Quotes About Being

Wisdom is neither good nor bad, male nor female, Christian or pagan: she is no one's personal possession. The Goddess of Wisdom reaches down to the depths of our need. Her simple being is so vastly present that we have not noticed it. Indeed, we have not known the depths of our need nor that any assuaging wisdom was near at hand.

We have to make peace and reduce the suffering in ourselves first, because we represent the world. Peace, love, and happiness must always begin here, with ourselves. There is suffering, fear, and anger inside of us, and when we take care of it, we are taking care of the world. . . . So first you have to focus on the practice of being. Being Fresh. Being peaceful. Being attentive. Being Generous. Being compassionate. Thich Nhat Hanh

Heaven has become for us the cosmic space of the physicists... But 'the heart glows,' and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our being.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.

A man who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has never overcome them. As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Our heart glows, and secret unrest gnaws at the root of our being. Dealing with the unconscious has become a question of life for us.

The truth is that every thought is preceded by a perception, every impulse is preceded by a thought, every action is preceded by an impulse, and man is not so private a being that his behavior is unseen, his patterns undetectable.

But what if Shakespeare? and Hamlet? were asking the wrong question? What if the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?

Or maybe it's not a miracle. Maybe this is just life. When you open yourself up to it. When you put yourself in the path of it. When you say yes. How can I come this far and not tell him - he, who would understand it best - that by giving my that flyer, by inviting me to skip Hamlet, he helped me realize that it's not to be that matters, but how to be?

What if Shakespeare had it wrong? What if Shakespeare—and Hamlet—were asking the wrong question? What if the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?

To be, or not to be: that is the question. That's from Hamlet's - maybe Shakespeare's - most famous soliloquy. […] But what if Shakespeare - and Hamlet - were asking the wrong question? What if the real question is not whether to be, but how to be?

Yes, men are pigs. Except your brother, of course. He's actually a decent human being. Almost a woman. -Jillian's mother

He is not actually far from each one of us, for 'in him we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17:25, 27-28).

But as I say, if you look to the state of their souls you'll find the situation nowhere near as grave as polls suggest. There's more to being a servant of The Adversary than signing up.

I believe that man is in the last resort so free a being that his right to be what he believes himself to be cannot be contested.

Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me me.

What has here happened is that the instinct of cruelty, which has turned inwards, has become self-torture, and all mans animal instincts have been reinterpreted as guilt towards God. Every Nay man utters to his nature, to his real being, he flings out as a Yea, an affirmation of reality applied to Gods sanctity

The will of God here is not proper conduct in specific situations; it is the redemptive purpose of God for humankind. "God's will is that one should put his whole being at God's disposal. In this total 'belonging' to him he is to apply himself to what is good."57

I'm more than the sum of my physical parts.

Everyone had a weakness. It was the law of nature that for each being there was a predator or a disease or a vulnerability built into their very core.

B626 Sein ist offenbar kein reales Prädikat, d.i. ein Begriff von irgend etwas, was zu dem Begriffe eines Dinges, oder gewisser Bestimmungen an sich selbst... B627 Und so enthält das Wirkliche nichts mehr, als das bloss Mögliche. Hundert wirkliche Thaler enthalten nicht das mindeste mehr, als hundert mögliche... Aber in meinem Vermögenszustande ist mehr bei hundert wirklichen Thalern, als bei dem blossen Begriffe derselben, ( d.i. ihrer Moeglichkeit ).

The essence of things is not altered by their external relations, and that which, abstracting from these, alone constitutes the absolute worth of man is also that by which he must be judged, whoever the judge may be, and even by the Supreme Being.

I suppose because our hearts are made in a certain way we cannot help being what we are.