Emotions

"I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice."

"It was an old, old, old, old lady, And a boy who was half-past three; And the way they played together Was beautiful to see."

"After a few days, Willie got tired of [the water-wheel] — and no blame to him, for it was no earthly use beyond amusement, and that which can only amuse can never amuse long."

"If variety is sought in all the arts and amusements, such as archery and others, how much more should it be sought after in the art of love."

"Dancing, the theatre, society, card-playing, games of chance, horses, women, drinking, traveling, and so on … are not enough to ward off boredom where intellectual pleasures are rendered impossible by lack of intellectual needs."

"What a man is by himself, what accompanies him into solitude, and what no one can give to him or take from him is obviously more essential to him than everything he possesses, or even what he may be in the eyes of others. A man of intellect, when entirely alone, has excellent entertainment in his own thoughts and fancies, whereas the continuous diversity of parties, plays, excursions, and amusements cannot ward off from the dullard the tortures of boredom."

"Where the company are real gentlemen and men of education, you will see no flute-girls, nor dancing-girls, nor harp-girls; and they have no nonsense or games, but are contented with one another’s conversation, of which their own voices are the medium, and which they carry on by turns and in an orderly manner. ... A company like this of ours, and men such as we profess to be, do not require the help of another’s voice. ... This sort of entertainment they decline, and prefer to talk with one another, and put one another to the proof in conversation."

"In our bourgeois Western world total labor has vanquished leisure. Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture—and ourselves."

"They have a secret instinct which impels them to seek amusement and occupation abroad, and which arises from the sense of their constant unhappiness. They have another secret instinct, a remnant of the greatness of our original nature, which teaches them that happiness in reality consists only in rest and not in stir."

"The inhabitants have a right to take their amusements in a lawful way."

"People come home after a day's work, from which they derive little satisfaction, and feel the need for diversion and amusement. The word diversion itself is already very significant. When Pascal uses the word diversion he means that people ... deviate from the path which leads them to God as a result of diversion and amusement. Instead of thinking of God, they amuse themselves. So, instead of thinking about the problems which have been created by technology and our work we want to amuse ourselves."

"I've been spending the best years of my life as a public benefactor. I've given people the light pleasures, shown them a good time. And all I get is abuse - the existence of a hunted man. I'm called a killer. Ninety percent of the people of Cook County drink and gamble and my offense has been to furnish them with those amusements. Whatever else they may say, my booze has been good and my games have been on the square. Public service is my motto. I always regarded it as a public benefaction if people were given decent liquor and square."

"The ascetic Gotama … avoids watching dancing, singing, music and shows."

"The very beginning of the soul’s purgation is tranquility, in which the tongue is not given to discussing the affairs of men, nor the eyes to contemplating rosy cheeks or comely bodies, nor the ears to lowering the tone of the soul by listening to songs whose sole object is to amuse, or to words spoken by wits and buffoons—a practice which above all things tends to relax the tone of the soul."

"Persons without minds are like bad weeds that delight in good earth; they want to be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within."

"Helena Roerich, Letters II, 7 May 1938 »"

"It is not fitting for people to sit in a chicken-coop. It is time to know the planet and to assist it... It also cannot be forgotten that people can gnaw each other in two. This consideration must not be forgotten, since malice is deluging the Earth. 112."

"Depressed people are said to be deprived of their share. Ponder these words. Who has deprived them of their inherent share? First of all they deprived themselves of any possibilities. They began their own destruction long ago. Discontent, malice, irritation cut off the path to joy. Dark thoughts deprived them of the source of strength."

"Of all the creatures that were made he [man] is the most detestable. Of the entire brood he is the only one — the solitary one — that possesses malice. That is the basest of all instincts, passions, vices — the most hateful...He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain...Also — in all the list he is the only creature that has a nasty mind."

"Malice, like Lust, when it is at the Height, doth not know Shame."

"Malice is of a low Stature, but it hath very long Arms. It often reacheth into the next World, Death itself is not a Bar to it."

"Depressed people are said to be deprived of their share. Ponder these words. Who has deprived them of their inherent share? First of all they deprived themselves of any possibilities. They began their own destruction long ago. Discontent, malice, irritation cut off the path to joy. Dark thoughts deprived them of the source of strength. Selfhood prevented the discernment of joy. Egoism whispered, Joy lies only in personal gain. Thus the most fruitful joy was hidden behind ugly piles of depression. Those blinded by depression are the most pitiful of bipeds."

"There is no cure for ossification of the heart. Oh, that miserable state, when to the jaundiced eye all good transforms itself into evil, and the very instruments of health become the poison of disease."

"Beware of that which becomes the slanderer's life, of magnifying every speck of evil and closing the eye to goodness, till at last men arrive at the state in which generous, universal love (which is heaven) becomes impossible, and a suspicious, universal hate takes possession of the heart, and that is hell."

"You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others."

"This swallowing up of life in nothingness, this obliteration of life by nothingness is what the emotion of malice ultimately desires. The eternal conflict between love and malice is the eternal contest between life and death. And this contest is what the complex vision reveals, as it moves from darkness to darkness."

"Man loves malice, but not against one-eyed men nor the unfortunate, but against the fortunate and proud."

"I shall say of treason to the fanatics and bigots. They assume that treason is only a matter of thirty pieces of silver, but they forget that it is contained in each blasphemy and slander. One should not think that a malicious word is not also treason. It is precisely malice that is often inseparable from treason and slander. One and the same black tree nurtures these loathsome branches, and their fruits are as black as the roots of shame. One must speedily liberate oneself from the horror of malicious words. 376."

"Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men."

"Contre la médisance il n'est point de rempart."

"At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice, and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols."

"There is probably an element of malice in the readiness to overestimate people; we are laying up for ourselves the pleasure of later cutting them down to size."

"It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness."

"The spirit burdened with malice cannot rise. But kindness set free soars into the radiance of the Light. 400."

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

"Vanity backbites more than Malice."

"You must beware of seeing malice behind accidental injury."

"Malice admits leprosy and pestilence. Malice can transform a peaceful fireside into a swarm of snakes. Qualities of malice are not befitting the community. The common task is General Welfare."

"To be useful as a Christian, a man must keep himself free from all malign feelings, from all bitterness of resentment. Even righteous indignation must not drag Love from her throne. Over all the soul's passions Love must preside in serene majesty. The Christian worker must learn (and the sooner the better) if he has not already learned, that there is something better for a Christian than to plan revenge, and nurse resentment, and call down fire from heaven, even on those who show themselves base and unworthy."

"We are strangers to Christian love, if we harbor malice or revenge in our hearts toward any of our fellow-creatures, whatever treatment we receive at their hands."

"Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores."

"Wonder is involuntary praise."

"Man has to awaken to wonder — and so perhaps do peoples. Science is a way of sending him to sleep again."

"Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains."

"Philosophy is the product of wonder. The effort after the general characterization of the world around us is the romance of human thought."

"When we affirm that philosophy begins with wonder, we are affirming in effect that sentiment is prior to reason."

"Wonder is not a disease. Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons."

"Wonder is from surprise; and surprise ceases upon experience."

"Wonder is the beginning of wisdom."

"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery."