Joan DeArtemis > Joan's Quotes

“Parts of the first chapter are adapted from my 1980 lectures, Born Again Unitarian Universalism, which happily this introduction to our faith will now supplant.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“I can believe a miracle because I can raise my own arm. I can believe a miracle because I can remember. I can believe it because I can speak and be understood by you. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, Unitarian minister and essayist”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“This realization is the first of many awakenings that have shaped my understanding of what religion means: Religion is our human response to the dual reality of being alive and having to die.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
― Seneca

“The time will come when diligent research over long periods will bring to light things which now lie hidden. A single lifetime, even though entirely devoted to the sky, would not be enough for the investigation of so vast a subject... And so this knowledge will be unfolded only through long successive ages. There will come a time when our descendants will be amazed that we did not know things that are so plain to them... Many discoveries are reserved for ages still to come, when memory of us will have been effaced.”
― Seneca, Natural Questions

“For what prevents us from saying that the happy life is to have a mind that is free, lofty, fearless and steadfast - a mind that is placed beyond the reach of fear, beyond the reach of desire, that counts virtue the only good, baseness the only evil, and all else but a worthless mass of things, which come and go without increasing or diminishing the highest good, and neither subtract any part from the happy life nor add any part to it?
A man thus grounded must, whether he wills or not, necessarily be attended by constant cheerfulness and a joy that is deep and issues from deep within, since he finds delight in his own resources, and desires no joys greater than his inner joys.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters

“Good worship will strive for height.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“But authentic worship also has depth.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“In the horizontal dimension, worship needs to have breadth to be inclusive.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“We have arrived where we are because of all that lies behind us. Finally, effective worship asks us to stretch forward. It has a dimension of aspiration.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“I believe that we are here to some purpose, that the purpose has something to do with the future, and that it transcends altogether the limits of our present knowledge and understanding. If you like, you can call the transcendent purpose God. If it is God, it is a Socinian God, inherent in the universe and growing in power and knowledge as the universe unfolds. Our minds are not only expressions of its purpose but are also contributions to its growth. —Freeman Dyson, Infinite in All Directions”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“WE ONLY KNOW two things for certain: “I am,” and “I will die.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“The second certainty is associated with spirit, as in Pasternak’s novel, Dr. Zhivago, when the physician says to a young woman dying of cancer, “Your spirit will live on, you know. Your spirit is you in others, others in you.”
― John Buehrens, A Chosen Faith: An Introduction to Unitarian Universalism

“A Frith may be made at any time; but the first Monday of the quarter — a’ chiad Di-luain de’n Raithe — is considered the most auspicious.”
― William MacKenzie, Gaelic Incantations, Charms and Blessings of the Hebrides

“As tranquil streams that meet and merge and flow as one to meet the sea, our kindred hearts and minds unite to build a church that shall be free. Marion Franklin Ham, no. 145”
― Warren R. Ross, The Premise and the Promise: The Story of the Unitarian Univesalist Association

“Money was also allocated for historical research, a worship anthology called Women’s Words, and an AIDS outreach ministry.”
― Warren R. Ross, The Premise and the Promise: The Story of the Unitarian Univesalist Association

“If they offer something better, I will gladly learn. Francis David, no. 566”
― Warren R. Ross, The Premise and the Promise: The Story of the Unitarian Univesalist Association

“If you had known this: I love mercy, 45 not sacrifice, you would not have condemned those on whom is no blame.”
― Tatian the Assyrian, The Diatessaron

“And if you inquire for the good of your brethren only, what more have 21 ye done than others? is not this the conduct of the publicans also?”
― Tatian the Assyrian, The Diatessaron

“Your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.”
― Tatian the Assyrian, The Diatessaron

“Neither let your minds be perplexed in this: all these things the nations of the world seek; and your Father which is in heaven knows 11 your need of all these things.”
― Tatian the Assyrian, The Diatessaron

“13 Judge not, that you be not judged: condemn not, that you be not condemned: 14 forgive, and it shall be forgiven you: release, and you shall be released: give, that you may be given unto; with good measure, abundant, full, they shall thrust into your 15 bosoms.”
― Tatian the Assyrian, The Diatessaron

“So holy was the Bull that nothing unlucky might come near him; the youths and maidens must have both their parents alive, they must not have been under the taboo, the infection, of death.”
― Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual

“Again a great procession is led forth, the senate and the priests walk in it, and with them come representatives of each class of the State—children and young boys, and youths just come to manhood, epheboi, as the Greeks called them.”
― Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual

“He dies because he is so holy, that he may give his holiness, his strength, his life, just at the moment it is holiest, to his people.”
― Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual

“But sacrifice does not mean “death” at all.”
― Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual

“But it was not to give him up to the gods that they killed him, not to “sacrifice” him in our sense, but to have him, keep him, eat him, live by him and through him, by his grace.”
― Jane Ellen Harrison, Ancient Art and Ritual