Reflections

on life, the Universe, and everything...

Honesty is the best policy -- when there is money in it.

Mark Twain

There is hope. But not for you.

Franz Kafka

Even if I knew I was going to die tomorrow I would still plant a tree today.

Martin Luther

Nature has neither kernel nor shell: she is everything at once

J W von Goethe

Now will he strive in earnest to honor the dwellers in Heaven,
Everything living must utter their praise, in word and deed.
…But we, my friend, are too late. The gods, it is true, are living,
Yet far above ourselves, away in a different world.
There they are endlessly active and seem but little regardful
Whether we live or not, such is their tender concern,
Knowing that fragile vessels cannot always contain them.
Only at times can man endure the abundance of gods.

Life thereafter is but to dream of them. Yet our wanderings
Help, like sleep, and anguish and night give strength.

Meanwhile, it seems to me often
Better to slumber than live without companions, like this,
So to linger, and know not what to begin or to utter,
Or, in such spiritless times, why be a poet at all?

Friedrich Hölderlin

Without an understanding of the nature of the universe, a man cannot know where he is; without an understanding of its purpose, he cannot know what he is, nor what the universe itself is. Let either of these discoveries be hid from him, and he will not be able so much as to give a reason for his own existence.

Marcus Aurelius

By all outward appearances our life is a spark of light between one eternal darkness and another.

Alan Watts

"Those who speak know nothing
Those who know are silent".
- These words, I am told,
Were spoken by Lao-Tsu.
If we are to believe that Lao-Tsu
Was himself one who knew,
How comes it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?

Po Chu-I

You live in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is not expanding.

Woody Allen's mother

The Kingdom of God is within you.

Jesus of Nazareth

Consider yourself a tourist. Think of the world as it is seen from space, so small and insignificant yet so beautiful. Could there really be anything to be gained from harming others during our stay here? Is it not preferable, and more reasonable, to relax and enjoy ourselves quietly, just as if we were visiting from a different neighbourhood? Therefore, if in the midst of your enjoyment of the world you have a moment, try to help in however small a way those who are downtrodden and those who, for whatever reason, cannot or do not help themselves. Try not to turn away from those whose appearance is disturbing, from the ragged and the unwell. Try never to think of them as inferior to yourself. If you can, try not even to think of yourself as better than the humblest beggar. You will look the same in your grave.

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet

Love is the star to every wandering bark
Whose worth's not known, although his height be taken.

William Shakespeare