Attains Quotes & Sayings

When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man — Anonymous

The sole perfection which modern civilization attains is a mechanical one; machines are splendid and flawless, but the life which serves them or is served by them, is neither superb nor brilliant, nor more perfect nor more graceful; nor is the work of the machines perfect; only they, the machines, are like gods. — Karel Capek

While the body is young and fine, the soul blunders, but as the body grows old it attains its highest power. Again, every good soul uses mind; but no body can produce mind: for how should that which is without mind produce mind? Again, while the soul uses the body as an instrument, it is not in it; just as the engineer is not in his engines (although many engines move without being touched by any one). — Sallust

Youth is to all the glad season of life; but often only by what it hopes, not by what it attains, or what it escapes. — Thomas Carlyle

The Engineer is one who, in the world of physics and applied sciences, begets new things, or adapts old things to new and better uses; above all, one who, in that field, attains new results in the best way and at lowest cost. — Henry R. Towne

It is here that we see the dawn of hope: for no matter how formidably Communism bristles with tanks and rockets, no matter what successes it attains in seizing the planet, it is doomed never to vanquish Christianity. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Happy is the spirit that attains to the perfect formlessness at the time of prayer. — Evagrius Ponticus

Happiness is a myth we seek,
If manifested surely irks;
Like river speeding to the plain,
On its arrival slows and murks.
For man is happy only in
His aspiration to the heights;
When he attains his goal, he cools
And longs for other distant flights. — Khalil Gibran

The aggregate energy of all the great masters of the past and those of the present communicates the greatest possibilities of art. It is from this position that the artist attains colossal strength. — Jorg Immendorff

Man often acquires just so much knowledge as to discover his ignorance, and attains so much experience as to regret his follies, and then dies. — William Benton Clulow

Ah, the dear earth! The beautiful earth! She wants all that we have--the touch of our hands, the song of our hearts.
She wants to draw out from us all that is within, hidden even from ourselves.
This is her sorrow, that she finds out some things only to know that she has not found all. She loses before she attains.
Ah, the dear earth! We shall never deceive you.

(They sing.)
I shall crown you with my garland, before I take leave.
You ever spoke to me in all my joys and sorrows.
And now, at the end of the day, my own heart will break in speech.
Words came to me, but not the tune, and the song that I never sang to you remains hidden behind my tears. — Rabindranath Tagore

Murder is born of love, and love attains the greatest intensity in murder. — Octave Mirbeau

If one attains only the faith in the Self, he will not experience fear anywhere at all, fear will go away. — Dada Bhagwan

People often ask if one day mankind attains immortality, how he will be able to get rid of the eternal boredom problem? The answer is this: By embarking on eternal adventures! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

What is the cause that one is hardened, and another readily moved to compunction? Listen! It springs from the will, in the latter case a good will, in the former an evil one. It springs also from the thoughts, in the former case evil thoughts, in the latter from the opposite; and similarly from actions, in the former case actions contrary to God, in the latter godly ones ... it is by free choice of the will that every person either attains compunction and humility, or else becomes hard-hearted and proud. — Symeon The New Theologian

The human soul has sojourned in lower and higher forms, migrating from one to another according to the samskaras or impressions, but it is only in the highest form as a human being that it attains to freedom. — Swami Vivekananda

Politics are a smooth file, which cuts gradually, and attains its end by slow progression. — Baron De Montesquieu

Of all animals, he alone attains to the Contemplative Life. — Andrew Lang

Nature attains perfection, but man never does. — Eric Hoffer

For whoso dies for Christ, he is conqueror and is delivered from all misery and attains the eternal joy to which may it please our Saviour to bring us all. — Jan Hus

Art, and, above all, music, has a fundamental function, which is to catalyze the sublimation that it can bring about through all means of expression. It must aim through fixations which are landmarks, to draw [one] towards a total exaltation in which the individual mingles, losing his consciousness in a truth immediate, rare, enormous, and perfect. If a work of art succeeds in this undertaking even for a single moment, it attains its goal. — Iannis Xenakis

And they say that each man has but one dream and life is just a question of whether he attains them or not... — Oscar Simanjuntak

The significance of a man is not in what he attains, but rather what he longs to attain. — Khalil Gibran

Both agree in repudiating "marriage for love"; but the idealist repudiates it in the name of love, the critic in the name of marriage. Love, for the idealist Ibsen, is a passion which loses its virtue when it reaches its goal, which inspires only while it aspires, and flags bewildered when it attains. Marriage, for the critic Ibsen, is an institution beset with pitfalls into which those are surest to step who enter it blinded with love. — Henrik Ibsen

In consciousness dwells the wondrous, with it man attains the realm beyond the material, and the Peyote tells us, where to find it. — Antonin Artaud

Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "emergency". It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And "emergency" became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains. — Herbert Hoover

The higher culture an individual attains, the less field there is left for mockery and scorn. — Friedrich Nietzsche

As gold purified in a furnace loses its impurities and achieves its own true nature, the mind gets rid of the impurities of the attributes of delusion, attachment and purity through meditation and attains Reality. — Adi Shankara

China needs a powerful Europe, but Europe can only be strong if each and every one of its members attains rapid economic development. — Victor Ponta

The heart desires, the hand refrains. The Godhead fires, the soul attains. — William Morris

When life attains a crisis, man's focus narrows. [ ... ] The world becomes a stage of immediate concern, swept free of illusion. — Jim Thompson

By a peculiar thermometric adjustment, when a woman's talent is at zero, journalistic approbation is at the boiling pitch; when she attains mediocrity, it is already at no more than summer heat; and if ever she reaches excellence, critical enthusiasm drops to the freezing point. — George Eliot

Of all animals, the cat alone attains to the comtemplative life. He regards the wheel of existence from without, like the Buddha. — Andrew Lang

The love of domination never attains more than a factitious elevation, that is sure to make enemies of all its neighbours. — Jean-Baptiste Say

But the self-controlled man, moving among objects, with his senses under restraint, and free from both attraction and repulsion, attains peace. — Chinmayananda Saraswati

But in America the sovereignty of the people is neither hidden nor sterile as with some other nations; mores recognize it, and the laws proclaim it; it spreads with freedom and attains unimpeded its ultimate consequences. — Alexis De Tocqueville

The further we analyse the manner in which such an engine performs its processes and attains its results, the more we perceive how distinctly it places in a true and just light the mutual relations and connexion of the various steps of mathematical analysis; how clearly it separates those things which are in reality distinct and independent, and unites those which are mutually dependent. — Ada Lovelace

With faith one attains and realises peace and harmony. With doubt one destroys and gains freedom to move ontowards. — Fazal Inayat-Khan

Monks, when ignorance is abandoned, and knowledge arises in the monk, with the ending of ignorance and the arising of knowledge he clings neither to sense-pleasures, nor does he cling to views, nor to precepts and vows, nor to a Self-doctrine. Not clinking, he is not disturbed; not disturbed, he attains individually nibbana. — Gautama Buddha

The pure Christian State is a State in which theological law prevails. This law attains to real power or, to be more exact, absolute power, when through its results which are identical with those of opium, it puts all parts of humanity to sleep. If some occasionally awake they carry out crimes that horrify humanity which has not yet become Christian in the full sense of the word or has already abandoned the Christian framework. — Bruno Bauer

However intrinsically loony an idea may be, when people believe it, and act on that belief, it attains a power that can shape reality around it. A simple case in point is Nazi anti-Semitism. The fringe and utterly bogus notion that Jews represented a kind of biological contamination that had to be eradicated root and branch became the operative philosophy of a political regime and as a result millions of people died. — Richard B. Spence

If in the laukik (worldly life), one attains the vision of alaukik (beyond the world), his work is accomplished. — Dada Bhagwan

He who practices sheel (virtue) and sayyam (self-restrain) attains to greatness — Shri Radhe Maa

Man is born dead and he remains dead till he attains wisdom! Wisdom is the only resurrection man can obtain! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

Most of all, I am struck by an irony central to the lot of a purebred dog: As it attains the hallmarks of its breed, it seems to simultaneously relinquish its basic dogginess, until it is less a dog than a Pomeranian, Collie or Bloodhound. — Jean Hanff Korelitz

The capacity to surmount failure without being discouraged is the chief asset of every person who attains outstanding success in any calling. — Napoleon Hill

Don't give yourself to negligence,
Don't devote yourself to sensual pleasure,
Vigilant and absorbed in meditation
One attains abundant happiness. — Gautama Buddha

When the outside intent (other than the intent of Pure Soul, Parbhaav) stops, he attains enlightened bliss of the Self (samadhi). — Dada Bhagwan

In the right hands, a comic strip attains a beauty and elegance that, really, I would put against any other art. — Bill Watterson

Every individual man has a bias which he must obey, and ... it is only as he feels and obeys this that he rightly develops and attains his legitimate power in the world. It is his magnetic needle, which points always in one direction to his proper path ... He is never happy nor strong until he finds it, keeps it. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

A great teacher attains immortality in his students. — David Mitchell

The chief condition on which, life, health and vigor depend on, is action. It is by action that an organism develops its faculties, increases its energy, and attains the fulfillment of its destiny. — Colin Powell

When the drama attains a characterization which makes the play a revelation of human conduct and a dialogue which characterizes yet pleases for itself, we reach dramatic literature. — George Pierce Baker

A man attains greatness by his merits, not simply by occupying an exalted seat. Can we call a crow an eagle (garuda) simply because he sits on the top of a tall building. — Chanakya

It is only by doing good to others that one attains to one's own good — Swami Vivekananda

Of all whose words I have heard, no one attains to this, to know that wisdom is apart from all. — Heraclitus

Eternal life is the most important thing in all the world for which you and I should work and hope someday to attain ... the person who attains eternal life is exceedingly rich. Seek not for riches but for wisdom ... he that hath eternal life is rich. Eternal life is the greatest of all of the gifts of God. — Milton R. Hunter

One whose happiness is within, who is active within, who rejoices within and is illumined within, is actually the perfect mystic. He is liberated in the Supreme, and ultimately he attains the Supreme. — A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada

Yesterday one has wished, to-day one attains the madly longed-for object, and to-morrow one will blush to think that one ever desired it. — Ivan Goncharov

He who attains his ideal, precisely thereby surpasses it. — Friedrich Nietzsche

There is in all men a demand for the superlative, so much so that the poor devil that has no other way of reaching it attains it by getting drunk. — Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

God never changes; Patient endurance Attains to all things; Who God possesses In nothing is wanting; Alone God suffices. — Teresa Of Avila

[Heaven is] that moment in which something attains its maximum depth, its maximum reach, its maximum sense, and becomes completely uninteresting. — Julio Cortazar

According to the Buddha, the failure to recognize the illusion of the self is the source of all ignorance and unhappiness. It is only by renouncing the self, that is, by dropping his ego defences and committing metaphorical suicide, that a person can open up to different modes of being and relating and thereby transform himself into a pure essence of humanity. In so doing, he becomes free to recast himself as a much more joyful and productive person, and attains the only species of transcendence and immortality that is open to man. — Neel Burton

A man of knowing attains to a sense of humour. Let this always be remembered. If you see someone who has no sense of humour, know well that that man has not known at all. If you come across a serious man, then you can be certain that he is a pretender. Knowing brings sincerity but all seriousness disappears. Knowing brings a playfulness; knowing brings a sense of humour. The sense of humour is a must. — Rajneesh

No one on this earth attains enlightenment anymore without an enlightened master as a guide, unless that person was enlightened in many previous incarnations. — Frederick Lenz

The world is the puzzle, itself. The one who solves this 'puzzle' attains the degree of Parmatma [the Absolute Supreme Self]. — Dada Bhagwan

Every living creature commences its existence under a form different from, and simpler than, that which it eventually attains. — Thomas Huxley

The mind-speech-body are effective. When will they not have effect on one? It is when one realizes one's own [True] Self. It is when one attains the awareness, 'I am indeed absolute Supreme Self (Parmatma). — Dada Bhagwan

The Divine may come to life in individual man, may reveal itself from within individual man; but it attains its earthly fullness only where, having awakened to an awareness of their universal being, individual beings open themselves to one another, disclose themselves to one another, help one another; where immediacy is established between one human being and another; where the sublime stronghold of the individual is unbolted, and man breaks free to meet other man. Where this takes place, where the eternal rises in the Between, the seemingly empty space: that true place of realization is community, and true community is that relationship in which the Divine comes to its realization between man and man. These — Martin Buber

True worship is when a person, through their person, attains intimacy and friendship with God. — William Temple

How can a person who has awakened to the truth about his body ever die? Such a one attains to immortality. — Mahatma Gandhi

There are moments when art attains almost to the dignity of manual labor. — Oscar Wilde

Birth control is the means by which woman attains basic freedom ... — Margaret Sanger

All knowledge attains its ethical value and its human significance only by the human sense with which it is employed. Only a good man can be a great physician. — Hermann Nothnagel

Effective prayer is prayer that attains what it seeks. It is prayer that moves God, effecting its end. — Charles Grandison Finney

As Nietzsche wrote, "The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for it - what it costs us." Perhaps you will attain your goal, and a worthy goal at that, but at what price? Apply this standard to everything, including whether to collaborate with other people or come to their aid. In the end, life is short, opportunities are few, and you have only so much energy to draw on. And in this sense time is as important a consideration as any other. Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others - that is too high a price to pay. Power — Robert Greene

I grant we should add a third category: that of the true healers. But it is a fact one doesn't come across many of them, and anyhow it must be a hard vocation. That's why I decided to take, in every predicament, the victim's side, so as to reduce the damage done. Among them I can at least try to discover how on attains to the third category; in other words, to peace. — Albert Camus

TENACITY, n. A certain quality of the human hand in its relation to the coin of the realm. It attains its highest development in the hand of authority and is considered a serviceable equipment for a career in politics. — Ambrose Bierce

You know better than I that in a Republic talent is always suspect. A man attains an elevated position only when his mediocrity prevents him from being a threat to others. And for this reason a democracy is never governed by the most competent, but rather by those whose insignificance will not jeopardize anyone else's self-esteem. — Niccolo Machiavelli

What are dualities? They are what creates the worldly life [sansaar]. And if one attains Liberation [moksha], he will be beyond dualities! — Dada Bhagwan

Don't give way to heedlessness or to intimacy with sensual delight - for a heedful person, absorbed in jhana, attains an abundance of ease. — Gautama Buddha

Don't indulge in careless behaviour. Don't be the friend of sensual pleasures. He who meditates attentively attains abundant joy. — Gautama Buddha

A good, finished scandal, fully armed and equipped, such as circulates in the world, is rarely the production of a single individual, or even of a single coterie. It sees the light in one; is rocked and nurtured in another; is petted, developed, and attains its growth in a third; and receives its finishing touches only after passing through a multitude of hands. It is a child that can count a host of fathers
all ready to disown it. — Sophie Swetchine

Genuine transcendence doesn't just look away from human suffering and say, "I am at peace, so I'm at the mountaintop." Genuine transcendence looks human suffering in the eye and attains peace because of a faith in things unseen. — Marianne Williamson

Every satisfaction he attains lays the seeds of some new desire, so that there is no end to the wishes of each individual will. — Arthur Schopenhauer

In the first place, no man is happy but strives his whole life long after a supposed happiness which he seldom attains, and even if he does it is only to be disappointed with it. — Arthur Schopenhauer

If two baseball players from the same hometown, on different teams, receive the same uniform number, it is not ironic. It is a coincidence. If Barry Bonds attains lifetime statistics identical to his father's, it will not be ironic. It will be a coincidence. — George Carlin

If there is no silence beyond and within the many words of doctrine, there is no religion, only a religious ideology. For religion goes beyond words and actions, and attains to the ultimate Truth only in silence and Love. — Thomas Merton

Count all th' advantage prosperous Vice attains,
'Tis but what Virtue flies from and disdains:
And grant the bad what happiness they would,
One they must want
which is, to pass for good. — Alexander Pope

That which never attains a state of non-principle [non-truth] is known as the principle. — Dada Bhagwan

All things pass ... Patience attains all it strives for. — Teresa Of Avila

I surrender my anxiety and my sense of urgency. I allow God to guide me in the pacing of my life. I open my heart to God's timing. I release my deadlines, agendas, and stridency to the gentle yet often swift pacing of God. As I open my heart to God's unfoldings, my heart attains peace. As I relax into God's timing, my heart contains comfort. As I allow God to set the tone and schedule of my days, I find myself in the right time and place, open and available to God's opportunities. — Julia Cameron

It is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he has previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. — John Calvin

There have been reports of many child marriages taking place in the Malabar region in Kerala, especially among the Muslim community. However, under Muslim Personal Law, a girl can be married once she attains puberty, and hence we cannot say that such marriages are not valid. — Girija Vyas

Now I say that a heart that has no grace, and is not instructed in this mystery of contentment, knows of no way to get contentment, but to have his possessions raised up to his desires; but the Christian has another way to contentment, that is, he can bring his desires down to his possessions, and so he attains his contentment ... The world is infinitely deceived in thinking that contentment lies in having more than we already have. Here lies the bottom and root of all contentment, when there is an evenness and proportion between our hearts and our circumstances. That is why many godly men who are in low position live more sweet and comfortable lives than those who are richer. — Jeremiah Burroughs

It is in middle age that the interest of a life attains its highest point. — Janet Erskine Stuart

For no mortal ever attains to blessedness. One may be luckier than another when wealth flows his way, but blessed never. — Euripides

Life is a vexatious trap; when a thinking man reaches maturity and attains to full consciousness he cannot help feeling that he is in a trap from which there is no escape. — Anton Chekhov

If a man attains a high station in life, it is because he has acquired or was blessed with native ability as a salesman. Schooling, college degrees, intellect, brilliancy, are of no avail to the man who lacks the ability to attract the cooperative efforts of others, thus to create opportunities for himself. — Napoleon Hill