Great Throughts Treasury

"If present and future depend on the past, then present and future should exist in past time If present and future do not exist in it, how can present and future exist in dependence on it? The establishment of the two does not occur without dependence on the past, Therefore, present and future time do not exist. By this method the remaining two [times] are to be treated mutatis mutandis. One should examine the top, bottom, and middle, etc., and the oneness, etc. Non-abiding time is not perceived, and abiding time does not occur; How can imperceptible time be designated? If time depends on an entity, where is there time without an entity? No entity exists, so where would time exist?" - Seng-Chao or Sengzhao NULL

"Saying that spiritual practices train our minds, shape our consciousness and mold our character can sum this up. We undertake spiritual practice in order to change in some way, even if it is only a change of perspective. In more traditional language we undertake spiritual practices because they bring us closer to God’s will. How does this work? Spiritual practices including meditation (whether the object of attention is set at the breath, bodily sensations, a visualization, a mantra, a prayer or at floating open attention), and mitzvoth like Shabbat, Kashrut, and Torah study, and conscious non-harming speech share a similar technology. One commits to a particular action as the focus of one’s energy, attention, time, and behavior. One articulates this intention. Then one waits. Soon, the obstacles appear. In a sitting meditation practice we may intend to follow each in breath and each out breath. No sooner do we begin then thoughts rush in or we find ourselves nodding sleepily or in a state of anxiety regarding the pain in our knee or lower back. Or we have decided to observe the Sabbath and an invitation comes our way that is irresistible. Or we promise ourselves to observe kashruth and a strong desire arises to taste the forbidden. Often rationalizing thoughts obscuring the clarity of the original intention surround these temptations. The training occurs in the next step, the step of renunciation or returning. We see the temptation. We acknowledge it in a non-judgmental and non-personal way realizing that we are seeing forgetfulness in the human mind. As we bring attention to the temptation we see that it has no substance. Each time we do this, the ability to choose is strengthened. Each time we return from distraction or obstacle, the power of habit and unconsciousness is weakened. In this process we begin to see the nature of our minds and the nature of reality itself. We increase our ability to pay attention. And what do we begin to notice? We observe the arising and passing away of thoughts, sensations, sounds, desires, feelings, and moods just as daylight passes and evening comes. We see the consequences of various forms of contraction in the mind or body like fear, desire, suppression, judgment, anger, and aggression. We see the consequences of various forms of expansion like, trust, ease, relaxation, acceptance, generosity and gratitude." - Sheila Peltz Weinberg

"If we assume that leadership must not only meet the needs of followers but also must elevate them, we render a different judgment. Hitler wielded power, but he did not lead." - Ronald A. Heifetz

"All I was doing was trying to get home from work." - Rosa Parks

"I would give nothing for that man's religion, whose very dog and cat are not the better for it." - Rowland Hill

"Break your pitcher against a rock. We don't need any longer to haul pieces of the ocean around." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"I see my beauty in you." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"You are a ruby in the heart of granite, how long will you try to deceive us? We can see the truth in your eyes, so come, come, return to the root of the root of your own self..." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"Once one has finished ringing, one should get out of the bell tower." - Russian Proverbs

"The lambskin is not worth the currying." - Russian Proverbs

"No person connected with me by blood or marriage will be appointed to office." - Rutherford B. Hayes, fully Rutherford Birchard Hayes

"Eleven Dos and Don’ts of Proven Entrepreneurial Success - 1. Don’t be burdened with personal debt. a. Car payment b. House payment c. Establish a nest egg d. Live simple 2. Start early as a teenager. Concentrate on what brings you happiness in your career. Have a tremendous want to – determination. 3. Sacrifice material things. Reward yourself later. 4. Shortcut to success: Observe what is working in the lives of others. Teenagers, observe mature individuals. 5. Don’t try to please all people. 6. Set priorities in the proper order. 7. Expand cautiously. Grow your business cautiously. 8. Franchising may or may not be good for your particular business. Use it cautiously. 9. Be prepared for disappointments. Many successful individuals experience failure. 10. Be kind to people. Courtesy is very cheap but brings great dividends. 11. Invite God to be involved in every decision. God gives us a brain to use – common sense. You can do it if you want to. God has given each of us a talent. Maybe yours is yet to be discovered. We honor God with our success. He designed us to be winners." - S. Truett Cathy

"Ever since I was a teenager delivering newspapers (for seven straight years), I have tried not to lose a single customer. I treated each one like the most important person in the world and delivered each paper as if I were delivering it to the front door of the Governor’s mansion. The key to succeeding with a paper route and the restaurant business, I would later learn, is to take care of the customer. Whether on the paper route or in my restaurants, I have found that the most effective way of promoting my business didn’t cost me anything but a little kindness to my customers." - S. Truett Cathy

"I believe that you can combine biblical principles and good business practices. I testified before Congress…on how to be honest and successful at the same time." - S. Truett Cathy

"The best way to turn a woman's head is to tell her she has a beautiful profile." - Sacha Guitry, fully Alexandre-Pierre Georges "Sacha" Guitry

"As the soul becomes purged and purified by means of this fire of love, it becomes ever more enkindled in love. This enkindling of love is not always felt by the soul, but only at times when contemplation assails it less vehemently." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"If formerly it sought sweetness and fervor, and found it, now it much neither seek it nor desire it, for not only will it be unable to find it through its own diligence, but it will rather find aridity, for it turns from the quiet and peaceful blessings which were secretly given it its spirit, to the work that it desires to do with sense; and thus it will lose one and not obtain the other, since no blessings are now given to it by means of sense as they were formerly… God secretly and quietly infuses into the soul loving knowledge and wisdom without any intervention of specific acts. And the soul has then to walk with loving advertence to God, without making specific acts, but conducting itself passively, and making no efforts of its own, but preserving this simple, pure and loving advertence. The soul must be attached to nothing – not even to any kind of meditation or sweetness. The spirit needs to be so free and so completely annihilated that any thought or meditation which the soul in this state might desire, or any pleasure to which it may conceive an attachment, would impede and disturb it and would introduce noise into the deep silence which it is meet that the soul should observe so that it may hear the deep and delicate voice of God which speaks to the heart in this secret place." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"Take God for your spouse and friend and walk with him continually, and you will not sin and will learn to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"The aim is union with God in the memory. #2. Images will always help a person toward union with God, provided he allows himself to soar – when God bestows the favor – from the painted image to the living God." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"The soul is wearied and fatigued by its desires… the (desires) disturb it, allowing it not to rest in any place or in any thing soever.… the desires and indulgence in them all cause it greater emptiness and hunger." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"The unmortified appetites result in killing a man in his relationship with God." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing. To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing. To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to enjoy what you have not, you must go by a way in which you enjoy not. To come to the possession you have not, you must go by a way in which you possess not. To come to what you are not, you must go by a way in which you are not." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"You should strive in your prayer for a pure conscience, a will that is wholly with God, and a mind truly set upon Him." - Saint John of the Cross, born Juan de Yepes Álvarez NULL

"A sign that we love truly love God is that we love Him the same in all occasions." - Saint Francis de Sales NULL

"A man who craves esteem cannot be rid of the causes of grief." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL

"A merciful man is the physician of his own soul. Like a violent wind he drives the darkness of the passions out of his inner self." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL

"Just as a man whose head is submerged in the water cannot breathe the subtle air which is poured upon the atmosphere's empty opening, so he who immerses his mind in the cares of the present life cannot take in the breath that is a perception of the new world." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL

"Mercy and justice (just judgment) in one soul is like a man who worships God and the idols in one house. Mercy is opposed to justice. Justice is the equality of the even scale, for it gives to each as he deserves; and when it makes recompense, it does not incline to one side or show respect of persons. Mercy, on the other hand, is a sorrow and pity stirred up by goodness, and it compassionately inclines a man in the direction of all; it[, mercy,] does not requite [or give equal retribution, an eye for an eye, to] a man who is deserving of evil, and to him who is deserving of good it gives a double portion." - Saint Isaac of Nineveh, also Isaac the Syrian, Isaac of Qatar and Isaac Syrus NULL

"All things must come to the soul from its roots, from where it is planted." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL

"I think too that His Majesty goes about trying to prove who loves Him . . . O Lord of my soul, if only one had the words to explain what You give to those who trust in You." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL

"I would never want any prayer that would not make the virtues grow within me." - Saint Teresa of Ávila, aka Saint Teresa of Jesus, baptized as Teresa Sánchez de Cepeda y Ahumada NULL

"The movement of love has a twofold tendency: towards the good which a man wishes to someone, whether for himself or for another; and towards that to which he wishes some good. Accordingly, man has love of concupiscence towards the good that he wishes to another, and love of friendship towards him to whom he wishes good." - Saint Thomas Aquinas, aka Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis or Doctor Universalis

"A doctor who keeps a person from becoming ill deserves more merit than one who cures him." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"Indeed, good is not good if one does not suffer in doing it." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"You see, Monsieur, you and I allow ourselves to be carried away too much by our own opinions. You, however, are in a place where an exceptional reserve and circumspection are necessary. I have always heard that the Italians are the most cautious people in the world and the most distrustful of individuals who act too quickly. Caution, patience, and gentleness resolve everything with them, in time. Because they know that we French act too quickly, they leave us out in the cold for a long time without making friends with us. In the name of God, Monsieur, be careful about this and about never disregarding the orders you receive from us." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"It was because it was easier to blame me, ... You know, 'Why is he rocking the boat?' In those days there was a lot of that stuff. He was asking for it. He did it on purpose. He was begging for it. It was just conventional blaming-the-victim stuff. I don't like the term 'victim' when applied to myself. Certainly I felt the guilt burden had shifted from the people doing the violence to the person on the receiving end of the violence." - Salman Rushdie, fully Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie

"Nothing comes from nothing, Thief let; no story comes from nowhere; new stories are born from old--it is the new combinations that make them new." - Salman Rushdie, fully Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie

"Forever will be you and me." - Salvador Dalí, fully Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech

"We mourn over the sin which brought about that downfall (the Temple destruction -- author), we take to heart the harshness which we have encountered in our years of wandering as the chastisement of a father, imposed on us for our improvement, and we mourn the lack of observance of the Torah which that ruin has brought about. Not in order to shine as a nation among nations do we raise our prayers and hopes for a reunion in our land, but in order to find a soil for the better fulfillment of our spiritual vocation in that reunion and in that land which was promised, and given, and again promised for our observance of the Torah. But this very vocation obliges us, until G-d shall call us back to the Holy Land, to live and to work as patriots wherever He has placed us, to collect all the physical, material and spiritual forces and all that is noble in Israel to further the weal of the nations which have given us shelter. It obliges us, further, to allow our longing for the far-off land to express itself only in mourning, in wishing and hoping; and only through the honest fulfillment of all Jewish duties to await the realization of this hope. But it forbids us to strive for the reunion or possession of the land by any but spiritual means." - Samson Raphael Hirsch

"What is faith but a kind of betting or speculation after all? It should be, I bet that my Redeemer liveth." - Samuel Butler

"My opinion is that we require no more Commissions, no more Sage investigators. What we want is action, and we want it immediately. We want a Department of Labor established, with a Secretary at its head, who shall have a seat in the President's cabinet, and that man to be a man who knows what Labor is, not only from a theoretical standpoint, but from the practical standpoint. . . . I hope you will do your utmost to see that such a Department is established, and let us get away from the puny vacillating system of unnecessary excuses by referring matters to irresponsible Commissions, from which no permanent and beneficial results ensue." - Samuel Gompers

"Ignore the conventional wisdom. If everybody else is doing it one way, there's a good chance you can find your niche by going in exactly the opposite direction." - Sam Walton, fully Samuel Moore "Sam" Walton

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants." - Samuel Johnson, aka Doctor Johnson

"From sixteen to twenty, all women, kept in humor by their hopes and by their attractions, appear to be good-natured." - Samuel Richardson

"The first step in debt is like the first step in falsehood, involving the necessity of going on in the same course, debt following debt, as lie follows lie." - Samuel Smiles

"The life of a good man is at the same time the most eloquent lesson of virtue and the most severe reproof of vice." - Samuel Smiles

"Every dawn renews the Beginning, and to behold the earth struggling out of the formless void, out of the night, is to witness the act of creation." - Sholem Asch, born Szalom Asz, also written Shalom Asch

"Faith is a state of openness or trust…In other words, a person who is fanatic in matters of religion, and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe, becomes a person who has no faith at all. Instead they are holding tight. But the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to the truth, whatever it might turn out to be." - Shunryu Suzuki, also Daisetsu Teitaro or D.T. Suzuki or Suzuki-Roshi

"Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well." - Shunryu Suzuki, also Daisetsu Teitaro or D.T. Suzuki or Suzuki-Roshi