Decadentia > Decadentia's Quotes

“The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.”
― Carlos Castaneda

“A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you . . . Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question . . . Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't it is of no use.”
― Carlos Castaneda

“The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse.”
― Carlos Castaneda

“In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts. There is only time for decisions.”
― Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan: The Lessons of Don Juan

“A man of knowledge lives by acting, not by thinking about acting. ”
― Carlos Castaneda

“A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

“All of us, whether or not we are warriors, have a cubic centimeter of chance that pops out in front of our eyes from time to time. The difference between an average man and a warrior is that the warrior is aware of this, and one of his tasks is to be alert, deliberately waiting, so that when his cubic centimeter pops out he has the necessary speed, the prowess, to pick it up.”
― Carlos Castaneda

“Think about it: what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men. Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone.”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Fire from Within

“Forget the self and you will fear nothing, in whatever level or awareness you find yourself to be.”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Active Side of Infinity

“Seek and see all the marvels around you. You will get tired of looking at yourself alone, and that fatigue will make you deaf and blind to everything else. - Don Juan”
― Carlos Castaneda, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge

“This fall I think you're riding for—it's a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn't permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling. The whole arrangement's designed for men who, at some time or other in their lives, were looking for something their own environment couldn't supply them with. Or they thought their own environment couldn't supply them with. So they gave up looking. They gave it up before they ever really even got started.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“Не думайте, що коли-небудь без великої праці і без широкого знання можна було б написати що-небудь великого і вічно живучого.”
― Ivan Franko

“We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work”
― Thomas A. Edison

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes...you're Doing Something.”
― Neil Gaiman

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“The hypothesis of God, for instance, gives an incomparably absolute opportunity to understand everything and know absolutely nothing. Give man an extremely simplified system of the world and explain every phenomenon away on the basis of that system. An approach like that doesn't require any knowledge. Just a few memorized formulas plus so-called intuition and so-called common sense.”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic

“The God hypothesis, for example, allows you to have an unparallelled understanding of absolutely everything while knowing absolutely nothing.”
― Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

“И они приняли рабочую гипотезу, что счастье в непрерывном познании
неизвестного и смысл жизни в том же”
― Arkady Strugatsky

“Двести тысяч мужчин и женщин. Двести тысяч кузнецов, оружейников, мясников, галантерейщиков, ювелиров, домашних хозяек, проституток, монахов, менял, солдат, бродяг, уцелевших книгочеев ворочались сейчас в душных, провонявших клопами постелях: спали, любились, пересчитывали в уме барыши, плакали, скрипели зубами от злости или от обиды... Двести тысяч человек! Было в них что-то общее для пришельца с Земли. Наверное, то, что все они почти без исключений были еще не людьми в современном смысле слова, а заготовками, болванками, из которых только кровавые века истории выточат когда-нибудь настоящего гордого и свободного человека. Они были пассивны, жадны и невероятно, фантастически эгоистичны. Психологически почти все они были рабами – рабами веры, рабами себе подобных, рабами страстишек, рабами корыстолюбия. И если волею судеб кто-нибудь из них рождался или становился господином, он не знал, что делать со своей свободой. Он снова торопился стать рабом – рабом богатства, рабом противоестественных излишеств, рабом распутных друзей, рабом своих рабов. Огромное большинство из них ни в чем не было виновато. Они были слишком пассивны и слишком невежественны. Рабство их зиждилось на пассивности и невежестве, а пассивность и невежество вновь и вновь порождали рабство. Если бы они все были одинаковы, руки опустились бы и не на что было бы надеяться. Но все-таки они были людьми, носителями искры разума. И постоянно, то тут, то там вспыхивали и разгорались в их толще огоньки неимоверно далекого и неизбежного будущего. Вспыхивали, несмотря ни на что. Несмотря на всю их кажущуюся никчемность. Несмотря на гнет. Несмотря на то, что их затаптывали сапогами. Несмотря на то, что они были не нужны никому на свете и все на свете были против них. Несмотря на то, что в самом лучшем случае они могли рассчитывать на презрительную недоуменную жалость...”
― Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

“Общение с девушками доставляет удовольствие лишь в тех случаях, когда достигается через преодоление препятствий...”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Понедельник начинается в субботу

“Только тот д-достигнет цели, кто не знает с-слова «страх»...”
― Arkady Strugatsky, Понедельник начинается в субботу

“Проще плюнуть, чем понять.”
― Arkady Strugatsky

“Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka

“Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more.”
― Franz Kafka

“Better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have.”
― Franz Kafka

“Якщо ти достатньо заглибишся в науку, то помалу осягнеш можливості власного розуму. Ти збагнеш, що - для тебе, а що - може, й ні. Згодом ти усвідомиш, який спосіб думок найбільш властивий твоїй душі, твоїй натурі. Завдяки цьому ти не гаятимеш силу часу на те, щоб проникнути в ідеї, які тебе не вдовольняють, чужі тобі. Ти пізнаєш справжню свою мірку і вбиратимеш свій розум у відповідну одіж.”
― Jerome David Salinger

“Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough.”
― Richard P. Feynman

“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It's their mistake, not my failing.”
― Richard P. Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all.”
― Richard P. Feynman

“What I got out of that story was something still very new to me: I understood at last what art is really for, at least in certain respects. It gives somebody, individually, pleasure. You can make something that somebody likes so much that they’re depressed, or they’re happy, on account of that damn thing you made! In science, it’s sort of general and large: You don’t know the individuals who have appreciated it directly. I understood that to sell a drawing is not to make money, but to be sure that it’s in the home of someone who really wants it; someone who would feel bad if they didn’t have it. This was interesting.”
― Richard Feynman, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character