The quality of mercy is not strain'd
It droppeth as the gently rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice blest'
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes;
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest. . . .
--William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Vashon Literature Repository
Again we have let another Chaplain/Psychiatrist kill tens of thousands of
us--Islander and Merman alike. This new C/P , Raja Flattery, calls himself
"the Director," but he will see. We have kissed the ring and bared the
throat for the last time.
--First Shadowbox broadcast, 5 Bunratti 493
Fire smolders in a soul more surely than it does under ashes.
--Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire
Human hybernation is to animal hibernation as animal hibernation is to
constant wakefulness. In its reduction of life processes, hybernation
approached absolute stasis. It is nearer death than life.
--Dictionary of Science, 155th edition.
That is the difference between gods and men--gods do not murder their
children. They do not exterminate themselves.
--Hali Ekel, from Journals of Pandoran pioneers
Right is self-evident. It needs no defense, just good witness.
--Ward Keel, Chief Justice (deceased)
Worship isn't really love. An object of worship can never be itself.
Remember that people love people and vice versa. People fear gods.
--Dwarf MacIntoch, Kelpmaster, Current Control
When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, "A shower is
coming," and so it comes to pass. And when you see the south wind blow, you
say, "There will be a scorching heat," and so it comes to pass. You
hypocrites! You know how to judge the face of the sky and of the earth; but
how is it that you do not judge this time?
--Jesus
The things that people want and the things that are good for them are
very different...Great art and domestic bliss are mutually incompatible.
Sooner or later, you'll have to make your choice.
--Arthur C. Clarke
Since every object is simply the sum of its qualities, and since
qualities exist only in the mind, the whole objective universe of matter and
energy, atoms and stars does not exist except as a construction of the
consciousness, an edifice of conventional symbols shaped by the senses of
man.
--Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Even if they, with minds overcome by greed, see no evil in the
destruction of a family, see no sin in the treachery to friends, shall we
not, who see the evil of destruction, shall we not refrain from this
terrible deed?
--from Zavatan Conversations with the Avate, Queets Twisp, elder
Mankind owns four things
that are no good at sea;
rudder, anchor, oars
and the fear of going down.
--Antonio Machado
Evil is in the eye of the beholder.
--Spider Nevi, special assistant to the Director
And out of the ground made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
--Christian Book of the Dead
To think of a power means not only to use it, but above all to abuse it.
--Gaston Bachelard, The Psychoanalysis of Fire
Remember that I have power; you believe yourself miserable, but I can
make you so wretched that the light of day will be hateful to you. You are
my creator, but I am your master.
--Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Vashon Literature Repository
I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. . . I
look upon the judgement of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a
dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four
seasons.
--Buddha
Of everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and of
him to whom they have entrusted much, they will demand the more.
--Jesus
What then shall we do?
--Leo Tolstoy
Intervention into destiny by god or man requires the most delicate care.
--Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control
Do you know how hard it is to think like a plant?
--Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control (from Holovision Nightly
News, 3 Jueles 493)
You have been educated in judgement, which is the essence of worship.
Judgement always occurs in the past. It is past-thinking. Will, free or
otherwise, is concerned with the future. Thinking is the performance of the
moment, out of which you use your judgement to modulate will. You are a
convection center through which past prepares future.
--Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, from Conversations with the Avata
Mercenary captains either are or are not skilful soldiers. If they are,
you cannot trust them , for they will always seek to gain power for
themselves either by oppressing you, the master, or by oppressing others
against your wishes.
--Machiavelli, The Prince
The mind at ease is a dead mind.
--Dwarf MacIntosh, Kelpmaster, Current Control
Canon in D
--Pachelbel
In conscience you find the structure, the form of consciousness, the
beauty.
--Kerro Panille, "Translations from the Avata," The Histories
Anyone who becomes master of a city accustomed to freedom and does not
destroy it may expect to be destroyed by it.
--Machiavelli, The Prince
The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and
irreplaceable being.
--T. Robbins, from A Literary Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age
Manipulating the kelp electronically is like making a marionette out of a
quadriplegic. The trick becomes keeping it a quadriplegic.
--Raja Flattery, from "Current Control from the Skies," Holovision feature
Short-term expedients always fail in the long term.
--Dwarf MacIntosh
The gods do not limit men. Men limit men.
--T. Robbins, A Literary Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age
Men are moved by two principal things--by love and by fear. Consequently,
they are commanded as well by someone who wins their affection as by someone
who arouses their fear. Indeed, in most instances the one who arouses their
fear gains more of a following and is more readily obeyed than the one who
wins their affection.
--Machiavelli, The Prince
Consciousness manifests itself indubitably in man and therefore, glimpsed
in this one flash of light, it reveals itself as having a cosmic extension
and consequently as being aureoled by limitless prolongations in space and
time.
--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe
We Islanders understand current and flow. We understand that conditions
and time change. To change, then, is normal.
--Ward Keel, The Notebooks
Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for
hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for
stripe.
--Christian Book of the Dead
Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that
lies in your heart. Be one in self-harmony and arise, great warrior, arise.
--from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queens Twisp, elder
We Islanders understand current and flow. We understand that conditions
and times change. To change, then, is normal.
--Ward Keep, The Apocryphal Notebooks
Power, like any other living being, will go to infinite lengths to
maintain itself.
--Ward Keep, The Apocryphal Notebooks
Anyone who threatens the mind or its symbolizing endangers the matrix of
humanity itself.
--Ward Keep, The Apocryphal Notebooks
The new ruler must inevitably distress those over whom he establishes his
rule. So it happens that he makes enemies of all those whom he has injured
in occupying the new principality, and yet he cannot keep the friendship of
those who have set him up.
--Machiavelli, The Prince
We're more than our ideas.
--Prudence Lon Weygand, M.D., number five original crew, Voidship Earthling.
I am afraid, too, like all my fellow-men, of the future too heavy with
mystery and too wholly new, towards which time is driving me.
--Pierre Tielhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe, the Zavatan Collection
Not by refraining from action does one attain freedom from action. Not by
mere renunciation does one attain supreme perfection.
--from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
Roots and wings. But let the wings grow roots and the roots fly.
--Juan Ramon Jimenez
To be conscious, you must surmount illusion.
--Prudence Lon Weygand, M.D., number five, original crew member, Voidship
Earthling
Feed men, then ask of them virtue.
--Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
If you think that vision is greater than action, why do you enjoin upon
me the terrible action of war?
--from Zavatan Conversations with the Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
While the fat and flesh cleaving to the flame are devoured by it, you who
cleave to it are yet alive.
--Zohar: The Book of Splendor
That's all Ship ever asked of us, that's all WorShip was meant to be;
find our own humanity and live up to it.
--Kerro Panille, from The Clone Wars
Therefore, if it was more necessary in those days to satisfy the soldiers
than the people, this was because the soldiers had more power than the
people. Today . . .all rulers find it more necessary to satisfy the people
than the soldiers, because the former now have more power than the latter.
--Machiavelli, The Prince
What happiness could we ever enjoy if we killed our own kinsmen in
battle?
--Bhagavad-Gita
Reveries, mad reveries, lead life.
--Gaston Bachelard
I will this morning climb up in spirit to the high places, bearing with
me the hopes and the miseries of my mother; and there. . .upon all that in
the world of human flesh is now about to be born or to die beneath the
rising sun I will call down the Fire.
--Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Hymn of the Universe
Increase the number of variables, but the axioms themselves never change.
--Algebra II
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight. . .
--Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach"
Dark, unfeeling and unloving powers determine human destiny.
--John Wisdom
There must be a threshold of consciousness beyond which a conscious being
takes on the attributes of God.
--Umbilicus crew member, Voidship Earthling, from The Histories
One who withdraws oneself from actions, but ponders on their pleasures in
the heart, such a one is under a delusion and is a false swimmer of the Way.
--Zavatan Conversations with Avata, Queets Twisp, elder
Consciousness, the gift of the serpent.
--Raja Lon Flattery, number five model, Shiprecords
The is is holy and the void is home.
--Huston Smith
If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill, take it and
push it as far as it will go, push it to the wildest edge of edges, then you
force it into the realm of magic.
--T. Robbins
To comfort a person with his shadow is to show him his own light.
--Carl Jung
Ferdinand of Aragon. . . has always planned and executed great things
which have filled his subjects with wonder and admiration and have kept them
preoccupied. One action has grown out of another with such rapidity that
there never has been time in which men could quietly plot against him.
--Machiavelli, The Prince
So many things fail to interest us, simply because they don't find in us
enough surfaces on which to live, and what we have to do then is to increase
the number of planes in our mind, so that a much larger number of themes can
find a place in it at the same time.
--Jose Ortega y Gasset