Sean Ryan > Sean's Quotes

“Why were Jack and his brother digging post holes? A fence there would run parallel to the one that already enclosed the farmyard. The Welches had no animals to keep in or out - a fence there could serve no purpose. Their work was pointless. Years later, while I was waiting for a boat to take me across the river, I watched two Vietnamese women methodically hitting a discarded truck tire with sticks. They did it for a good long while, and were still doing it when I crossed the river. They were part of the dream from which I recognized the Welches, my defeat-dream, my damnation-dream, with its solemn choreography of earnest useless acts.”
― Tobias Wolff, This Boy's Life

“Perfection is the willingness to be imperfect.”
― Laozi

“Loss is not as bad as wanting more.”
― Lao Tzu

“Ask the dust on the road! Ask the Joshua trees standing alone where the Mojave begins. Ask them about Camilla Lopez, and they will whisper her name.”
― John Fante, The Big Hunger: John Fante's Lost and Recently-Discovered Stories

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
― Lao Tzu

“The best fighter is never angry.”
― Lao Tzu

“A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“I always had a strong reluctance to hurt people, which is always the best way of hurting oneself.”
― Romain Gary, Promise at Dawn

“Men sometimes die much earlier than they are burried.”
― Romain Gary, Au-delà de cette limite votre ticket n'est plus valable

“.....he was simply a man who had gone even further into loneliness than others - and that's a real exploit, by the way; where breaking records in loneliness is concerned, we're all champions in the field. ..........he continually repeats: "dogs are not enough anymore. People feel so damned lonely, they need company, they need something bigger, stronger, to lean on, something that can really stand up to it all. Dogs aren't enough; what we need is elephants.......”
― Romaine Gary, The Roots of Heaven

“Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't even a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that all thinking in temporal terms cuts off.... the experience of eternity right here and now, in all things, whether thought of as good or as evil, is the function of life.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.”
― Joseph Campbell

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Genius too does nothing but learn first how to lay bricks then how to build, and continually seek for material and continually form itself around it.Every activity of man is amazingly complicated, not only that of the genius: but none is a ‘miracle.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“The consequences of our actions take hold of us, quite indifferent to our claim that meanwhile we have 'improved.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

“The maturity of man—that means, to have reacquired the seriousness that one had as a child at play”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

“I am not, I will not be.
I have not, I will not have.
This frightens all children,
And kills fear in the wise.”
― Nāgārjuna

“Since all is empty, all is possible.”
― Nagarjuna

“Stop thinking, and end your problems.”
― Lao Tzu

“Silence is a source of Great Strength.”
― Lao Tzu

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment”
― Lao Tzu

“To a mind that is still the whole universe surrenders.”
― Lao Tzu

“If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness.”
― Lao-Tzu

“To understand the limitation of things, desire them.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Do you imagine the universe is agitated? Go into the desert at night and look at the stars. This practice should answer the question.”
― Lao Tzu

“Give evil nothing to oppose
and it will disappear by itself.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Not-knowing is true knowledge.
Presuming to know is a disease.
First realize that you are sick;
then you can move toward health.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Knowing how to yield is strength”
― Lao-Tzu

“Just remain in the center; watching. And then forget that you are there.”
― Lao Tzu

“I'm not a humanitarian, I'm a hell-raiser. ”
― Mother Jones