Yuli > Yuli's Quotes

“She felt a little nervous about this; 'for it might end, you know,' said Alice to herself, 'in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?' And she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember ever having seen such a thing.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland / Through the Looking-Glass

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“آن کس که بداند و بداند که بداند
اسب خرد از گنبد گردون بجهاند
آن کس که بداند و نداند که بداند
آگاه نمایید که بس خفته نماند
آن کس که نداند و بداند که نداند
لنگان خرک خویش به منزل برساند
آن کس که نداند و نداند که نداند
در جهل مرکب ابدالدهر بماند”
― ابن یمین فریومدی

“At the age of nineteen, Gordievsky took up cross-country running. Something about the solitary nature of the sport appealed to him, the rhythm of intense exertion over a long period, in private competition with himself, testing his own limits.”
― Ben Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

“Lenin is often credited with coining the term “useful idiot,” poleznyi durak in Russian, meaning one who can be used to spread propaganda without being aware of it or subscribing”
― Ben Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

“Gordievsky’s letter was his testament. I must emphasize that my decision is not the result of irresponsibility or instability of character on my part. It has been preceded by a long spiritual struggle and by agonizing emotion, and an even deeper disappointment at developments in my own country and my own experiences have brought me to the belief that democracy, and the tolerance of humanity that follows it, represents the only road for my country, which is European in spite of everything. The present regime is the antithesis of democracy to an extent which Westerners can never fully grasp. If a man realizes this, he must show the courage of his convictions and do something himself to prevent slavery from encroaching further upon the realms of freedom.”
― Ben Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

“In a craven and hierarchical organization, the only thing more dangerous in revealing your own ignorance, is to draw attention to the stupidity of the boss.”
― Ben Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

“It is perfectly possible for two people to listen to the same words and hear entirely different things.”
― Ben Macintyre, The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War

“After all, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”
― Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

“As many have said about such stoic institutions: theories, beliefs, and practices die one generation at a time. But the conversation and battle must start somewhere.”
― Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams

“If the Buddha were to transmit his eyes to you, would you know how to use them? Don’t think that happiness would be possible only when conditions around you become perfect. Happiness lies in your own heart. You only need to practice mindful breathing for a few seconds and you’ll be happy right away.”
― Thich Nhat HanhNhat Hanh, The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation

“Like crystals, they sparkle with rainbow colors and contain worlds inside.”
― Rumi, Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

“If you can’t smell the fragrance don’t come into the garden of Love. If you’re unwilling to undress don’t enter into the stream of Truth. Stay where you are. Don’t come our way.”
― Rumi, Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

“I am happy tonight, united with the Friend.
Free from the pain of separation, I whirl and dance with the Beloved.
I tell my heart, 'Do not worry, the key to morning I've thrown away.”
― Rumi, Rumi: Whispers of the Beloved

“Thought free wakefulness. Only a complete absence of thoughts can free us. We must achieve a state of wakefulness that is perfectly clear and thought free, for that no sort of meditation is going to be useful because there is nothing to keep in mind, nothing to focus on, and no word to direct our attention. So, give up the idea of meditation, and you will no longer be distracted. Thought free wakefulness dissolves the grip of our ignorant dualistic mind. Thought free wakefulness blows up the grammar of ordinary consciousness and goes beyond subject, object and action. Thought-free wakefulness cannot be grasped by thought. It is quite literally unthinkable. Still, we can train our consciousness to recognise it. Among the many technique we can use, letting our mind rest in uncontrived naturalness is one of the best.”
― Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Sadness, Love, Openness: The Buddhist Path of Joy

“And I tend to approach bad news as a problem that can be worked through and solved, something I have control over rather than something happening to me.”
― Robert Iger, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

“You have to rely on your own internal threat-scale. There are drop-everything events, and there are others when you say to yourself, this is serious, I need to be engaged right now, but I also need to extricate myself and focus on other things and return to this later. Sometimes, even though you are in charge, you need to be aware that in the moment you might have nothing to add, and so you don’t wade in. You trust your people to do their jobs, and focus your energy on some other pressing issue.”
― Robert Iger, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

“I learned from them that genuine decency and professional competitiveness weren't mutually exclusive. In fact, true integrity, a sense of knowing who you are and being guided by your own clear sense of right and wrong is a kind of secret weapon. They trusted in their own instincts. They treated people with respect. And over time, the company came to represent the values they live by.”
― Robert Iger, The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company

“The world is in a ceaseless process of change. The entire evolution of science would suggest that the best grammar for thinking about the world is that of change not of permanence, not of being but of becoming. We can think of the world as made up of things, of substances, of entities, of something that is, or we can think of it as made up of events, of happenings, of processes, of something that occurs, something that does not last, and undergoes continual transformation that is not permanent in time.”
― Carlo Rovelli

“People have always wanted to in some way inhabit the stories that move them. The only real variable is whether technology gives them that opportunity.”
― Frank Rose, The Art of Immersion: How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories

“Before I knew you, I thought brave was not being afraid. You've taught me that bravery is being terrified and doing it anyway.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, Blood Noir

“Really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

Generally speaking, these meetings occur when we reach a limit, when we need to die and be reborn emotionally. These meetings are waiting for us, but more often than not, we avoid them happening. If we are desperate, though, if we have nothing to lose, or if we are full of enthusiasm for life, then the unknown reveals itself, and our universe changes direction.”
― Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

“I understand now that boundaries between noise and sound are conventions. All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended. One may transcend any convention if only one can first conceive of doing so.”
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas