The older I get the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first. A process which often reduces the most complex human problem to a manageable proportion.
Like most humanoids, I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the "monkey mind"--the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl. From the distant past to the unknowable future, my mind swings wildly th...
Kaysen elaborates through parts of the book on her thoughts about how mental illness is treated. She explains that families who are willing to pay the rather high costs of hospitalization do so to prove their own sanity. Once one member of the family...
There can be, if I forebode aright, no power, short of the Divine mercy, to disclose, whether by uttered words, or by type or emblem, the secrets that may be buried with a human heart. The heart, making itself guilty of such secrets, must perforce ho...
Do we run from money in fear of being a slave to it? I know I did that for a while. I don’t think that’s the answer, though. I think the answer is our mission. Are you on a mission? Not only with your money, but with your life – are you on a mi...
It is no great hermeneutic feat to recognize that Rome crucified Jesus because of His claim to be king. The charge was posted over His head, after all. What is often overlooked, however, is that it is precisely because of their allegiance to that kin...
The possibility of pain is inherent in the very existence of a world where souls can meet. When souls become wicked they will certainly use this possibility to hurt one another; and this, perhaps, accounts for four-fifths of the suffering of men. It ...
Let me implore the reader to try to believe, if only for a moment, that God, who made these deserving people, may really be right when He thinks that their modest prosperity and the happiness of their children are not enough to make them blessed: tha...
We try, when we wake, to lay the new day at God’s feet; before we have finished shaving, it becomes our day and God’s share in it is felt as a tribute which we must pay out of ‘our own’ pocket, a deduction from the time which ought, we feel, ...
Becoming aware of the intense suffering of billions of animals, and of our own participation in that suffering, can bring up painful emotions: sorrow and grief for the animals; anger at the injustice and deception of the system; despair at the enormi...
[a biker gang called The Satan's Messengers enters Sonny's bar wearing their biker clothes] Jimmy Whispers: Fellas, youse are not dressed properly. Youse gonna have to leave. Satan's Messengers: Properly? What's wrong with the way we're dressed? Sonn...
Dwayne T. Robinson: I've got a hundred people down here, and they're covered with glass. John McClane: Glass? Who gives a shit about glass? Who the fuck is this? Dwayne T. Robinson: This is Deputy Chief of Police, Dwayne T. Robinson, and I am in char...
Dr. Peter Venkman: Let me tell you something about myself. I come home from work to my place and all I have is my work. There's nothing else in my life! Dana Barrett: Dr. Venkman... Dr. Peter Venkman: I meet you, and I say, my God, there's someone wi...
Walter Sobchak: Etz chaim he dude, as the ex used to say. The Dude: What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What the fuck are we gonna tell Lebowski? Walter Sobchak: Huh? [blows out a cloud of smoke] Walter Sobchak: Oh, him! Er... [mutters incoherent...
Even from the beginning, that was the problem. People liked pretty things. People even liked pretty things that wanted to kill and eat them.
When you see recurring problems, the methods you’ve used successfully in the past have to be reevaluated.
Usually, the main problem with life conundrums is that we don't bring to them enough imagination
The basic problem of the Christians in this country in the last eighty years or so, in regard to society and in regard to government, is that they have seen things in bits and pieces instead of totals.
Verstehst du, im Grunde sind doch die Mitarbeiter das Problem. Du zahlst, wenn du sie einstellst, du zahlst, wenn du sie rausschmeißt, und dazwischen muss du sie auch noch bezahlen.
That’s the problem with any ‘simple truth’—it always takes a gaggle of complete idiots or a team of all-knowing geniuses to miss it.
I had done either too much coke or too little, a constant problem in my life.
