Socrates

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.

See one promontory, one mountain, one sea, one river and see all.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

The Christian’s Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.

I have a bit of supernatural take on life. For a moment, I went over to the other side. Since then, I can feel the presence of the departed. I’m very sensitive to it.

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would solve most the worlds problems.

People in general are equally horrified at hearing the Christian religion doubted, and at seeing it practiced.

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.

Still water has no mind to receive the image of the migrating geese.

Learning Zen is a phenomenon of gold & dung. Before you learn it, it’s like gold; after you learn it, it’s like dung.

Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.

The truth of Zen, just a little bit of it, is what turns one’s humdrum life into one of art.

The law of God, as quite plainly expressed in woman’s construction, is this: There shall be no limit put upon your intercourse with the other sex sexually, at any time of life. During twenty-three days in every month (in the absence of pregnancy) from the time a woman is seven years old till she dies of old age, she is ready for action, and competent. As competent as the candlestick is to receive the candle. Competent every day, competent every night. Also, she wants that candle – yearns for it, longs for it, hankers after it, as commanded by the law of God in her heart.

Christ was only crucified once and for a few hours. Think of the hundreds of thousands whom Christ has been crucifying in a quiet way ever since.

Right now, it’s like this.

Christ: I dislike him very much. Still, I can stand him. What I cannot stand is the wretched band of people whose profession is to hoodwink us about him.

Tao in the world is like a river flowing home to the sea.

It was the schoolboy who said, Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.