As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "Consciously or unconsciously we all strive to make the kind of a world we like."  How often have we forgotten that? Intent is trickier than we realize. Intent slapped upside my head when I read Mark Twain's famous 'War Prayer' for the first time.

"Often people approach the unconscious with an inner utilitarian or power standpoint; they want to exploit the unconscious in order to become more powerful themselves, to be healthier, to dominate their surroundings, or to learn how to get things in their own way [...] When consciousness assumes such an attitude the unconscious becomes trickster-like too. The dreams become contradictory, they say Yes and then No, left and then right, and one feels that the archetype of the trickster God Mercurius is dominating the phenomenon of the unconscious, leading the ego in a thousand ways up the garden path." Ibid., Shadow and Evil in Fairytales, p. 251.

"Only within burns the fire I kindle. My heart the altar. My heart the altar." Poem of a Buddhist nun

"No intelligent man has any respect for an unjust law." Robert Heinlein

"We can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea." Aristotle

"I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise." Mary Wortley Montagu

"Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with
themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon." Susan Ertz

"Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Rober Heinlein

Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child." Robert Heinlein

"Being right too soon is socially unacceptable." Robert Heinlein

"All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right and not what is established." Aristotle

"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in
awareness." James Thurber

"People love as self-recognition what they hate as an accusation." Elias Canetti

"One man's "magic" is another man's engineering. Supernatural" is a null word." Robert Heinlein

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Fear sells. Madison Ave. knows that making people afraid, even on a semi - conscious level, sells products. Fear that someone will judge you, or that the new job will fall through if you drive the wrong car, wear the wrong clothes, eat the wrong foods, live with the wrong person, or don't watch the right TV shows. It is much easier to sell to and control people who are afraid. I am not sure who wrote this, but Mick Jager said pretty much the same thing when he wrote 'Satisfaction' way back in the 60's.

If you have an interesting quote, feel free to send it on for me to post.

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