But the life of a man 

is of no greater importance to the universe 

than that of an oyster.

The teacher who is indeed wise 

does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom 

but rather 

leads you to the threshold of your mind.

Myths are clues 

to the spiritual potentialities 

of the human life.

Stretching his hand out to catch the stars, 

he forgets the flowers at his feet.

Opposites are complementary.

The myths are clues 

to unite the forces within us.

The only source of knowledge is experience…

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Philosophy begins in wonder.  

And, at the end, 

when philosophic thought has done its best, 

the wonder remains.

It's like our visit to the moon
or to that other star 

I guess you go for nothing
if you really want to go that far.

Reality is merely an illusion, 

albeit a very persistent one.

From Pythagoras 

(whether by way of Socrates or not) 

Plato derived the Orphic elements in his philosophy: 

the religious trend, 

the belief in immortality, 

the other-worldliness, 

the priestly tone, 

and all that is involved in the simile of the cave; 

also his respect for mathematics, 

and his intermingling of intellect and mysticism.

Modern Protestants who urge us to believe in God, for the most part, despise the old ‘proofs’, 

and base their faith upon some aspect of human nature — 

emotions of awe or mystery, the sense of right and wrong, the feeling of aspiration, and so on.  

This way of defending religious belief was invented by Rousseau.

Science is a small island in an ocean of nescience.

Don't you let the bastards bring you down

Just stand up strong and bold

Mathematics is, I believe, the chief source of the belief in eternal and exact truth, 

as well as the super-sensible intelligible world. 

 Geometry deals with exact circles, but no sensible object is exactly circular; 

however carefully we may use our compasses, there will be some imperfections and irregularities. 

 This suggests the view that all exact reasoning applies to ideal as opposed to sensible objects; 

it is natural to go further and to argue that thought is nobler than sense, 

and the objects of thought are more real than those of sense-perception.

Mathematical knowledge appeared to be certain, exact, 

and applicable to the real world; 

moreover it was obtained by mere thinking, 

without the need for observation. 

 Consequently, it was thought to supply an ideal, 

from which every-day empirical knowledge fell short. 

 It was supposed, on the basis of mathematics, 

that thought is superior to sense, 

intuition to observation.

The sparkle in your eyes

Keeps me alive

And the sparkle in your eyes

Keeps me alive, keeps me alive

The fire in your eyes

Keeps me alive

And the fire in your eyes

Keeps me alive

Any hypothesis, however absurd, may be useful in science, 

if it enables a discoverer to conceive things in a new way; 

but … when it has served this purpose by luck, 

it is likely to become an obstacle to further advance.

The distinction between mind and matter, 

which has become a commonplace in philosophy and science and popular thought, 

has a religious origin, 

and began as the distinction between soul and body. 

The Orphic proclaims himself the child of earth and of the starry heaven; 

from earth comes the body, 

from heaven the soul.

The pursuit of truth, when it is whole-hearted, must ignore moral considerations; 

we cannot know in advance that the truth will turn out to be what is thought edifying in a given society.

When an intelligent man expresses a view which seems to us obviously absurd,

we should not attempt to prove that it is somehow true,

but we should try to understand how it ever came to seem true.

Happy life and merciful death

Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering.

I never think of myself as wise. 

I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence 

which I intend to allow to operate.

My soul, do not seek eternal life, 

but exhaust the realm of the possible.

And just when you mean to tell her 

That you have no love to give her 

Then she gets you on her wavelength 

And she lets the river answer 

That you've always been her lover 

And you want to travel with her 

And you want to travel blind 

And you know that she will trust you 

For you've touched her perfect body with your mind.

One thing I have learned in a long life: 

that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike 

and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; 

Fools because they have to say something.

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Be not ashamed of mistakes 

and thus make them crimes.

The influence of a vital person vitalises … . 

The world without spirit is a wasteland.

An idea, like a ghost, 

must be spoken to a little 

before it will explain itself.

Everyone has the right to doubt everything as often as he pleases 

and the duty to do it at least once. 

No way of looking at things is too sacred to be reconsidered. 

No way of doing things is beyond improvement.

Humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain.

A man is nothing but breath and shadow.

Everything has beauty, 

but not everyone sees it.

I am the wilderness lost in man

I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. 

I shall conquer untruth by truth. 

And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

You are gone 

and I am with you: 

this will never come again.

Humanity needs practical men, who get the most out of their work, and, without forgetting the general good, safeguard their own interests. But humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit.

Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organised society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research.

All the gods,

all the heavens,

all the hells

are in you.

There's a story in an ancient play about birds called The Birds

And it's a short story from before the world began

From a time when there was no earth, no land.

Only air and birds everywhere.

But the thing was there was no place to land.

Because there was no land.

So they just circled around and around.

Because this was before the world began.

And the sound was deafening. Songbirds were everywhere.

Billions and billions and billions of birds.

And one of these birds was a lark and one day her father died.

And this was a really big problem because what should they do with the body?

There was no place to put the body because there was no earth.

And finally the lark had a solution.

She decided to bury her father in the back of her own head.

And this was the beginning of memory.

Because before this no one could remember a thing.

They were just constantly flying in circles.

Constantly flying in huge circles.

A silk mist on a fallen day

I can see for miles and miles and miles

The wind is cold it hasn't got a lot to say

Fields of little moments to take with me

I dare not say a word.

And none of you stand so tall

Pink moon gonna get ye all

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, 

a metaphor for a proof, 

a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, 

and oneself for an oracle, 

is inborn in us.

We are moved to tears by a beautiful piece of music

and we describe the performance as 'magical'.

We gaze up at the stars on a dark night with no moon and no city lights

and, breathless with joy, we say the sight is 'pure magic'.

Mythology is composed by poets out of their insights and realisations. 

Mythologies are not invented; they are found. 

You can no more tell us what your dream is going to be tonight than we can invent a myth. 

Myths come from the mystical region of essential experience.

In my end is my beginning.