My quote for the day -- Oliver Wendell Holmes

by logansrun 14 Replies latest jw friends

  • logansrun
    logansrun

    Oliver Wendell Holmes:

    I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.

    -- That statement pretty much sums up my thoughts on, well, the whole of existence!

    Bradley

  • Double Edge
    Double Edge

    Say what bro?

  • joannadandy
    joannadandy

    Double: Allow me to translate...

    Logan and apparently mister Holmes, great grandfather to the porn star John Holmes, has a fig fetish....or near as I can make out...

    *goes back to sniffing white out*

  • greven
    greven

    What I read in this is that at first something seems simple, a closer look reveals complexity, then comes understanding and simplicity again but with knowledge... Like a curve in understanding:

    1) the phenomenon seems simple (but misunderstood)

    2) the phenomenon seems complex (seeing into it, learning)

    3) the phenomenon seems simple again (yet better understood)

    Am I right?

    Greven

  • expatbrit
    expatbrit

    The essence of genius is simplicity!

    Expatbrit

  • Euphemism
    Euphemism

    Right on the money, greven, I do believe!

    You have to truly know a subject well to be able to make it simple.

    It also makes me think of the process of scientific paradigm shift, where a paradigm grows increasingly complex as it is adjusted to fit new results, until a new simpler paradigm is found which explains the results better.

  • drwtsn32
    drwtsn32

    Cool quote Bradley!! I'm looking but don't see a quote for today...

  • JamesThomas
    JamesThomas

    Sound. Just image all the sounds generated within the universe; many of which the human ear can not hear. Light. Imagine all the visual images ever perceived, and we only perceive a tiny proportion of the light spectrum. I could go on and on. Phenomena is a grand dance of movement. But what is It that phenomena is dependent on? What is It from which all thought and perception arise? All complexity? In order for a picture to exist, there must first be nothing on which the picture is projected or presented. In order for a musical note (or any sound) to exist, there must first be silence in which the note vibrates. Non-movement on which it moves. Everything is dependent on Nothing. But we never inquire into That which is before everything. What is It that the mind perceives as "nothing"? That without which no thing would exist? That, which is before and after all thingness is? That, which everything depends on? That, which does not need phenomena/movement to exist? There is something that is not a thing; that all moves within; that all arises from. That is everywhere and everywhen. What is It? What is this ultimate and pristine simplicity from which all complexity arises? Could it be our Source? what the word "God" points to? Is it separate from us? Or is It our Center? Our True identity? Might be worth a look see. j

  • rocketman
    rocketman

    I just heard an FDR quote:

    "The men who find the truth are the one who are free to pursue it".

  • JamesThomas
    JamesThomas

    Rocketman, Not sure what FDR meant by that. We are all free to know Truth. There were Jews in Hitler's concentrations camps which awoke to ultimate Truth. It is the shackles of the mind which imprison us. We just need to see that. When it is clearly seen, the chains are broken. j

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