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Accepting New Evidence

My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.
14th Dalai Lama
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True Wealth

Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, liberated mind is the greatest bliss.
Verse 204 of the Dhammapada
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Accuracy

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
Mark Twain
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False Revenge

“How can there be any legitimacy to his revenge when he drags people who aren’t involved into it?
“He’s only using a claim of being God’s agent to satisfy his lust for vengeance, and then acting like it’s all noble…Taking revenge won’t ever bring anything back!”
Full Metal Alchemist ep.15
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Religious Disputes

If religions are diseases of the human psyche…then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another’s mind.
Jack Vance. “The Face” Demon Prince 4.
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Chapterhouse Wisdom

“Confine yourself to observing and you always miss the point of your own life. The object can be stated this way: Live the best life you can. Life is a game whose rules you learn if you leap into it and play it to the hilt. Otherwise, you are caught off balance, continually surprised by the shifting play. Non-players often whine and complain that luck always passes them by. They refuse to see that they can create some of their own luck.”
Darwi Odrade, “Chapterhouse: Dune”
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.”
Missionaria Protectiva, “Chapterhouse: Dune”
“The person who takes the banal and ordinary and illuminates it in a new way can terrify. We do not want our ideas changed. We feel threatened by such demands. “I already know the important things!” we say. Then Changer comes and throws our old ideas away.”
The Zensufi Master, “Chapterhouse: Dune”
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Alienness

“In a very real sense, we are all aliens on a strange planet. We spend most of our lives trying to reach out and communicate. If during our lifetime we could reach out and really communicate with just two people, we are indeed very fortunate.”
Gene Roddenberry
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Prediction

“We cannot see the future if it has not yet happened. If we can see the future, it means we are earlier versions of ourselves, living in our own past.”
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Technical Genius

Most of my technical expertise has actually been a combination of making sure everything is plugged in, and turning things off and on again.
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Consideration

In many cases, “leave it as you found it” is a good guide. Tidy up your mess. Turn the light off again.