Quotes About Origins

The beginnings of all things are small.

Psychoanalysis and dianetics are, on the face of it, both absurd. People are what they are because of causes that go infinitely farther back than infancy of the mother's womb

The first question, of course, is whether there ever was such a creature as Man. At the moment, in the absence of positive evidence, the sober consensus must be that there was not, that Man, as presented in the legend, is a figment of folklore invention. Man may have risen in the early days of Doggish culture as an imaginary being, a sort of racial god, on which the Dogs might call for help, to which they might retire for comfort.

Women had always existed: they had lived, a species to themselves, with the demons. But they had wanted playmates: and together they had made men. What an error, what a cataclysmic miscalculation.

Salem and Portland were founded by New Englanders, the latter named by a native of Portland, Maine, after winning a coin toss with a Bostonian.

I never expected to be as challenged as I've been with you and Miss Stoker. The two of you make a formidable team... Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, knowing from whence you spring. - Lady Cosgrove-Pitt

Georgina hailed from Delaware and had that vexing way of Delaware ladies, delighting in puzzles.

I would represent my country, the Republic of Anhedonia. We have no borders, but the population teems. No one has deigned to write down our history, but we are an ancient land, founded during the original disappointments, when the first person met another person.

It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from.

It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from. We bring home with us when we leave. Sometimes it becomes more acute for the fact of having left.

Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar, imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris,--- Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo.

The cultural authenticity of cloth arises not from the purity of its origins but from the ways in which individuals and groups turn textiles to their own purposes. Consumers, not producers, determine the meaning and value of textiles.

She felt that if only one could begin things at the beginning, one might see more clearly upon what foundations they now rest.

Consider me, Descended also From the Mystery.

But this central significance of Jesus is also retrojected through time, especially to the origins of the world, with Jesus (the "Logos" and "Son") depicted as the agent through whom God created all things (1 Cor 8:6; Heb 1:2; John 1:1-3). So, practically all of God's previous actions and self-disclosures can be retroactively understood in light of Jesus.

Every people had a story of how the world had come about, the boss said, and every one was as valid as the next and just about as true.

You must take care to light the matches one at a time. If a powerful emotion should ignite them all at once, they would produce a splendor so dazzling that it would illuminate far beyond what we can normally see; and then a brilliant tunnel would appear before our eyes, revealing the path we forgot the moment we were born, and summoning us to regain the divine origins we had lost. The soul ever longs to return to the place from which it came, leaving the body lifeless.

Hannah has gone over to her friend Delaney's house. Hannah has a slew of friends with names like that, Delaney and Cassidy and Reilly, and even a tiny, owlish girl named O'Malley: names, it seems, that their parents plucked arbitrarily from the Boston phone book.

the newly discovered land went by various names; not until 1511 did "Brazil" first appear on a map

Leading scientists and philosophers such as Nick Bostrom, contend that if an advanced civilization created us, most probably this 'advanced civilization' is also a creation of an even more advance civilization.

And if we continue our journey back into our unconscious we will discover our alien and inter-stellar origins.

If you are wearing a gold necklace do I say 'Please remove the necklace, so I may see the gold?' I can't see the gold without seeing the necklace, and I can't see the necklace without seeing the gold. There are multitudes of gold jewelry in the world, but there is only one substance 'Gold.' All the gold jewelry comes from this one substance, the jewelry takes many forms and shapes, but they all arise out of this one substance — gold.

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.

How had it begun? Like everything: with mothers and fathers. Because of Lydia's mother and father, because of her mother's and father's mothers and fathers. Because long ago, her mother had gone missing, and her father had brought her home. Because more than anything, her mother had wanted to stand out; because more than anything, her father had wanted to blend in. Because those things had been impossible.