HUMAN NATURE
HUMAN NATURE - Quotes from the papers of Tom "Grandpa" Glennon
“L’humanite pense par le cerveau de quelques homes - Humanity thinks with the brains of a few men.” --French Proverb
“It is really a natural trend to lapse into taking oneself gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do… for solemnity flows out of men naturally, but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. Satan fell by force of gravity.” --G. K. Chesterton
“What can we say about the nature of man from all this? We look around us; we read our history and see a mixed being, neither angel nor demon. He is killer and healer, seeking sometimes the best and sometimes the worst for himself and for others. Pope in his ‘Essay on Man’ put it this way: Born on this Isthmus of a middle state A being darkly wise and widely great He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast, In doubt his mind or body to prefer, Born but to die and reasoning but to err, Sole judge of truth in endless error hurled The glory, jest and riddle of the world.”
“Dulce et decorum est desipere in loco. It is pleasant and proper to be foolish once in a while…The foolish man seeds happiness in the distance. The wise man grows it under his feet.” --Oppenheim
“…The great events in history, are at bottom, profoundly unimportant. The essential thing is the life of the individual…here alone do the great transformations first take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals…” --Carl Gustav Jung 1875-1961
“It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and to make a few objects beautiful: but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the atmosphere and medium through which we look…to affect the quality of the day… that is the highest of arts” --Henry David Thoreau
“Some of your hurts you have cured and the sharpest you still have survived. But what torments of grief you’ve endured from the evils that never arrived.”
“Man cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.” --Monteigue
“Christianity hasn’t failed - it has never been tried.”
“This is an imperfect world with imperfect people.”
Understanding the Human Condition
“How beautiful, how grand and liberating this experience is, when people learn to help each other. It is impossible to overemphasize the immense need humans have to be really listened to, to be taken seriously, to be understood.
“Modern psychology has brought it very much to our attention. At the very heart of all psychotherapy is this type of relationship in which one can tell everything, just as a little child will tell all to his mother.
“No one can develop freely in this world and find a full life without feeling understood by at least on person…
“He who would see himself clearly must open up to a confident freely chosen and worthy of such trust.
“Listen to all the conversations of our world, between nations as well as those between couples. They are for the most part dialogues of the deaf.”
-Dr. Paul Tournier, M.D.
Swiss Psychiatrist and Author
“L’humanite pense par le cerveau de quelques homes - Humanity thinks with the brains of a few men.” --French Proverb
“It is really a natural trend to lapse into taking oneself gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do… for solemnity flows out of men naturally, but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. Satan fell by force of gravity.” --G. K. Chesterton
“What can we say about the nature of man from all this? We look around us; we read our history and see a mixed being, neither angel nor demon. He is killer and healer, seeking sometimes the best and sometimes the worst for himself and for others. Pope in his ‘Essay on Man’ put it this way: Born on this Isthmus of a middle state A being darkly wise and widely great He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast, In doubt his mind or body to prefer, Born but to die and reasoning but to err, Sole judge of truth in endless error hurled The glory, jest and riddle of the world.”
“Dulce et decorum est desipere in loco. It is pleasant and proper to be foolish once in a while…The foolish man seeds happiness in the distance. The wise man grows it under his feet.” --Oppenheim
“…The great events in history, are at bottom, profoundly unimportant. The essential thing is the life of the individual…here alone do the great transformations first take place, and the whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals…” --Carl Gustav Jung 1875-1961
“It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and to make a few objects beautiful: but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the atmosphere and medium through which we look…to affect the quality of the day… that is the highest of arts” --Henry David Thoreau
“Some of your hurts you have cured and the sharpest you still have survived. But what torments of grief you’ve endured from the evils that never arrived.”
“Man cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.” --Monteigue
“Christianity hasn’t failed - it has never been tried.”
“This is an imperfect world with imperfect people.”
Understanding the Human Condition
“How beautiful, how grand and liberating this experience is, when people learn to help each other. It is impossible to overemphasize the immense need humans have to be really listened to, to be taken seriously, to be understood.
“Modern psychology has brought it very much to our attention. At the very heart of all psychotherapy is this type of relationship in which one can tell everything, just as a little child will tell all to his mother.
“No one can develop freely in this world and find a full life without feeling understood by at least on person…
“He who would see himself clearly must open up to a confident freely chosen and worthy of such trust.
“Listen to all the conversations of our world, between nations as well as those between couples. They are for the most part dialogues of the deaf.”
-Dr. Paul Tournier, M.D.
Swiss Psychiatrist and Author