Rare Quotes - page 17

For several years I have referred to this, hitherto, rare and inaccessible work as the I-told-you-so-book, because it has often been implied that I have invented my explanations of Buddhism out of thin air, thus falsifying its authentic teachings... Yet, despite the occultist flavor of its title, The Secret Oral Teachings in the Tibetan Buddhist Sects is the most direct, no-nonsense, and down-to-earth explanation of Mahayana Buddhism which has thus far been written. (Alan Watts)
Encounters between strangers in the desert, while rare, were occasions of mutual suspicion, and masked by initial preparations on both sides for an incident that might prove either cordial or warlike. View quote
Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Needs must it be hard, since it is so seldom found. How would it be possible, if salvation were ready to our hand, and could without great labour be found, that it should be by almost all men neglected? But all things excellent are as difficult as they are rare. View quote
Baruch Spinoza
I have met other women who were tender, As you were cold, dear! with a grace as rare. Think you, I turned to them, or made surrender, I who had found you fair? View quote
George William Russell
Sometimes, making the wrong choice is better than making no choice. You have the courage to go forward, that is rare. A person who stands at the fork, unable to pick, will never get anywhere. View quote
Terry Goodkind
Nell teaches aspects of parenthood never understood before. If she cries or makes a mess or decides to be contrary (and these are relatively rare), it doesn't bother. There is always Chris's silence to compare it to. What is seen now so much more clearly is that although the names keep changing and the bodies keep changing, the larger pattern that holds us all together goes on and on. In terms of this larger pattern the lines at the end of this book still stand. We have won it. Things are better now. You can sort of tell these things. View quote
Robert M. Pirsig
Common sense in matters medical is rare, and is usually in inverse ratio to the degree of education. View quote
William Osler
He remembered the dissolute adventures in which his senses, his nervous system and his mind had indulged; he saw himself corroded by irony and intellect, laid waste and paralyzed by insight, almost exhausted by the fevers and chills of creation, helplessly and contritely tossed to and fro between gross extremes, between saintly austerity and lust - oversophisticated and impoverished, worn out by cold, rare artificial ecstasies, lost, ravaged, racked and sick - and he sobbed with remorse and nostalgia. View quote
Thomas Mann
The bread was dry and hard, only a scraping of butter was left, he was out of milk, all he had was some rather mediocre coffee, as we know, a man who had never found a woman who would love him enough to agree to join him in this hovel, such a man, apart from rare exceptions which have no place in this story, will never be more than a poor devil, it's odd that we always say poor devil and never poor god, [...]. View quote
José Saramago
As for the Messiah, it is, like Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, one of those rare works that appeal immediately to everyone, and yet is indisputably a masterpiece of the highest order. View quote
Kenneth Clark
I overtook, coming from Italy, In Germany, a great and famous Earl Of England; the most goodly fashioned man I ever saw: from head to foot in form Rare and most absolute; he had a face Like one of the most ancient honoured Romans From whence his noblest family was derived; He was besides of spirit passing great Valiant and learned, and liberal as the sun, Spoke and writ sweetly, or of learned subjects, Or of the discipline of public weals: And 'twas the Earl of Oxford. (Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford)
It's a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn't want to hear. View quote
Dick Cavett
In the main, ghosts are said to be forlorn and generally miserable, if not downright depressed. The jolly ghost is rare. View quote
Dick Cavett
With what is he concerned? Drawing was at its lowest ebb; it had to be restored. Looking at these nudes, I exclaim, 'Drawing has come back again!' As a man and painter he sets an example. 'Degas' is one of those rare masters who could have had anything he wanted, yet he scorned decorations, honors, fortune, without bitterness, without jealousy. View quote
Paul Gauguin
Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems. View quote
H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
He reminds me of that excitement when De Niro and I stumbled upon a way of working together - a similar kind of energy to the actors in the 1970s. It's very rare for me to find that kind of connection again. Leo will give me the emotion where I least expect it and could only hope for it about three or four scenes. And he can do it take after take. View quote
Leonardo DiCaprio
I prepare even for a conversation with him - I never want to say too little or too much. And, I never disturb him except when I feel I've done something worthwhile. It's a rare relationship - unconditional and [professional]]. View quote
Kamal Haasan
No difference of rank, position, or birth, is so great as the gulf that separates the countless millions who use their head only in the service of their belly, in other words, look upon it as an instrument of the will, and those very few and rare persons who have the courage to say: No! my head is too good for that; it shall be active only in its own service; it shall try to comprehend the wondrous and varied spectacle of this world and then reproduce it in some form, whether as art or as literature, that may answer to my character as an individual. View quote
Arthur Schopenhauer
Mordeen said: "I used to wonder why this love seemed sweeter than I had ever known, better than many people ever know. And then one day the reason came to me. There are very few great Anythings in the world. In work and art and emotion-the great is very rare. And I have one of the great and beautiful. Now say your yah, yah, Victor, like a child unanswerably answering Wisdom. You will have to do that, I think." View quote
John Steinbeck
I don't have any fear of intimacy, but rather thrive on it, which is rare in a public person. View quote
Jack Nicholson
Sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. It's what you say when you spill a cup of coffee or throw a gutter ball when you're bowling with the girls in the league. True sorrow is as rare as true love. (Stephen King)
Coincidences happen, but I've come to believe they are actually quite rare. Something is at work, okay? Somewhere in the universe (or behind it), a great machine is ticking and turning its fabulous gears. View quote
Stephen King
But sorry is the Kool-Aid of human emotions. [...] True sorrow is as rare as true love. View quote
Stephen King
I felt lonely and content at the same time. I believe that is a rare kind of happiness. View quote
Stephen King
It is a great adventure to contemplate the universe, beyond man, to contemplate what it would be like without man, as it was in a great part of its long history and as it is in a great majority of places. When this objective view is finally attained, and the mystery and majesty of matter are fully appreciated, to then turn the objective eye back on man viewed as matter, to view life as part of this universal mystery of greatest depth, is to sense an experience which is very rare, and very exciting. It usually ends in laughter and a delight in the futility of trying to understand what this atom in the universe is, this thing - atoms with curiosity - that looks at itself and wonders why it wonders. Well, these scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man's struggle for good and evil seems inadequate. View quote
Richard Feynman