The Brain Waves
of
Michael McCafferty

The stuff that comes into my mind...
(also see "Meditations" page)


Monday, February 9, 2009

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.



January 10, 2009

My heart has followed, all my days, something I cannot name.



December 29, 2008

It is only possible to live happily ever after on a day-to-day basis.



December 20, 2008

Television is for appearing on - not for looking at.



December 19, 2008

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.



December 16, 2008

We make a living by what we get, but we make a Life by what we give.



December 15, 2008

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.



December 6, 2008

Rule #1: don't lose money. Rule #2, don't forget rule #1. Rule #3, don't go into debt.



December 4, 2008

He who dies rich, dies disgraced.



December 1, 2008

The true measure of a man is how he treats
someone who can do him absolutely no good.



November 11, 2008

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.



November 4, 2008

I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.



November 1, 2008

Happiness is not pleasure, it is Victory.



November 1, 2008

There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.



December 10, 2008

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.



Saturday, September 27, 2008

Man will become better when we show him what he is like.
Try to reason about love, and you will lose your reason.
Man is what he believes.



Tuesday, September 23, 2008

I do not know what the spirit of a philosopher
could more wish to be than a good dancer.
For the dance is his ideal, also his fine art,
finally also the only kind of piety he knows, his "divine service".



Saturday, July 19, 2008

Everything is vague to a degree you do not realize till you have tried to make it precise.



Saturday, June 14, 2008

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race”



Sunday, May 25, 2008

We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest.
We must learn to sail in high winds.



Saturday, March 15, 2008

The greatest challenge to any thinker is
stating the problem in a way that will allow a solution.



Friday, March 7, 2008

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but
delicious in the years of maturity.



Sunday, October 28, 2007

The best portion of a good man's life -
his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.



Monday, October 22, 2007

The busy man is never wise,
the wise man is never busy.



Sunday, July 29, 2007

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.



Monday, July 16, 2007

Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts:
not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or
where the doer of deeds could have done better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly,
who errs and comes up short again and again,
because there is no effort without error or shortcoming,
but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions,
who spends himself for a worthy cause;
who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement,
and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly,
so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls
who knew neither victory nor defeat.



Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The shortest and surest way to live with honour in the world,
is to be in reality what we would appear to be;
and if we observe, we shall find,
that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice of them.



Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The superior man is slow in his words and earnest in his conduct.



Monday, March 26, 2007

Three Pillars of Zen:
Great Faith, Great Doubt and Great Determination



Saturday, March 24, 2007

The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.



Saturday, February 10, 2007

Accept everything just the way it is.
Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
Be detached from desire your whole life long.
Do not regret what you have done.
Never be jealous.
Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself or others.
Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
In all things have no preferences.
Be indifferent to where you live.
Do not pursue the taste of good food.
Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
Do not act following customary beliefs.
Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
Do not fear death.
Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age
Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
Never stray from the Way.

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