Roy Rappaport quotes

Roy Rappaport quotes

last updated: November 28, 2023

“Nature is seen by humans through a screen of beliefs, knowledge, and purposes, and it is in terms of their images of nature, rather than of the actual structure of nature, that they act. Yet, it is upon nature itself that they do act, and it is nature itself that acts upon them, nurturing or destroying them.”
-- Roy Rappaport

#Purpose Quotes #Belief Quotes #Contemplation Quotes

“I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."”
“The Almighty has His own purposes.”
“We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot.”
“Any alliance whose purpose is not the intention to wage war is senseless and useless.”
“Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation.”

Source : "Islam Is a Faith of Reason". Interview with Stefan Aust and Erich Follath, www.spiegel.de. October 12, 2006.
“We live alone in our cluttered psyches, possessed by our entrenched beliefs, our fatuous desires, our endless contradictions - and like it or not we have to put up with this in one another.”

Source : A. S. A. Harrison (2013). “The Silent Wife: A Novel”, p.107, Penguin
“I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say, that if it be probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me”
“Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation.”
“If you learn music, you'll learn history. If you learn music, you'll learn mathematics. If you learn music, you'll learn most all there is to learn.”
“Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.”

Source : Jeremy Narby (1999). “The Cosmic Serpent”, p.124, Penguin

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