Pacta Sunt Quotes & Sayings

Lao-tzu advised, "As soon as you have a thought, laugh at it," because reality is not what we think. We perceive the world through a window colored by beliefs, interpretations, and associations. We see things not as they are but as we are. The same brain that enables us to contemplate philosophy, solve math equations, and create poetry also generates a stream of static known as discursive thoughts, which seem to arise at random, bubbling up into our awareness. Such mental noise is a natural phenomenon, no more of a problem than the dreams that appear in the sleep state. Therefore, our schooling aims not to struggle with random thoughts but to transcend them in the present moment, where no thoughts exist, only awareness. Our mind's liberation awaits not in some imagined future but here and now. — Dan Millman

There's people who actually have a whole science devoted to what makes a sticky meme and that idea of that question of why some ideas about how civilizations work catch on and others don't. — Jay Roach

I only became an actor to get your attention, to challenge the archetype of an African American male; I can't be anything else in this lifetime than an African American man. — Isaiah Washington

In the early 1990s, Donald Trump was nearly $1 billion in debt personally and $9 billion in debt corporately. An interviewer asked him if he was worried. He replied, "Worrying is a waste of time. Worrying gets in my way of working to solve these problems. — Robert T. Kiyosaki

Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism. It is actually the opposite of Conservatism, since it is a devotion to something that is always changing and yet is felt to be mystically the same. — George Orwell

Who can compute what the world loses in the multitude of promising intellects combined with timid characters, who dare not follow out any bold, vigorous, independent train of thought, lest it should land them in something which would admit of being considered irreligious or immoral? — John Stuart Mill

The cure to your self is that you are not yours. — John De Ruiter

When pressure mounts and strain increases everyone begins to show the weaknesses in his makeup. It is up to the Commander to conceal his: above all to conceal doubt, fear, and distrust. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

The attacks by this movement on the rights and beliefs of Muslims, Jews, immigrants, gays, lesbians, women, scholars, scientists, those they dismiss as "nominal Christians," and those they brand with the curse of "secular humanist," are an attack on all of us, on our values, our freedoms and ultimately our democracy. Tolerance is a virtue, but tolerance coupled with passivity is a vice. — Chris Hedges

Don't be nice to me," she whispered, though she didn't move away. "I might cry if you are. — Kristan Higgins

Refraining from harm, not out of fear, but out of concern for others, their well-being and out of respect is non-violence. — Dalai Lama

When you came after me at the tavern, you nearly died." He looked wrecked at the memory. "You nearly died, and then who would I have argued with?"
"You'd have found someone."
"No." He stepped toward her. "I only want to argue with you. — Cynthia Hand

Erhaps mortals are not formed for fairy bliss? — Susanna Clarke

He said, 'Oh god, help her. Damn me, I deserve it, but let her live forever.' This was the love he should have felt for every soul in the world: all the fear and the wish to save concentrated unjustly on the one child. He began to weep.... He thought: This is what I should feel all the time for everyone. — Graham Greene