Past Sage Quotes

Cleanness is essential if the human mind is to be applied to God, because what  stains the human mind is its being joined to lower things: as all kinds           
of things are cheapened by mixture with things less valuable, for example, 
silver when it is mixed with lead.  Now if the mind is to be united to the 
highest of all, i.e., to God, it must be altogether taken away from the things 
that are lower.  And that is why a mind that is lacking in purity cannot be 
applied to God.  ~St. Thomas Aquinas

Young people at Universities study to achieve knowledge and not to learn a trade. We must all learn  how to support ourselves, but we must also learn how to live. We need a lot of engineers in the modern world, but we do not want a world of modern engineers. ~ Winston Churchill

Cheating is against the rules. ~My brother (and no, he is not actually an orc)

Only in the truth does charity shine forth, only in the truth can charity be authentically lived.  Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity. [...]  Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality.  Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way.  In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love.  It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word "love" is abused and distorted, tot eh point where it comes to mean the opposite.  ~Pope Benedict XVI, introduction of Caritas in veritate

Most modern freedom is at root fear.  It is not so much that we are too bold to endure rules;it is rather that we are too timid to endure responsibility. ~G. K. Chesterton

Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his own life for his friends.  ~Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Gospel of St. John 15:13


He that eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up on the last day.  ~Jesus Christ, as recorded in the Gospel of St. John 6:55


(Both quotes from the Douay-Rheims Bible)

The reason, however, why a philosopher may be likened to a  poet is this: both are concerned with the marvelous.

~Our good old friend St. Thomas Aquinas

Usually people don't realize how great an evil is until it's already happened.  ~A friend of mine (who plays piano, obviously) 

 We turn clay to make a vessel, but it is on the space where there is nothing that the usefulness of the vessel depends.  Lao-Tzu

 Smile though your heart is aching.  Smile even though its breaking.  [...]  Smile and maybe tomorrow, You'll see the sun come shining through to you.
~Lyrics from the first verse of 'Smile' written by John Turner and Geoffrey Parson.  Music written by Charlie Parson, 1936

Poetry is words dieing to be conceived of pen's ink.  They are dreams come true on paper, both day dreams and nightmares.  ~Me, lover of trees, ballet, and poetry.

He who binds to himself a joy
does the winged life destroy;
but he who kisses the joy as it flies
lives in eternity's sunrise.


~William Blake

Love cannot make pain vanish
But love makes pain worth bearing
~Anonymous

Little children, let us not love in word, nor in tongue, 
but in deed, and in truth.

 

~ St. John
recorded in 1 St. John 3:18