The Human Condition
I HAVE DISCOVERED that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées
IT IS NO EASY TASK to walk this earth and find peace. Inside of us, it would seem, something is at odds with the very rhythm of things and we are forever restless, dissatisfied, frustrated, and aching. We are so overcharged with desire that it is hard to come to simple rest. Desire is always stronger than satisfaction.
Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing
ONE OF the uncomfortable facts about ourselves is that we all must live in a way that meets our own approval.
Paul Holmer, Making Christian Sense
DOES DISCOVERING who you are awaken a kind of inner unrest? … If you started accusing yourself of all that is in you, would your nights and days be long enough?
Brother Roger of Taizé, Essential Writings
A MAN'S AT ODDS to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he don't want to. Best not to look in there.
Cormac Mccarthy, Blood Meridian
ONE OF the strangest things that people say is, "I'm a good person." I am always amazed when people claim to know that about themselves. … History demonstrates, repeatedly, that if enough people begin to define themselves as "good" in contrast to others who are "bad," those others come to be seen as less than human.
Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace
THE POWER of temptation is not in its appeal to our baser instincts; if that were the case, it would be natural to be repulsed by it. The power of temptation is in its appeal to our idealism.
Helmut Thielicke, Our Heavenly Father
THE EVIL WROUGHT by those who intend evil is negligible. The greater evil is wrought by those who intend good, and ...
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Jesse
any philosphy with any sense in it points to Christ, Christians can do better at reading between the lines of anything a placing either christ or satan their
Mark Eaton
Not one mention of God or Jesus in this article. I really want to vote zero but the system will not let me. Why do we wonder why we struggle with faith when all we pay attention to is philosophy? Colossians 2:8 says "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceipt, according to the tradition of men, accoring to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ". While these men and women may be Belivers, what we must pay attention to is the Word of God and not the word of men.
T.
One of the sayings in this collection of sayings deserves the one star, namely that "SATAN DOES NOT here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God."Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Too often the church is lukewarm with its people only meeting God once a week. Or otherwise so consumed in its activities and its keeping busy that it does not rest with God. Those who are overly busy say it is their fervor for God that drives them. But I think it is often their own haste and unease to which they are prisoners. As for the other sayings in this collection I say it is a set of mainly half-baked ideas with some faint inclination towards the truth, sometimes. Let us not become forgetful of God either in stagnating or in excess of activity.