A Collection of Some Quotations

“Create all the happiness you are able to create: remove all the misery you are able to remove. Every day will allow you to add something to the pleasure of others, or to diminish something of their pains. And for every grain of enjoyment you sow in the bosom of another, you shall find a harvest in your own bosom; while every sorrow which you pluck out from the thoughts and feelings of a fellow creature shall be replaced by beautiful peace and joy in the sanctuary of your soul.”

Jeremy Bentham
 

“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Carl Sagan
 

“For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson
 

“Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it!”

Yuri Gagarin
 

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive.”

Douglas Adams
 

“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honourably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honourably and justly without living pleasantly.”

Epicurus
 

“When we estrange ourselves from history we do not enlarge, we diminish ourselves, even as individuals. We subtract from our lives one meaning which they do in fact possess, whether we recognize it or not. We cannot help living in history. We can only fail to be aware of it.”

Robert Heilbroner
 

“One must be fond of people and trust them if one is not to make a mess of life.”

E. M. Forster
 

“The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.”

Richard Feynman 

19 Years Old Today.

[originally posted to facebook]

In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, it is indeed my joy and honour to share a planet and an epoch with you whom is reading this (that is all of you that stumble upon this mere posting in the chronicles of this amazing online social medium).

Nineteen orbital Earth periods around the Sun is perhaps a strange age to be – it possesses neither the novelty of eighteen nor the non-teenage status of twenty; not the wisdom or experience of age and but still a burden of responsibilities and independence unlike earlier adolescence. Today as I was having lunch with my old grandfather, Grandpa Jack who is my role model and a man of immense humility and insight, we began talking about happiness. He expounded to me that happiness comes to and stays with those that are at harmony with one’s self. I asked how does one attain harmony and he responded, with laughter, “a lot of bloody hard work.” He continued explaining that the tenets of friendship, helping others and frugality are some of the best methods to work towards happiness, which he tries to do each day. Indeed so should we all. :)