Category Archives: Quotes

Rabbi Moses Cordovero on loving your neighbor

(Image from Kabbalah Consciousness  on Facebook.com)

“In everyone there is something of his fellow man. Hence, ‘love your neighbor’ – for he is really you yourself.”

~ Rabbi Moses Cordovero

Moses ben Jacob Cordovero was a central figure in the historical development of Kabbalah, leader of a mystical school in the Ottoman Empire in 16th-century Safed, located in the modern State of Israel. He is known by the acronym Ramak.

Source: Wikipedia

Born 1522 Safed, Israel

Died 1570 Safed, Israel

Herman Hesse on the slime and eggshells of our primeval past

Each man carries the vestiges of his birth–the slime and eggshells of his primeval past–with him to the end of his days. Some never become human, remaining frog, lizard, ant. Some are human above the waist, fish below. Each represents a gamble on the part of nature in creation of the human. We all share the same origin, our mothers; all of us come in at the same door. But each of us–experiments of the depths–strives toward his own destiny. We can understand one another; but each of us is able to interpret himself to himself alone.”

― Hermann Hesse, Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend

Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-Swiss poet and novelist, and winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature. His interest in Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, combined with his involvement with Jungian analysis, helped shape his literary work. Wikipedia

Born July 2, 1877, Calw, Germany

Died August 9, 1962 (age 85 years), Montagnola, Collina d’Oro, Switzerland

William Blake on a celibate Jesus

Portrait of William Blake by Thomas Phillips, 1807

“The Bible must be shaken upside down before it will yield all its secrets. The priests have censored and clipped and mangled: they give us a celibate Jesus born of a virgin without the slightest ‘stain’ of sexual contact, which is blasphemes nonsense.”

–William Blake

William Blake was a British poet, painter, printmaker, and engraver. A visionary artist and nonconformist, Blake expressed his radical views on society, politics, and religion through his poetry, paintings, watercolors, and illuminated books. His work often hid criticism within complex mythology to avoid persecution from the British government.  Wikipedia.org

Born November 28, 1757, Soho, London, United Kingdom

Died August 12, 1827 (age 69 years), London, United Kingdom

Peter Gabel on the loving world we aspire

(Image from Medium.com)

“We together are realizing each other’s liberation once we find the social and political path to spread this collective awareness sufficiently across social space, then the loving world to which we aspire will begin to be born.” [1]

–Peter Gabel

Peter Gabel was an American law academic and associate editor of Tikkun, a bi-monthly Jewish critique of politics, culture, and society. He wrote a number of articles for the magazine on subjects ranging from the original intent of the framers of the Constitution to the creationism/evolution controversy. Wikipedia

Born January 28, 1947, United States

Died October 25, 2022 (age 75 years)

ACIM on love

“Love rests in certainty. Only uncertainty can be defensive. And all uncertainty is doubt about yourself.”

~ ACIM

A Course in Miracles is a 1976 book by Helen Schucman. The underlying premise is that the greatest “miracle” is the act of simply gaining a full “awareness of love’s presence” in a person’s life. Schucman said that the book had been dictated to her, word for word, via a process of “inner dictation” from Jesus Christ. Wikipedia

Originally published 1975

Richard Feynman on fooling yourself

Richard P. Feynman

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”

― Richard P. Feynman

Richard Phillips Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who made significant contributions to quantum mechanics and particle physics. He was a key figure in the development of the atomic bomb and helped unify quantum and electrodynamic physics. Feynman was known for his innovative approach, ability to explain complex concepts simply, and dedication to teaching. 

Born May 11, 1918, New York, NY

Died February 15, 1988 (age 69 years), Los Angeles, CA