Body

"Cheerfulness is the best promoter of health and is as friendly to the mind as to the body."

"Your body is like a bar of soap. It gradually wears down from repeated use."

"Our human frame, our gutted mansion, our enveloping sack of beef and ash is yet a glory. The human figure is the image of all men and of one man. It contains all and it can express all."

"My body is a cage that keeps me From dancing with the one I love But my mind holds the key."

"Antony, however, according to his custom, returned alone to his own cell, increased his discipline, and sighed daily as he thought of the mansions in Heaven, having his desire fixed on them, and pondering over the shortness of man's life. And he used to eat and sleep, and go about all other bodily necessities with shame when he thought of the spiritual faculties of the soul. So often, when about to eat with any other hermits, recollecting the spiritual food, he begged to be excused, and departed far off from them, deeming it a matter for shame if he should be seen eating by others."

"Antony ... used to say that it behooved a man to give all his time to his soul rather than his body, yet to grant a short space to the body through its necessities; but all the more earnestly to give up the whole remainder to the soul and seek its profit, that it might not be dragged down by the pleasures of the body, but, on the contrary, the body might be in subjection to the soul."

"We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one."

"When you see the donkey (Hebrew: chamor) of your enemy lying under its burden, you might refrain from helping it; you must aid it" - When you carefully examine your "chomer" (English: materiality), your body, you will see "your enemy", that it restricts your Divine soul that longs for Godliness and the spiritual. You will see that it "lies under its burden" placed upon it by God, that it should become refined through Torah and Jewish observance, as the body is reluctant and materialistic. It may occur to you that "you will refrain from helping it", to enable it to fulfill its mission, and instead you will follow the path of asceticism, to break down the body's resistance to spirituality. However, not in this approach will the light of Torah reside, rather "you must aid it" by purifying and refining the body, rather than breaking it. This superior elevation transforms the body into a vehicle for the essential Divine purpose in physical Creation."

"Flesh is our indisputable commonality. Whatever our race, our religion, our politics we are faced every morning with the fact of our bodies. Their frailties, their demands, their desires. And yet the erotic appetites that spring from - and are expressed through - those bodies, are so often a source of bitter dissension and division. Acts that offer a glimpse of transcendence to one group are condemned by another. We are pressured from every side - by peers, by church, by state - to accept the consensual definition of taboo; though so often what excites our imaginations most is the violation of taboo."

"The best cure for the body is a quiet mind."

"Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour ... If at my convenience I might break them, what would be their worth?"

"Joined together with bones and sinews, having a plastering of skin and flesh, covered with hide, the body is not seen as it really is—full of intestines, full of stomach, of the lump of the liver, of bladder, of heart, of lungs, of kidneys and of spleen, of mucus, of saliva, and of sweat, and of lymph, of blood, of synovial fluid, of bile, and of fat, ... and its hollow head is filled with brain. A fool, overwhelmed by ignorance, thinks of it as beautiful, but when it lies dead, swollen up and discoloured, cast away in a cemetery, relatives have no regard for it. Dogs devour it, and jackals, and wolves and worms. Crows and vultures devour it, and whatever other living creatures there are. The bhikkhu possessing knowledge here, having heard the Buddha's word, indeed understands it, for he sees the body as it really is."

"No one in this earthly prison of the body has sufficient strength of his own to press forward with a due degree of watchfulness, and the great majority [of Christians] are kept down with such great weakness that they stagger and halt and even creep on the ground, and so make very slight advances."

"There is also an old proverb, that they who pay much attention to the body generally neglect the soul."

"mi corazón, lugar de las hogueras,/y mi cuerpo que siempre me acompaña."

"As long as your body is healthy and under control and death is distant, try to save your soul; when death is immanent what can you do?"

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

"Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things."

"If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know. Is there any other way?"

"Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul."

"The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around."

"Emotions are shown primarily in the face, not in the body. The body instead shows how people are coping with emotion. There is no specific body movement pattern that always signals anger or fear, but there are facial patterns specific to each emotion. If someone is angry, his body may show how he is coping with the anger. He may be tense and constrained (tight muscular tension in arms and legs, stiff posture). He may be withdrawing (a particular retreated position). There may be verbal attack (certain types of hand movements with his words), or the likelihood of physical attack (posture, orientation, hand movements). However, any of these movements can occur just as well when a person is afraid as when he is angry. Body movement reveals, of course, not just how someone copes with emotion, but also what a person’s attitudes, interpersonal orientations, etc. might be."

"Possession, outward success, publicity, luxury– to me these have always been contemptible.I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."

"In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs, the trunk is carried along almost motionless."

"It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it."

"A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone."

"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body."

"Spiritual relationship is far more precious than physical. Physical relationship divorced from spiritual is body without soul."

"You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind."

"There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever."

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

"The main purpose of life is to live rightly, think rightly, act rightly. The soul must languish when we give all our thought to the body."

"Just as a man would not cherish living in a body other than his own, so do nations not like to live under other nations, however noble and great the latter may be."

"Life without liberty is like a body without spirit."

"It is a great thing to take a human body. Whoever comes to the earth must do work."

"Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees."

"A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks."

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?"

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

"Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind."

"My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn't stand the sideline."

"Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity."

"Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment."

"Those who have the strength and the love to sit with a dying patient in the silence that goes beyond words will know that this moment is neither frightening nor painful, but a peaceful cessation of the functioning of the body."

"My body glistens on the flesh of the great gods."

"A person must take care to exercise moderate discipline over the body and subject it to the Spirit by means of fasting, vigils, and labor. The goal is to have the body obey and conform—and not hinder—the inner person and faith. Unless it is held in check, we know it is the nature of the body to undermine faith and the inner person."

"The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up."

"At twelve I looked like a girl of seventeen. My body was developed and shapely. I still wore the blue dress and the blouse the orphanage provided. They made me look like an overgrown lummox."

"Sex is full of lies. The body tries to tell the truth. But, it's usually too battered with rules to be heard, and bound with pretenses so it can hardly move. We cripple ourselves with lies."

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."