The Port to Which He is Bound

"But to him that knoweth not the port to which he is bound, no wind can be favourable; neither can he who has not yet determined at what mark he is to shoot, direct his arrow aright."
Robert Leighton (1611-1684), quot in S.T. Coleridge, Aids to Reflection (1825)

Divide in Order to Distinguish

"It is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in order to distinguish; but it is a still worse, that distinguishes in order to divide. In the former, we may contemplate the source of superstition and idolatry; in the latter, of schism, heresy, and a seditious and sectarian spirit."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection aphorism XXVI

Industrious but not Busy

Our lives should be industrious, but not anxiously busy.
N.N. Scott

Outsiders in Their Own Lives

Learning the language of a country, one does not cease to be an outsider. One simply becomes a different sort of outsider. Some people are outsiders to their own lives.
N.N. Scott

A Struggle for Power

Societies begin and grow in many ways but they only end in one: a struggle for power.
N.N. Scott

The Hope of Reward

A fool tries to do everything right, in hope of reward.
N.N. Scott

The Value of Things

Most people are shallow; they have no idea how to value things. If they get something for a low price, they will not value it even if it is something worthy of care. Therefore do not undervalue yourself, in your own eyes or the eyes of others. The world will not reward you for it.
N.N. Scott

Teaching the Faith

Anyone who sincerely, passionately believes in something, whose face is lit up with it so that others notice and react whether they wish to or not, is teaching his faith -- whatever that faith is -- and will suffer the consequences.
N.N. Scott

The Two Responsibilities

To feel distress at one's own inadequacy, and endeavor to do something about it, is a form of knowing and worshiping the Creator, which are the only two responsibilities of a human being.
N.N. Scott

Bearing the Load

Those who care about their work, and make every effort to do it well, usually bear the load of at least one or two, and sometimes a great many others, who do not.
N.N. Scott

A Supplication for Foriveness

To feel distress over one's inadequacy, without taking some kind of action to make up the deficiency, accomplishes no more than a supplication for forgiveness addressed to a nonentity.
N.N. Scott

What Work We are Doing

Most of us would agree that it is better to do our work well, than poorly -- but most of us actually know little about what work we are actually doing.
N.N. Scott

The Contented

The contented are most often ignorant of their incapacity.
N.N. Scott

Joy and Woe are Woven Fine

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine;
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And, when this we rightly know,
Safely through the world we go.
William Blake, Auguries of Innocence (circa 1793)

Panpsychism

"Over the course of universal evolution, how and when did mind come to be? It seems clear that either mind in the most general sense has always been present in the universe or else it came into being (suddenly or gradually). The first view is panpsychism; the second is emergentism. Nearly all present-day philosophers of mind are emergentists, who assume that mind emerged at some point in evolution. Usually, however, they do not address the question of how such emergence is conceivable, and they do not acknowledge that one need not assume this.... They seem to know that a clear and comprehensible theory of emergence is extremely problematic, but they cannot bring themselves to adopt the only viable alternative."
-- David Skrbina