"Our soul is the collective legacy of all our actions." --Eastern Worldview
"The important thing is not to stop questioning." --Albert Einstein
"Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality." --Nietzsche
"In contrast to the mechanistic Cartesian view of the world, the worldview emerging from modern physics can be characterized by words like organic, holistic, and ecological. It might also be called a systems view, in the sense of general systems theory. The universe is no longer seen as a machine, made up of a multitude of objects, but has to be pictured as one indivisible, dynamic whole whose parts are essentially interrelated and can be understood only as patterns of a cosmic process."
"I believe that human survival in the face of the threat of nuclear holocaust and the devastation of our natural environment will be possible only if we are able to radically change the methods and values underlying our science and technology. I advocate the shift from an attitude of domination and control of nature, including human beings, to one of cooperation and nonviolence."
"The picture of an interconnected cosmic web which emerges from modern atomic physics has been used extensively in the East to convey the mystical experience of nature."
"The most important characteristic of the Eastern worldview—one could almost say the essence of it—is the awareness of the unity and mutual interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. All things are seen as interdependent and inseparable parts of the cosmic whole; as different manifestations of the same ultimate reality."
"Quantum theory forces us to see the universe not as a collection of physical objects, but rather as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of a unified whole."
"This shift from objects to relationships has far-reaching implications for science as a whole. Gregory Bateson even argued that relationships should be used as a basis for all definitions, and that this should be taught to our children in elementary school. Any thing, he believed, should be defined not by what it is in itself, but by its relations to other things."
--Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics and The Turning Point
"The salvation of our civilization lies in the quality of our education."
mel·io·rism [mēlʹyə-rĭz´əm, mēʹlē-ə-] noun, the belief that society has an innate tendency toward improvement and that this tendency may be furthered through conscious human effort.[Latin melior, better + -ism.]
— melʹio·rist noun
— mel´io·risʹtic adjective
Excerpted from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
A "meliorist" is someone who believes that things get better. "Optima" is the Latin root for "best," and "melior" is the root for "better." Optimization is an old paradigm notion which assumes that there is a "best" to achieve. Setting sights on a single "best" can result in a narrowing perspective. This contrasts with meliorization which, on the other hand, seeks not one "best" but continual improvement through a process of constant adjustment, review and reaction through a feedback loop. It is a non-hierarchical, non-linear, highly flexible and adaptable method of achieving improvement. Evolution is the classic example of meliorization; change and transformation produce improvement through a process of iterative adaptation.
© 1999 Stephan Fopeano.
"Insanity in individuals is something rare—but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." --Friedrich Nietzsche, (1844-1900)
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." --Albert Einstein, (1879-1955)
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." --Edmund Burke
"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both." --Dwight D. Eisenhower
"It’s amazing what you can see when you look." --Yogi Berra
"The good generally displeases us when it is beyond our ken."
"What makes equality such a difficult business is that we only want it with our superiors." --Henry Becque
"Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be the greatest secret in this universe." --L. Ron Hubbard
To love in spite of all, teaches that there is no such thing as wrong. - Pete Mack
"The television, that insidious beast, that Medusa which freezes a billion people to stone every night, staring fixedly, that Siren which called and sang and promised so much and gave, after all, so little." --Ray Bradbury, (1920- )
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." --Abraham Lincoln, (1809-1865)
"In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy."
"Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
--Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis
"The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts." --Edmund Burke, (1729-1797)
"Man, when perfected, is the best of animals, but, when separated from law and justice, he is the worst of all." --Aristotle
"Man is not born evil. Why then are some of them infected with this plague of malevolence? It's because those who are at their head have the malady and communicate it to the rest of mankind." --Voltaire
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence…economic, political, even spiritual…is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the federal government. We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought by the military-industrial complex. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." --Dwight D. Eisenhower
"The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it." --Albert Einstein
"Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow." --Jean de CrFvecoeur
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good." --Samuel Johnson
"Access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it." --Plato
"If you have integrity, nothing else matters and if you do not have integrity, nothing else matters." --President Ford
"The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous." --Frederick Douglass
"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." --Charles Darwin
"The weak have one weapon: the errors of those who think they are strong." --Georges Bidault
"The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants" --Omar N. Bradley
"The foundation of empire is art and science. Remove them or degrade them, and the empire is no more. Empire follows art and not vice versa as Englishmen suppose." --William Blake
"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." --Eden Phillpotts
"One never knows what will happen if things are suddenly changed. But do we know what will happen if they are not changed?"
"Rulers who want to unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first victim."
"Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates Love." --Lao Toe
"The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance." --Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826)
Pain is enevitable, suffering is optional.
