Beliefs in a nutshell

[sigelphoenix]

From zinjadu

Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 or more that you think reflect who you are or what you believe. Repost in your journal and tag five friends.



I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show for any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Pretty self-explanatory. How I want to live my life.

All dogmas perish the thinking mind, especially ones you agree with.
-Adam Richardson

I firmly believe this, even about my beliefs on feminism and anti-racism, etc. It's somewhat easy to slip into dogma in which you parrot other people or follow the party line rather than thinking for yourself and holding to the original goal of righting a wrong.

And before anyone smugly declares, "Ha, she admitted that feminism is just dogma!" let me remind you that I've been able to recognize the dogmatic aspects of my beliefs and mostly weed them out within the past, oh, year or so since I've begun learning. But the dogmas that I've been spoon-fed since birth, that implicitly reinforce white/male/rich/straight dominance? It took me two decades to unlearn them, and in all that time I haven't found any part of them that isn't dogma. I'll take my chances with anti-oppression philosophies, thanks.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
-Bertrand Russell

Speaking of dogmas - patriotism/nationalism has always seemed to me one of the most ridiculous ones to use as justification for causing death.

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid.
-Soren Aabye Kierkegaard

This is for all the people whose knee-jerk reactions to criticism are "OMG ur denying my freedom of speech!!1!" No, sweetie, you're free to talk all you want - we're just free to respond by telling you what a fuckwit you are.

Incidentally, I once had to read Kierkegaard for a class and couldn't make heads or tails of him. Pithy quotes are a much better way to learn him. XD

Vulgarity is, in reality, nothing but a modern, chic, pert descendant of the goddess Dullness.
-Edith Sitwell

There are too many people who think that being shockingly vulgar through misogyny, racism, and homophobia is being new/edgy/innovative - when in fact they're just repeating the oldest and conservative ideas around. Making fun of Mexicans? Calling women stupid? Insulting queer people? Oooh, no one's ever done that before!

Also, they tend to fall back on the same "free speech" defense I mentioned above.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.
-Bertrand Russell

Of course, this is because the most intelligent question themselves in order to make sure that they're doing the smart thing, but still ... Very, very true.

The idea of perfect closes your mind to new standards.. When you drive hard toward one ideal, you miss opportunities and paths, not to mention hurting your confidence. Believe in your potential and then go out and explore it; don't limit it.
-John Eliot, Ph.D.

I believe this ... I just wish I could do it more often. Obsessive perfectionism remains one of my greatest forms of self-sabatoge.

Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
-Franz Kafka

This is how I wish I could live. I'm still trying.


Tagging whomever wants to do it.