Let’s Talk About Quotes

This post is meant as a companion to the delightful “Quote of the Day” thread, which was started by @MissAdventurous. That thread has become a fixture of the CC forum. With nearly 13K views (at the time writing), it’s safe to say that many people have, at the very least, checked it out. A great deal of those persons have added to its contents, and a few have sought to discuss the quotations within—sometimes at the risk of derailing the thread.

It's been suggested several times that another post be made, where people can talk about quotes that have resonated with them—to share personal stories, or to debate the merits of a quote—without straying from the purpose of Quote of the Day. I feel that this is an altogether good idea: by talking about these things we share aspects of who we are, what we hold dear, and so on.

I'll begin with the following quote:

"If you love life, life will love you back."

What, exactly, is meant by "life"?

Are we talking about the barrage of sensory stimuli that we experience on a daily basis? Suffering is only possible via sentience. And then you die. Doesn’t seem loving.

Are we talking about biological life? I’m almost positive that loving life, in this sense, would not convince a pack of starving wolves to refrain from eating a person. Warm feelings wouldn’t fill their bellies.

Are we talking about human life? As far as I know, love cannot induce the opposites of Alzheimer’s, unexpected vehicular collisions, or being in the wrong place at the wrong time and subsequent decapitation by members of a cartel.

Are we talking about earth? Loving life in this instance will not prevent the planet from rejecting us for our hubris. It can’t stop a volcano from erupting. Nor will it block an asteroid or solar flare. The eventual collision of the Andromeda galaxy into the Milky Way? The death of our sun? Nice feelings will not impede those occurrences or reverse them.

Comments

  • I am currently at this moment in time quoting myself . You're welcome

  • edited February 2020

    “The greatest gift of leadership is a boss who wants you to be successful.” -Jon Taff

  • For every quote there is an equal and opposite quote. Learned that in Quote Chemistry 101.

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)
    edited February 2020

    "A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it."
    —Rabindranath Tagore

    Now, what is meant by this? Equating logic to a knife is a very easily understandable piece of metaphor, but in that case what is the "hilt" of logic meant to be? And what, exactly, is the hand that bleeds when logic's "hilt" is missing?

    Logic is wielded with the mind. So does your mind "bleed" if you're too logical?

    Maybe it does, if logic is defined in opposition to emotion. I've said it before and I'll doubtless say it again: It's no more logical to ignore emotions than it is to ignore colors. They're things that exist, and sometimes they're very important (especially if the little voice coming through your headset is telling you to cut the blue wire).

    What Tagore seems to be saying here (albeit rather strangely) is that a person who neglects emotion is going to end up suffering.

    This, I think, we can all agree on.

  • @DarrenWalker
    In my experience we have ways of knowing that aren't logical - they are more intuitive. Intuition seems, again in my experience, to be connected to a full-body way of knowing that seems to include the heart/sense of humanity and a sense of connectedness. So beyond just emotion (sad, happy, fearful, mad, etc.), there's a way of knowing/experiencing that is alogical (but not necessarily emotional), where what we generally think of as thought is absent. It seems when both of those capacities are developed (analytical thought, intuitive grokking), that integration is intelligently embodied and heartful.

    Excuse my awkward wording -- we don't really have a whole lot of words in English that help convey this.

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)
    edited February 2020

    @littermate: I'd argue that intuition is logical—that is, that it operates logically, taking data we're not aware of consciously (and possibly can't be aware of consciously because there's just too much of it for that) and putting it all together to reach conclusions with different levels of certainty.

    Kind of like how judging the speed of oncoming vehicles before crossing the street is a mathematical process—but not one we sit down and work out with paper and pencil.

  • Hmmm, maybe so. Lightning speed, unconscious logic.

  • edited February 2020

    “Walk as if you have 3,000 ancestors walking behind you.”

    I don’t know who those people were.

    My father was a delusional lunatic who invented stories meant to tie into Christian theology. My mother drank lots of alcohol and beat her children.

    What was my family up to three centuries ago? Peasantry, in all likelihood. They farmed, fished, and then died young of a disease—I’d be willing to bet on this, if I cared to do so.

    A thousand years ago? Might be that there was some pillaging. Murderers and rapists the lot of them, or they were those who were murdered and raped. Definitely some genuflecting before an altar or robed man who spewed nonsense that bound up their hearts.

    I don’t attribute much value to procreation. It’s a simple act—doesn’t take much skill or effort. One could say that, as creatures, it’s something we’re compelled by nature to do.

    Watch a dog mount another. See the herky-jerky motions, hear the panting. The main difference, in my mind, is that dogs don’t stop to congratulate themselves afterwards. Grandiosity is lost on dogs.

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)

    @exsanguinate: Perhaps the speaker means you should run.

  • edited February 2020

    Love:

    Definitely some genuflecting before an altar or robed man who spewed nonsense that bound up their hearts.

    Hahaha:

    Perhaps the speaker means you should run.

    I like this game. Thanks.

  • @exsanguinate
    "dogs don’t stop to congratulate themselves afterwards."

    They also rarely share a post-coital cigarette, or post the video on YouTube as porn revenge.

  • “Ah, mate. My soul loves yours. It does. But this lifetime, my body won’t get on board.” ― Molly Ringle, Immortal’s Spring


  • I do my thing,
    And you do your thing,
    I am not in this world
    To live up to your
    Expectations
    And your not in this
    world to live up to mine.
    You are you and I am I,
    And by chance we find
    Each other,
    It's beautiful.
    Frederick S. Perls

  • I think, perhaps, that you’re looking for the Quote of the Day thread. This is not that thread.

  • [Deleted User]DarrenWalker (deleted user)

    Perhaps they're hoping other people will talk about their quotes, since they themselves can't think of anything to say.

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