curtesy of mooglekexin: "If you only read one book in your life... I highly recommend you keep your fucking mouth shut!" - Banksy "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky "How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved!" - Sigmund Freud "You can kill a lifetime without feeling anything but skin." - Chuck Palahniuk "I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time." - Friedrich Nietzsche "Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony." - Mahatma Gandhi "Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." - Siddharta Gautama "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." - George Orwell
"Just so everyone will know...the disrespect, name-calling and other issues that have been surfacing on a regular basis will NOT continue. We'll ban as many people as necessary to get the City back on the right path. We've made a major effort in cleaning things up but we're stepping it up even more. It just doesn't float. Also, if you're in the red with your rep, it's a clear indication that you aren't contributing to the City in a positive way so you will also be banned. I'll give you a little time to turn it around but not much. Everyone has access to the rules since they are posted in every forum so if you started off on the wrong foot and got a lot of negative rep given to you, then that's on you for not respecting the members or the owner of this website enough to follow some simple, general rules. This isn't really a warning. This is how it is. It goes for everyone too. So, if you get pissed off by someone, don't stoop to their level and call them names or disrespect them in return. Report their posts and we will handle the situation. Reporting someone's post is a powerful tool and if an issue comes up, it's really your responsibility as a Blade to use your power to make a change here. For everyone who is being a cool Blade of the City and is showing mutual respect for others, you KICK ASS and are definitely appreciated. Continue to be good role models for all of our new members!!!" ~Reform MaryJane Laws~
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. -Tao Te Ching
"It seems absurd to believe that we're even close to understanding the ways of the universe. I used to think that religion was something that helped people feel secure, but I've learned that actually the opposite is true. Closing your eyes to everything that's beyond your realm of analytical understanding is basically trying to negate anything that's outside of your control. There are higher powers than us at work, all you have to do is open your heart and you'll realize they've been there all along." ~AndyPL~
Well, is ignorance not bliss? If that is so then religion promotes one thing, fear. Thing is, we have to realise that religion does not expect us to understand anything. When I say religion, I mean the men in control of our faith. The hierarchy. They will tell you the rules.. In some cases, certain rules weren't even originally written down. Does not matter, for they are the hierarchy.. They will control thoughts, which controls language and thus inevitably controlling the people. Therefore, If religion promotes ignorance and uses fear as a means of control, then we prove one thing. Ignorance is not bliss. Knowledge and Truth are the two things that will open your mind. The two things that will bring upon your own thoughts and ideals, Therefore bringing out your true self. Your ideals will soon to blend your own faith. The faith you use on this earth to retain your personality and morals. And in the afterlife, should there be one, your reward will be gratitude for following your own path.. Though, let us not forget that this is all theory and opinion from my mind, not fact. Not truth. I speak from my mind to inspire ideas.. Not to create carbon copies of my morals... Which brings me to my concluding quote. "Inspiration is not a mimed ideal.. Rather the building blocks of your own creativity." -Durchii With that, I bid you goodnight.
Also, I came up with this while walking from my computer to my bed. It deserves a separate post, because it is in no way associated with the above: "Optimistic redundancy is more dangerous than pessimistic variance." -Durchii
Buddha's Zen Buddha said: "I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgment of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons."
^rofl These are all by Timothy Leary: "There are three side effects of acid: enhanced long-term memory, decreased short-term memory, and I forget the third." "We are dealing with the best-educated generation in history. But they've got a brain dressed up with nowhere to go." "Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition." "You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind." "Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities - the political, the religious, the educational authorities - who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing - forming in our minds - their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself." "Why not?" Said repeatedly, with various inflections, these were among his last words before his death. Some state his final intelligible word was "Beautiful".
Slightly Stoopid - Collie Man "And some man live his life For profits alone That very same man He lives his life all alone And the road to life Yes it goes up and down Doesn't really matter As long as the music goes on..."
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in traditions simply because they have been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. But when, after observation and analysis, you find anything that agrees with reason, and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. -- The Buddha's Kalama Sutra
"The answers are available, but you must first surrender your willingness to believe that you have them already...and secondly you must ask the right questions." ~hardcore_kid~
“Go grow a tree, and buy a solar panel, take up study of our home, our cradle, this Gaia, am, Urantia, Terra, earth or any other name you may have heard for the "third rock from sol". We can do so much, the universe awaits our actions, and the conscious being beneath our feet awaits our collective salvation. We are the ones we've been waiting for.†~Digit~