Illusory Quotes - Page 2

Religion is but a desperate attempt to find an escape from the truly dreadful situation in which we find ourselves. Here we are in this wholly fantastic universe with scarcely a clue as to whether our existence has any real significance. No wonder then that many people feel the need for some belief that gives them a sense of security, and no wonder that they become very angry with people like me who say that this is illusory.

Fred Hoyle

Real, People, Giving

Fred Hoyle (1960). “The nature of the universe”

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Although the events we appear to perceive in dreams are illusory, our feelings in response to dream content are real. Indeed, most of the events we experience in dreams are real; when we experience feelings, say, anxiety or ecstasy, in dreams, we really do feel anxious or ecstatic at the time.

Stephen LaBerge

Dream, Real, Anxiety

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With the practice of meditation you can move into other states of mind, sort of ungluing the glue that binds you to a particular perceptual mode, a way of seeing life which is an illusory one.

Frederick Lenz

Moving, Buddhism, Practice

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I am discovering how my consciousness dominating addictions create my illusory version of the changing world of people and situations around me.

Ken Keyes Jr.

People, Addiction, World

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The willingness to not bypass illusion is very important. We come to nirvana by way of samsara. We come to see the true nature of things by seeing through the illusory nature of things. We don't come to nirvana by avoiding samsara. We don't come to clarity by avoiding confusion.

Adyashanti

Confusion, Important, Way

Adyashanti (2010). “The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment”, p.49, Sounds True

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When I was 17 until, I don't know, 20, I had this massive, baseless confidence. This very clear idea of myself and how I would achieve success, which involved making decisions. I saw myself picking up the phone and saying 'Absolutely not' or 'Definitely yes.' Having control. Except you have to figure out whether the way you think at 19 or 20 has any value. And eventually I understood, with all that control, which was probably illusory, I wasn't progressing. So now I'm relinquishing a bit. I'll be a tiny bit naked.

Robert Pattinson

Thinking, Phones, Ideas

"Robert Pattinson Shows Us His Sexy Side in Details". Details Magazine, www.popsugar.com. February 13, 2010.

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Paraphrased: Among the degrees of the universal Manifestation, each sentient creature typically experiences an illusory sense of autonomy. At the same time, with or without the creature's awareness, the creature subsists eternally as an "immutable prototype" in the divine Knowledge.

Abdelkader El Djezairi

Knowledge, Degrees, Awareness

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When you awaken, you know that everything that occurs at the level of mind is illusory in nature and so you no longer believe in it as the truth of life. It is sometimes happy and sometimes sad, because it is a world of duality. You relax and accept the dual nature of the world of the mind and the world of experience within time. This will create balance within duality which will open the doorway to Oneness.

Leonard Jacobson

Believe, Oneness, Mind

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The world is illusory, Only Brahman is real, Brahman is the world

Ramana Maharshi

Real, World, Brahman

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As soon as the mouth is opened, evils spring forth. People either neglect the root and speak of the branches, or neglect the reality of the 'illusory' world and speak only of Enlightenment. Or else they chatter of cosmic activities leading to transformations, while neglecting the Substance from which they spring--indeed, there is NEVER any profit in discussion.

Huangbo Xiyun

Spring, Reality, Roots

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The so-called liberals of today have the very popular idea that freedom of speech, of thought, of the press, freedom of religion, freedom from imprisonment without trial-that all these freedoms can be preserved in the absence of what is called economic freedom. They do not realize that, in a system where there is no market, where the government directs everything, all those other freedoms are illusory, even if they are made into laws and written up in constitutions.

Ludwig von Mises

Freedom, Ideas, Government

Ludwig Von Mises (2006). “Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow”, p.18, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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Rooting in work is crucial to any accomplishment. Rooting in mere enthusiasm will in the long run force illusory measures to keep the fires of empty enthusiasm going. And this makes politics and politicians.

Wilhelm Reich

Running, Fire, Long

Writings by Wilhelm Reich, April 19, 1951.

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Beauty captivates the flesh in order to obtain permission to pass right through to the soul. . . . When the feeling for beauty happens to be associated with the sight of some human being, the transference of love is made possible, at any rate in an illusory manner. But it is all the beauty of the world, it is universal beauty, for which we yearn.

Simone Weil

Beauty, Love Is, Sight

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Electronic communication is an instantaneous and illusory contact that creates a sense of intimacy without the emotional investment that leads to close friendships.

Clifford Stoll

Communication, Science, Technology

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There is something decidedly faux about the camaraderie of Facebook, something illusory about the connectedness of Twitter.

Bill Keller

Camaraderie, Faux, Connectedness

"The Twitter Trap" by Bill Keller, www.nytimes.com. May 18, 2011.

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The condition of humankind is not good, in the sense that the illusory prisons we create for ourselves through our desires and our frustrations are unhappy.

Frederick Lenz

Buddhism, Frustration, Humanity

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The individual (no matter how well-meaning he might be, no matter how much strength he might have, if only he would use it) does not have the passion to rip himself away from either the coils of Reflection or the seductive ambiguities of Reflection; nor do the surroundings and times have any events or passions, but rather provide a negative setting of a habit of reflection, which plays with some illusory project only to betray him in the end with a way out: it shows him that the most clever thing to do is nothing at all.

Soren Kierkegaard

Clever, Rip, Passion

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What is the right time [to discuss theology]? Whenever we are free from the mire and noise without, and our commanding faculty is not confused by illusory, wandering images, leading us, as it were, to mix fine script with ugly scrawling, or sweet-smelling scent with slime. We need actually 'to be still' (Ps. 46:10) in order to know God, and when we receive the opportunity, 'to judge uprightly' (Ps. 75:2) in theology.

Gregory of Nazianzus

Christian, Sweet, Confused

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Morality is a biological adaptation no less than are hands and feet and teeth... Considered as a rationally justifiable set of claims about an objective something, ethics is illusory. I appreciate that when somebody says, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself,' they think they are referring above and beyond themselves... Nevertheless... such reference is truly without foundation. Morality is just an aid to survival and reproduction... and any deeper meaning is illusory...

Michael Ruse

Thinking, Hands, Feet

"The Darwinian Paradigm: Essays on Its History, Philosophy and Religious Implications (Evolutionary Theory and Christian Ethics)". Book by Michael Ruse, 1989.

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After generations of living under medical tutelage, which provides us with protection (albeit illusory) against "dangerous drugs", we have failed to cultivate the self-reliance and self-discipline we must possess as competent adults surrounded by the fruits of our pharmacological-technological age.

Thomas Szasz

Self, Discipline, Drug

Thomas Szasz (1996). “Our Right to Drugs: The Case for a Free Market”, p.24, Syracuse University Press

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Transcendence implies the surpassing of two things, and the consequent attainment of a third thing. But there are no 'things' in reality, of any kind whatever: there is only the thing-in-itself, its suchness, which is Reality, revealed when the illusory dualism of inexistent qualities is dissolved.

Wei Wu Wei

Reality, Two, Quality

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When you feel that you are a lonely, put-upon, isolated little stranger confronting all this, you are under the influence of an illusory feeling, because the truth is quite the reverse. You are the whole works, all that there is, and always was, and always has been, and always will be.

Alan Watts

Lonely, Feelings, Littles

Alan Watts (2010). “Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation”, p.90, New World Library

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Of all the vulgar arts of government, that of solving every difficulty that might arise by thrusting the hand into the public purse is the most illusory and contemptible.

Robert Peel

Art, Government, Hands

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A vital function of the free market is to penalize inefficiency and misjudgment and to reward efficiency and good judgment. By distorting economic calculations and creating illusory profits, inflation will destroy this function.

Henry Hazlitt

Creating, Rewards, Judgment

Henry Hazlitt (1971). “Man Vs. the Welfare State”, p.133, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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If you search within your heart, you will find something there that will make it possible for you to understand: a spark of disenchantment and discontent, which if fanned into flame will become a raging forest fire that will burn up the whole of the illusory world you are living in, thereby unveiling to your wondering eyes the kingdom that you have always lived in unsuspectingly.

Anthony de Mello

Heart, Eye, Fire

Anthony De Mello (2011). “The Way to Love: Meditations for Life”, p.121, Image

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