Inspirational Quotes by Byron J. Rees
“Die Einfachheit und Nacktheit des primitiven Menschen hatte wenigstens den Vorteil, daß er sich in der Natur als Gast fühlte. War er durch Nahrung und Schlaf erquickt, dann dachte er wieder ans Weiterziehen. Er lebte in der Welt gleichsam wie in einem Zelt, durchstreifte die Täler, überquerte die Ebenen oder kletterte auf Berge. Aber die Menschen haben sich zu Werkzeugen ihrer Werkzeuge gemacht! Der Mensch, der sich frei und unabhängig Beeren pflückte, wenn er hungrig war, ist Farmer geworden, und der einst unter einem Baum Schutz suchte, Hausbesitzer. Wir schlagen nicht mehr für eine Nacht unser Zelt auf, sondern haben uns auf der Erde ansässig gemacht und den Himmel vergessen. Wir haben die christliche Kultur angenommen, doch nur als verbesserte Methode der Agri-Kultur. Wir haben für diese Welt ein Familienhaus und für die andere ein Familiengrab errichtet.”
“After a still winter night I awoke with the impression that some question had been put to me, which I had been endeavoring in vain to answer in my sleep, as what—how—when—where? But there was dawning Nature, in whom all creatures live, looking in at my broad windows with serene and satisfied face, and no question on her lips. I awoke to an answered question, to Nature and daylight.”
“Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month—the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this—or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers' penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?... To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation!—why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it. Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
“The orator yields to the inspiration of a transient occasion, and speaks to the mob, before him, to those who can hear him; but the writer, whose more equable life is his crowd which inspire the orator, speaks to the intellect and heart of mankind, to all in any age who can understand him.”
“We commonly do not remember that it is … always the first person that is speaking.”
topics: unreliable-narrators
“Philanthropy is almost the only virtue which is sufficiently appreciated by mankind. Nay, it is overrated; and it is our selfishness which overrates it.”
“The earth is not a mere fragment of dead history, stratum upon stratum like the leaves of a book, to be studied by geologists and antiquaries chiefly, but living poetry like the leaves of a tree, which precede flowers and fruit—not a fossil earth, but a living earth; compared with whose great central life all animal and vegetable life is merely parasitic.”
“Người ta hỏi một nhà thông thái rằng, trong số nhiều cây nổi tiếng mà Chúa toàn năng đã tạo thành những cây cao bóng cả, không có cây nào được gọi là azad, hay tự do, ngoài cây bách là cây không quả, có bí mật gì trong chuyện này không? Nhà thông thái trả lời, mỗi cây có một sản phẩm thích hợp và có mùa thích hợp với nó, đúng mùa thì nó tươi tốt và ra hoa, trái mùa thì nó khô vàng và héo tàn, cây bách không ở trong hai trạng thái này, vì nó lúc nào cũng xanh tươi, và bản chất của nó là azad, hay tự do tín ngưỡng. Đừng gắn trái tim bạn với cái gì nhất thời; vì con sông Dijlah, hay Tigris, sẽ tiếp tục chảy qua Bagdad sau khi nòi giống các vua Hồi đã tuyệt diệt; nếu bạn giàu có, hãy hào phóng; nhưng nếu không có gì để cho, hãy là 1 azad, hay 1 người tự do, giống như cây bách.”
topics: psychologist
“To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.”
“I cannot but feel compassion when I hear some trig, compact-looking man, seemingly free, all girded and ready, speak of his 'furniture,' as whether it is insured or not. 'But what shall I do with my furniture?'...It would surpass the powers of a well man nowadays to take up his bed and walk, and I should certainly advise a sick one to lay down his bed and run.”
“There is no help for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but what is respected.”
“Shall we always study to obtain more of these things, and not sometimes to be content with less?”
“The day is an epitome of the year. The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer.”
“Our village life would stagnate if it were not for the unexplored forests and meadows that surround it. We need the tonic of wildness...”
“Thu luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another.”
“I had this advantage, at least, in my mode of life, over those who were obliged to look abroad for amusement, to society and the theatre, that my life itself was become my amusement and never ceased to be novel. It was a drama of many scenes and without an end. If we were always, indeed, getting our living, and regulating our lives according to the last and best mode we had learned, we should never be troubled with ennui. Follow your genius closely enough, and it will not fail to show you a fresh prospect every hour.”
“My excuse for not lecturing against the use of tobacco is, that I never chewed it; that is a penalty which reformed tobacco chewers have to pay; though there are things enough I have chewed, which I could lecture against. If you should ever be betrayed into any of these philanthropies, do not let your left hand know what your right hand does , for it is not worth knowing. Rescue the drowning and tie your shoe-strings. Take your time, and set about some free labor.”
“In short, I am convinced, both by faith and experience, that to maintain one's self on this earth is not a hardship but a pastime, if we will live simply and wisely; as the pursuits of the simpler nations are still the sports of the more artificial. It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easier than I do.”
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Byron J. Rees was born at Westfield, Indiana to parents of ministers in the Society of Friends. When he was five years of age they moved to Walnut Ridge, Indiana, where there was a Friends' meeting of more than ordinary size and activity. It was there that his conversion took place.