Quotes, thoughts and musings

[Oriadin]

I have taken to going to the pub every Saturday night with my circle of friends. During the course of the night, we all end up having a fair few to drink, but it seems the more I drink, the more I think!

I posted a while ago about whether or not I should break up with my long term girlfriend whom I have a mortgage with. Well, we broke up, and I question my decision every day. I question my life and what it means. Where its going, where I want it to go and wondering what life is about.

As I sit in the bar on a Saturday night I usually end up scribbling thoughts, quotes Ive heard or made up and musings on the back of beer mats.

I thought it might be an idea to create a thread dedicated to quotes that "make you think" or make you stop and take a different look on things. Here is a couple to get started!

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"Often you can tell who someone is by where they've been"

"The only certainty in life, is death"

"Time is the best healer"

"What makes a man good?
What makes a good man great?
What makes a great man bad?
What makes a bad man evil?"

"If you keep having bad experiences in life, its time to change your life"

[Vega Van-Derveld]

"Whatever folly men commit, be their shortcomings or their vices what they may, let us exercise forbearance; remembering that when these faults appear in others, it is our follies and vices that we behold. They are the shortcomings of humanity, to which we belong; whose faults, one and all, we share; yes, even those very faults at which we now wax so indignant, merely because they have not yet appeared in ourselves. They are faults that do not lie on the surface. But they exist down there in the depths of our nature; and should anything call them forth, they will come and show themselves, just as we now see them in others."

I would just quote the whole essay if I could, but it's a little long, so here's a link to it instead: http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/pessimism/chapter1.html

[Pierce Tondry]

"Let your heart decide what you want to do and let your head work out how to get it done."

[Oriadin]

"May whatever God you belive in, have mercy on your soul."

[Mitch]

"Beware the fury of a patient man." --John Dreyden

[Samantha Koortyn]

"I don't care what anyone says about me, as long as it isn't true."
~Katharine Hepburn.

[Oriadin]

"Life will deal you want it thinks you can handle."

This goes along with my theory that every problem you encounter in life is the toughest yet. Every problem you have in life helps make you stronger and prepare you for the next thing. Life is all about experiences and nothing can get you through a problem better than strength of character and experiences that have shown that things do get better, and are worth waiting to see again.

[Oriadin]

What gets someone through a problem in their life? People around them? Support? The will to fight on? The hopes, dreams and aspirations of a person?

What happens to a person that loses all their hopes and dreams? If they lose their will to fight on and wonder what they are actually doing here? When does life just become to painfull and why is it you sometimes feel your in a hole you cant get out of?

When your life seems like is a shattered mess all around you, where do you start to pick up the pieces?

[Pierce Tondry]

You start with the first thing that needs doing. Life goes on whether you are moving with it or not.

The best stuff about you that really defines who you are as a person should never change. Draw on that to move on.

[Atreyu]

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give." – Sir Winston Churchill

(also, there'the quote in my signature from the Bible which I think is pretty cool)

[Morgan Evanar]

Don't apply throttle in the wet the same way you do in the dry.

[Oriadin]

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude.

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.
- Charles Swindoll

[Oriadin]

Which is better, a truth that causes pain, or a lie that raises a smile?

[Oriadin]

Everyone goes through life with their own set of morals, their own rules. Someone might consider abortion as something that should NEVER be done, meanwhile others say it can be justified. Who wouldnt agree that murder was wrong, but what about capital punishment?

I guess my thoughts are, who really knows whats right or wrong? What makes something right or wrong? Whats to say that something we all consider to be wrong, really doesnt matter either way?

In the western world, its considered wrong to have more than one wife... how come? Perhaps because it can hurt peoples feelings, but do they only get hurt because of the way we expect a man to have one wife? Is it because its degrading to women? If a man could have several wives, there doesnt seem to be any reason as to why a woman cant have more than one husband.

My questions here dont really reflect the way I feel, but more of a deeper question of where peoples morals come from. Is it because of the way we have been brought up, and if so, whos to say thats right? Have you ever questioned what you belive and why you belive it? Just because the majority belive something does that make it right? Or should people be encouraged to think differently and make their own choices and come to their own conclusions?

[Vega Van-Derveld]

All of it boils down to your socialization, I think. What you're exposed to as you grow, the schemas you develop. That determines what you perceive as right and wrong, normal and abnormal. Really, there isn't any fixed variable for either right or wrong - there's just two different opinions. Of course some things, mass-murder for example, are going to be 'wrong' in pretty much every culture, but lots of elements of a society and its members behaviour could be questioned otherwise.

It's pretty weird to entertain the thought of what you might have been like if you had been socialized in a different way. Would you still retain the fundamental aspects of your personality, or are we all blank slates, with no pre-determined traits? Personally I believe that it's the latter.

As you become educated, you develop the ability to question these things, but I think it would still be very difficult to shake off what you have essentially been psychologically conditioned into being. It would mean erasing your whole identity, and learning everything anew. Even then, would it work? Everything you ever learn is going to have some bias on it. An omniscient perspective would be impossible to achieve.

[Oriadin]

Originally posted by Vega Van-Derveld
It's pretty weird to entertain the thought of what you might have been like if you had been socialized in a different way. Would you still retain the fundamental aspects of your personality, or are we all blank slates, with no pre-determined traits? Personally I believe that it's the latter.

Just noticed the irony in your avatar after reading that!

I agree with what your saying there. Although does being educated help you to question why things are right or wrong, or does it help you to belive in the same thing as the person teaching you?

I've started asking myself the question because of bad things that have happened to me and Im looking at other perspectives. Maybe it takes a negative thing to happen in your life to start looking outside the box. Is that a form of education?

Im not sure people are completely blank slates. If that were the case, then surely all life is predermined? Your a victim of your lifes experiences, which in turn is a victim of everyone elses life experiences. I think there has to be something inside you which means you can go against everything you've known and everything youve been taught for something that you feel is right.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

:lol @ at the avatar comment

I suppose the reason I say that education helps is because generally it opens your mind to other ways of thinking. You might not agree with someone elses opinion, but you can at least entertain it and weigh up its pros and cons versus your own stance. Then again, not everyone can do this - but I believe this is a result of their upbringing. Not necessarily just their parents, but the other people who they were around. I guess it's a fluid thing really, you are constantly changing.

I remember reading a quote somewhere that sums it up kind of. I don't remember the exact wording, but it was something about a person being the sum total of everyone they'd ever met and everything they'd ever done, as if it all leaves an imprint on you.
I love to speculate on this sort of thing, though, how one little choice can alter the future so completely. If I hadn't met a certain person and had a certain experience with them, what effect would it have had on me long-term?

I definitely think you're right in saying that it can often take an individual real life experience to really hit a point home for you. I think people often only internalized a view once it becomes personal to them.

As for the blank slate think... I don't suppose it's a question we can ever answer. The closest you could come to solving something like that would be to take two twins, seperate them at biirth and raise them in entirely different cultures. Theoretically, if we are born with predetermined characteristics, the twins should retain these traits regardless of the society they're brought up in, since they are genetically identical. That is unless you're going for the spiritual angle, that our identities are somehow imprinted at birth by some higher power, as a result of actions in a past-life or somesuch.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/11/04/48hours/main581771.shtml I did a google search: Identical twins, raised apart.

http://www.nyu.edu/classes/neimark/TWIN1.HTM

[Sean Piett]

There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

Originally posted by Sean Piett
There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.

"Never mind about the lords and ladies. Would you like to take up any course of study--history, for example?"

"Sometimes I feel I don't want to know anything more about it than I know already."

"Why not?"

"Because what's the use of learning that I am one of a long row only--finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that's all. The best is not to remember that your nature and your past doings have been just like thousands' and thousands', and that your coming life and doings 'll be like thousands's and thousands'."

[Oriadin]

Well today I reach my 24th Birthday. Now, do we celebrate the fact we were brought into the world, or the fact we have survived X amount of years and people are glad your still here?

As with new year, a birthday gives you a specific day to look back on and remember. What was I doing this time last year and how has my life changed? Its also a time to think what will my life be like one year from now.

So, another year comes and goes as I, like everyone else, tries to muddle through and find their way. Who can tell what they have in store for them, do you have decades left, or weeks? Should you live for the moment or plan for the future? I guess that life is all about finding the answers to these questions in your own way, and in your own time. Life is an experience, can be good, can be bad but a journey that molds who you are non the less. People you meet, friends you make, good days you have, bad days you remember... life is all about the journey you take.

[Oriadin]

I attended one of my best friends wedding at the weekend, and as I did so it got me thinking about the relationship I have with him, and how we became friends in the first place.

Personally, I don't belive in a god, I belive a man named Jesus probably walked the earth at some point but that he was no more than a man who told good stories about how people should treat one another. I don't belive there is a higher being or a life after death. My friend, on the other hand is a christian. He attends church at least twice a week and belives he has a personal relationship with Jesus.

Its that very difference of opinion which brought the two of us together. We used to sit and debate about religion, god and the bible for hours. Throwing out the concept that you should never talk about religion and politics! The ability we both had to accept that we had different opinions and to have an interest in WHY the other thought the way they did made us the friends we are today.

I just think its important to highlight the importance of other peoples opinions and to understand why they belive in a certain thing. I dont belive in god, but my friends belief meant Ive known him for the last 8 or so years.

[Oriadin]

A brave person is not someone is afraid of nothing. A brave person is someone who can stand up to their fears.

[Vega Van-Derveld]

A wondrous subtle thing is love, for here were we two who had never seen each other before that day, between whom no word or even look of affection had ever passed, and yet now, in an hour of trouble, our hands instinctively sought for each other. I have marvelled at it since, but at the time it seemed the most natural thing that I should go out to her so, and, as she has often told me, there was in her also the instinct to turn to me for comfort and protection. So we stood, hand-in-hand, like two children, and there was peace in our hearts for all the dark things that surrounded us. - Sir A. Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four

When I desire you a part of me is gone: my want of you partakes of me. So reasons the lover at the edge of eros. The presence of want awakens in him nostalgia for wholeness. His thoughts turn toward questions of personal identity: he must recover and reincorporate what is gone if he is to be a complete person. The locus classicus for this view of desire is the speech of Aristophanes in Plato's Symposium. Here Aristophanes accounts for the nature of human eros by means of a fantastic anthropology. Human beings were originally round organisms, each composed of two people joined together as one perfect sphere. These rolled about everywhere and were exceedingly happy. But the spherical creatures grew overambitious, thinking to roll right up to Olympus, so Zeus chopped each of them in two. As a result everyone must go now through life in search of the one and only other person who can round him out again. "Sliced in two like a flatfish," says Aristophanes, "each of us is perpetually hunting for the matching half of himself". - Anne Carson, Eros the Bittersweet

There was a tremendous sense of betrayal with the shock of your leaving. He could not understand you not wanting to share a common future in which, together, you would observe the world in all its sad and beautiful guises. The way he describes it, you could have been in different rooms and been able to predict the other's response to something because it would have been your own response. You respected the same things - aesthetically, politically, morally. He felt the two of you were co-conspirators. You wanted the same things and laughed at the same things But you ultimately needed different things. - Elliot Perlman, Seven Types of Ambiguity

:(

[Oriadin]

I was thinking about destiny a while ago. Personally, I belive in destiny. I have to think that things happen for a reason, otherwise the really bad things that happen in life simply become to hard to take.

Even if something happens that at the time, is the worst possible thing you could imagine happening, it might turn out to be an event that changed your life in such a way that ended up for the best.

For example, my father died when I was 18. When he died I had to learn how to be responsible and look after my family very quickly. My grandfather died two years later leaving me the oldest male in my family and suddenly a person everyone looked to. It was probably the most life shaping years of my life. Sure, at the time it was the worst thing that ever happened to me, but im still here. I still think about them every day and try to remember all that they taught me in life. Ive always tried to be a person they'd be proud of, whether it was remembering something they taught me, or working out a problem for myself. It would have taken me a lot longer to "grow up" had it not been for the death of the two strongest people in my life. Id still change it if I could go back, but perhaps their deaths at an early age helped me to develop into the person I am today. And perhaps I need to be that person for some particular problem in the future...

[Oriadin]

Is there any such thing as a selfless act?

That might seem like an easy question to answer at first, but if you actually think about it, it might not. For example, you might to something which many would reguard as a selfless act but are you genuinely doing something for someone else, or are you doing it because it makes you feel good about yourself. Perhaps you feel pleasure by helping others, or more ritious. In that case, your selfless act has suddenly become selfish because your own pleasure is the real reason deep down your doing the act.