Quotes About Clarity

Are not our lives too short for that full utterance which through all our stammerings is of course our only and abiding intention?

We could not understand, because we were too far and could not remember

He was just a word for me. I did not see the man in the name any more than you do. Do you see him? Do you see the story? Do you see anything?

No method at all,' I murmured after a while. 'Exactly

Formerly, in solitude and in silence, he had been used to think clearly and sometimes even profoundly, seeing life outside the flattering optical delusion of everlasting hope, of conventional self-deceptions, of an ever-expected happiness.

Words, as is well known, are the great foes of reality. I

the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light;

Mankind, asserted the Professor with a self-confident glitter of his iron-rimmed spectacles, does not know what it wants.

Our eyes were of no more use to us than if we had been buried miles deep in a heap of cotton-wool.

They wanted facts. Facts! They demanded facts from him, as if facts could explain anything

Les mots, vous le savez, sont les plus grands ennemis de la réalité.

Never commence a sentence with And, But, Since, Because, and other similar weak words and never end it with prepositions, small, weak adverbs or pronouns.

To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance.

Perspicuity demands the clearest expression of thought conveyed in unequivocal language, so that there may be no misunderstanding whatever of the thought or idea the speaker or writer wishes to convey.

The three essentials of the English language are: Purity, Perspicuity and Precision.

the adverb as near as possible to the word it

big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.

Joseph Devlin

The English philosopher Michael Oakeshott notes that one of the signs of being cold today is that one knows what one doesn't have to know.

Our mind becomes more spacious, more open, and happier as we move past our avoidance and denial to see what is true.

Mindfulness, the Root of Happiness

We all know people who become strongly identified with, and attached to, their intelligence. It can become a big ego trap, harmful to oneself or others. Intelligence can also be a great blessing, providing invaluable clarity.

The emphasis in meditation is very much on undistracted awareness: not thinking about things, not analyzing, not getting lost in the story, but just seeing the nature of what is happening in the mind. Careful, accurate observation of the moment's reality is the key to the whole process.

In the moment that we awaken from being lost in a thought or feeling or reaction, in that very moment we can recognize the empty, clear, skylike nature of awareness itself. In that moment of wakefulness, we get a glimpse of freedom. And instead of judging ourselves for all the times we do get lost, which happen again and again, we can delight in each moment of awakening.