Skepticism relieved two terrible diseases that afflicted mankind: anxiety and dogmatism.-Sextus Empiricus — “More precisely, I am trying to stop what you are making out of what I am saying. This is why my talking sounds contradictory to others. I am forced by the nature of your listening to always negate the first statement with another statement. The second statement is negated by…

By reality and perfection I mean the same thing.-Spinoza, Ethics — Whatever helps us to attain perfection, we shall call good, and whatever hinders our attaining of it, we shall call evil. — Spinoza, Ethics On this mountain of life, countless and innumerable beings climb toward the summit. Limited creatures seek limited means to continue their limited existence. Speak to a…

It’s truly, truly been…a very long roundabout path.-Johhny Joestar, Steel Ball Run — The shortest route is the detour. It was the detour that was our shortest path. — Gyro Zeppeli, Steel Ball Run If we are to use an aphorism to begin, then let us choose the aphorism that deals with the shortness of length. Quality over quantity but as Karl Marx…

And so he endeavors, as far as he can, to do well and rejoice.-Spinoza, Ethics Part IV — Goethe remarked upon his second reading of Spinoza’s Ethics “I have never seen things so clearly, or been so much at peace.” Einstein said that if he believed in God, it would be Spinoza’s God. George Elliot wrote, “Spinoza says from his own soul, what all the world is saying…

What is truth? Said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer-Francis Bacon — Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will rule over all. — Gospel Of St. Thomas I am a human being. I need money, and air, and water, and sun, and shelter…

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.-Soren Kierkegaard — And the man or woman who would have remained a sunny garden-flower, with no room for its roots and too much sunshine for its head, by the falling of the walls and the neglect of the gardener, is made the banian of the forest, yielding shade and fruit to wide…

An army of philosophers would not be sufficient to change the nature of error and make it truth-Averroes — Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials. — Avicenna It says much about Western Culture when we label a period of time The Dark Ages…

When we stop laughing or our heart stops beating where does it go?-Bernadette Roberts — I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through ME. — John 14:6 To the Carmelite nun Bernadette Roberts the paradox of spiritual enlightenment is resolved not through the annihilation or extinction of some entity, being, soul, spirit, but rather it…

Anywhere can be paradise as long as you have the will to live. After all, you are alive, so you will always have the chance to be happy. As long as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth exist, everything will be all right.” ― Yui Ikari — Gnosticism is remarkable for its ability to appropriate and assimilate, and to reap where it has not sown. As Meister Puck said, “Gnosis is true Alchemy. It can take any religion, any philosophy, any folklore and turn it into a divine metaphor. There could be a gnostic movement with Don…