Quotes About Openness

fail to recognize that the best plan is often not to have one.

Starr recognizes the importance of Julian's message reaching the entire world, rather than being hoarded by religionists of one stripe, when she remarks that Julian's work is "for the sake of all spiritual seekers everywhere."13

The full truth was a little too much to throw at a stranger.

because displaying real emotion would be gross.

It's a very strange feeling," Theo said, "a secret I've been holding all these years being out in the open at last. What you did last night was impressive. It's . . . so strange. I feel like something's missing. Of course, something—someone—is missing.

incapacity for true dialogue implies an incapacity for tolerance, self-reflection and empathy.

Nothing can be forced, receptivity is everything.

A nation ringed by walls will only imprison itself.

Di Indonesia, kekuasaan diperlihatkan secara terang-terangan, tidak pandang bulu, terbuka, selalu segar dalam ingatan.

We will extend our arms to you[world] if you unclench your fists.

I have learned to prize holy ignorance more highly than religious certainty and to seek companions who have arrived at the same place. We are a motley crew, distinguished not only by our inability to explain ourselves to those who are more certain of their beliefs than we are but in many cases by our distance from the centers of our faith communities as well.

She said the word never represents all the doors we keep closed, that when we say never we close ourselves off from the hope that things can ever be different.

You never lose by loving, you lose by holding back.

You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.

Sometimes we need to heed our fears and negative thoughts, and at all times we need to be alert to the world outside ourselves, even when that includes absorbing bad news and entertaining the views of "negative" people.

Just now and then, maybe every few weeks and then only for minutes at a time, a breach appeared in the partition and I walked on through, because I have always taken that as a general rule of life: If a door opens, walk on through and at least take a look around.

As a dinner guest I gratefully eat just about anything that's set before me, because graciousness among friends is dearer to me than any other agenda.

Tig was a unique element with all valences open.

No, you shouldn't. But you are here, so yes, you should be here. There are more words in the world than no and yes.

Context had reinforced familiarity, and familiarity had blinded them to new possibilities.

Because of the open nature of polytheism, there was virtually no such thing as "conversion." Anyone who chose to begin worshiping a new god was welcome to do so and was not required or expected to leave behind any previous practices of worship or make an exclusive commitment to this one deity.

Hawthorne, like most of my professors at Wheaton, was a committed evangelical Christian. But he was not afraid of asking questions of his faith. At the time, I took this as a sign of weakness (in fact, I thought I had nearly all the answers to the questions he asked); eventually I saw it as a real commitment to truth and as being willing to open oneself up to the possibility that one's views need to be revised in light of further knowledge and life experience.

When you planned rough, you allowed room for improvisation.

Since you have no choice but to begin in uncertainty, you must learn to tolerate uncertainty and, if possible, to turn it into excitement.