intellectual reason will ever be able to give us an adequate account of these deeper and greater things or subject them to the intelligent will as it has succeeded in explaining and canalising, though still imperfectly, yet with much show of triumphant result, the forces of physical Nature. But these other powers are much larger, subtler, deeper down, more hidden, elusive and variable than those of physical Nature.
1.12 - The Superconscient, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
We sought to get rid of the individuality as a burden preventing us from fluttering at will in the spiritual and cosmic expanses, but without it we can do nothing for the earth; we cannot draw below the treasures from above: There is something more than the mere selfbreaking of an illusory shell of individuality in the Infinite. 169 Thus, with Sri Aurobindo, we are led to this first conclusion: The stifling of the individual may well be the stifling of the god in man.170
A second, even more important observation commands our attention. To return to the rocket analogy: the rocket can break through the earth's atmosphere at any point, taking off either from New York or from the equator, and still reach the sun. There is no need to climb Mt. Everest to set up the launching pad! Similarly, the yogi can realize cosmic consciousness in any point, or at any level, of his being in his mind, in his heart, and even in his body because the cosmic Spirit is everywhere, in every point of the universe. The experience can begin anywhere, at any level, by concentrating on a rock or a sparrow, an idea, a prayer, a feeling, or what people scornfully call an idol. Cosmic consciousness is not the highest point of human consciousness; we do not go above the individual to reach it, but outside. It is hardly necessary to ascend in consciousness, or to become Plotinus, in order to attain the universal Spirit. On the contrary, the less mental one is, the easier it is to experience it; a shepherd beneath the stars or a fisherman of Galilee has a better chance at it than all the philosophers of the world put together. What, then, is the use of all this development of consciousness if folk-like mysticism works better? We must admit that either we are all on the wrong track, or else those mystical escapades do not represent the whole meaning of evolution. On the other hand, if we accept that the proper evolutionary course is that of the peak figures of earthly consciousness Leonardo da Vinci, Beethoven, Alexander the Great, Dante we are still forced to acknowledge that none of these great men has been able to transform life. Thus, the summits of the mind or the heart do not give us, any more than the cosmic summits, the key to the riddle and the power to change the world: another principle of consciousness is required. But it must be another principle without any break in continuity with the others, because if the line is broken or if the individual is lost, we fall back into cosmic or mystical dispersion, thereby losing our link with the earth. To be conscious of Oneness and of the Transcendent is certainly an indispensable basis for any realization (without which we might as well try to build a house without foundations), but it must be done in ways that respect evolutionary continuity; it must be an evolution, not a revolution. In other words, we must get out without getting out. Instead of a rocket that ends up crashing on the sun, we need a rocket that harpoons the Sun of the supreme consciousness and is able to bring it down to all points of our earthly consciousness: The ultimate knowledge is that which perceives and accepts God in the universe as well as beyond the universe and the integral Yoga is that which, having found the Transcendent, can return upon the universe and possess it, retaining the power freely to descend as well as ascend the great stair of existence.171 This double movement of ascent and descent of the individual consciousness is the basic principle of the supramental discovery. But in the process Sri Aurobindo was to touch an unknown spring which would change everything.
1.15 - Truth, #Initiation Into Hermetics, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
Therefore from is standpoint and in conformity with the degree of his maturity, each one will have his own truth, providing he sees it quite honestly. Only he who knows and masters the absolute laws of the microcosm and the macrocosm is entitled to speak of an absolute truth. Certain aspects of the absolute truth will be surely acknowledged by everyone. Nobody, indeed, will doubt that there is life, volition, memory and intellect, and will refrain from arguing about these facts. No sincere adept will impose his truth to anyone who is not yet ripe for it. The person concerned would do nothing else but regard it again from his own standpoint. Therefore it would be useless to argue with non-professionals on higher kinds of truth, except people eager to search the heights of truth and beginning to ripen for it. Anything else would be a profanation and, from the magical point o view, absolutely incorrect. At this point, all of us will have to remember the words of the great Master of Christianity: Cast not your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet.
To truth belongs also the capacity of correctly differentiating among knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge depends, in all domains of the human existence, on the maturity, receptivity and understanding of the mind, and the memory without regard to whether or not we have been able to enrich our knowledge by reading, transmitting or other experiences.
1.16 - PRAYER, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
You tell me you do nothing in prayer. But what do you want to do in prayer except what you are doing, which is, presenting and representing your nothingness and misery to God? When beggars expose their ulcers and their necessities to our sight, that is the best appeal they can make. But from what you tell me, you sometimes do nothing of this, but lie there like a shadow or a statue. They put statues in palaces simply to please the princes eyes. Be content to be that in the presence of God: He will bring the statue to life when He pleases.
St. Franois de Sales
1.201 - Socrates, #Symposium, #Plato, #Philosophy
If ever you see that beauty, it will not seem to you to be comparable with gold or dress or those beautiful boys and young men who now drive you and many others to distraction when you see them. If only you could see your beloveds and be with them all the time you would be prepared if only it were possible to go without food and drink, and do nothing but gaze at them and be with them. What, then, do we
211e suppose it would be like, she said, for someone actually to see the beautiful itself, separate, clear and pure, unsullied by the flesh or by colour or by the rest of our mortal dross, but to perceive the beautiful itself, single in substance and divine? Do you think, she continued,
1.2.08 - Faith, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Faith can be tamasic and ineffective, e.g. "I believe the Mother will do everything, so I will do nothing. When she wants, she will transform me." That is not a dynamic but a static and inert faith.
Faithfulness
1.22 - THE END OF THE SPECIES, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
tions intolerable, not only because they do nothing but palliate and
postpone our fears, which is bad enough, but even more because
1.3.04 - Peace, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If you get peace, then to clean the vital becomes easy. If you simply clean and clean and do nothing else, you go very slowly
- for the vital gets dirty again and has to be cleaned a hundred times. The peace is something that is clean in itself - so to get it is a positive way of securing your object. To look for dirt only and clean is the negative way.
1.32 - Expounds these words of the Paternoster Fiat voluntas tua sicut in coelo et in terra. Describes how much is accomplished by those who repeat these words with full resolution and how well, #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
saying. Do not behave like some religious among us, who do nothing but promise, and then excuse
ourselves for not fulfilling our promises by saying that we had not understood what we were
--
In this matter, as I have already said, we can do nothing of ourselves, either by working hard
or by making plans, nor is it needful that we should. For everything else hinders and prevents us
1.39 - Continues the same subject and gives counsels concerning different kinds of temptation. Suggests two remedies by which we may be freed from temptations.135, #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
hands in her lap because she thinks she can do nothing well and that what is good in others is wrong
in herself.
1.4.02 - The Divine Force, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is quite true that, left to yourself, you can do nothing; that is why you have to be in contact with the Force which is there to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. The only thing you have to do is to allow the Force to act and put yourself on its side, which means to have faith in it, to rely upon it, not to trouble and harass yourself, to remember it quietly, to call upon it quietly, to let it act quietly. If you do that, all else will be done for you - not all at once, because there is much to clear away, but still it will be done steadily and more and more.
Passivity can be only to the Divine Force when it is felt at work,
14.06 - Liberty, Self-Control and Friendship, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In this path there is another line for growth and development which is of considerable importance as you will see. You are here or for that matter anywhere in society-not alone but you live together with others. You study together, play together, work together. You have friends, comrades, companions, you are in a group, in a company. Now it is of great importance to have the right company, you must have good companions, good comrades, good friends. That will help you in ways more than one. In this connection I can do nothing better than just to read out what the Mother says on the subject. She says: usually in your ignorance and simplicity, foolish simplicity, you choose convenient friends, that is to say, those who praise you, flatter you, who do not contradict you even if you go the wrong way, even they encourage you in doing the wrong thing in order to be friendly with you. Such friends are dangerous, dangerous to yourself and dangerous to your so-called friends too. Here is the text of the Mother's words:
C'est cela qui doit tre la base de l'attitude que l'on est en droit d'attendre d'un vritable ami: il ne doit pas vouloir que vous lui ressembliez, mais que vous soyez, au contraire, tel que vous tes.
1.41 - Speaks of the fear of God and of how we must keep ourselves from venial sins., #The Way of Perfection, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
will do nothing that can harm us, however much they lead us into temptation and lay secret snares
for us.
1.51 - How to Recognise Masters, Angels, etc., and how they Work, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
I knew in myself from the first that the revelation in Cairo was the real thing. I have proved with infinite pains that this was the case; yet the proof has not streng thened my faith, and disproof would do nothing to shake it. I knew in myself that the Secret Chiefs had arranged that the manuscript of The Book of the Law should have been hidden under the Watch Towers and the Watch Towers under the ski; that they had driven me to make the key to my position the absence of the manuscript; that they had directed Kenneth Ward's actions for years that he might be the means of the discovery, and arranged every detail of the incident in such a way that I should understand it as I did.
Yes; this involves a theory of the powers of the Secret Chiefs so romantic and unreasonable that it seems hardly worth a smile of contempt. As it happens, an almost parallel phenomenon came to pass ten years later. I propose to quote it here in order to show that the most ordinary events, apparently disconnected, are in fact only intelligible by postulating some such people as the Secret Chiefs of the AA in possession of some such prevision and power as I ascribe to them. When I returned to England at Christmas, 1919, all my plans had gone to pieces owing to the dishonesty and treachery of a gang which was bullying into insanity my publisher in Detroit. I was pledged in honour to look after a certain person; but I was practically penniless. I could not see any possible way of carrying on my work. (It will be related in due course how this condition of things came about, and why it was necessary for me to undergo it.)
1.55 - The Transference of Evil, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
dangerously ill, and the physicians can do nothing, a devil-dancer
is called in, who by making offerings to the devils, and dancing in
1.77 - Work Worthwhile - Why?, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Well, if we have to wait for the calamity, and for evolution to begin all over again in a number of centuries with luck! one thing is at least quite certain: we can do nothing about it. Any form of activity must be as futile and as fatuous as any other; and the only sensible philosophy must be "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die."
Is there a conceivable alternative?
1914 01 03p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is always good to look within oneself from time to time and see that one is nothing and can do nothing, but afterwards one must turn ones eyes to Thee, knowing that Thou art all and Thou canst do all.
Thou art the life of our life
1914 05 19p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I can do nothing,
I am in the darkness of inconscience.
1915 03 07p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I will not even implore Thy mercy; for what Thou willst for me, I too will. All my energy is in tension solely to advance, always to advance step after step, despite the depth of the darkness, despite the obstacles of the way, and whatever comes, O Lord, it is with a fervent and unchanging love that Thy decision will be welcomed. Even if Thou findest the instrument unfit to serve Thee, the instrument belongs to itself no more, it is Thine; Thou canst destroy or magnify it, it exists not in itself, it wills nothing, it can do nothing without Thee.]1
Translated by Sri Aurobindo or revised and published under his guidance.
1929-04-14 - Dangers of Yoga - Two paths, tapasya and surrender - Impulses, desires and Yoga - Difficulties - Unification around the psychic being - Ambition, undoing of many Yogis - Powers, misuse and right use of - How to recognise the Divine Will - Accept things that come from Divine - Vital devotion - Need of strong body and nerves - Inner being, invariable, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you have once opened yourself to the Divine, if the power of the Divine has once come down into you and yet you try to keep to the old forces, you prepare troubles and difficulties and dangers for yourself. You must be vigilant and see that you do not use the Divine as a cloak for the satisfaction of your desires. There are many self-appointed Masters, who do nothing but that. And then when you are off the straight path and when you have a little knowledge and not much power, it happens that you are seized by beings or entities of a certain type, you become blind instruments in their hands and are devoured by them in the end. Wherever there is pretence, there is danger; you cannot deceive God. Do you come to God saying, I want union with you and in your heart meaning I want powers and enjoyments? Beware! You are heading straight towards the brink of the precipice. And yet it is so easy to avoid all catastrophe. Become like a child, give yourself up to the Mother, let her carry you, and there is no more danger for you.
This does not mean that you have not to face other kinds of difficulties or that you have not to fight and conquer any obstacles at all. Surrender does not ensure a smooth and unruffled and continuous progression. The reason is that your being is not yet one, nor your surrender absolute and complete. Only a part of you surrenders; and today it is one part and the next day it is another. The whole purpose of the Yoga is to gather all the divergent parts together and forge them into an undivided unity. Till then you cannot hope to be without difficultiesdifficulties, for example, like doubt or depression or hesitation. The whole world is full of the poison. You take it in with every breath. If you exchange a few words with an undesirable man or even if such a man merely passes by you, you may catch the contagion from him. It is sufficient for you to come near a place where there is plague in order to be infected with its poison; you need not know at all that it is there. You can lose in a few minutes what it has taken you months to gain. So long as you belong to humanity and so long as you lead the ordinary life, it does not matter much if you mix with the people of the world; but if you want the divine life, you will have to be exceedingly careful about your company and your environment.
1929-04-21 - Visions, seeing and interpretation - Dreams and dreaml and - Dreamless sleep - Visions and formulation - Surrender, passive and of the will - Meditation and progress - Entering the spiritual life, a plunge into the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1929-1931, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You have a will and you can offer that will. Take the example of becoming conscious of your nights. If you take the attitude of passive surrender, you would say, When it is the Divine Will that I should become conscious, then I shall become conscious. On the other hand, if you offer your will to the Divine, you begin to will, you say, I will become conscious of my nights. You have the will that it should be done; you do not sit down idle and wait. The surrender comes in when you take the attitude that says, I give my will to the Divine. I intensely want to become conscious of my nights, I have not the knowledge, let the Divine Will work it out for me. Your will must continue to act steadily, not in the way of choosing a particular action or demanding a particular object, but as an ardent aspiration concentrated upon the end to be achieved. This is the first step. If you are vigilant, if your attention is alert, you will certainly receive something in the form of an inspiration of what is to be done and that you must forthwith proceed to do. Only, you must remember that to surrender is to accept whatever is the result of your action, though the result may be quite different from what you expect. On the other hand, if your surrender is passive, you will do nothing and try nothing; you will simply go to sleep and wait for a miracle.
Now to know whether your will or desire is in agreement with the Divine Will or not, you must look and see whether you have an answer or have no answer, whether you feel supported or contradicted, not by the mind or the vital or the body, but by that something which is always there deep in the inner being, in your heart.
1950-12-23 - Concentration and energy, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the thought Whats the use? must not come in to weaken the will. The idea that one is born with a certain character and can do nothing about it is a stupidity.
***
1950-12-28 - Correct judgment., #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I add that this perfected machine can do nothing without the clarity of a living consciousness. When the consciousness is one, you can know by identity; that is, by uniting your consciousness with the object or the person you want to know or judge impartially, you enter into an inner contact with this object or person, and then it is possible for you to know with absolute certainty.
Also what deforms and falsifies is the anxiety for the consequences. To have an absolutely true judgment, you must know how to execute and act without desireonly one in a thousand can do that. Almost all are anxious about the result or have the ambition to obtain a result. You must not be anxious about the results; simply do a thing because you have seen that it is that which must be done: tell yourself, I am doing this because this is the thing to be done, and whatever may happen afterwards is not my concern.
1951-01-11 - Modesty and vanity - Generosity, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Generally people pass from an excessive appreciation of their personal value to an equally excessive discouragement. One day they say, I am wonderful, and the next day, Oh! I am good for nothing, I can do nothing. That is like a pendulum, isnt it? There is nothing more difficult than knowing exactly what one is; one must neither overrate oneself nor depreciate oneself, but understand ones limits and know how to advance towards the ideal set before oneself. There are people who see in a big way and immediately imagine they can do everything. There are petty officers, for example, who imagine themselves capable of winning all the battles of the world, and small people who think they surpass everybody in the world. On the other hand, I have known some people who had abilities but who spent their time thinking, I am good for nothing. Generally the two extremes are found in the same person. But to find someone who knows exactly where he stands and exactly where he can go, is very rare. We have avoided speaking of vanity because we expect that you wont be filled with vanity as soon as you score a success.
Just imagine, there are plants which are vain! I am speaking of plants one grows for oneself. If one pays them compliments, by words or by feelings, if one admires them, well, they hold up their headwith vanity! It is the same with animals. I am going to tell you a short amusing story.
1951-02-05 - Surrender and tapasya - Dealing with difficulties, sincerity, spiritual discipline - Narrating experiences - Vital impulse and will for progress, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is much more difficult than to sit upon a difficulty! It is much more difficult to stand back from the difficulty, to look at it as something which does not concern you, which does not interest you, does not belong to you, which belongs to the world and not to you but it is only by doing this that you can succeed. This demands a kind of liberation of spirit and a confidence in your inner being: you must believe that if you take the right attitude, it is the best that will happen to you; but if you are afraid when something unpleasant happens to you, then you can do nothing. You must have this confidence within you, whatever the difficulty, whatever the obstacle. Most of the time, when something unpleasant happens, you say, Is it going to increase? What other accident is yet going to happen! and so on. You must tell yourself, These things are not mine; they belong to the subconscious world; to be sure I have nothing to do with them and if they come again to seize me, I am going to give a fight. Naturally you will answer that this is easy to say but difficult to do. But if truly you take this attitude of confidence, there is no difficulty that you will not be able to conquer. Anxiety makes the difficulty greater.
Evidently there is one difficulty: in your conscious being something does not want the difficulty, wishes sincerely to overcome it, but there are numberless movements in other parts of your consciousness of which you are not conscious. You say, I want to be cured of that; unfortunately it is not sufficient to say I want, there are other parts of the consciousness which hide themselves so that you may not be busy with them, and when your attention is turned away these parts try to assert themselves. That is why I say and shall always repeat, Be perfectly sincere; do not try to deceive yourself, do not say, I have done all that I could. If you do not succeed, it means that you do not do all that you can. For, if you truly do all that you can, you will surely succeed. If you have any defect which you want to get rid of and which still persists, and you say, I have done all that I could, you may be sure that you have not done all that you should have. If you had, you would have triumphed, for the difficulties that come to you are exactly in proportion to your strengthnothing can happen to you which does not belong to your consciousness, and all that belongs to your consciousness you are able to master. Even the things and suggestions that come from outside can touch you only in proportion to the consent of your consciousness, and you are made to be the master of your consciousness. If you say, I have done all that I could and in spite of everything the thing continues, so I give up, you may be already sure that you have not done what you could. When an error persists in spite of everything it means that something hidden in your being springs up suddenly like a Jack-in-the-box and takes the helm of your life. Hence, there is only one thing to do, it is to go hunting for all the little dark corners which lie hidden in you and, if you put just a tiny spark of goodwill on this darkness, it will yield, will vanish, and what appeared to you impossible will become not only possible, practicable, but it will have been done. You can in this way in one minute get rid of a difficulty which would have harassed you for years. I absolutely assure you of it. That depends only on one thing: that you truly, sincerely, want to get rid of it. And it is the same for everything, from physical illnesses up to the highest mental difficulties. One part of the consciousness says, I dont want it, but behind there hides a heap of things which say nothing, do not show themselves, and which just want that things continue as they aregenerally out of ignorance; they do not believe that it is necessary to be cured, they believe that everything is for the best in the best of worlds. As the lady with whom I had those conversations used to say, The trouble begins as soon as you want to change. A great French writer has repeated this and has made out of it his pet theory: Misery begins when you want to perfect yourself; if you do not wish to perfect yourself, you wont have any misery! I may tell you that this is absolutely wrong, but there are, all the same, things in you that want absolutely to be left alone, not to be disturbed in any way: Oh! What a nuisance you are, leave us alone!
--
Yes, evidently, if you say, I can do nothing, that belongs to Nature, the movement has to follow its natural course, you do exactly what I have told you not to do, you make use of the Divine as a fine cloak to cover the satisfaction of your desires. But the opposite movement, I am good for nothing because such an idea has crossed my mind is equally wrong, isnt it?
Naturally, if an impulse happens to come to you which you do not want, the first thing to do is to will that it does not come again; but if, on the contrary, you do not sincerely want it to disappear, then keep it, but do not try to do yoga. You should not take the path unless you have resolved beforeh and to overcome all difficulties. The decision must be sincere and complete. You will notice, besides, as you gradually advance, that what you believed to be complete is not so, what you considered to be sincere is not so, and then you will progress little by little; but to succeed you must have as total a will for progress as possible. If you have this will and if an impulse seizes you with violence, keep the will firm, your being must not vacillate; you must expect these things to come, but when they come, tell yourself, Well, they come from below, I do not want them to recur, they are not mine. This is not the same thing as saying, Let it go, since it is Nature.
1951-02-08 - Unifying the being - ideas of good and bad - Miracles - determinism - Supreme Will - Distinguishing the voice of the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I forgot one thing: to hear it you must be absolutely sincere, for if you are not sincere, you will begin by deceiving yourself and you will hear nothing at all except the voice of your ego and then you will commit with assurance (thinking that it is the real small voice) the most awful stupidities. But if you are sincere, the way is sure. It is not even a voice, not even a sensation, it is something extremely subtlea slight indication. When everything goes well, that is, when you do nothing contrary to the divine Will, you will not perhaps have any definite impression, everything will seem to you normal. Of course, you should be eager to know whether you are acting in accordance with the divine Will, that is the first point, naturally, without which you can know nothing at all. But once you are eager and you pay attention, everything seems to you normal, natural, then all of a sudden, you feel a little uneasiness somewhere in the head, in the heart or even in the stomachgenerally one doesnt give it a thought; you may feel it several times in the day but you reject it without giving it any attention; but it is no longer quite the same; then, at that moment, you must stop, no matter what you may be doing, and look, and if you are sincere, you will notice a small black spot (a tiny wicked idea, a tiny false movement, a small arbitrary decision) and thats the source of the uneasiness. You will notice then that the little black spot comes from the ego which is full of preferences; generally it does what it likes; the things it likes are called good and those it does not are called badthis clouds your judgment. It is difficult to judge under these conditions. If you truly want to know, you must draw back a step and look, and you will know then that it is this small movement of the ego which is the cause of the uneasiness. You will see that it is a tiny thing curled back upon itself; you will have the impression of being in front of something hard which resists or is black. Then with patience, from the height of your consciousness, you must explain to this thing its mistake, and in the end it will disappear. I do not say that you will succeed all at once the very first day, but if you try sincerely, you will always end with success. And if you persevere, you will see that all of a sudden you are relieved of a mass of meanness and ugliness and obscurity which was preventing you from flowering in the light. It is those things which make you shrivel up, prevent you from widening yourself, opening out in a light where you have the impression of being very comfortable. If you make this effort, you will see finally that you are very far from the point where you had begun, the things you did not feel, did not understand, have become clear. If you are resolved, you are sure to succeed.
This is the first step towards unifying yourself, becoming a conscious being who has a central will and acts only according to this will, which will be a constant expression of the divine Will. It is worth trying.
1951-02-17 - False visions - Offering ones will - Equilibrium - progress - maturity - Ardent self-giving- perfecting the instrument - Difficulties, a help in total realisation - paradoxes - Sincerity - spontaneous meditation, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only you must remember that to surrender is to accept whatever is the result of your action, though the result may be quite different from what you expect. On the other hand, if your surrender is passive, you will do nothing and try nothing; you will simply go to sleep and wait for a miracle.
Now to know whether your will or desire is in agreement with the divine Will or not, you must look and see whether you have an answer or have no answer, whether you feel supported or contradicted, not by the mind or the vital or the body, but by that something which is always there deep in the inner being, in your heart.
1951-03-31 - Physical ailment and mental disorder - Curing an illness spiritually - Receptivity of the body - The subtle-physical- illness accidents - Curing sunstroke and other disorders, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the condition in every casein every casewhe ther one does it oneself and depending only on oneself or whether one does it by asking someone to do it for one, the first condition: not to fear and to be calm. If you begin to boil and get fidgety in your body, it is finished, you can do nothing.
For everythingto live the spiritual life, heal sickness for everything, one must be calm.
1951-04-28 - Personal effort - tamas, laziness - Static and dynamic power - Stupidity - psychic and intelligence - Philosophies- different languages - Theories of Creation - Surrender of ones being and ones work, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I know what you want to say that a human being becomes aware of power only when it is dynamic; a human being doesnt consider it a power except when it acts; if it doesnt act he does not even notice it, he does not realise the tremendous force which is behind this inactionat times, even frequently, a force more formidable than the power which acts. But you may try it out in yourself, you will see, it is much more difficult to remain calm, immobile, unshakable before something very un-pleasantwhe ther it be words or acts levelled against youinfinitely more difficult than to answer with the same violence. Suppose someone insults you; if in the face of these insults, you can remain immobile (not only outwardly, I mean integrally), without being shaken or touched in any way: you are there like a force against which one can do nothing and you do not reply, you do not make a gesture, you do not say a word, all the insults thrown at you leave you absolutely untouched, within and without; you can keep your heart-beats absolutely quiet, you can keep the thoughts in your head quite immobile and calm without their being in the least disturbed, that is, your head does not answer immediately by similar vibrations and your nerves dont feel clenched with the need to return a few blows to relieve themselves; if you can be like that, you have a static power, and it is infinitely more powerful than if you had that kind of force which makes you answer insult by insult, blow by blow and agitation by agitation.
Sri Aurobindo speaks of the rejection of stupidity, doubt, disbelief.4 If one rejects stupidity does one become intelligent?
1951-05-05 - Needs and desires - Discernment - sincerity and true perception - Mantra and its effects - Object in action- to serve - relying only on the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And then, you may also take another attitude. When you are playing and suddenly become aware that something is going wrongyou are making mistakes, are inattentive, sometimes opposing currents come across what you are doingif you develop the habit, automatically at this moment, of calling as by a mantra, of repeating a word, that has an extraordinary effect. You choose your mantra; or rather, one day it comes to you spontaneously in a moment of difficulty. At a time when things are very difficult, when you have a sort of anguish, anxiety, when you dont know what is going to happen, suddenly this springs up in you, the word springs up in you. For each one it may be different. But if you mark this and each time you face a difficulty you repeat it, it becomes irresistible. For instance, if you feel you are about to fall ill, if you feel you are doing badly what you are doing, if you feel something evil is going to attack you, then. But it must be a spontaneity in the being, it must spring up from you without your needing to think about it: you choose your mantra because it is a spontaneous expression of your aspiration; it may be one word, two or three words, a sentence, that depends on each one, but it must be a sound which awakens in you a certain condition. Then, when you have that, I assure you that you can pass through everything without difficulty. Even in the face of a real, veritable danger, an attack, for instance, by someone who wants to kill you, if, without getting excited, without being perturbed, you quietly repeat your mantra, one can do nothing to you. Naturally, you must truly be master of yourself; one part of the being must not be trembling there like a leaf; no, you must do it entirely, sincerely, then it is all-powerful. The best is when the word comes to you spontaneously: you call in a moment of great difficulty (mental, vital, physical, emotional, whatever it may be) and suddenly that springs up in you, two or three words, like magical words. You must remember these and form the habit of repeating them in moments when difficulties come. If you form the habit, one day it will come to you spontaneously: when the difficulty comes, at the same time the mantra will come. Then you will see that the results are wonderful. But it must not be an artificial thing or something you arbitrarily decide: I shall use those words; nor should somebody else tell you, Oh! You know, this is very goodit is perhaps very good for him but not for everyone.
Your only object in action shall be to serve, to receive, to fulfil, to become a manifesting instrument of the Divine Shakti in her works.
1953-04-08, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I knew a humorist who used to say: It wont be so soon that the kingdom of God will come, for those poor philanthropistswhat would remain for them? If humanity suffered no longer, the philanthropists would be without work. It is difficult to come out of that. However, it is a fact that never will the world come out of the state in which it is unless it gives itself up to the Divine. All the virtuesyou may glorify themincrease your self-satisfaction, that is, your ego; they do not help you truly to become aware of the Divine. It is the generous and wise people of this world who are the most difficult to convert. They are very satisfied with their life. A poor fellow who has done all sorts of stupid things all his life feels immediately sorry and says: I am nothing, can do nothing. Make of me what You want. Such a one is more right and much closer to the Divine than one who is wise and full of his wisdom and vanity. He sees himself as he is.
The generous and wise man who has done much for humanity is too self-satisfied to have the least idea of changing. It is usually these people who say: If indeed I had created the world, I wouldnt have made it like this, I would have created it much better than that, and they try to set right what the Divine has done badly! According to their picture, all this is stupid and useless. It is not with that attitude that you can belong to the Divine. There will always be between you and Him the conscious ego of ones own intellectual superiority which judges the Divine and is sure of never being mistaken. For they are convinced that if they had made the world, they would not have committed all the stupidities that God has perpetrated. And all this comes from pride, vanity, self-conceit; and there is exactly the seed of that in people who want to serve humanity.
1953-05-13, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is very simple, when people are told be humble, they think immediately of being humble before other men and that humility is wrong. True humility is humility before the Divine, that is, a precise, exact, living sense that one is nothing, one can do nothing, understand nothing without the Divine, that even if one is exceptionally intelligent and capable, this is nothing in comparison with the divine Consciousness, and this sense one must always keep, because then one always has the true attitude of receptivitya humble receptivity that does not put personal pretensions in opposition to the Divine.
You have said: If you surrender you have to give up effort, but that does not mean that you have to abandon also all willed action.
--
But the will is something altogether different. It is the capacity to concentrate on everything one does, do it as best one can and not stop doing it unless one receives a very precise intimation that it is finished. It is difficult to explain it to you. But suppose, for example, through a concurrence of circumstances, a work comes into your hands. Take an artist who has in one way or another got an inspiration and resolved to paint a picture. He knows very well that if he has no inspiration and is not sustained by forces other than his own, he will do nothing much. It will look more like a daub than a painting. He knows this. But it has been settled, the painting is to be done; there may be many reasons for that, but the painting has to be done. Then if he had the passive attitude, well, he would place his palette, his colours, his brushes, his canvas and then sit down in front of it and say to the Divine: Now you are going to paint. But the Divine does not do things this way. The painter himself must take up everything and arrange everything, concentrate on his subject, find the forms, the colours that will express it and put his whole will for a more and more perfect execution. His will must be there all the time. But he has to keep the sense that he must be open to the inspiration, he will not forget that in spite of all his knowledge of the technique, in spite of the care he takes to arrange, organise and prepare his colours, his forms, his design, in spite of all that, if he has no inspiration, it will be one picture among a million others and it will not be very interesting. He does not forget. He attempts, he tries to see, to feel what he wants his painting to express and in what way it should be expressed. He has his colours, he has his brushes, he has his model, he has made his sketch which he will enlarge and make into a picture, he calls his inspiration. There are even some who manage to have a clear, precise vision of what is to be done. But then, day after day, hour after hour, they have this will to work, to study, to do with care all that must be done until they reproduce as perfectly as they can the first inspiration. That person has worked for the Divine, in communion with Him, but not in a passive way, not with a passive surrender; it is with an active surrender, a dynamic will. The result generally is something very good. Well, the example of the painter is interesting, because a painter who is truly an artist is able to see what he is going to do, he is able to connect himself to the divine Power that is beyond all expression and inspires all expression. For the poet, the writer, it is the same thing and for all people who do something, it is the same.
If you tried that for your lessons, dont you think it would succeed?
1953-06-24, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The power that the vital has over Matter. And, in fact, you can do nothing without the vital power. If there were no vital power, Matter would be inert and unconscious. The vital power is what men usually call power in short.
Cannot the vital power be replaced by some other higher power?
No. The vital must be transformed. I have always said that nothing can be done without the vital, but the vital must be converted; that is, instead of being an instrument of those beings, it should become an instrument of the divine will. One can do nothing in the physical world without the vital. It is exactly here that the error of the ascetics lies; as they know it is a power full of desires and indeed full of the need of realising itself, they abolish it, so deaden it that it exists no longer. All ascetic methods are invented for abolishing and deadening the vital. For that evidently is the most convenient way of cutting off all connection with material life: one becomes worse than a vegetative kind of being.
What is needed is that the vital, instead of serving its own ends or being an instrument of anti-divine forces, should become an instrument of the Divine and put all its force at the service of the Divine. This is quite possible.
--
This is not to say that there are no microbes: there are, there are many more microbes than are known now. But it is not because of that you are ill, for they are always there. It happens that they are always there and for days they do nothing to you and then all of a sudden, one day, one of them gets hold of you and makes you illwhy? Simply because the resistance was not as it used to be habitually, because there was some disequilibrium in some part, the functioning was not normal. But if, by an inner power, you can re-establish the equilibrium, then thats the end, there is no more difficulty, the disequilibrium disappears.
There is no other way of curing people. It is simply when one sees the disequilibrium and is capable of re-establishing the equilibrium that one is cured. Only there are two very different categories you come across Some hold on to their disequilibrium they hold on to it, cling to it, dont want to let it go. Then you may try as hard as you will, even if you re-establish the equilibrium the next minute they get into disequilibrium once again, because they love that. They say: Oh no! I dont want to be ill, but within them there is something which holds firmly to some disequilibrium, which does not want to let it go. There are other people, on the contrary, who sincerely love equilibrium, and directly you give them the power to get back their equilibrium, the equilibrium is re-established and in a few minutes they are cured. Their knowledge was not sufficient or their power was not sufficient to re-establish orderdisequilibrium is a disorder. But if you intervene, if you have the knowledge and re-establish the equilibrium, quite naturally the illness will disappear; and those who allow you to do it get cured. Only those who do not let you do it are not cured and this is visible, they do not allow you to act, they cling to the illness. I tell them: Ah! you are not cured? Go to the doctor then. And the funniest part of the thing is that most often they believe in the doctors, although the working remains the same! Every doctor who is something of a philosopher will tell you: It is like that; we doctors give only the occasion, but it is the body that cures itself. When the body wants to be cured, it is cured. Well, there are bodies that do not allow equilibrium to be re-established unless they are made to absorb some medicine or something very definite which gives them the feeling that they are being truly looked after. But if you give them a very precise, very exact treatment that is sometimes very difficult to follow, they begin to be convinced that there is nothing better to do than to regain the equilibrium and they get back the equilibrium!
1953-07-01, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are teachings which are not like that. There are religions which are not like that. But still one can, in a poetic, picturesque, descriptive manner speak of a paradise; because this paradise means a wonderful place where there is utmost joy and happiness and comfort. And yet that depends upon the religion to which you belong. For there are heavens where you pass your time singing praises to God, you do nothing else but in the end that must be somewhat wearisome; however, there you pass your time playing music and singing the praises of God. There are other heavens, on the contrary, where you enjoy all possible pleasures, all that you desired to have during your life, you have in heaven. There are heavens where you are constantly in blissful meditation but for people who are not keen on meditating, that must be rather tiresome. However, that depends, you know: they have invented all kinds of things so that people may really want to be wise and obey the laws given to them.
And mans imagination is so creative, such a form-maker, that there really are in the world places like these heavens. There are places also like these hells and there are places like these purgatories. Man creates out of nothing the things he imagines. If your consciousness is enlightened, then you can be pulled out of these places; otherwise you are shut up, imprisoned there by the very belief you had when alive. You will tell me that it is equal to a life, but it is an altogether illusory and extremely limited existence. It is real only for those who think like that. As soon as you think differently, it does not exist for you any longer; you can come out of it. You can pull a person out of these places, and immediately he perceives that he was imprisoned in his own formation.
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So I have seen several cases: sometimes it is just a neighbour who dies suddenly in place of the other, sometimes it is an acquaintance and sometimes it is an enemy. Naturally, there is a relation, good or bad, of neighbourhood (or anything else) which externally looks like chance. But it is the spirit who has taken its dead. The spirit has a claim to one death, it will have one death. You can tell it: I forbid you to take this one, and have the power of sending it away, and the spirit can do nothing but go away; but it does not give up its due and goes elsewhere. There is another death.
It is the same thing with fire. I saw the spirit of fire, particularly in Japan because fire is an extraordinary thing in that country. When a fire starts, some eighty houses burn: a whole quarter. It is something fantastic. The houses are of wood and they burn like match-boxes; you see a fire kindling and then all of a sudden, puff! You have never seen a match-box catching fire? a flash! like that, a flash! one, two, three, ten, twenty houses burnt down before my eyes! So there are spirits of fire. One day, I was in my bed. I was concentrating, looking at people. Suddenly I saw something like a cloud of flames drawing close to the house. I looked and I saw it was a conscious being.
1953-08-12, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, not without doing anything. It is not necessary to do nothing simply in order to be identified with the Divine. Evidently you cannot remain seated motionless for three days without doing anything; it would mean you had already attained an extraordinary degree of perfection if you could do thatforget all your needs and remain motionless for three days. No, it is not that he means; the thought must be concentrated solely on the Divine. And he did it before that person, to show him, prove to him that what he was saying was true. That did not take him more than three minutes.
But it is just that, what hinders the experience is the absence of the practice of concentration, and also the absence of one- pointedness, singleness of purpose, of will. One wants it for a minute, two minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour, an hour, and afterwards, one wants many other things. One thinks about it for a few seconds, and after that thinks of a thousand other things. So naturally in this way you could take an eternity. For indeed, in this you cannot add up; if it could be accumulated like grains of sand, if with every thought you give to the Divine you place a little grain of sand somewhere, after a time this would make a mountain. But it is not like that, it does not remain. It has no result. It does not accumulate, you cannot go on adding, cannot progress quantitativelyyou can progress in intensity, progress qualitatively. Yes, you can learn within yourself how to do it; but what you have done counts only in this way. It does not get accumulated like grains of sand on a dune. Else it would be enough to become quite clever and tell yourself: Well, I shall give at least a dozen thoughts to the Divine every day. And then, by little bits like that, after some time one has a little hill.
1953-09-30, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Naturally, at the beginning there were no children here and children were not accepted, children were all refused. It was only after the war that children were taken. But I do not regret that they have been accepted. For I believe there is much more stuff for the future among children who know nothing than among those grown-ups who believe they know everything. I do not know if you have much knowledge of sculpture. But to do sculpture, you have to take some clay, soak it with water; it must be finely powdered clay, and you soak it with water and make a paste. You have to keep it wet all the time and you make a statue or whatever you want out of that. When it is finished, you fire it so that it sets. And after thatindeed after thatit cannot move any more. If you want to change something, you must break it and make another. For otherwise, as it is, it is rigid, as hard and stiff as stone. Something similar happens in life. You must not attain something and then remain crystallised, fossilised, immobilised. For otherwise you have to break it, take it to pieces, or else you can do nothing with it any longer.
So long as one remains thus clay-like, very soft, very malleable, not yet formed, not aware of being formed, something can be done. And as long as one remains a child it is a blissful state. I was saying this yesterday, children have only one idea, to become grown-ups, and they do not know that when they are grown up, they will have lost three-fourths of their worth which consists in being something which can still be developed, formed, something malleable, progressive, which need not be broken into bits so that it may progress. There are people who are compelled to take a whole turn around the mountain, in that way, from the foot to the top, and they take an entire lifetime to reach the top. There are others who know the road, the shortest cut that can be taken by which one can go straight to the top. And then, once up there, they are still full of youthfulness and energy and they can see the horizon and the next mountain. On the contrary, the others are conscious of having done a considerable work by turning round and round and spending their whole life to reach the summit. But as for you, my children, it is being tried here to take you quite at the bottom and make you go up by the funicular railway right to the top, the shortest cut. And when you are on the top, you will have the vision of the spaces before you and you will be able to choose the mountain you wish to climb.
1953-10-07, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Very important, of capital importance! Besides, thats the field of work given to each one. It is this one must understand, that each onethis totality of substance constituting your inner and outer body, the totality of substance with which your being is built from the outermost to the inmostis a field of work; it is as though one had gathered together carefully, accumulated a certain number of vibrations and put them at your disposal for you to work upon them fully. It is like a field of action constantly at your disposal: night and day, awake or asleep, all the timenobody can take it away from you, it is wonderful! You may refuse to use it (as most people do), but it is a mass to be transformed that is there in your hands, fully at your disposal, given to you so that you may learn to work upon it. So, the most important thing is to begin by doing that. You can do nothing for others unless you are able to do it for yourself. You can never give a good advice to anyone unless you are able to give it to yourself first, and to follow it. And if you see a difficulty somewhere, the best way of changing this difficulty is to change it in yourself first. If you see a defect in anyone, you may be sure it is in you, and you begin to change it in yourself. And when you will have changed it in yourself, you will be strong enough to change it in others. And this is a wonderful thing, people dont realise what an infinite grace it is that this universe is arranged in such a way that there is a collection of substance, from the most material to the highest spiritual, all that gathered together into what is called a small individual, but at the disposal of a central Will. And that is yours, your field of work, nobody can take it away from you, it is your own property. And to the extent you can work upon it, you will be able to have an action upon the world. But only to that extent. One must do more for oneself, besides, than one does for others.
Is it possible to know others before knowing oneself?
1953-10-14, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh! There are many ways of curing oneself of fear. But in reality everyone finds his own way, the one good for him. There are people to whom you have simply to say: Your fear is a weakness, and they would immediately find the means to look at it with contempt, for they have a horror of weakness. There are others, you tell them: Fear is a suggestion from hostile forces, you must push it away, as you drive off hostile forces, and this is very effective. For each one it is different. But first of all you must know that fear is a very bad thing, very bad, it is a dissolvent; it is like an acid. If you put a drop of it on something, it eats into the substance. The first step is not to admit the possibility of fear. Yes, thats the first step. I knew people who used to boast about their fear. These are incurable. That is, quite naturally they would say, Ah, just imagine, I was so frightened! And then what! It is nothing to be proud of. With such people you can do nothing.
However, when once you recognise that fear is neither good nor favourable nor noble nor worthy of a consciousness a little enlightened, you begin to fight against it. And I say, one mans way is not anothers; one must find ones own way; it depends on each one. Fear is also a terribly contagious collective thingcontagious, it is much more catching than the most contagious of illnesses. You brea the an atmosphere of fear and instantly you feel frightened, without even knowing why or how, nothing, simply because there was an atmosphere of fear. A panic at an accident is nothing but an atmosphere of fear spreading round over everybody. And it is quite curable. There have been numerous cases of a panic being stopped outright simply because some people refused the suggestion and could counteract it with an opposite suggestion. For mystics the best cure as soon as one begins to feel afraid of something is to think of the Divine and then snuggle in his arms or at his feet and leave him entirely responsible for everything that happens, within, outside, everywhere and immediately the fear disappears. That is the cure for the mystic. It is the easiest of all. But everybody does not enjoy the grace of being a mystic.
1953-10-28, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, it is even an obstacle to intelligence. Fatuity is one of the greatest of human stupidities. There is a very great difference between having faith in what can be done, the will to realise it, the certitude of the possibilities open in creation (and also the certitude that these possibilities will be realised), and self-complacency; these are two things which turn their backs completely on each other. To be convinced that nothing is impossible if one puts in the time, energy, will, trust, sincerity and all else, is very essential, but to be self-satisfied in any way whatever is always, without exception, a stupidity. And this is one of the things that takes you farthest away from the divine realisation, for it makes you foolish. And it is at the same time one of the things most contrary to the goodwill of Nature, for Nature laughs at you immediately. You become an object of ridicule at once. For, in truth, there is no human being who is something by himself. He is only a possibility created by the Divine and one which can be developed only by the Divine, which exists only by the Divine, and which should live only for the Divine. And so, in this I do not see any place for self-complacency; for, as we are nothing in ourselves but what the Divine makes of us, and as we can do nothing by ourselves except what the Divine wants to do through us, I dont see what satisfaction one can have in that. One can only have the feeling of ones perfect powerlessness. Only, what is very bad is to have this the wrong side out for there is always a wrong side and a right to every state of consciousness and, fundamentally, it is the same vanity which makes you say: I can do nothing, I am good for nothing, I am incapable of doing anything whatsoever; that, that is the wrong side of I can, I am great, I have all sorts of powers in me. It is the same thing. One is the shadow and the other the light, but they are exactly alike: one is no better than the other. And if really one were aware of being nothing at all, one would not bother to know what one is like. That would already be something. But truly, sincerely, I tell you, and I have a sufficiently long experience of life, I know nothing so grotesque as people who are satisfied with themselves. It is truly ridiculous. They make themselves utterly ridiculous. There are people like that; some of them came to see Sri Aurobindo telling him all that they were capable of, all that they had done and all they could do, all that they had realised and so Sri Aurobindo looked at them very seriously and replied: Oh! you are too perfect to be here. It would be better for you to go away.
Music too is an essentially spiritual art and has always been associated with religious feeling and an inner life. But, here too, we have turned it into something independent and self-sufficient, a mushroom art, such as is operatic music. Most of the artistic productions we come across are of this kind and at best interesting from the point of view of technique. I do not say that even operatic music cannot be used as a medium of a higher art expression; for whatever the form, it can be made to serve a deeper purpose. All depends on the thing itself, on how it is used, on what is behind it. There is nothing that cannot be used for the Divine purposejust as anything can pretend to be the Divine and yet be of the mushroom species.
1953-11-18, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Essentially, it is quite possible that what is most lacking is faith. There is always a tiny corner in the thought which doubts and debates. So that spoils everything. It is only just when one is in an absolutely critical situation, when the mind realises that it can do nothing, absolutely nothing, when it stands there quite stupid and incapable, then, at that moment, if one aspires for a higher help, the aspiration has exactly that kind of intensity which comes from despair, and that takes effect. But if your thought continues to argue, if it says: Yes, yes, I have aspired, I have prayed, but God knows if this is the moment, and whether it will come and whether it is possible, well, then it is finished, it doesnt work. This is one of the commonest of things. People are told: If you want to advance in the yoga, you must have no desires. One goes even a little further and says: You must not have any needs. One goes a little further still and says: Never ask anything from the Divine. Well, I dont know, more than ninety-nine times out of a hundred, peoples reaction is: Ah! if I dont ask, I wont have what I need. They dont see that they cut the whole movement at the very root! They dont have faith. I need this.
I am not even discussing the idea of need, for it is quite arbitrary. I knew a Dutch painter who had come here, and done Sri Aurobindos portrait (it seems this portrait is still existent). This Dutch painter was practising a yoga. And so, one day, he told me this: Oh! as for me, I think I can do without anything. Truly I believe one can reduce ones needs to a minimum. But all the same, I must have a tooth-brush. I had not yet lived in India at that time, otherwise I would have told him: There are millions of people who have never had a toothbrush and whose teeth are quite clean. This is not the only way of keeping ones teeth clean. But at that time he was quite convinced that one could do without everything except keeping ones mouth clean. And for him, to keep ones mouth clean meant having a tooth-brush. That gives a very exact picture of what goes on in peoples minds. They cling to something and think they need it. And surely it is a complete ignorance, for perhaps there is a real necessity like that of having a clean mouth (that seems to be in any case quite necessary), but that association of the tooth-brush with the necessity of having a clean mouth is quite arbitrary. For it is not so very long ago that tooth-brushes were invented.
1953-11-25, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One ought not to! What I have stated here is an experience. It is the record of an experience which I expressed in general terms. But if, at a particular moment, somebody comes along with the blackest intentions, if one smiles at him, he is completely disarmed, he can do nothing any longer. But one must smile sincerely. One must not just grin or simper and think one (laughter) I take smile in a rather complete meaning. That is to say, if one can be sufficiently master of oneself and above things, in a much higher consciousness which can see from aboveeven that which appears the most terrible and most dramatic to the ordinary human consciousness makes you smile as at a childishness. And so, if one is in that consciousness in which one can smile at everything (for one understands the causes of everything, and one also sees the forces working in all things), if one can be in that consciousness and then smile at what happens, immediately things change. Only, this is not a little external and social smile: it must be the psychic being which smiles.
Doesnt the Divine help if he is not called?
1953-12-09, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is because she participates in their nature. She has descended upon earth to participate in their nature. Because if she did not participate in their nature, she could not lead them farther. If she remained in her supreme consciousness where there is no suffering, in her supreme knowledge and consciousness, she could not have any contact with human beings. And it is for this that she is obliged to take on the human consciousness and form, it is to be able to enter into contact with them. Only, she does not forget: she has adopted their consciousness but she remains in relation with her own real, supreme consciousness. And thus, by joining the two, she can make those who are in that other consciousness progress. But if she did not adopt their consciousness, if she did not suffer with their sorrow, she could not help them. Hers is not a suffering of ignorance: it is a suffering through identity. It is because she has accepted to have the same vibrations as they, in order to be able to enter into contact with them and pull them out of the state they are in. If she did not enter into contact with them, she would not be felt at all or no one could bear her radiance. This has been said in all kinds of forms, in all kinds of religions, and they have spoken very often of the divine Sacrifice, but from a certain point of view it is true. It is a voluntary sacrifice, but it is true: giving up a state of perfect consciousness, perfect bliss, perfect power in order to accept the state of ignorance of the outer world so as to pull it out of that ignorance. If this state were not accepted, there would be no contact with it. No relation would be possible. And this is the reason of the incarnations. Otherwise, there would be no necessity. If the divine consciousness and divine force could work directly from the place or state of their perfection, if they could work directly on matter and transform it, there would be no need to take a body like mans. It would have been enough to act from the world of Truth with the perfect consciousness and upon consciousness. In fact that acts perhaps but so slowly that when there is this effort to make the world progress, make it go forward more rapidly, well, it is necessary to take on human nature. By taking the human body, one is obliged to take on human nature, partially. Only, instead of losing ones consciousness and losing contact with the Truth, one keeps this consciousness and this Truth, and it is by joining the two that one can create exactly this kind of alchemy of transformation. But if one did not touch matter, one could do nothing for it.
Did Savitri foresee what she was going to do?
1953-12-23, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A similar incident happened to a boat. There were two persons (they were well-known people but I cannot remember their names now), who had gone to Indo-China by plane. There was an accident, they were the only ones to have been saved, all the others were killed, indeed it was quite a dramatic affair. But these two (husb and and wife) must have been what may be called bringers of bad-luckit is a sort of atmosphere they carry. Well, these two wanted to go back to France (for, in fact, the accident occurred on their way back to France), they wanted to return to France, they took a boat. And quite unexpectedly, exceptionally, right in the midst of the Red Sea the boat ran into a reef (a thing that doesnt happen even once in a million journeys) and sank; and the others were drowned, and these two were saved. And I could do nothing, you know, I wanted to say: Take care, never travel with these people! There are people of this sort, wherever they are, they come out of the thing very well, but the catastrophes are for the others.
If one sees things from the ordinary viewpoint, one does not notice this. But the associations of atmosphereone must take care of that. That is why when one travels in groups, one must know with whom one travels. One should have an inner knowledge, should have a vision. And then, if one sees somebody who has a kind of small black cloud around him, one must take care not to travel with him, for, surely an accident will occurthough perhaps not to him. Hence, it is quite useful to know things a little more deeply than in the altogether superficial way.
1954-05-12 - The Purusha - Surrender - Distinguishing between influences - Perfect sincerity, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I want nothing but the Divine, I think of nothing but the Divine, I do nothing but what will lead me to the Divine, I love nothing but the Divine.
Trytry, just to see, try for half an hour, you will see how difficult it is! And during that time take great care that there isnt a part of the vital or a part of the mind or a part of the physical being nicely hidden there, at the back, so that you dont see it (Mother hides her hands behind her back) and dont notice that it is not collaboratingsitting quietly there so that you dont unearth it it says nothing, but it does not change, it hides itself. How many such parts! How many parts hide themselves! You put them in your pocket because you dont want to see them or else they get behind your back and sit there well hidden, right in the middle of your back, so as not to be seen. When you go there with your torchyour torch of sincerityyou ferret out all the corners, everywhere, all the small corners which do not consent, the things which say No or those which do not move: I am not going to budge. I am glued to this place of mine and nothing will make me move. You have a torch there with you, and you flash it upon the thing, upon everything. You will see there are many of them there, behind your back, well stuck.
1954-07-07 - The inner warrior - Grace and the Falsehood - Opening from below - Surrender and inertia - Exclusive receptivity - Grace and receptivity, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thats something quite different. To help, thats understood, He is there to help. But what is said here means to sit idly not doing anything, not making the shadow of an effort, nor even aspiring or willing, nothing, and then say, Well, God will do this for me; the Divine will do everything for me. The Divine Grace will give me aspiration. If I need aspiration, It will give it to me. If I need surrender, It will give me that, and so on. I have to do nothing except to remain passively seated, without stirring and without willing anything. Well, there are people like that, many! They are told Aspire. Give me aspiration. (Laughter) They are told, Be generous. Oh, make me generous; and I shall give everything! (Laughter)
And then? (To another child) Now, you!
1954-08-04 - Servant and worker - Justification of weakness - Play of the Divine - Why are you here in the Ashram?, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, when one doesnt want to make an effort to correct oneself, one says, Oh, it is impossible, I cant do it, I dont have the strength, I am not made of that stuff, I dont have the necessary qualities, I could never do it. It is absolute laziness, it is in order to avoid the required effort. When you are asked to make progress: Oh, it is beyond my capacity, I am a poor creature, I can do nothing! Thats all. It is almost ill-will. It is extreme laziness, a refusal to make any effort. One accepts all ones defects and incapacities in order not to have to make the necessary effort to overcome them. One says, I am like that, I cant be otherwise! It is a refusal to let the divine Grace work in you. It is a justification of your own ill-will.
Has someone there a question? Or isnt there any?
1954-09-15 - Parts of the being - Thoughts and impulses - The subconscient - Precise vocabulary - The Grace and difficulties, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There you are. And then you lock and bolt the door, you see, and you cannot receive anything any more. You need once again some acute anguish, some terrible difficulty for this kind of inner stupidity to give way, and for you to realise once more that you can do nothing. Because it is only when you grow aware that you are powerless that you begin to be just a little open and plastic. But so long as you think that what you do depends on your own skill and your own capacity, truly, not only do you close one door, but, you know, you close lots of doors one upon another, and bolt them. You shut yourself up in a fortress and nothing can enter there. That is the great drawback: one forgets very quickly. Quite naturally one is satisfied with ones own capacity.
But Mother, even when one tries to think that one is powerless, there is something which believes one is powerful. So?
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How many blows are needed in life for one to know to the very depths that one is nothing, that one can do nothing that one does not exist, that one is nothing, that there is no entity without the divine Consciousness and the Grace. From the moment one knows it, it is over; all the difficulties have gone. When one knows it integrally and there is nothing which resists but till that moment And it takes very long.
Why doesnt the blow come all at once?
1954-09-29 - The right spirit - The Divine comes first - Finding the Divine - Mistakes - Rejecting impulses - Making the consciousness vast - Firm resolution, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But first of all you must be conscious. If you are not conscious you can do nothing. You must first see the pressure, the influence, the suggestion, whatever it may be, the thing coming from outside; you must feel it coming, see it, observe it and then take a decision, refuse, not want it. These are three consecutive things.
What is the right spirit?1
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Pushed by what? Ah, this is exactly what happens! It is the lower nature, the instincts of the subconscient which govern you and make you do things you should not do. And so it is a choice between your will and accepting submission. There is always a moment when one can decide. It goes to the point where as I said there is even a moment when one can decide to be ill or not to be ill. It even goes so far that a moment comes when one can decide to die or not to die. But for that one must have an extremely awakened consciousness because this speck is infinitesimal in time and like the hundredth part of a second, and because before it one can do nothing and after it one can do nothing; but at that moment one can. And if one is absolutely awake, one can, at that moment, take the decision.
But for ordinary things, as for example, giving way before an impulse or refusing it, it is not a space, not even the space of a second; one has plenty of time before him, one certainly has several minutes. And it is a choice between weak submission and a controlling will. And if the will is clear, if it is based on truth, if truly it obeys the truth and is clear, it always has the power to refuse the wrong movement. It is an excuse you give yourself when you say, I could not. It is not true. It is that truly you have not wanted it in the right way. For there is always the choice between saying yes and saying no. But one chooses to be weak and later gives oneself this excuse, saying, It is not my fault; it was stronger than I. It is your fault if the thing was stronger than you. Because you are not these impulses, you are a conscious soul and an intelligent will, and your duty is to see that this is what governs you and not the impulses from below.
1954-12-22 - Possession by hostile forces - Purity and morality - Faith in the final success -Drawing back from the path, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For example, if you take your stand on a moral viewpointwhich is itself altogether wrong from the spiritual point of viewthere are people who apparently lead an altogether perfectly moral life, who conform to all the social laws, all the customs, the moral conventions, and who are a mass of impurityfrom the spiritual point of view these beings are profoundly impure. On the other hand there are some poor people who do things who are born, for instance, with a see of freedom, and do things which are not considered very respectable from the social or moral point of view, and who can be in a state of inner aspiration and inner sincerity which makes them infinitely purer than the others. This is one of the big difficulties. As soon as one speaks of these things, there arises the deformation produced in the consciousness by all the social and moral conventions. As soon as you speak of purity, a moral monument comes in front of you which completely falsifies your notion. And note that it is infinitely easier to be moral from the social point of view than to be moral from the spiritual point of view. To be moral from the social viewpoint one has only to pay good attention to do nothing which is not approved of by others; this may be somewhat difficult, but still it is not impossible; and one may be, as I said, a monument of insincerity and impurity while doing this; whereas to be pure from the spiritual point of view means a vigilance, a consciousness, a sincerity that stand all tests.
Now, I may put you on your guard against something I think it is precisely in this very book that Sri Aurobindo has spoken about itabout people who live in their vital consciousness and say, I indeed am above moral laws, I follow a higher law, I am free from all moral laws. And they say this because they want to indulge in all irregularities. These people, then, have a double impurity: they have spiritual impurity and in addition social impurity. And these usually have a very good opinion of themselves, and they assert their wish to live their life with an unequalled impudence. But such people we dont want.
1955-02-09 - Desire is contagious - Primitive form of love - the artists delight - Psychic need, mind as an instrument - How the psychic being expresses itself - Distinguishing the parts of ones being - The psychic guides - Illness - Mothers vision, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is only one way for the outer being. Let us take the physical being the physical being, the poor little physical being, the outer being, which knows nothing, can do nothing by itself. Well, for it there is only one way of allowing the psychic being to manifest: with the candid warmth of a child (Mother speaks very softly) to aspire, pray, ask, want with all its strength, without reasoning or trying to understand. One cant imagine how great an obstruction reasoning and this effort to understand put in the experience. At the moment when you are on the point of reaching a state in which something will happen, some vibration will be changed in the consciousness of the being you are all tense in an aspiration and have succeeded in fastening your aspiration, and you are standing there awaiting the answer, if this wretched mind begins to stir and to wonder, What is happening, and whats going to happen, when is it going to happen, how is it going to happen, and why is it like that, and in what order will things manifest? it is all over, you may get up and sweep out your room, you are not fit for anything else.
Sweet Mother, can the psychic express itself without the mind, the vital and the physical?
--
And then there remains the poor physical The poor physical being has been accused of all the misdeeds. In the days of old it was always said that it was impossible, one could do nothing with something so inert, so obscure, so little receptive. But if it too was surrendered to the psychic it also would do the right thing in the right way, and then it would have a stability, a quietude, an exactness in its movements which the other parts of the being dont have, a precision in the execution which one cant have without a body. You have only to see when the body is just a little out of order, when it is ill, how many things you can no longer do, even with a strong will, a great concentration of the vital and the mind. Even when one has the precise knowledge of what ought to be done, if the body is out of order one can no longer do it. Even I mean, even an activity which is not purely physical, as for instance, writing something.
If your brain is a little unwellfever, coldit is very difficult to make it work properly. There is lassitude and something vague, a difficulty in catching things with precision; there occur even very strange phenomena, ideas get mixed up before one is able to express them, things enter into conflict and contradict each other; instead of joining together and coming in this way (gesture); you see, they begin to do this (gesture), so then it creates a disorder. So one tries to catch this one and it escapes. One goes to look for that one, hop! It runs away. And all this just because there is fever which has disturbed things a little, or a cold, you know, what is called a cold in the head, which has slightly disturbed the functioning. If you rise above it, you are absolutely lucid, you are fully conscious, have complete lucidity. Even if you are extremely ill, it makes no difference. Up there you know everything perfectly, you see everything perfectly, you understand everything perfectly, there is no change.
1955-03-02 - Right spirit, aspiration and desire - Sleep and yogic repose, how to sleep - Remembering dreams - Concentration and outer activity - Mother opens the door inside everyone - Sleep, a school for inner knowledge - Source of energy, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is not so necessary. It is useful if one wants to have a great control over his sleep. But this also one must know how to do. To remember ones dreams thats in the morning; what I am telling you is for the evening. In the morning when you get up, you must not be in a hurry. That is, you must not wake up just at the moment when you must get out of bed; you must have some time in hand and must take good care, must make a formation before going to sleep, and take good care when waking up not to make any abrupt movement, because if you make an abrupt movement, automatically the memory of your dreams vanishes. You must remain with the head absolutely motionless on the pillow, without stirring, until you can quietly recall to yourself the consciousness which went out, and recall it as one pulls at something, very gently, without any knocking and without haste, in a state of attention and concentration. And then, as the consciousness comes back to you, the consciousness that went out, if you remain quite motionless, very quiet, and do not begin once again to think of all kinds of things, it will bring back first an impression and then the memory, sometimes a fragmentary memory. But if you remain in that same state of receptive immobility, then it can become more and more a conscious memory. But for this you must have time. If there is the least feeling that you have to hurry, it is finished, you can do nothing at all. You must not even ask yourself, when waking up, What is the time? It is absolutely finished. If you do that, everything vanishes.
But, Mother, one goes off to sleep again if one doesnt move! (Laughter)
1955-04-06 - Freuds psychoanalysis, the subliminal being - The psychic and the subliminal - True psychology - Changing the lower nature - Faith in different parts of the being - Psychic contact established in all in the Ashram, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The safest way is precisely not to go down, it is to remain above and from there to put a pressure on what is below. But if you go down it is very difficult to keep the contact with what is above; so if one forgets one can do nothing, one becomes like the part into which one has gone down. So, as it is something very difficult to do, on the contrary, it is better to remain in ones higher consciousness and from there act upon the lower movements without going down into them.
For example, it is as when one feels anger rising up from the subconscient; well, if one wants to control it one must be very careful not to be identified with it. One must not go down into it. One must remain in ones consciousness, above, quiet, peaceful, and from there look at this anger and put the light and quietude upon it so that it calms down and vanishes. But if one gets identified with it, one is also in anger, one cant change it.
1955-06-08 - Working for the Divine - ideal attitude - Divine manifesting - reversal of consciousness, knowing oneself - Integral progress, outer, inner, facing difficulties - People in Ashram - doing Yoga - Children given freedom, choosing yoga, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
To do the yoga, this yoga of transformation which, of all things, is the most arduous-it is only if one feels that one has come here for that (I mean here upon earth) and that one has to do nothing else but that, and that it is the only reason of one's existence-even if one has to toil hard, suffer, struggle, it is of no importance-"This is what I want, and nothing else"-then it is different. Otherwise I shall say, "Be happy and be good, and that's all that is asked of you. Be good, in the sense of being understanding, knowing that the conditions in which you have lived are exceptional, and try to live a higher, more noble, more true life than the ordinary one, so as to allow a little of this consciousness, this light and its goodness to express itself in the world. It would be very good." There we are.
But once you have set foot on the path of yoga, you must have a resolution of steel and walk straight on to the goal, whatever the cost.
1955-08-03 - Nothing is impossible in principle - Psychic contact and psychic influence - Occult powers, adverse influences; magic - Magic, occultism and Yogic powers -Hypnotism and its effects, #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I believe that if you take the world in its totality, in Time and Space, it is obvious that you can say, Nothing is impossible, and that probably everything will be; but thats in the totality, and in Time and Space, that is, through eternities of time and infinities of space all is possible. But at a given moment, at a given point, there is a certain number of possibles, and all are not there, and certain conditions have to be fulfilled for these possibilities to be realised. The world is constructed like that. We can do nothing about it. I mean it is useless to say, It ought to be otherwise. It is like that, we must take it as it is, endeavour to make the best possible out of it.
Sweet Mother, here Sri Aurobindo has said: If the inmost soul is awakened, if there is a new birth out of the mere mental, vital and physical into the psychic consciousness, then this Yoga can be done Why has he said the inmost soul? Is there a superficial soul?
1955-09-21 - Literature and the taste for forms - The characters of The Great Secret - How literature helps us to progress - Reading to learn - The commercial mentality - How to choose ones books - Learning to enrich ones possibilities ..., #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So the first problem is to know on which side one wants to be: on the side of those who are doing something or the side of those who do nothing; on the side of those who, perhaps, will be able to understand what life is and do what is necessary for this life to culminate in something, or else of those who hardly care to understand anything at all and try to pass their time in having as few botherations as possible. Above all, no botherations!
There we are. This is the first choice. After this there are many others.
1956-01-25 - The divine way of life - Divine, Overmind, Supermind - Material body for discovery of the Divine - Five psychological perfections, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And the third: there are people who have what may be called a warped and excessive modesty or humility and who tell themselves, Surely the Divine has thrown me out, I am good for nothing, He can do nothing with me, the only thing for me is to give up the game, for He finds me unworthy of Him!
So, unless one adds to faith a total and complete trust in the Divine Grace, there will be difficulties. So both are necessary.
1956-02-22 - Strong immobility of an immortal spirit - Equality of soul - Is all an expression of the divine Will? - Loosening the knot of action - Using experience as a cloak to cover excesses - Sincerity, a rare virtue, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For example, there are those who say, who profess that everything that happens is the expression of the divine Will (I spoke about this last time, I think), there is an entire way of looking at life, understanding life, which is like that, which says, All that is, the world as it is, all that happens, is the expression of the divine Will; therefore wisdom wants us, if we want to be in relation with the Divine, to accept without flinching and without the slightest emotion or reaction all that happens, since it is the expression of the divine Will, and it is understood that we should bow down before it. This is a conception which tends precisely to help people to acquire this equality of soul. But if you adopt this idea without adopting its opposite and making a synthesis of the two, well, naturally, you have only to sit through life and do nothingor, in any case, never try to make the world progress.
I remember having read in a class, before our present class starteda class which also used to be held on Wednesdays, perhaps, I dont quite know, in which I used to read books I read a book by Anatole France, who had a very subtle wit I think it was Le Livre de Jerome Coignard but I am not absolutely surewhere he says that men would be perfectly happy if they were not so anxious to improve life. I am not quoting the exact words but the idea. Unhappiness begins with this will to make men and things better! (Mother laughs) That is his way of saying exactly the same thing I was just telling you in another form. If you want to be peaceful, happy, always satisfied, to have perfect equality of soul, you must tell yourself, Things are as they should be, and if you are religious you should tell yourself, They are as they should be because they are the expression of the divine Will, and we have only one thing to do, that is to accept them as they are and be very quiet, because it is better to be quiet than to be restless. He turns the thing round and puts it in another way; he says life is very comfortable and very tolerable and very acceptable, if men dont begin to wish that it should be different. And the minute they are not happy, naturally nobody is happy! Since they find that it is not what it should be, well, they begin to be unhappy and others too.
1956-02-29 - Sacrifice, self-giving - Divine Presence in the heart of Matter - Divine Oneness - Divine Consciousness - All is One - Divine in the inconscient aspires for the Divine, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But that the Oneness exists, even if you feel just the opposite, is a fact you can do nothing about, for it is a divine action and a divine factit is a divine action and a divine fact If you are conscious of the Divine, you become conscious of this fact. If you are not conscious of the Divine, the fact exists but you simply are not conscious of it thats all.
So, everything turns around a phenomenon of consciousness. And the world is in a state of obscurity, suffering, misery, of everything, all it is, simply because it is not conscious of the Divine, because it has cut off the connection in its consciousness, because its consciousness is separated from the Divine. That is to say, it has become unconscious.
1956-06-13 - Effects of the Supramental action - Education and the Supermind - Right to remain ignorant - Concentration of mind - Reason, not supreme capacity - Physical education and studies - inner discipline - True usefulness of teachers, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But without that Note that if one didnt discipline the body, one would not even be able to stand on two legs, one would continue like a child on all fours. You could do nothing. You are obliged to discipline yourself; you could not live in society, you could not live at all, except all alone in the forest; and even then, I dont quite know. It is absolutely indispensable, I have told you this I dont know how often. And because I have a very marked aversion for conventional disciplines, social and others, it does not mean that you must abstain from all discipline. I would like everyone to find his own, in the sincerity of his inner aspiration and the will to realise himself.
And so, the aim of all those who know, whether they are teachers, instructors or any others, the very purpose of those who know, is to inform you, to help you. When you are in a situation which seems difficult to you, you put your problem and, from their personal experience, they can tell you, No, it is like this or it is like that, and you must do this, you must try that. So, instead of forcing you to absorb theories, principles and so-called laws, and a more or less abstract knowledge, they would be there to give you information about things, from the most material to the most spiritual, each one within his own province and according to his capacity.
1956-06-27 - Birth, entry of soul into body - Formation of the supramental world - Aspiration for progress - Bad thoughts - Cerebral filter - Progress and resistance, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Moreover, I believe that I had taken my precautions in this matter and that, when I announced that it had been granted to the earth to receive the supramental Force in order to manifest it, this did not mean that the manifestation would be instantaneously apparent, and that everybody would suddenly find himself transported to a peak of light and of possibilities and realisation, without any effort. I said immediately that it would not be like that. I even said that it would take quite a long time. But still, people have complained that its advent has not made things easier, and that even, in some cases, they have become more difficult. I am very sorry, but I can do nothing about it. For it is not the fault of the supramental Force, the fault lies in the way in which it was received. I know instances in which truly the aspiration was sincere and the collaboration complete, and in which many things that had seemed very difficult in the past at once became infinitely easier.
However, there is a very great difference, always, between a kind of mental curiosity which plays with words and ideas, and a true aspiration of the being which means that truly, really, it is that which counts, essentially, and nothing else that aspiration, that inner will because of which nothing has any value except that, that realisation; nothing counts except that; there is no other reason for existence, for living, than that.
1956-07-18 - Unlived dreams - Radha-consciousness - Separation and identification - Ananda of identity and Ananda of union - Sincerity, meditation and prayer - Enemies of the Divine - The universe is progressive, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are countless legends or stories of this kind, like that of Prahlad,1 for instance, which we saw recently in a film, stories which illustrate that state of consciousness. And I am not only convinced, but I myself have the quite tangible experience that if in the presence of some danger or an enemy or some ill-will, you are able to remain in this condition and see the Divine in all things, well, the danger will have no effect, the ill-will can do nothing to you, and the enemy will either be transformed or run away. That is quite certain.
But I must add a word which is quite important. You must not seek this state of consciousness with any motive or seek it because it is a protection or a help. You must have it sincerely, spontaneously, constantly; it must be a normal, natural, effort less way of being. Then it is effective. But if you try in the least to imitate the movement with the idea of obtaining a particular result, it wont succeed. The result is not obtained at all. And then in your ignorance you will perhaps say, Oh! but they told me that, but it is not true! That is because there was some insincerity somewhere.
1956-08-29 - To live spontaneously - Mental formations Absolute sincerity - Balance is indispensable, the middle path - When in difficulty, widen the consciousness - Easiest way of forgetting oneself, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you are made of pieces which are not only different but often quite contradictory, these pieces necessarily create a division in your being. For example, you have one part in yourself which aspires for the divine life, to know the Divine, to unite with Him, to live Him integrally, and then you have another part which has attachments, desireswhich it calls needsand which not only seeks these things but is quite upset when it does not have them. There are other contradictions, but this one is the most flagrant. There are others, for instance, like wanting to surrender completely to the Divine, to give oneself up totally to His Will and His Guidance, and at the same time, when the experience comesa common experience on the path when one sincerely tries to give oneself up to the Divine the feeling that one is nothing, that one can do nothing, that one doesnt even exist outside the Divine; that is to say, if He were not there, one would not exist and could not do anything, one would not be anything at all. This experience naturally comes as a help on the path of total self-giving, but there is a part of the being which, when the experience comes, rises up in a terrible revolt and says, But, excuse me! I insist on existing, I insist on being something, I insist on doing things myself, I want to have a personality. And naturally, the second one undoes all that the first had done.
These are not exceptional cases, this happens very frequently. I could give you innumerable examples of such contradictions in the being: when one part tries to take a step forward, the other one comes and demolishes everything. So you have to begin again all the time, and every time it is demolished. That is why you must do this work of sincerity which, when you perceive in your being a part that pulls the other way, makes you take it up carefully, educate it as one educates a child and put it in harmony with the central part. That is the work of sincerity and it is indispensable.
1958-09-03 - How to discipline the imagination - Mental formations, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have known people with such opposite sides in their nature, so contradictory, that one day they could make a magnificent, luminous, powerful formation for realisation, and then the next day a defeatist, dark, black formationa formation of despair and so both would go out. And I was able to follow in the course of circumstances the beautiful one being realised, and while it was being realised, the dark one demolishing what the first one had done. And that is how it is in the larger lines of life as in its smaller details. And all that because one does not watch oneself thinking, because one believes one is the slave of these contradictory movements, because one says, Oh! Today I am not feeling well. Oh! Today things seem sad to me, and one says this as if it were an ineluctable fate against which one could do nothing. But if one stands back or ascends a step, one can look at all these things, put them in their place, keep some, destroy or get rid of those one does not want and put all ones imaginative powerwhat is called imaginativeonly in those one wants and which conform with ones highest aspiration. That is what I call controlling ones imagination.
It is very interesting. When one learns to do it and does it regularly one no longer has time to feel bored.
1962 10 06, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In ordinary life, you think things over and then you do themit is just the opposite! In this life, first you must do the thing and then, afterwards, you understand, long afterwards. First you must do itwithout thinking. If you think, you do nothing worthwhile; that is, you fall back into the old way.
6 October 1962
1962 10 12, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, they try to come in again, by habit. You only have to say, Lord, You see, You see, You see, it is like that thats all. Lord, You see, You see this, You see that, You see this fool and it is all over immediately. And it changes automatically, my child, without the slightest effort. Simply to be sincere, that is to say, to truly want everything to be right. You are perfectly conscious that you can do nothing about it, that you have no capacity. I feel more and more that this amalgam of matter, like this, of cells, all that, is pitiful. It is pitiful! I do not know whether there are certain states in which people feel powerful, wonderful, luminous, capable; but for me it is because they do not really know what they are like! When you really see how you are madeit is really nothing, nothing. But it is capable of everything, provided provided that you allow the Lord to act. But there is always something that wants to do it by itself; thats the trouble, otherwise
No, you may be full of an excellent goodwill and then you want to do it. Thats what complicates everything. Or else you dont have faith, you believe that the Lord will not be able to do it and that you must do it yourself, because He does not know! (Mother laughs.) This, this kind of stupidity is very common. How can He see things? We live in a world of Falsehood, how can He see Falsehood and see But He sees the thing as it is! Exactly!
1964 09 16, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I have observed this in the cells of the body; they always seem to be in a hurry to do what they have to do, lest they have no time to do it. So they do nothing properly. Muddled peoplesome people turn everything upside down, their movements are jerky and confusedhave this to a high degree, this kind of hastequick, quick, quick. Yesterday, someone was complaining of rheumatic pains and he was saying, Oh, it is such a waste of time. I do things so slowly! I said (Mother smiles), So what! He didnt like it. You see, for someone to complain when he is in pain means that he is soft, that is all; but to say, I am wasting so much time, I do things so slowly! It gave a very clear picture of the haste in which men live. You go hurtling through life to go where? You end with a crash!
What is the use of that?
1f.lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
excitement had reached the point of mutiny, and that I could do nothing
to check this headlong risk of the whole expeditions success; but it
1f.lovecraft - Medusas Coil, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
wouldnt? And yet I could do nothing.
Marceline seemed to be a good wife enough in those early months, and
--
moment I could do nothing but flinch at the faint evil odour that
immediately struck my nostrils. Then, turning on the electric light and
1f.lovecraft - The Colour out of Space, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
end he could do nothing but drive it into the yard while the men used
their own strength to get the heavy wagon near enough the hayloft for
--
had come of late to do nothing but stare into space and obey what his
father told him; and Ammi thought that his fate was very merciful. Now
1f.lovecraft - The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
great, and Carter saw that he could do nothing now to save his former
allies. Of how the ghouls had been captured he could not guess; but
1f.lovecraft - The Electric Executioner, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
were on edge, and I could do nothing but pace the car in desperation.
In the end I found that the speeding had been purchased at a high cost
--
peon south of Mexico City can tell you that. But I meant to do nothing
about it. I went home, as I tell you, again and again, and was going to
1f.lovecraft - The Rats in the Walls, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
familiarity with local legend. We could for the moment do nothing but
watch the old black cat as he pawed with decreasing fervour at the base
1f.lovecraft - The Shadow over Innsmouth, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
I had been assured that the old man could do nothing but hint at wild,
disjointed, and incredible legends, and I had been warned that the
1f.lovecraft - The Whisperer in Darkness, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
APPRECIATE YOUR POSITION BUT CAN do nothing. TAKE NO ACTION YOURSELF
FOR IT COULD ONLY HARM BOTH. WAIT FOR EXPLANATION.
--
The others would say I faked the whole business and do nothing but
laugh. But I may yet try shewing the pictures. They give those
1f.lovecraft - Winged Death, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
strange as these do, I need do nothing more. Am preparing separate
numbered cages for the different specimens.
1.fua - Look -- I do nothing- He performs all deeds, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
object:1.fua - Look -- I do nothing- He performs all deeds
author class:Farid ud-Din Attar
--
English version by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis Original Language Persian/Farsi Look -- I do nothing; He performs all deeds And He endures the pain when my heart bleeds. When He draws near and grants you an audience Should you hang back in tongue-tied diffidence? When will your cautious heart consent to go Beyond the homely boundaries you know? O slave, if He should show His love to you, Love which His deeds perpetually renew, You will be nothing, you will disappear -- Leave all to Him who acts, and have no fear. If there is any "you", if any wraith Of self persists, you've strayed outside our faith. [2178.jpg] -- from The Conference of the Birds, Translated by Afkham Darbandi / Translated by Dick Davis <
1.mm - Of the voices of the Godhead, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
English version by Lucy Menzies Original Language German O soaring eagle! darling lamb! O glowing spark! Set me on fire! How long must I endure this thirst? One hour is already too long, A day is as a thousand years When Thou art absent! Should this continue for eight days I would rather go down to Hell -- (Where indeed I already am!) Than that God should hide Himself From the loving soul; For that were anguish greater than human death, Pain beyond all pain. The nightingale must ever sing Because its nature is love; Whoso would take that from it Would bring it death. Ah! Mighty Lord! Look on my need! Then the Holy Spirit spoke to the soul -- "Come, noble maid! Prepare thyself, Thy Lover comes!" Startled but inwardly rejoicing She said: "Welcome, faithful messenger, Would that it were ever so! I am so evil and so faithless That I can find no peace of mind Apart from my Love. The moment it seems that I cool But a little from love of Him, Then am I in deep distress And can do nothing but seek for Him lamenting." Then the messenger spoke: "Thou must purify thyself, Sprinkle the dust with water, Scatter flowers in thy room." And the exiled soul replied: "When I purify, I blush, When I sprinkle, I weep, When I pray, then must I hope, When I gather flowers, I love. When my Lord comes I am beside myself For there cometh with Him such sweet melody That all carnal desire dieth within me: And His sweet music puts far from me All sorrow of heart. The mighty voice of the Godhead Has spoken to me in powerful words Which I have received With the dull hearing of my misery -- A light of utmost splendor Glows on the eyes of my soul Therein have I seen the inexpressible ordering Of all things, and recognized God's unspeakable glory -- That incomprehensible wonder -- The tender caress between God and the soul, The sufficiency in the Highest, Discipline and understanding, Realization with withdrawal, According to the power of the senses, The unmingled joy of union, The living love of Eternity As it now is and evermore shall be." Then were seen four rays of light Which shot forth all at once From the noble crossbow of the Trinity From the Divine Throne through the nine Choirs. There none is so poor nor so rich That he is not met by Love; The rays of the Godhead illuminate him With inconceivable light; The humanity of the Son greets him In brotherly love; The Holy Spirit flows through him With the miraculous creative power Of everlasting joy! The undivided Godhead welcomes him With the glory of His Divine Countenance And fills him with the blessedness Of His life-giving breath. Love flows from God to man without effort As a bird glides through the air Without moving its wings -- Thus they go whithersoever they will United in body and soul Yet in their form separate -- As the Godhead strikes the note Humanity sings, The Holy Spirit is the harpist And all the strings must sound Which are strung in love. There was also seen That sublime vessel In which Christ dwelt nine months on earth In soul and body, As it ever shall remain Only without the great glory Which at the last day The heavenly Father will give to all The bodies of the redeemed. This our Lady must also lack So long as the earth floats above the sea. [1815.jpg] -- from German Mystical Writings: Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart, Jacob Boehme, and others, Edited by Karen J. Campbell <
1.pbs - The Cenci - A Tragedy In Five Acts, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Can we do nothing?
Colonna.
1.poe - Eureka - A Prose Poem, #Poe - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Again: -we know that there exist non-luminous suns -that is to say, suns whose existence we determine through the movements of others, but whose luminosity is not sufficient to impress us. Are these suns invisible merely on account of the length of time elapsed since their discharge of a planet? And yet again: -may we not -at least in certain cases -account for the sudden appearances of suns where none had been previously suspected, by the hypothesis that, having rolled with encrusted surfaces throughout the few thousand years of our astronomical history, each of these suns, in whirling off a new secondary, has at length been enabled to display the glories of its still incandescent interior? -To the well-ascertained fact of the proportional increase of heat as we descend into the Earth, I need of course, do nothing more than refer: -it comes in the strongest possible corroboration of all that I have said on the topic now at issue.
In speaking, not long ago, of the repulsive or electrical influence, I remarked that "the important phaenomena of vitality, consciousness, and thought, whether we observe them generally or in detail, seem to proceed at least in the ratio of the heterogeneous. " I mentioned, too, that I would recur to the suggestion: -and this is the proper point at which to do so. Looking at the matter, first, in detail, we perceive that not merely the manifestation of vitality, but its importance, consequences, and elevation of character, keep pace, very closely, with the heterogeneity, or complexity, of the animal structure. Looking at the question, now, in its generality, and referring to the first movements of the atoms towards mass-constitution, we find that heterogeneousness, brought about directly through condensation, is proportional with it forever. We thus reach the proposition that the importance of the development of the terrestrial vitality proceeds equably with the terrestrial condensation.
1.rb - The Flight Of The Duchess, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
She was to do nothing at all.
There was already this man in his post,
1.whitman - Respondez!, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Let the limited years of life do nothing for the limitless years of
death! (What do you suppose death will do, then?)
1.whitman - Song of Myself, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Now I will do nothing but listen,
To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.
--
You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you.
To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean,
1.whitman - Song Of Myself- XL, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
You can do nothing and be nothing but what I will infold you.
To cotton-field drudge or cleaner of privies I lean,
1.whitman - Song Of Myself- XXVI, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Now I will do nothing but listen,
To accrue what I hear into this song, to let sounds contribute toward it.
2.01 - Habit 1 Be Proactive, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
The problems we face fall in one of three areas: direct control (problems involving our own behavior); indirect control (problems involving other people's behavior); or no control (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities). The proactive approach puts the first step in the solution of all three kinds of problems within our present Circle of Influence.
Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits. They are obviously within our Circle of Influence. These are the "Private Victories" of Habits 1, 2, and 3.
2.01 - On Books, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: In these psychological fields I must study myself and find out the truth. But if science says that everything is glands and nerves etc. then I have to do nothing. I admit glands may have something to say in the matter of life or personality but I say it is very minute. About reaction in the physical my experience is that one has to make the cells conscious, they again forget and become unconscious, one has to make them conscious time and again.
19 MAY 1926
2.06 - Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But if a temporal or cosmic reality of any kind exists, there must be a power, an inherent dynamic force of the Absolute which brought it into being, and there is no reason to suppose that the power of the Absolute can do nothing but create illusions.
On the contrary, the Power that creates must be the force of an omnipotent and omniscient Consciousness; the creations of the absolutely Real should be real and not illusions, and since it is the One Existence, they must be self-creations, forms of a manifestation of the Eternal, not forms of Nothing erected out of the original Void - whether a void being or a void consciousness
2.07 - The Mother Relations with Others, #Words Of The Mother I, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Cast away all dissimulation and decide to do nothing that you could not tell me immediately.
*
--
Be very sincere and straightforward, harbour nothing within yourself which you cannot show me without fear, do nothing which you would be ashamed of before me.
*
--
2) It is a great mistake to think that physical nearness is the one thing indispensable for the progress. It will do nothing for you if you do not establish the inner contact, for without that you could remain from morning to night with me and yet you will never truly meet me. It is only by the inner opening and contact that you can realise my presence.
*
2.07 - The Release from Subjection to the Body, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This being said, we must add that in the movement of the path of knowledge perfection of the mind and body are no consideration at all or only secondary considerations. The one thing necessary is to rise out of Nature to the Self by either the most swift or the most thorough and effective method possible; and the method we are describing, though not the swiftest, is the most thorough-going in its effectivity. And here there arises the question of physical action or inaction. It is ordinarily considered that the Yogin should draw away from action as much as possible and especially that too much action is a hindrance because it draws off the energies outward. To a certain extent this is true; and we must note farther that when the mental Purusha takes up the attitude of mere witness and observer, a tendency to silence, solitude, physical calm and bodily inaction grows upon the being. So long as this is not associated with inertia, incapacity or unwillingness to act, in a word, with the growth of the tamasic quality, all this is to the good. The power to do nothing, which is quite different from indolence, incapacity or aversion to action and attachment to inaction, is a great power and a great mastery; the power to rest absolutely from action is as necessary for the Jnanayogin as the power to cease absolutely from thought, as the power to remain indefinitely in sheer solitude and silence and as the power of immovable calm. Whoever is not willing to embrace these states is not yet fit for the path that leads towards the highest knowledge; whoever is unable to draw towards them, is as yet unfit for its acquisition.
At the same time it must be added that the power is enough; the abstention from all physical action is not indispensable, the aversion to action mental or corporeal is not desirable. The seeker of the integral state of knowledge must be free from attachment to action and equally free from attachment to inaction. Especially must any tendency to mere inertia of mind or vitality or body be surmounted, and if that habit is found growing on the nature, the will of the Purusha must be used to dismiss it. Eventually, a state arrives when the life and the body perform as mere instruments the will of the Purusha in the mind without any strain or attachment, without their putting themselves into the action with that inferior, eager and often feverish energy which is the nature of their ordinary working; they come to work as forces of Nature work without the fret and toil and reaction characteristic of life in, the body when it is not yet master of the physical. When we attain to this perfection, then action and inaction become immaterial, since neither interferes with the freedom of the soul or draws it away from its urge towards the Self or its poise in the Self. But this state of perfection arrives later in the Yoga and till then the law of moderation laid down by the Gita is the best for us; too much mental or physical action then is not good since excess draws away too much energy and reacts unfavourably upon the spiritual condition; too little also is not good since defect leads to a habit of inaction and even to an incapacity which has afterwards to be surmounted with difficulty. Still, periods of absolute calm, solitude and cessation from works are highly desirable and should be secured as often as possible for that recession of the soul into itself which is indispensable to knowledge.
2.08 - Three Tales of Madness and Destruction, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Here is The Juggler to announce that a company of mountebanks or strolling players has arrived to perform at court: it is an opportunity to confront the guilty parties with their misdeeds. The play tells of an adulterous and murdering Empress: does Gertrude recognize herself? Claudius runs off, upset. From this moment on, Hamlet knows that his uncle spies on him from behind the curtains: a smart blow of the Sword against a moving arras would be enough to fell the king. How now! A rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead! But no: it was not the king hidden there but (as the card called The Hermit reveals) old Polonius, nailed forever in his eavesdropping pose, poor spy who could cast very little light. You do nothing right, Hamlet: you have not appeased your father's shade and you have orphaned the maiden you loved. Your character meant you for abstract mental speculation: it is no accident that the Page of Coins portrays you absorbed in the contemplation of a circular drawing: perhaps the mandala, diagram of an ultraterrestrial harmony.
Even our less contemplative fellow guest, otherwise known as the Queen of Swords or Lady Macbeth, at the sight of The Hermit's card seems distraught: perhaps she sees there another ghostly apparition, the hooded shade of the butchered Banquo, advancing with difficulty along the corridors of the castle, to sit down uninvited at the place of honor at the banquet, shaking his gory locks into the soup. Or else she recognizes her husb and in person, Macbeth, who has murdered sleep: by the lantern's glow in the night he visits the guests' rooms, hesitating like a mosquito who dislikes staining the pillowcases. My hands are of your color, but I shame to wear a heart so white!, his wife taunts and drives him, but this does not mean she is so much worse than he: they have shared the roles like a devoted couple, marriage is the encounter of two egoisms that grind each other reciprocally and from which spread the cracks in the foundations of civilized society, the pillars of public welfare stand on the viper's eggshells of private barbarity.
2.09 - On Sadhana, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
When I came to Baroda from the Surat Congress, Barin had written to me that he knew a certain yogi to whom he would introduce me at Baroda. Barin sent a wire to Lele from Baroda and he came. At that time I was staying at Khasirao Jadhav's house. We went to Sardar Majumdar's place. On the top floor in a room we were shut up for three days. He asked me to do nothing but throw away all thoughts that came to my mind. In three days I did it. We sat in meditation together, I realised the Silent Brahman Consciousness. I began to think from above the brain and have done so ever since. Sometimes at night the Power would come and I would receive it and also the thoughts it brought and in the morning I would put down the whole thing word by word on paper.
In that very silence, in that thought-free condition, we went to Bombay. There I had to give a lecture at the National Union. So, I asked him what I should do. He asked me to pray. But I was absorbed in the Silent Brahman and so I told him I was not in a mood to pray. Then he said he and some others would pray and I should simply go to the meeting and make Namaskar to the audience as Narayana, the all-pervading Divine, and then a voice would speak through me. I did exactly as he told me. On my way to the meeting somebody gave me a newspaper to read. There was some headline there which caught my eye and left an impression. When I rose to address the meeting the idea flashed across my mind and then all of a sudden something spoke out. That was my second experience from Lele. It also shows that he had the power to give yogic experience to others.
--
Sri Aurobindo: If you do nothing else but merely silence the mind you will have a silent mind and nothing else.
Disciple: When a developed mind opens to the Truth and an underdeveloped mind opens to it which will be the richer of the two?
2.1.02 - Nature The World-Manifestation, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
How, it is asked, do we make a permanent and changeless world out of a world of changing and transient objects? But this is to create a problem where there is none. We do nothing of the kind; what we do is to perceive by the senses a world of stability in constant motion, of sameness in spite of change. It is the world that is like that; we do not make it so; our senses receive, they do not create; if there is an error in their perceptions or images it is a passive imperfection of sensing that causes the wrong or altered image, it is not a willed and dynamic change like the liberties the artist takes with Nature.
Men are always changing, but man has a permanent character which does not alter. Tigers differ from each other and from themselves in the process of time, but the tiger is always the same animal and always as such recognisable. It is the details that vary and change, the type, the fundamental pattern is constant. So far our senses and our mind standing upon their data do not betray or deceive us. If they see a world that is stable and the same in spite of constant mobility and mutation, it is because the world is like that and it is therefore that we have to see it so and cannot see it otherwise. If there is a problem it is not what we make of it, not a problem of our psychology but why it is so, what is behind the mobility of the world and its stability, what is the cause or the significance or reality of it. There is no doubt the problem of what are mind and sense and their nature, their reality, their relation to the world and its cause or significance; but that too is a problem of metaphysics.
2.13 - On Psychology, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Then there is the vital-physical or physico-vital. It is the vital moving in the physical being. It is most important to us because it is that which makes the different organs act: the functions of the physical being are regulated by it. It is that which gives health and strength to the body. It is for this reason that the Upanishads speak of pras vital breaths moving in the system. They are most important because they form as it were the nerve-ends of the higher faculties. You can do nothing well if they do not respond to the higher faculties, to the inner being. For instance, if you are a musician, you may have the best music within you, but if your fingers do not act properly you can't succeed. They form, as it were, the farthest end of the inner being through which the inner being expresses itself on the physical plane. It is just like the pen through which the thought finds expression.
It is also the reason why the brain is considered as the most important part of the body. Not because it creates thought but just because it forms the connecting link by which thought can find expression here. It is the apparatus which receives the higher working.
2.1.4.1 - Teachers, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is an invaluable possession for every living being to have learnt to know himself and to master himself. To know oneself means to know the motives of ones actions and reactions, the why and the how of all that happens in oneself. To master oneself means to do what one has decided to do, to do nothing but that, not to listen to or follow impulses, desires or fancies.
To give a moral law to a child is evidently not an ideal thing; but it is very difficult to do without it. The child can be taught, as he grows up, the relativity of all moral and social laws so that he may find in himself a higher and truer law. But here one must proceed with circumspection and insist on the difficulty of discovering that true law. The majority of those who reject human laws and proclaim their liberty and their decision to live their own life do so only in obedience to the most ordinary vital movements which they disguise and try to justify, if not to their own eyes, at least to the eyes of others. They give a kick to morality, simply because it is a hindrance to the satisfaction of their instincts.
2.14 - On Movements, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Your aspiration to be my manifestation and all the rest of the delusions to which you have surrendered yourself are not Yoga or Sadhana. They are an illusion of your vital being and your brain. We tried to cure you and for a few days while you were obeying my instructions you were on the point of being cured. But you have called back your illness and made it worse than before. You seem to be no longer capable even of understanding what I write to you; you read your own delusions into my letters. I can do nothing more for you.
All that I can tell you is to go back to Vizianagaram and allow yourself to be taken care of there. I can make no arrangements for you anywhere. I can give only a last advice. Throw away the foolish arrogance and vanity that have been the cause of your illness; consent to become like an ordinary man living in the normal physical mind.
2.17 - THE MASTER ON HIMSELF AND HIS EXPERIENCES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
"If a man but once tastes the joy of God, his desire to argue takes wing. The bee, realizing the joy of sipping honey, doesn't buzz about any more. What will you achieve by quoting from books? The pundits recite verses and do nothing else.
"What will you gain by merely repeating 'siddhi'? You will not be intoxicated even by gargling with a solution of siddhi. It must go into your stomach; not until then will you be intoxicated. One cannot comprehend what I am saying unless one prays to God in solitude, all by oneself, with a longing heart."
2.18 - January 1939, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
A Maratha came to see me here and inquired what I was doing. When he heard that I was doing 'nothing', he said, "It is a great thing if one can do it. It is a great capacity to be able to do nothing!"
Disciple: There is one gentleman who actually sealed up his lips with something so that he may not be able to speak.
2.19 - Feb-May 1939, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: If the States organise, backed by the Paramount Power and lend their support, then Rajkot may stand through and the Satyagraha may not succeed. Look at Mysore and Travancore Mysore has only appointed a committee which may go on for three years and do nothing. Moreover it is very difficult to keep the movement non-violent. If it is kept to the middle class it may be possible, but if the masses come in then violence is inevitable. See the murder of Bazalgette in Orissa and the breaking out of violence in Travancore. Human nature is human nature. If the movement is confined to a small State like Rajkot it may succeed, but in the big States it is impossible to keep it non-violent.
Disciple: They say that in Travancore it was Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar who engineered the outbreak.
2.2.02 - Becoming Conscious in Work, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Do? why should he [a certain Yogi] want to do anything if he was in the eternal peace or Ananda or union with the Divine? If a man is spiritual and has gone beyond the vital and mind, he does not need to be always doing something. The self or spirit has the joy of its own existence. It is free to do nothing and free to do everything but not because it is bound to action and unable to exist without it.
***
2.2.05 - Creative Activity, #Letters On Yoga II, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Mother does not disapprove of your writing the bookwhat she does not like is your being so lost in it that you can do nothing else. You must be master of what you do and not possessed by it. She quite agrees to your finishing and offering the book on your birthday if that can be done. But you must not be carried awayyou must keep your full contact with higher things.
***
2.20 - THE MASTERS TRAINING OF HIS DISCIPLES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "Once I said to Mathur Babu: 'Don't think that I have achieved my desired end because you, a rich man, show me respect. It matters very little to me whether you obey me or not.' Of course you must remember that a mere man can do nothing, it is God alone who makes one person obey another. Man is straw and dust before the power of God."
DOCTOR: "Do you think I shall obey you because a certain fisherman obeyed you?
2.2.3 - Depression and Despondency, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is not that this pulling and straining and tension can do nothing; in the end they prevail for some result or another, but with difficulty, delay, struggle, strong upheavals of the Force breaking through in spite of all. Ramakrishna himself began by pulling and straining and got his result but at the cost of a tremendous and perilous upsetting; afterwards he took the quiet psychic way whenever he wanted a result and got it with ease and in a minimum time. You say that this way is too difficult for you but it is on the contrary the easiest and simplest and most direct way and anyone can do it, if he makes his mind and vital quiet. It is the other way of tension and strain and hard endeavour that is difficult and needs a great force of Tapasya. Take the psychic attitude; follow the straight sunlit path, with the Divine openly or secretly upbearing youif secretly, he will yet show himself in good time,do not insist on the hard, hampered, roundabout and difficult journey.
All this has been pointed out before: but you were not inclined to regard it as feasible or at least not ready to apply it in the field of meditation because your consciousness by tradition, owing to past lives and for other reasons, was clinging to former contrary conceptions. Something in you was harking back to one kind of Vaishnava sadhana, and that tended to bring in it its pain-giving feeling-elements of abhimna, revolt, suffering, the Divine hiding himself (always I seek, but never does he show himself)the rarity of the unfolding and the milana. Something else in you was inclined to see as the only alternative some harsh, grim ascetic ideal, the blank featureless Brahman (and imagined that the supramental was that), something in the vital looked on the conquest of wrong movements as a hard desperate tapasya, not as a passage into the purity and joy of the Divineeven now some element in you seems to insist on regarding the psychic attitude as something extraordinary, difficult, inhuman and impossible! There were these and other old lingerings of the mind and the vital; you have to clear them out and look at the simplicity of the Truth with a straight and simple gaze.
--
This movement [of restlessness, sadness, gloom] is one that always tries to come when you have a birthday or a darshan and is obviously a suggestion of forces that want to disturb you and give you a bad birthday or bad darshan. You must get rid of the idea that it is in any way helpful for sadhana, e.g. makes you remember the Divine etc.if it does it makes you remember the Divine in the wrong way and in addition brings up the weakness, also depression, self-distrust etc. etc. quoi bon cheerfulness? It puts you in the right condition for the psychic to work and without knowing it you grow in just the right perceptions and right feelings for the spiritual attitude. This growth I have been observing in you for a fairly long time now and it is in the cheerful states that it is the most active. Japa, thinking of the Divine is all right, but it must be on this basis and in company with work and mental activity, for then the instrument is in a healthy condition. But if you become restlessly eager to do nothing but japa and think of nothing but the Divine and of the progress you have or have not made (Ramana Maharshi says you should never think of progress, it is according to him a movement of the ego), then all the fat is in the firebecause the system is not yet ready for a Herculean effort and it begins to get upset and think it is unfit and will never be fit. So be a good cheerful worker and offer your bhakti to the Divine in all ways you can but rely on him to work out things in you.
***
2.3.01 - Aspiration and Surrender to the Mother, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Mother do?" On the contrary, the sadhak should feel, "Never mind, my aspiration will come back again. Meanwhile I know that the Mother is with me even when I do not feel her; she will carry me even through the darkest period." That is the fully right attitude you must have. To those who have it depression can do nothing; even if it comes it has to return baffled. That is not tamasic surrender. Tamasic surrender is when one says,
"I won't do anything; let Mother do everything. Aspiration, rejection, surrender even are not necessary. Let her do all that in me." There is a great difference between the two attitudes.
2.3.02 - Opening, Sincerity and the Mother's Grace, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Write to him1 that he can begin sadhana, if he feels truly the call. He need do nothing at first but sit in meditation for a short time every day and try to open himself to the Mother's power, aspiring for the opening, for a true change of consciousness, for peace, purity and strength to go through the sadhana, for her protection against all difficulties and errors and for an always increasing devotion. Let him see first if he can thus successfully open himself.
2 November 1929
2.3.03 - The Mother's Presence, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Live always as if you were under the very eye of the Supreme and of the Divine Mother. do nothing, try to think and feel nothing
16 April 1930 that would be unworthy of the Divine Presence.
2.3.07 - The Mother in Visions, Dreams and Experiences, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The experience you had in your sleep was that of going into the vital world and meeting there one of the hostile vital beings who wished to menace or attack you, but could not attack you because of your call on the Mother. There are two things that must be acquired in these passages through the vital world - first this immediate call on the Mother's protection and, second, the throwing away of all fear. To those who do not fear them, these beings or forces can do nothing - in any meeting or conflict with them the Mother's name is a sure protection even if some fear should come.
The other experience was due to your mind dwelling in the state of the Mother's constant presence and its results. What you say is true, about these results, but it is not easy for the mind or vital or physical consciousness to get or keep the Mother's conscious presence - it is only the psychic that keeps it easily.
2.3.08 - The Mother's Help in Difficulties, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There is no reason why you should be able to do nothing in this life or all should be postponed to another. It is in this life that you have been called and are to reach the Divine. The Mother has not left you to yourself. But I think it is advisable that you should spend some time daily in concentration to keep the conscious connection and also write more often; if not every day, yet every
17 December 1936 second or third day.
--
do nothing to you, only you must reject all fear. Keep always this thought when these things come: "The Mother's protection is with me, nothing bad can happen"; for when there is the psychic opening and one puts one's faith in the Mother, that is sufficient to ward these things off. Many sadhaks learn, when they have alarming dreams, to call the Mother's name in the dream itself and then the things that menace them become helpless or cease.
You must therefore refuse to be intimidated and reject these impressions with contempt. If there is anything frightening, call down the Mother's protection.
--
[about the Mother] of this kind, from whomsoever they may come, and, if he hears them, to do nothing to propagate them. He had been progressing extremely well because he opened himself to the Mother; but if he allows stupidities like that to enter his mind, it may influence him, close him to the Mother and stop his progress.
As for Y, if he said and thought a thing like that, it explains why he has been suffering in health so much lately. If one makes oneself a mouthpiece of the hostile forces and lends oneself to their falsehoods, it is not surprising that something in him should
3.00 - Introduction, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
energies to some particular object, by resolving to do nothing at
variance therewith, and to make every act turn somehow or other to
3.02 - SOL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
On earth these stones are dead, and they do nothing unless the activity of man is applied to them. [Consider]47 the profound analogy of the gold: the aethereal heaven was locked to all men, so that all men had to descend into the underworld, where they were imprisoned for ever. But Christ Jesus unlocked the gate of the heavenly Olympus and threw open the realm of Pluto, that the souls might be freed, when the Virgin Mary, with the cooperation of the Holy Ghost in an unutterable mystery and deepest sacrament, conceived in her virgin womb that which was most excellent in heaven and upon earth, and finally bore for us the Redeemer of the whole world, who by his overflowing goodness shall save all who are given up to sin, if only the sinner shall turn to him. But the Virgin remained incorrupt and inviolate: therefore not without good reason is Mercurius made equal [aequiparatur] to the most glorious and worshipful Virgin Mary.48
It is evident from this that the coniunctio of Sol and Mercurius is a hierosgamos, with Mercurius playing the role of bride. If one does not find this analogy too offensive, one may ask oneself with equanimity whether the arcanum of the opus alchymicum, as understood by the old masters, may not indeed be considered an equivalent of the dogmatic mystery. For the psychologist the decisive thing here is the subjective attitude of the alchemist. As I have shown in Psychology and Alchemy, such a profession of faith is by no means unique.49
3.1.1 - The Transformation of the Physical, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is precisely this lothness to do anything that must be got rid of for it is simply an acquiescence in the force of the inertia. If you can do nothing else, the old methods of violence to yourself etc. will obviously be unfruitfulyou should call on the Divine Peace and Force to descend and deal with it and open yourself to the action. If this obstructing physical is made to admit and respond to that, then the key of the solution will be there.
***
3.2.04 - The Conservative Mind and Eastern Progress, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
India, the heart of the Orient, has to change as the whole West and the whole East are changing, and it cannot avoid changing in the sense of the problems forced upon it by Europe. The new Orient must necessarily be the result either of some balance and fusion or of some ardent struggle between progressive and conservative ideals and tendencies. If therefore the conservative mind in this country opens itself sufficiently to the necessity of transformation, the resulting culture born of a resurgent India may well bring about a profound modification in the future civilisation of the world. But if it remains shut up in dead fictions, or tries to meet the new needs with the mind of the schoolman and the sophist dealing with words and ideas in the air rather than actual fact and truth and potentiality, or struggles merely to avoid all but a scanty minimum of change, then, since the new ideas cannot fail to realise themselves, the future India will be formed in the crude mould of the Westernised social and political reformer whose mind, barren of original thought and unenlightened by vital experience, can do nothing but reproduce the forms and ideas of Europe and will turn us all into halting apes of the West. Or else, and that perhaps is the best thing that can happen, a new spiritual awakening must arise from the depths of this vast life that shall this time more successfully include in its scope the great problems of earthly life as well as those of the soul and its transmundane destinies, an awakening that shall ally itself closely with the renascent spiritual seeking of the West and with its yearning for the perfection of the human race. This third and as yet unknown quantity is indeed the force needed throughout the East. For at present we have only two extremes of a conservative immobility and incompetence imprisoned in the shell of past conventions and a progressive force hardly less blind and ineffectual because second-hand and merely imitative of nineteenth-century Europe, with a vague floating mass of uncertainty between. The result is a continual fiasco and inability to evolve anything large, powerful, sure and vital, a drifting in the stream of circumstance, a constant grasping at details and unessentials and failure to reach the heart of the great problems of life which the age is bringing to our doors. Something is needed which tries to be born; but as yet, in the phrase of the Veda, the Mother holds herself compressed in smallness, keeps the Birth concealed within her being and will not give it forth to the Father. When she becomes great in impulse and conception, then we shall see it born.
***
3.2.2 - Sleep, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The first thing I tell people when they want not to eat or sleep is that no Yoga can be done without sufficient food and sleep (see the Gita on this point). This is not Gandhis asram or a miracle-shop. Fasting and sleeplessness make the nerves morbid and excited and weaken the brain and lead to delusions and fantasies. The Gita says Yoga is not for one who eats too much or sleeps too much, neither is it for one who does not eat or does not sleep, but if one eats and sleeps suitablyyukthr yuktanidra then one can do it best. It is the same with everything else. How often have I said that excessive retirement was suspect to me and that to do nothing but meditate was a lopsided and therefore unsound sadhana.
***
3.2.3 - Dreams, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Dont allow these bad dreams to trouble you. They are formations meant to disturb the consciousness if you are troubled and fear they succeed. If you refuse to accept them or, still better, dissolve them, in dream or when you wake, then they can do nothing.
***
33.07 - Alipore Jail, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The case dragged on for quite sometime, for several months in fact. And then, the trial once over, came a period of utter loneliness. We could do nothing but await the results his state of dark night lasted nearly two months. I too had occasional fits of depression during this period. "Why, and what, and where, and which way?" These were questions at came up and clouded the mind. There was a sense of wariness. The one solace I found - it came towards the end - was in the company of Vivekananda. That was 1en his book, Colombo to Almora,came to my hands. What faith and confidence, what strength, what courage breathed through his words and his manner! All seemed to get cleared up, especially when I read aloud the Vedic and Upanishadic mantraslike,
vedaham etam purusam mahantam
3.4.1.11 - Language-Study and Yoga, #Letters On Poetry And Art, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Do you mean to say that in order to have quietness of the mind one must do nothing? Then neither the Mother nor I nor anyone else here has a quiet mind.
6 April 1937
3.4.1 - The Subconscient and the Integral Yoga, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As there is a superconscient (something above our present consciousness) above the head from which the higher consciousness comes down into the body, so there is also a subconscient (something below our consciousness) below the feet. Matter is under the control of this power, because it is that out of which it has been created that is why matter seems to us to be quite unconscious. The material body is very much under the influence of this power for the same reason; it is why we are not conscious of what is going on in the body, for the most part. The outer consciousness goes down into this subconscient when we are asleep, and so it becomes unaware of what is going on in us when we are asleep except for a few dreams. Many of these dreams rise up from the subconscient and are made up of old memories, impressions etc. put together in an incoherent way. For the subconscient receives impressions of all we do or experience in our lives and keeps these impressions in it, sending up often fragments of them in sleep. It is a very important part of the being, but we can do nothing much with it by the conscious will. It is the higher Force working in us that in its natural course will open the subconscient to itself and bring down into it its control and light.
***
4.01 - Sweetness in Prayer, #The Interior Castle or The Mansions, #Saint Teresa of Avila, #Christianity
4.: I will now describe, as I promised, the difference between sweetness in prayer and spiritual consolations. It appears to me that what we acquire for ourselves in meditation and petitions to our Lord may be termed 'sweetness in devotion.'7' It is natural, although ultimately aided by the grace of God. I must be understood to imply this in all I say, for we can do nothing without Him. This sweetness arises principally from the good work we perform, and appears to result from our labours: well may we feel happy at having thus spent our time. We shall find, on consideration, that many temporal matters give us the same pleasure-such as unexpectedly coming into a large fortune, suddenly meeting with a dearly-loved friend, or succeeding in any important or influential affair which makes a sensation in the world. Again, it would be felt by one who had been told her husband, brother, or son was dead, and who saw him return to her alive. I have seen people weep from such happiness, as I have done myself. I consider both these joys and those we feel in religious matters to be natural ones. Although there is nothing wrong about the former, yet those produced by devotion spring from a more noble source-in short, they begin in ourselves and end in God. Spiritual consolations, on the contrary, arise from God, and our nature feels them and rejoices as keenly in them, and indeed far more keenly, than in the others I described. The first three mansions of the Interior Castle correspond with the 'first water,' or the prayer of Meditation, explained in ch. xi-xiii. of the Life; the fourth mansion, or the prayer of Quiet, with the 'second water,' Life, ch. xiv. and xv.; the fifth mansion, or the prayer of Union, with the 'third water,' Life, ch. xvi. and xvii.; and the sixth mansion, ecstasy, etc., with the 'fourth water,' Life, ch. xviii.-xxi.
5.: O Jesus! how I wish I could elucidate this point! It seems to me that I can perfectly distinguish the difference between the two joys, yet I have not the skill to make myself understood; may God give it me! I remember a verse we say at Prime at the end of the final Psalm; the last words are: 'Cum dilatasti cor meum'-'When Thou didst dilate my heart:8' To those with much experience, this suffices to show the difference between sweetness in prayer and spiritual consolations; other people will require more explanation. The sensible devotion I mentioned does not dilate the heart, but generally appears to narrow it slightly; although joyful at seeing herself work for God, yet such a person sheds tears of sorrow which seem partly produced by the passions. I know little about the passions of the soul, or I could write of them more clearly and could better define what comes from the sensitive disposition and what is natural, having passed through this state myself, but I am very stupid. Knowledge and learning are a great advantage to every one.
4.1.2 - The Difficulties of Human Nature, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As for your going over there, you have to look at yourself and see clearly what is wanting to take you there. The plea from inability to do the sadhana has no value whatever. It is merely a plea put forward by the opposing elements in the vital and streng thened by the suggestion of adverse forces. If you say that you find your attachment to husb and and son or others is so strong that your soul and your aspiration can do nothing against it and home is the real place for you, then of course your departure is inevitable but such a statement can hardly in your case be accepted as true. Or if you say that still the pull is so great that you think it better to go for a time and test yourself and exhaust it, then that might just be true for a time, if the vital has risen up strongly; and we would not say no, as we did not say no when you wanted to go and nurse X. But even in that case it would be wiser for you to examine it seriously and not make a decision on the strength of a condition which could pass otherwise. Your husbands letters have no value for us; he has always written like that whenever he saw any hope of your coming away from here; at other times he has a very different tone.
I have put the whole thing before you at length. For us the straight course is always to keep on ones way, whatever the difficulties, until one has got mastery and the way becomes smoother. But at bottom the decision must be left with the sadhak himselfone can press for the right choice but one cannot comm and that he should make it.
4.13 - ON THE HIGHER MAN, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
wants that you do nothing "for" and "in order" and
"because." You shall plug up your ears against these
4.1.4 - Resistances, Sufferings and Falls, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There is no reason to have a vague doubt about ones own future founded upon no other ground than the failure of others. That is what X and Y are always doing, and it is a great disturber of their progress. Why not instead, if one is to go by others, gather hope from the example of those who are satisfied and progressing? It is true however that these do not show their success as the others do their failure. However, that apart, failure comes by very positive errors and not by the absence of an invariable and unflagging aspiration or effort. The effort demanded of the sadhak is that of aspiration, rejection and surrender. If these three are done, the rest is to come of itself by the grace of the Mother and the working of her force in you. But of the three the most important is surrender of which the first necessary form is trust and confidence and patience in difficulty. There is no rule that trust and confidence can only remain if aspiration is there. On the contrary when even aspiration is not there because of the pressure of inertia, trust and confidence and patience can remain. If trust and patience fail when aspiration is quiescent, that would mean that the sadhak is relying solely on his own effortit would mean, Oh my aspiration has failed, so there is no hope for me. My aspiration fails so what can Mother do? On the contrary, the sadhak should feel, Never mind, my aspiration will come back again. Meanwhile I know that the Mother is with me even when I do not feel her; she will carry me through even the darkest period. That is the fully right attitude you must have. To those who have it depression could do nothing; even if it comes, it has to return baffled. That is not tamasic surrender. Tamasic surrender is when one says, I wont do anything; let Mother do everything. Aspiration, rejection, surrender even are not necessary. Let her do all that in me. There is a great difference between the two attitudes. One is that of the shirker who wont do anything, the other is that of the sadhak who does his best but even when he is reduced to quiescence for a time and things seem adverse, keeps always his trust in the Mothers force and presence behind all and by that trust baffles the opposition force and calls back the activity of the sadhana.
***
4.2.3.02 - Signs of the Psychic's Coming Forward, #Letters On Yoga III, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is your psychic being which came in front, probably, or else it is the true vital being in you which was able to come in front because you took the psychic attitude. When the psychic being comes in front, then there is an automatic perception of the true and untrue, the divine and the undivine, the spiritual right and wrong of things and the false vital and mental movements and attacks are immediately exposed and fall away and can do nothing; gradually the vital and physical as well as the mind get full of this psychic light and truth and sound feeling and purity and such violent attacks as you have are impossible. When the true vital being comes forward, it is something wide and strong and calm, an unmoved and powerful warrior for the Divine and the Truth repelling all enemies, bringing in a true strength and force and opening the vital to the greater Consciousness above.
It has to be seen which of the two it is you feel within you.
4.3.2 - Attacks by the Hostile Forces, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is a fact that the lower forces always attack when they see that a sadhak is making too much progress for their taste. But they can do nothing against a clear and steady will and a faithful perseverance.
***
5.01 - ADAM AS THE ARCANE SUBSTANCE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[554] Dorn calls the ternarius (the number three) peculiar to Adam (Adamo proprius). And because the ternarius was the offspring of the unarius (the number one), the devil, whose nature is binary, could do nothing against him, but had to make his attack upon Eve,33 who was divided from her husb and as a natural binarius from the unity of his ternarius.34 Vigenerus, commenting on I Cor. 15 : 47,35 writes:
For the elements are circular [in their arrangement], as Hermes makes clear, each being surrounded by two others with which it agrees in one of those qualities peculiar to itself, as [for instance] earth is between fire and water, partaking in the dryness of fire and the coldness of water. And so with the rest. . . . 36 Man, therefore, who is an image of the great world, and is called the microcosm or little world (as the little world, made after the similitude of its archetype, and compounded of the four elements, is called the great man), has also his heaven and his earth. For the soul and the understanding are his heaven; his body and senses his earth. Therefore, to know the heaven and earth of man, is the same as to have a full and complete knowledge of the whole world and of the things of nature.37
5.4.02 - Occult Powers or Siddhis, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Your generalisation cannot stand because it is contradicted by other numerous instances which go to prove the opposite. In my own experience I have found that those who possessed well developed and well organised "psychic" and occult powers were healthy and well poised; indeed they said that in ill health or physical weakness they could do nothing - it impaired their power. These certainly had no lack or deficiency of the red aura.
The woman you speak of was evidently under a vital Influence. A vital Influence always acts by disorganising the system and by disturbing the mental, vital or physical balance. But such cases of phenomena in the vital mind due to a possession or influence have no relation to the true mastery of psychic or occult powers (clairvoyance, clair-audience etc.).
5 - The Phenomenology of the Spirit in Fairytales, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
close. Even the bishops could do nothing to stamp out this cus-
tom, until finally it had to be suppressed by the "auctoritas
7 - Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
that you have realised it and you can do nothing wrong.
There are however subtler movements of insincerity or
Apology, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Strange, indeed, would be my conduct, O men of Athens, if I who, when I was ordered by the generals whom you chose to comm and me at Potidaea and Amphipolis and Delium, remained where they placed me, like any other man, facing deathif now, when, as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfil the philosophers mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death, fancying that I was wise when I was not wise. For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is not this ignorance of a disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that a man knows what he does not know? And in this respect only I believe myself to differ from men in general, and may perhaps claim to be wiser than they are:that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know: but I do know that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man, is evil and dishonourable, and I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil. And therefore if you let me go now, and are not convinced by Anytus, who said that since I had been prosecuted I must be put to death; (or if not that I ought never to have been prosecuted at all); and that if I escape now, your sons will all be utterly ruined by listening to my wordsif you say to me, Socrates, this time we will not mind Anytus, and you shall be let off, but upon one condition, that you are not to enquire and speculate in this way any more, and that if you are caught doing so again you shall die;if this was the condition on which you let me go, I should reply: Men of Athens, I honour and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one whom I meet and saying to him after my manner: You, my friend,a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens,are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honour and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? And if the person with whom I am arguing, says: Yes, but I do care; then I do not leave him or let him go at once; but I proceed to interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue in him, but only says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the less. And I shall repeat the same words to every one whom I meet, young and old, citizen and alien, but especially to the citizens, inasmuch as they are my brethren. For know that this is the comm and of God; and I believe that no greater good has ever happened in the state than my service to the God. For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person. But if any one says that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth. Wherefore, O men of Athens, I say to you, do as Anytus bids or not as Anytus bids, and either acquit me or not; but whichever you do, understand that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times.
Men of Athens, do not interrupt, but hear me; there was an understanding between us that you should hear me to the end: I have something more to say, at which you may be inclined to cry out; but I believe that to hear me will be good for you, and therefore I beg that you will not cry out. I would have you know, that if you kill such an one as I am, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me. Nothing will injure me, not Meletus nor yet Anytusthey cannot, for a bad man is not permitted to injure a better than himself. I do not deny that Anytus may, perhaps, kill him, or drive him into exile, or deprive him of civil rights; and he may imagine, and others may imagine, that he is inflicting a great injury upon him: but there I do not agree. For the evil of doing as he is doingthe evil of unjustly taking away the life of anotheris greater far.
Appendix 4 - Priest Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
The reverse of the spell is not permanent; the bestow curse spell lasts for one turn for every experience level of the priest using the spell. The curse can have one of the following effects (roll percentile dice): 50% of the time it reduces one ability of the victim to 3 (the DM randomly determines which ability); 25% of the time it lowers the victim's attack and saving throw rolls by -4; 25% of the time it makes the victim 50% likely to drop whatever he is holding (or do nothing, in the case of creatures not using tools)--roll each round.
It is possible for a priest to devise his own curse, and it should be similar in power to those given here. Consult your DM. The subject of a bestow curse spell must be touched.
Big Mind (non-dual), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
In other words, I respond to situations and I see that these situations are continuously changing. My role is changing continuously too, the position I have in given situations. So, I see that I am what I am, and it's all OK. When it's time to respond I simply respond. If it's not time to respond, I do nothing, and I do it freely.
As for being integrated, there isn't anything to integrate. I'm already completely integrated. As time passes, whatever manifests, whatever comes up is just integrated in a very natural process. It all seems very organic.
BOOK III. - The external calamities of Rome, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
And surely we may ask what wrong poor Ilium had done, that, in the first heat of the civil wars of Rome, it should suffer at the hand of Fimbria, the veriest villain among Marius' partisans, a more fierce and cruel destruction than the Grecian sack.[125] For when the Greeks took it many escaped, and many who did not escape were suffered to live, though in captivity. But Fimbria from the first gave orders that not a life should be spared, and burnt up together the city and all its inhabitants. Thus was Ilium requited, not by the Greeks, whom she had provoked by wrong-doing; but by the Romans, who had been built out of her ruins; while the gods, adored alike of both sides, did simply nothing, or, to speak more correctly, could do nothing. Is it then true, that at this time also, after Troy had repaired the damage done by the Grecian fire, all the gods by whose help the kingdom stood, "forsook each fane, each sacred shrine?"
[Pg 97]
BOOK II. -- PART III. ADDENDA. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
exhibit gradual change, are shown by further investigation to do nothing of the sort. . . .
All these difficulties are avoided if we admit that new forms of animal life of all
Book of Genesis, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
1 And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground; 2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night. 3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat. 4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. 6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, 7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. 9 And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. 10 But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. 11 And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door. 12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: 13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it. 14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
The Flight of Lot and His Family
Book of Imaginary Beings (text), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Obese, downhearted, wary, I do nothing but feel under
my belly the warm mud. My head is so heavy that I
BOOK XIV. - Of the punishment and results of mans first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
The sins of men and angels do nothing to impede the "great works of the Lord which accomplish His will."[125] For He who by His providence and omnipotence distributes to every one his own portion, is able to make good use not only of the good, but also of the wicked. And thus making a good use of the wicked angel, who, in punishment of his first wicked volition, was doomed to an obduracy that prevents him now from willing any good, why should not God have permitted him to tempt the first man, who had been created upright, that is to say, with a good will? For he had been so constituted, that if he looked to God for help, man's goodness should defeat the angel's wickedness; but if by proud self-pleasing he abandoned God, his Creator and Sustainer, he should be conquered. If his will remained upright, through leaning on God's help, he should be rewarded; if it became wicked, by forsaking God, he should be punished. But even this trusting in God's help could not itself be accomplished without God's help, although man had it in his own power to relinquish the benefits of divine grace by pleasing himself. For as it is not in our power to live in this world without sustaining ourselves by food, while it is in our power to refuse this nourishment and cease to live, as those[Pg 47] do who kill themselves, so it was not in man's power, even in Paradise, to live as he ought without God's help; but it was in his power to live wickedly, though thus he should cut short his happiness, and incur very just punishment. Since, then, God was not ignorant that man would fall, why should He not have suffered him to be tempted by an angel who hated and envied him? It was not, indeed, that He was unaware that he should be conquered, but because He foresaw that by the man's seed, aided by divine grace, this same devil himself should be conquered, to the greater glory of the saints. All was brought about in such a manner, that neither did any future event escape God's foreknowledge, nor did His foreknowledge compel any one to sin, and so as to demonstrate in the experience of the intelligent creation, human and angelic, how great a difference there is between the private presumption of the creature and the Creator's protection. For who will dare to believe or say that it was not in God's power to prevent both angels and men from sinning? But God preferred to leave this in their power, and thus to show both what evil could be wrought by their pride, and what good by His grace.
28. Of the nature of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly.
BOOK XVII. - The history of the city of God from the times of the prophets to Christ, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly proclaimed as Priest, even as He is here as King, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."[454] That Christ sits on the right hand of God the Father is believed, not seen; that His enemies also are put under His feet doth not yet appear; it is being done, [therefore] it will appear at last: yea, this is now believed, afterward it shall be seen. But what follows, "The Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Sion, and rule Thou in the midst of Thine enemies,"[455] is so clear, that to deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake, but downright impudence. And even enemies must certainly confess that out of Sion has been sent the law of Christ which we call the gospel, and acknowledge as the rod of His strength. But that He rules in the midst of His enemies, these same enemies among whom He rules themselves bear witness, gnashing their teeth and consuming away, and having power to do nothing against Him. Then what he says a little after,[Pg 205] "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,"[456] by which words He intimates that what He adds is immutable, "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek,"[457] who is permitted to doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that now there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice after the order of Aaron, and everywhere men offer under Christ as the Priest, which Melchizedek showed when he blessed Abraham? Therefore to these manifest things are to be referred, when rightly understood, those things in the same psalm that are set down a little more obscurely, and we have already made known in our popular sermons how these things are to be rightly understood. So also in that where Christ utters through prophecy the humiliation of His passion, saying, "They pierced my hands and feet; they counted all my bones. Yea, they looked and stared at me."[458] By which words he certainly meant His body stretched out on the cross, with the hands and feet pierced and perforated by the striking through of the nails, and that He had in that way made Himself a spectacle to those who looked and stared. And he adds, "They parted my garments among them, and over my vesture they cast lots."[459] How this prophecy has been fulfilled the Gospel history narrates. Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less openly are rightly understood when they agree with those which shine with so great clearness; especially because those things also which we do not believe as past, but survey as present, are beheld by the whole world, being now exhibited just as they are read of in this very psalm as predicted so long before. For it is there said a little after, "All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule the nations."
18. Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in which the death and resurrection of the Lord are prophesied.
Conversations with Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
You also say that all that you do outside meditation seems to activise your mind again. This has no importance you cannot do nothing. Everything must take its time. And you are of those who have built everything on the mind thence the difficulty. Others open easily. But do not be impatient, this prolongs the sense of personal effort.
Monday, February 15, 1926
COSA - BOOK VI, #The Confessions of Saint Augustine, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
which unless we should believe, we should do nothing at all in this
life; lastly, with how unshaken an assurance I believed of what
ENNEAD 01.09a - Of Suicide., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
May one not forestall delirium or insanity, if one become aware of their approach? To begin with, insanity does not happen to a sage, and if it does, this accident should be considered one of those inevitable things which depend from fatality, and in which case one should direct one's path less according to his intrinsic quality than according to circumstances; for perhaps the poison one might select to eject the soul from the body might do nothing but injure the soul.
SUICIDE IS UNADVISABLE, FOR TWO REASONS.
ENNEAD 02.03 - Whether Astrology is of any Value., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Likewise the universe is a compound of a body and of a Soul intimately united to it, and of the universal Soul, which is not in the Body, and which irradiates the Soul united to the Body.233 There is a similar doubleness in the sun and the other stars, (having a soul united to their body, and a soul independent thereof). They do nothing that is shameful for the pure soul. The things they produce are parts of the universe, inasmuch as they themselves are parts of the universe, and inasmuch as they have a body, and a soul united to this body; but their will and their real soul apply themselves to the contemplation of the good Principle. It is from this Principle, or rather from that which surrounds it, that other things depend, just as the fire radiates its heat in all directions, and as the superior Soul (of the universe) infuses somewhat of her potency into the lower connected soul. The evil things here below originate in the mixture inhering in the nature of this world. After separating the universal Soul out of the universe, the remainder would be worthless. Therefore, the universe is a deity if the Soul that is separable from it be included within its substance. The remainder constitutes the guardian which (Plato) names the Great Guardian,234 and which, besides, possesses all the passions proper to guardians.
1177
ENNEAD 06.08 - Of the Will of the One., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Here some rash person,186 drawing his arguments from some other school of thought, may object that, "If the Good be indeed good, this occurs only by784 chance. A man is not master of what he is (that is, of his own nature), because his own nature does not depend on himself (that is, is not due to self-determination). Consequently, he enjoys neither freedom nor independence, as he acts or withholds action as he is forced by necessity." Such an assertion is gratuitous, and even self-contradictory. It destroys all conception of will, liberty and independence, reducing these terms to being labels, and illusions. He who advances such an opinion is forced to maintain not only that it is not within the power of anybody to do or not to do some thing, but also that the word "liberty" arouses no conception in his mind, and is meaningless. If however he insist that he does understand it, he will soon be forced to acknowledge that the conception of liberty bears a conformity with the reality which he at first denied. The conception of a thing exerts no interference on its substance ("being"); it can do nothing by itself, nor can it lead to hypostatic existence. It is limited to pointing out to us which being obeys others, which being possesses free will, which being depends on no other, but is master of its own action, a privilege characteristic of eternal beings so far as they are eternal, or to beings which attain the Good without obstacle (like the Soul), or possess it (like Intelligence). It is therefore absurd to say that the Good, which is above them, seeks other higher good beyond itself.
BEING AND ACTUALIZATION CONSTITUTE ONE SELF-EXISTENT PRINCIPLE.
Gorgias, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The true statesman is aware that he must adapt himself to times and circumstances. He must have allies if he is to fight against the world; he must enlighten public opinion; he must accustom his followers to act together. Although he is not the mere executor of the will of the majority, he must win over the majority to himself. He is their leader and not their follower, but in order to lead he must also follow. He will neither exaggerate nor undervalue the power of a statesman, neither adopting the 'laissez faire' nor the 'paternal government' principle; but he will, whether he is dealing with children in politics, or with full-grown men, seek to do for the people what the government can do for them, and what, from imperfect education or deficient powers of combination, they cannot do for themselves. He knows that if he does too much for them they will do nothing; and that if he does nothing for them they will in some states of society be utterly helpless. For the many cannot exist without the few, if the material force of a country is from below, wisdom and experience are from above. It is not a small part of human evils which kings and governments make or cure. The statesman is well aware that a great purpose carried out consistently during many years will at last be executed. He is playing for a stake which may be partly determined by some accident, and therefore he will allow largely for the unknown element of politics. But the game being one in which chance and skill are combined, if he plays long enough he is certain of victory. He will not be always consistent, for the world is changing; and though he depends upon the support of a party, he will remember that he is the minister of the whole. He lives not for the present, but for the future, and he is not at all sure that he will be appreciated either now or then. For he may have the existing order of society against him, and may not be remembered by a distant posterity.
There are always discontented idealists in politics who, like Socrates in the Gorgias, find fault with all statesmen past as well as present, not excepting the greatest names of history. Mankind have an uneasy feeling that they ought to be better governed than they are. Just as the actual philosopher falls short of the one wise man, so does the actual statesman fall short of the ideal. And so partly from vanity and egotism, but partly also from a true sense of the faults of eminent men, a temper of dissatisfaction and criticism springs up among those who are ready enough to acknowledge the inferiority of their own powers. No matter whether a statesman makes high professions or none at allthey are reduced sooner or later to the same level. And sometimes the more unscrupulous man is better esteemed than the more conscientious, because he has not equally deceived expectations. Such sentiments may be unjust, but they are widely spread; we constantly find them recurring in reviews and newspapers, and still oftener in private conversation.
Liber 111 - The Book of Wisdom - LIBER ALEPH VEL CXI, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
thee. For to do nothing signifieth to interfere with nothing so that
for a Magician to do no Magick is to commit Violence on himself. Yet
--
Destiny to act with that free Will. Thou canst do nothing save in
accordance with that true Nature of thine and of all Things, and every
--
and he can do nothing, save it be proper to his Nature.
DE EADEM RE ALTERA VERBA. (Further Words on This)
Liber 46 - The Key of the Mysteries, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
seen that science can do nothing here. By the civil authority? It is
absurd. Are our prayers to be superintended by policemen?
--
wish for nothing, to do nothing --- that is the real sin. Nature only
recognizes and rewards workers.
--
To do nothing is as fatal as to do evil, but it is more cowardly. The
most unpardonable of mortal sins is inertia. {237}
r1913 12 22, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The 21 Dec marks the close of a period. The first chatusthaya, hitherto always subject to apparent & superficial relapse by adhyaropa & intrusion of trouble, asamata & nirananda from outside, is now superior, by reason of the final repulsion of desire and recognition of the conditions of the Yoga, to these intrusions, although a minor adhyaropa is still possible. The second is firm, under the surface and often on the surface, in all except sraddha, firm in itself, but not complete in its range or all its circumstances. Sraddha in the Yoga siddhi has been accepted by the intellect, but not sraddha in the kriti. There the surviving intellectuality demands certain objective proofs before assenting to the ideal faith as anything more than a possibility or probability justified by the general nature of past experience. The doubt resolves itself into a deficiency in the sraddha Bhagavati. The Allpowerful Master of the Yoga is accepted as the Master & Lover of the Jiva and there is faith in His grace for the Yoga, but not in His grace for the life, nor in His ritam, nor in His Adesha. For this reason the swashaktyam sraddha is also overcast by doubt and limited in its range, because it is thoroughly experienced and accepted that own-Power can do nothing without the divine sanction and grace. The third chatustaya is in all, but rupadrishti, so far established in self-expansive force & inevitability of self perfection that its entire fulfilment remains only a matter of time. Physical siddhi is moving towards that stage, but has not reached it. Brahmasiddhi is now deficient only in nityasmarana and depth. Karmasiddhi remains now as the sole nexus of the asiddhi.
The third chatusthaya is chiefly advanced in vangmaya thought, in general jnana where jnana does not pass into telepathy (prakamya-vyapti). The main difficulty lies in the defects of the interpretative power, daksha & ketu, which, although transferred in type to the ideality whether of vijnanabuddhi or vijnana, alternates practically between vijnana, vijnanabuddhi and those parts of manasabuddhi which are either pseudo-intuitional in the nature of their activity or else attempt to preserve the fragments of the old intellectual reasoning or of the undercurrent of habitual mentality. This defect is now being steadily mended; ideal interpretation is being applied to the material of telepathy, lipi, rupa, samadhi etc; but until this process is complete, the positive defects of knowledge, as opposed to mere occasional inactivity, incompleteness or limitation of range, must continue. Meanwhile the range has begun to be extended. Occasional inactivity of knowledge will remain & be used for ananda & uddeshya, the purposes of life & the joy of life. Power acts with frequency, but not with full mastery; nevertheless it is now often rapid, instantaneous[,] effortless & persistent in its efficacy. Lipi is organising itself materially, but lacks habituality of vividness & spontaneous fullness in the akasha. Chitra & sthapatya of rupa is now almost perfect, the human figure, animal, landscape & group being rich, various & perfect in all; the isolated object or object group is still obstructed, but is moving towards the same variety & richness. Perfection is already not uncommon. Akasharupa is now persistent in manifestation, but cannot yet acquire a free stability. The vishayadrishtis have all an occasional perfect action, but are limited to a few habitual forms. Samadhi is still deficient in free combination and prolonged continuity of vision and experience.
r1915 05 21, #Record of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
2) At such a distance we find that we can do nothing and a figure in dhoti.
3) a conversation in French on a gnomic Greek poet, perfect in form although derivative in substance, indicating fresh discoveries of lost Greek poets. (N.B. The discovery of Bhasas plays was foreseen a year or two before it happened. Saumillas have also been promised).
Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (text), #Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
the walls, but can do nothing to the sky.
33. Men are of different natures according to the preponderance of Sattva, Rajas or Tamas in them.
The Divine Names Text (Dionysis), #The Divine Names, #unset, #Zen
FIRST, with your permission, let us examine the all-perfect Name of Goodness, which is indicative of the whole progressions of Almighty God, having invoked the supremely good, and super-good Triad----the Name which indicates Its whole best Providences. For, we must first be raised up to It, as Source of good, by our prayers; and by a nearer approach to It, be initiated as to the all good gifts which are established around It. For It is indeed present to all, but all are not present to It. But then, when we have invoked It, by all pure prayers and unpolluted mind, and by our aptitude towards Divine Union, we also are present to It. For, It is not in a place, so that It should be absent from a particular place, or should pass from one to another. But even the statement that It is in all existing beings, falls short of Its infinitude (which is) above all, and embracing all. Let us then elevate our very selves by our prayers to the higher ascent of the Divine and good rays,----as if a luminous chain being suspended from the celestial heights, |28 and reaching down hither, we, by ever clutching this upwards, first with one hand, and then with the other, seem indeed to draw it down, but in reality we do not draw it down, it being both above and below, but ourselves are carried upwards to the higher splendours of the luminous rays. Or, as if, after we have embarked on a ship, and are holding on to the cables reaching from some rock, such as are given out, as it were, for us to seize, we do not draw the rock to us, but ourselves, in fact, and the ship, to the rock. Or to take another example, if any one standing on the ship pushes away the rock by the sea shore, he will do nothing to the stationary and unmoved rock, but he separates himself from it, and in proportion as he pushes that away, he is so far hurled from it. Wherefore, before everything, and especially theology, we must begin with prayer, not as though we ourselves were drawing the power, which is everywhere and nowhere present, but as, by our godly reminiscences and invocations, conducting ourselves to, and making ourselves one with, it.
SECTION II.
The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
I went up to my fifth floor. I live in a rented room, a furnished one. It's a poor and small room, with a half-round garret window. I have an oilcloth sofa, and a table with books on it, two chairs, and an armchair, as old as can be, but a Voltaire one. I sat down, lighted a candle, and began to think. Next door, in another room, behind a partition, there was a bedlam. It had been going on for two days. A retired captain lived there, and he had guests - some six scurvy fellows, drinking vodka and playing blackjack with used cards. The previous night they'd had a fight, and I know that two of them had pulled each other's hair for a long time. The landlady wanted to lodge a complaint, but she's terribly afraid of the captain. The only other tenants in our furnished rooms are a small, thin lady, an army wife and out-of-towner, with three small children who had already fallen ill in our rooms. She and her children are afraid of the captain to the point of fainting, and spend whole nights trembling and crossing themselves, and the smallest child had some sort of fit from fear. This captain, I know for certain, sometimes stops passersby on Nevsky Prospect and begs money from them. They won't take him into any kind of service, yet, strangely (this is what I've been driving at), in the whole month that he had been living with us, the captain had never aroused any vexation in me. Of course, I avoided making his acquaintance from the very start, and he himself got bored with me from the first, yet no matter how they shouted behind their partition, and however many they were - it never made any difference to me. I sit the whole night and don't really hear them - so far do I forget about them. I don't sleep at night until dawn, and that for a year now. I sit all night at the table in the armchair and do nothing. I read books only during the day. I sit and don't even think, just so, some thoughts wander about and I let them go.
A whole candle burns down overnight. I quietly sat down at the table, took out the revolver, and placed it in front of me. As I placed it there, I remember asking myself: "Is it so?" and answering myself quite affirmatively: "It is." Meaning I would shoot myself. I knew that I would shoot myself that night for certain, but how long I would stay sitting at the table before then - that I did not know. And of course I would have shot myself if it hadn't been for that girl.
the Eternal Wisdom, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
4) Follow not a law of perdition, shut not yourselves up in negligence, follow not a law of falsehood; do nothing for the sake of the world. ~ Dhammapada
5)But now put off all these things. ~ Colossians III
--
4) The man who is sincere and careful to do nothing to others that he would not have done to him, is not far from the Law. What he does not desire to be done to him, let him not himself do to others. ~ Confucius
5) What we would not have done to us, we must not do to others. ~ Confucius
The Golden Verses of Pythagoras, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
30. do nothing beyond what you know,
31. Yet learn what you may need; thus shall your life grow happy.
The Gospel According to John, #The Bible, #Anonymous, #Various
16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. 20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. 21 For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. 22 For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: 23 that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. 25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. 26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; 27 and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. 30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. 32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true. 33 Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. 34 But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. 35 He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. 36 But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. 37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. 38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. 39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. 40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life. 41 I receive not honour from men. 42 But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. 43 I am come in my Fathers name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive. 44 How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust.
--
and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
29 And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. 30 As he spake these words, many believed on him. 31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
--
24 Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. 25 He answered and said, Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. 26 Then said they to him again, What did he to thee? how opened he thine eyes? 27 He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again? will ye also be his disciples? 28 Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses disciples. 29 We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is. 30 The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. 31 Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. 32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. 33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing. 34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? 36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. 38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.
--
for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. 7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. 8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. 9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. 10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Fathers commandments, and abide in his love. 11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
The Logomachy of Zos, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Talk your psycho-physical troubles out into the open but do nothing to
remove their cause- that would be too easy and might indict civilization.
--- Overview of noun do_nothing
The noun do-nothing has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
1. idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum ::: (person who does no work; "a lazy bum")
--- Overview of adj do_nothing
The adj do-nothing has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
1. do-nothing ::: (characterized by inability or unwillingness to work toward a goal or assume responsibility; "a do-nothing government")
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum
=> nonworker
=> person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
=> organism, being
=> living thing, animate thing
=> whole, unit
=> object, physical object
=> physical entity
=> entity
=> causal agent, cause, causal agency
=> physical entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum
=> clock watcher
=> couch potato
=> dallier, dillydallier, dilly-dallier, mope, lounger
=> dawdler, drone, laggard, lagger, trailer, poke
=> daydreamer, woolgatherer
=> goldbrick, goof-off, ne'er-do-well, good-for-nothing, no-account, good-for-naught
=> lazybones
=> lie-abed, slugabed
=> loon
=> slacker, shirker
=> sluggard, slug
=> spiv
=> sunbather
=> trifler
=> whittler
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum
=> nonworker
--- Similarity of adj do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
do-nothing(prenominal)
=> irresponsible (vs. responsible)
--- Antonyms of adj do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
do-nothing(prenominal)
INDIRECT (VIA irresponsible) -> responsible
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum
-> nonworker
=> deadhead
=> idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum
=> retiree, retired person
=> striker
=> unemployed person
=> vacationer, vacationist
--- Pertainyms of adj do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
do-nothing(prenominal)
--- Derived Forms of adj do_nothing
1 sense of do-nothing
Sense 1
do-nothing(prenominal)
RELATED TO->(noun) do-nothing#1
=> idler, loafer, do-nothing, layabout, bum
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20434862-why-nazism-and-white-racism-suck-and-do-nothing-but-empower-leftists-and
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36494234-if-we-do-nothing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42744111-if-you-do-nothing-nothing-changes-do-something
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42771901-how-to-do-nothing
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7022939-how-to-do-nothing-with-nobody-all-alone-by-yourself
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8737176-do-nothing-and-do-everything
https://circumsolatious.blogspot.com/2014/11/sri-aurobindo-nothingness-is-creation.html
People Just Do Nothing ::: TV-MA | 30min | Comedy | TV Series (20142018) A mockumentary series about a group of failed MCs from West London and their passion for pirate radio. Creators: Steve Stamp, Asim Chaudhry, Allan Mustafa | 1 more credit Stars:
Mangirl! -- -- Doga Kobo -- 13 eps -- Manga -- Comedy Slice of Life -- Mangirl! Mangirl! -- "We're going to launch a manga magazine!" -- -- A team of girls with zero experience in manga editing are off and running toward their dream of creating the biggest manga magazine in Japan! They seem to do nothing but run into problems and failures... But still they're working hard every day! -- -- (Source: Crunchyroll) -- TV - Jan 3, 2013 -- 28,292 5.85
Servamp -- -- Brain's Base, Platinum Vision -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Supernatural Drama Vampire Josei -- Servamp Servamp -- Mahiru Shirota firmly believes that simple is best and troublesome things should be avoided at all costs. It is troublesome to do nothing and regret it later—and this ideology has led the 15-year-old to pick up a stray cat on his way home from school. As he affectionately names the feline Kuro, little does he know that this chance meeting will spark an extraordinary change in his everyday life. -- -- One day, Mahiru returns home to find something quite strange: a mysterious young man he has never seen before. His subsequent panic results in the uninvited guest being exposed to sunlight and—much to Mahiru's shock—transforming into Kuro! Upon revealing himself as a mere lazy shut-in vampire, Kuro promises to leave once night falls. However, one disaster after another leads to Mahiru accidentally forming a contract with his new freeloader, dragging him into a life-threatening battle of supernatural servants and bloodthirsty beings that is anything but simple. -- -- 210,279 6.92
Servamp -- -- Brain's Base, Platinum Vision -- 12 eps -- Manga -- Action Comedy Supernatural Drama Vampire Josei -- Servamp Servamp -- Mahiru Shirota firmly believes that simple is best and troublesome things should be avoided at all costs. It is troublesome to do nothing and regret it later—and this ideology has led the 15-year-old to pick up a stray cat on his way home from school. As he affectionately names the feline Kuro, little does he know that this chance meeting will spark an extraordinary change in his everyday life. -- -- One day, Mahiru returns home to find something quite strange: a mysterious young man he has never seen before. His subsequent panic results in the uninvited guest being exposed to sunlight and—much to Mahiru's shock—transforming into Kuro! Upon revealing himself as a mere lazy shut-in vampire, Kuro promises to leave once night falls. However, one disaster after another leads to Mahiru accidentally forming a contract with his new freeloader, dragging him into a life-threatening battle of supernatural servants and bloodthirsty beings that is anything but simple. -- -- -- Licensor: -- Funimation -- 210,279 6.92
Do Nothing
Do Nothing 'Til You Hear from Me (radio programme)
Do Nothing till You Hear from Me
People Just Do Nothing
People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan
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