#metaphysics

"The death of a dream can in fact serve as the vehicle that endows it with new form, with reinvigorated substance, a fresh flow of ideas, and splendidly revitalized color. In short, the power of a certain kind of dream is such that death need not indicate finality at all but rather signify a metaphysical and metaphorical leap forward."

"Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality."

"The map is not the territory."

"The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without: to follow one's own path, not that of the crowd."

"if being is many, it must be both like and unlike, and this is impossible, for neither can the like be unlike, nor the unlike like"

"In meetings philosophy might work,on the field practicality works."

"Love taught me to die with dignity that I might come forth anew in splendor. Born once of flesh, then again of fire, I was reborn a third time to the sound of my name humming haikus in heaven’s mouth."

"...an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable."

"Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun."

"After your death, you will be what you were before your birth."

"A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmareto the jeweled vision of a life started anew."

"In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded."

"I've often thought that there isn't any "I"at all; that we are simply the means of expression of something else; that when we think we are ourselves, we are simply the victims of a delusion."

"Inevitably it follows that anyone with an independent mind must become 'one who resists or opposes an authority or established convention': a rebel. ...And if enough people come to agree with—and follow—the REBEL, we now have a DEVIL. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have ... GREATNESS."

"Why are there beings at all, instead of Nothing?"

"Theology, philosophy, metaphysics, and quantum physics are merely ways for God to have his smart people believe in him"

"If it turns out that there is a God...the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever."

"I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain."

"The sun symbolizes the Divine intelligence; the empty vastness of space symbolizes the Divine All-Possibility and also the Divine immutability; a bird symbolizes the soul; a tree symbolizes the grades of being; and water symbolizes knowledge and rain revelation."

"We grown-up people think that we appreciate music, but if we realized the sense that an infant has brought with it of appreciating sound and rhythm, we would never boast of knowing music. The infant is music itself."