These are some quotes of Imam Khomeini, the originator and leader of Islamic revolution of Iran to Iranian youth that I translated to English. Educating should be along with refinement of morality as it can take human to the high dignity of humanity. Be diligent in science, practice and refine your ethic. Move toward science, practice and educating by all your will and decision, because living under science umbrella is so pleasant; and familiarity with book, pen and learning is so memorable and lasting that removes all other bitterness and failures. For obtaining independent thought and going out from dependence prison, realize your own national and cultural sources and honors. Trying in the science path and obtaining specialty in every scientific field must be the basis of our dear students’ effort, as the requirements of the country are removed by them and our land become self-sufficient. Man despite all his progress in the science and techniques is still in his "childhood cradle of science" and till attaining his complete maturity, there is a long way in front of him. The destiny of a country, after mass of its people, is in the hands of its educated class and the goal of neo-colonialism had been controlling this class. In total, we have to accept, man is not a being that can reaches growth and height by force and illogical expectations, because basically growth is not something that is possible by force. You have to know, if all prophets gathered in one era they hadn’t the smallest disagreement! Opposition is because of that that everybody wants to do something by himself. Every opposition (against right) occurs due to the(wrong) desires. My dears, obtain piety and righteousness; empower discipline in all stages of your life and try to gain knowledge and utilizing your heavenly talents. We must retain a balance in our expectations and behaviors. Intemperance is bad in all actions. The incorrect methods and wrong behaviors make the aspect of the values ugly! Illogical expectations, rehashing, tiresome emphasizes, blaming, humiliation in pray, work and education will have the unfavorable consequences. Students are in a sensitive age and have a breakable mentality. We have to not annoy them by our words and sarcasms. We must understand their spirit, emotion and affections and respect them. In confronting with guilty students we must be forgiven and don’t force them to excuse us or do every other action that makes them embarrassed. Keep your books, notebooks and the other your school things clean and beautiful. Using dirty and untidy tools have the negative effect on your spirit and touching them cause disorder and have adverse effect on your learning process. Don’t waste your mentality and thought power in “self make-up” and fashion. Don’t use the spirit of your curiosity, perfection, variety and modernism in clothing and life of endless frivolity. Seek for the perfection in science, faith, good morality and real humanity erudition. The clean and diligent students that wear simple clothes have a more hopeful future than the students that use their will for their appearance and Self-indulgence. Avoid being in shell and being inattention to the society destiny. Be sensitive about your environment and cooperate (with other reformers) in directing and improving (of the society) so that the affairs are corrected and modified. If today you avoid an active presence in the society and involvement in your destiny, you will have such reaction in the next as well. Try to distance self make-up and self-love and seek for your benefits in the fortune and benefit of the society.
Empty threats are often worse than saying nothing at all. It's like leading from behind. Eventually, no one thinks you're leading at all. And after a while, no one is even listening. - Kathleen Troia McFarland
The life of man upon earth is a warfare. Job 7:1 Intensity defeats extensity everytime. Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power. Death is nothing. But to live defeated is to die daily. Napoleon Bonaparte. Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum. (Let him who wants peace prepare for war.) Vegetius, fourth century AD.
"Give me liberty or give me death!" - Patrick Henry Henry's words were not transcribed, but no one who heard them forgot their eloquence, or Henry's closing words: "Give me liberty, or give me death!"
''If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.'' -Sirius Black
This is one of mine after a bout of reading some badly written to the point that I can't help but laugh at it: "If I wanted to read shit, then I would become a proctologist." Also this: You can learn a bit about an author by what they write and how they they write it.
True! But you can try! Does that qualify as a favorite quote? "I can't run from myself but I can try?"
"The first key to writing ... is to write." -- Sean Connery as William Forester, in Finding Forester.
“It is very strange, this domination of our intellect by our digestive organs. We cannot work, we cannot think, unless our stomach wills so. It dictates to us our emotions, our passions. After eggs and bacon it says, "Work!" After beefsteak and porter, it says, "Sleep!" After a cup of tea (two spoonfuls for each cup, and don't let it stand for more than three minutes), it says to the brain, "Now rise, and show your strength. Be eloquent, and deep, and tender; see, with a clear eye, into Nature, and into life: spread your white wings of quivering thought, and soar, a god-like spirit, over the whirling world beneath you, up through long lanes of flaming stars to the gates of eternity!” ― Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat
Luba Ushakova, as is well known, talks at an average speed of 150 words per minute. In times of intellectual stress or excitement or on the subject of French cinema, this rate rises to 165 words per minute. Floating high on its Akhmatova-like neck, Luba Ushakova's head does not even bob as Luba Ushakova's mouth produces a steady, even stream of words. To the unpractised listener, this sounds like a rare form of bird song, but if you hold your breath and listen closely the song breaks up into distinct words; amazingly, each word is perfectly formed, each word makes sense. One day a strange thing happens: Luba Ushakova falls silent. True, the silence does not last for long - for an hour and a half at most; even so, those who know Luba Ushakova can be forgiven for wondering what has happened. Has she had bad news of some sort? Has she just come back from the dentist? Is she ill? No: none of these things. It is just that she is in a state of shock, having met Sveta Stakanova, the only native of St Petersburg who regularly talks faster than herself. One day a strange thing happens: Luba Ushakova again falls silent. This time she has toothache and the silence lasts a couple of days. Not long perhaps, but quite long enough to decide the fate of Kira Chernov, 28, poet, archaeologist and talented bottle-emptier. Looking out across a crowded room, Kira Chernov falls in love with the taciturn, mysterious, delightfully reticent, dark-eyed girl with a neck like Anna Akhmatova. Later that day he asks her to marry him. Two days later, when Luba Ushakova opens her mouth in his presence for the first time and does not close it again for the next hour and a half, he realizes his mistake; but now it is too late for him to go back on his word. And besides, he is still in love with Luba Ushakova, who now seems to him like an exotic form of bird.
Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far! - John Muir
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen. Simply wait. Do not even wait. Be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice. It will roll in ecstasy at your feet. aphorism - franz kafka - circa 1918
