What We've Learned About Life
 

Okay, so I wanted to start this thread so we all could share short sayings, quotes, things, ideas, etc about life.

I'll start:

You know you care for someone when they say something the exact opposite of what you think, but you agree with them anyways, because their companionship is much more valuable than any outcome of an argument.





ps: If you don't like something someone says... well if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all, because I don't think anyone will post anything with the intentions of offending anyone else.

'Tis a dangerous habit, as lying tends to be, no matter why it's done.

Besides, why should the difference in opinion turn into argument? If you care for someone, then it's likely that they care for you too, so there would be no need to fight over trivial opinions.

Yeah, that seems like a weird one to start with, Theorist :P I'll give a quote for now-- not feeling particularly inventive today.

"We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever." -Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Be kind and hospitable to everybody until they give you a reason not to be.

Be honest about everything, in my experience a lie will always come back to get you.

"The beauty of a living thing is not the atoms that go into it, but the way those atoms are put together." Sagan.

Though the edit is my own. :party:

Aquaplant, moco, I completely agree.

No, but what I mean is when you find yourself saying mmh mmhm yeah mhmm when someone is talking about something you don;t necessarily agree with. You just murmur mmhm, because there are far better things you can do with them than argue.

Here's another an 86 yr old WWII vet told me

Young men understand; Old men comprehend.

No one cares about your causes
(Not yours specifically, but in general for everyone)

Always always always be respectful of your elders

Life is way too short to take everything seriously

Well I'd rather stay silent than give any such confirmation, because it confuses people, at least me, when I find that people just agree out of courtesy rather than being honest. I guess I'm weird that way that I like the truth even though it may not always be pleasant, because pretending tends to make me feel very awkward.

If people don't like what I say or do, then I'd want them to say it to me in plain words and not go beating around the bush. I guess it's no wonder people often tell me I lack subtlety in that regard, when I expect everyone to do the same to me.

"All life has intrinsic value regardless of its value to humans"

"When in doubt, look intelligent."

Well, it works. :P

Simple lol, here's another simple one

"When you start losing a fight, fight harder."

I can agree with this one :D

Enjoy the good times, endure the bad times, learn from both.

A little guideline I work towards:

Underestimate yourself, and overestimate everything else. Then, when that victory comes, it will be so much sweeter.

Sometimes you have to do things the hard way, even when it brings less reward. Just because. Just because it hurts. Just because it lets you know you're alive.

It's better to have a few people who honestly care than a lot of people who aren't at all good friends.

Life is full of disappointments, but there are a few things that make it worth it.

i will be with you to the end of time, you guid me through times of sorrow, we are your children, you are our mother, you guide me when i need you, i am yours, you are mine,eywa

If you can't beat them, join them.

Alternatively, if you can't join them, beat them ;)

"Что делать будем?"

"hаслаждаца моментом..."

Perhaps because I'm perusing the Avatar Survival guide at this moment, I'm finding these quotes reflectively insightful.

“There are many dangers on Pandora, and one of the subtlest is that you may come to love it too much.” - Dr. Grace Augustine

“A humanoid singularity attuned to its environment, the Na'vi do not see themselves as separate from Nature, but rather an integral part of it. Humans had a similar interconnectedness with Nature ... a long time ago.”

“The expressive joy with which the Prolemuris moves through Pandora's dense foilage is aerial poetry. We should revel in those moments of highjacked beauty, even if packaged and delivered by RDA media.”


“Despite oppression, the Na'vi retain a joyousness and delight in Pandora's bounty. Community oriented, they emphasize play.”

“The Na'vi have a closeness and community that we, in our high-tech squalor, have lost on Earth. If we learn nothing else, we must learn again to trust when everything else in our diminished lives says we can't.”


“Our hands are arthritic and painful from ill use. We need to be both cunning and skilled, to use our hands again to build things of value.”

“I've heard their music. I hear it in my dreams-sweet and soft and infused with silence alien to the pounding dissonance that counts our days on earth.”

“We've broken the genetic code but we still can't figure out the subtle message of a simple Na'vi drumbeat.”

“We have our own transmitter and receiver!”

"You may find that you feel most alive when you stand closest to death."

you'll never notice till its gone.

You will always find what you were looking for after you gave up.

I love this quote. Hear is another version.

"The closer to death I come, the more alive I feel." This is so true and I always get reminded of it when I do something potentially dangerous but very fun.

Theorist! I'm finding your present status quote needing ... “to stop trying to understand it and just start experiencing it” a powerful thought at the moment. :)

Be good to everybody on the way up, for you may meet them again on the way back down.

Adversity is the fuel of life. Without our emotional, physical, mental struggles there is no challenge, there is no innovation, there is no advance. We cannot grow.

The teaching of Homeopathy - the principle of similarities is such that 'like cures like'. Hence why the cure for Malaria is a poison that in a healthy person, will create symptoms that are like Malaria, but the person already sick with those symptoms gets well. So then what is the cure for 'insanity?

Science.

(I hope you don't take homoeopathy seriously. :()

Homeopathy is based on scientific principles, and yes for the last twenty-five years, i've taken it and practice it very seriously!

I like many others choose to use wholistic 'natural' medicines and cures, rather than suffer the ill side effects of synthetics.

NOTE if you want to debate this take it up on the debate thread, lets not detract from the purpose of this thread.

"Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money" ~ Cree Indian Proverb

Seeing this breaks my heart. :'(

One of the few worthwhile things I've learned is that creativity is the single most powerful force in the entire universe. So little of it is focused on letting us be more creative, unfortunately.

"...the archetype of intelligence is not Dustin Hoffman in The Rain Man , it is a human being, period. It is squishy things that explode in a vacuum, leaving footprints on their moon. Within that grey wet lump is the power to search paths through the great web of causality, and find a road to the seemingly impossible – the power sometimes called creativity."

???????:S

Oops, I forgot the link for that quote. Here it is: Yudkowsky - Power of Intelligence

Thank you, that is very kind. Might be better if I fixed the spelling error in it though lol.


"The entire time you spend living is summed up with a single - on a stone."

Always? Then what would be the point of looking in the first place?

"Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realize that reciting red indian proverbs makes you sound like a ****ing muppet." - Banksy

(In other words; Don't spend your life waiting to say "I told you so"... Seize it and act.)

Only at 5am, when all is silent and it feels like you are the only person on Earth, will you ever feel truly carefree.

"It's already ... too late." Mika

When one wakes up and realises that all that 'we' the previous generations, or at least us conscious ones, did to make it a better world, and the outcome is only be able to watch, as this generation 'pisses on us, without even the decency to call it rain', there's no hope left.

What I came to realize a long time ago is that those who worship money as their god, will NEVER stop the quest for even MORE of it, even if they have more than than they can spent in TEN lifetimes. At some point, it becomes all about the power that the money can buy.
When the time comes, and it WILL. when they gold will not "save" them from the poisonous world that THEY made, and they watch as their rich friends, and their family DIE AROUND THEM, it will be FUNNY to see the anguish on their faces when they realize that the "god" that they served, was really the DEVIL.
I don't much care, there were six attempts made on my life over and invention of mine,
I'm 62, and can't go on forever, and will finally get my PCS Orders OUT of "Firebase Earth" before the Planet actually meets it's horrific, greed caused end.
I am SO glad that where I moved to live out my last years here, I can not see my neighbors, they are MILES away.
It is my earnest hope, that when GOD truly gives those of us who are saved by HIS grace "the desires of our hearts", I and my Yawnetu, will be placed on our OWN Pandora like Planet. That is a dream that I have had since the Seventies, ans was in no way influenced, by Camaron's fine Movie.
I wish all of the people fighting for ecological sanity success, but I know that the greedy WILL manage to destroy this planet. I have gotten to where I don't care, that would cause too much pain. I am just a casual observer without any progeny, watching the downfall of this Planet.
Niri Te