(In)visible

If I was invisible, would it matter if I left or remained?

If I was visible, would it matter if I went or stayed?

If I was invisible, would it matter if I was alive or dead?

If I was visible, oh what difference would it make?

An extraordinary person

I met an extraordinary human being recently. Intelligent for sure, but intelligent to the point of rigidity and arrogance. The problem is this. When I read something philosophical or religious, I don’t remember terms or the exact words used by the author. Instead, I try and understand the concept behind those terms or words, so that I personally understand what they mean, and then I can apply them in everyday life. For example the word karma. If I say cause and effect, or what goes around comes around, or you reap what you sow, what am I describing? And if I choose to describe it in this way, am I wrong? 

This person says that what I am doing is practicing my own principles and not the teachings that I have read. The problem is, the people who penned down those philosophies, practices and beliefs are all dead. So when in doubt, you can’t go back to them and ask them for clarification. 

So then, this person says, you read what other learned people are saying about those philosophies, practices and beliefs. My question is, why am I listening to other people who are also interpreting those terms or words? Surely different people, of equal calibre and knowledge, would still have different interpretations? How do you then choose who to listen to? 

I’ve always held the belief that philosophy and religion are open to interpretation by the reader or the recipient. And I think it should be this way, because in the end we all have a brain and should use it to decipher words of wisdom in a way that will make us become better people. I don’t believe that any other person can interpret a text better than any other person. After all, if we are all reading the same text without the benefit of the author’s explanations or clarifications, why should I take your word for it that what you say is right? 

The problem with rigidly clinging to your own notion of what you believe is the ‘correct’ teachings is that you will never be open to different interpretations, perspectives, ideas or views. Once you shut off your mind to these possibilities, I think you will never learn, you will never grow; you will be stagnant in your own belief system which may be right, but may very well be wrong. 

Of course, the biggest problem of all is that when someone (me) challenges that belief system to show that sometimes not everything can be neatly fitted into pigeon holes, or that not everything is black and white, you tell the someone (me) that they are delusional. That is the best thing to say I guess, when you don’t have or know the answer; when something doesn’t fit into your ‘perfect’ belief system. 

I am not delusional. I am a work in progress. I am still questioning, I am still seeking, and I think I will always question and seek till the day I die. I am not finished, like how this extraordinary human being seems to think he is. 

Quotes from “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins

Here are some quotes from “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins which I liked:

Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service.

I am an old man, and I take the practical view. You are a young man, and you take the romantic view.

Then, with that courage which women lose so often in the small emergency, and so seldom in the great...

Being, however, nothing but a woman, condemned to patience, propriety, and petticoats for life, I must respect the housekeeper’s opinions, and try to compose myself in some feeble and feminine way.

The misery of a weak, helpless, dumb creature is surely one of the saddest of all the mournful sights which this world can show.

Women can resist a man’s love, a man’s fame, a man’s personal appearance, and a man’s money, but they cannot resist a man’s tongue when he knows how to talk to them.

Any woman who is sure of her own wits is a match at any time for a man who is not sure of his own temper. 

It is the grand misfortune of my life that nobody will let me alone.

I had gone out to fly from my own future. I come back to face it, as a man should.

Oh, death, thou hast thy sting! oh, grave, thou hast thy victory!

The best men are not consistent in good - why should the worst men be consistent in evil?

Like a shadow she first came to me in the loneliness of the night. Like a shadow she passes away in the loneliness of the dead.

Witty Quotes

These quotes are fantastically witty 😁:

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; Bring a friend, if you have one.”

         - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night, I will attend the second...If there is one.”

         - Winston Churchill, in response.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:

        “Sir, you will either die on the gallows, or of some unspeakable disease.”

         “That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your 

           mistress.”

“He has delusions of adequacy.”

          - Walter Kerr

“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.”

          - Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”

         - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book, I’ll waste no time reading it.”

          - Moses Hadas

“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”

         - Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”

         - Oscar Wilde

“I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.”

          - Stephen Bishop

“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.”

          - John Bright

“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.”

         - Irvin S. Cobb

“He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.”

          - Samuel Johnson

“He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”

         - Paul Keating

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.”

          - Charles, Count Talleyrand

“He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.”

          - Forrest Tucker

“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”

         - Mark Twain

“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”

         - Mae West

“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”

          - Oscar Wilde

“He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.”

         - Billy Wilder

“I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”

         - Groucho Marx

“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”

         - Winston Churchill

“Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science.”

         - Edwin Hubble