Brandon > Brandon's Quotes

“All the suffering there is in this world arises from wishing our self to be happy. All the happiness there is in this world arises from wishing others to be happy.”
― Shantideva

“For as long as space endures 
And for as long as living beings remain, 
Until then may I too abide 
To dispel the misery of the world.”
― Shantideva

“Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write yourself. Your body must be heard.”
― Helene Cixous, The Laugh of the Medusa

“only philosophy can go deep enough to show that literature goes still deeper than philosophy”
― Michel Serres

“We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.”
― Simone Weil

“If we know in what way society is unbalanced, we must do what we can to add weight to the lighter scale ... we must have formed a conception of equilibrium and be ever ready to change sides like justice, 'that fugitive from the camp of conquerors'.”
― Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

“We should write as we dream; we should even try and write, we should all do it for ourselves, it’s very healthy, because it’s the only place where we never lie. At night we don’t lie. Now if we think that our whole lives are built on lying-they are strange buildings-we should try and write as our dreams teach us; shamelessly, fearlessly, and by facing what is inside very human being-sheer violence, disgust, terror, shit, invention, poetry. In our dreams we are criminals; we kill, and we kill with a lot of enjoyment. But we are also the happiest people on earth; we make love as we never make love in life.”
― Helene Cixous

“Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”
― Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace

“You can’t really change the heart without telling a story.”
― Martha Nussbaum

“Preventing war is much better than protesting against the war. Protesting the war is too late.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“To be a good human being is to have a kind of openness to the world, an ability to trust uncertain things beyond your own control, that can lead you to be shattered in very extreme circumstances for which you were not to blame. That says something very important about the condition of the ethical life: that it is based on a trust in the uncertain and on a willingness to be exposed; it’s based on being more like a plant than like a jewel, something rather fragile, but whose very particular beauty is inseparable from that fragility.”
― Martha Nussbaum

“May the blind see the forms,
May the deaf hear sounds.

May the naked find clothing,
The hungry find food;
May the thirsty find water
And delicious drinks.

May the poor find wealth,
Those weak with sorrow find joy;
May the forlorn find new hope,
Constant happiness and prosperity.

May the frightened cease to be afraid
And those bound be freed;
May the powerless find power,
And may the people think of benefiting one another”
― Shantideva

“Like a dream,
Whatever I enjoy
Will become a memory;
The past is not revisited.”
― Shantideva

“Those who worship don't know, and those who know don't worship.”
― Bodhidharma

“Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”
― Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

“People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something-always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose reason over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons. All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring.”
― Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

“To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.”
― Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

“A Buddha doesn’t observe precepts. A Buddha doesn’t do good or evil. A Buddha isn’t energetic or lazy. A Buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can’t even focus his mind on a Buddha. A Buddha isn’t a Buddha. Don’t think about Buddhas.”
― Bodhidharma, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma