The true lover of learning then must his earliest youth, as far as in him lies, desire all truth. . .He whose desires are drawn toward knowledge in every form will be absorbed in the pleasures of the soul, and will hardly feel bodily pleasures- -I mean, if he be a true philosopher and not a sham one. . .Then how can he who has the magnificence of mind and is the spectator of all times and all existence, think much of human life He cannot. Or can such a one account death fearful No indeed.
Related quotes
Oh What Pleasures
Oh what pleasures I have had
with just my thoughts of you.
I could not say them all aloud
for none would think them true.
Only I can treasure these.
Only I can know
what these pleasures have done to me
and where they had me go.
Into the garden under a bough
with no one there to see,
under the starlit evening skies
with your arms enclosing me.
Onto the fields in broad daylight
trying to avoid the sun,
succumbing to nature's mating call
We two become as one.
Oh what pleasures my thoughts do give
but never would I say.
I keep them silently in my mind
and pray they're true someday.
poem by Edwina Reizer
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Paradox of Truth
The most subtle lies art the greatest truth
Like the fairy tales of our imaginative youth
Each truth a paradox, a lie does tell
A truth somewhere in mythical spell
When one lies, truth still speaks
For in everything doth truth seek
To express itself to hearts to behold
The truth of life in every lie told
Told in such eloquent song
There is truth in something especially wrong
Rhetoric, myths, ignorance and lies
Truth in all, every truth belies.
If thou don't believe it is certainly true
For to believe is true to me and you
And in this poem if you believe no truth
Let this poem be truth's own proof….
poem by Kevin Michael Murphy
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Happiness One Enjoys......!
Happiness in life lies in the pleasure one enjoys!
Satisfaction in life lies in the work one does!
Sans happiness and satisfaction freedom is nothing!
Knowledge and love give real freedom here!
Beauty and truth make one perfect in work!
Beauty, truth, love, joy and peace one seeks in life!
With knowledge, vision and ambition one makes achievement!
Knowledge, living, pleasure and absolute constitute life!
Sufferings are due to ignorance and negligence of wisdom!
Pleasures sans knowledge will thrust only in deep abyss!
Life is for enjoying happiness out of knowledge and love!
This is the grand truth both religion and literature say ever.
Losing happiness in life is entirely due to vehemence only;
Happiness one enjoys, so, is due to perfection by truth and love!
poem by Ramesh T A
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Life Of Man
The life of man here in this world is an adventure and one of self discovery
the emphasis being in searching for something that is lost and its recovery.
Through the accumulation of knowledge man gains a little wisdom
but it's only with self knowledge does he ever attain true freedom.
Man's life isn't only that which is confined between birth and death
but includes that between death and rebirth and beyond in breadth.
A human being is not just a creature with only a body and a mind
but is also a soul which is of a spiritual nature or essence in kind.
The life of man undergoes many ups and downs in his worldly travail
and is only after much struggle here beyond it he then also has to sail.
The body and world are like prisons from which he longs to find a way out
and it's from within himself only does the right answer ever come about.
Man's life is caught between many opposites his reason can't fully comprehend
but then reason is limited to the mind and beyond it does not normally extend.
It's through a spiritual awakening his mind can get a glimpse of something more
and so begins another journey of man's life in which his soul lies the secret shore.
The life of man is like a paradox and man himself is also an engma
and through all his dealings in life usually gains unwanted stigma.
By thoughts and actions man can either achieve freedom or bondage
in that play of knowledge and ignorance then lies his fateful heritage.
Man's life becomes what he knowingly or unknowingly makes it out to be
but behind all his efforts and accomplishments he really strives to get free.
It's by questioning his individual existence in relation to a universal one he may find
that he is a very part and parcel of That Whole to which also belongs all of mankind.
The life of man has many meanings and it's to one or a few of them people cling
as the world goes round some people, with all their heart and mind, often sing.
These songs of life not only do tell of man's inner yearnings and aspirations
but also sing of his eventual freedom in past, present or future generations.
Man's life is accomplished when he realizes and identifies with his hidden soul
and life's purpose or meaning has brought him to that actual and common goal.
The life of man is an eternal one and can be known through and by The Truth
which is really a song of Infinite Love and can give man his freedom forsooth.
poem by George Krokos
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A warrior is what I am
Life is like a hanging bridge long
With two abysses crafty and strong
On either sides lies, the abode of manes
One belonging to pleasures and other to pains
Slay the demons of indulgence
With the staunch shield of holy abstinence
Like a kite soaring high in the sky
to all except wind of task, you say goodbye
Only freedom this existence behold,
Is of faultless survival, a truth untold
For every other thing will lead
to a great fall! with no retreat.
Ant never loses hope, dogs never betray
It's their path! Against truth, they never foray
Accept the fate and live what you are
Dont be driven like a soul lost afar
Smile as if today is that day
Cry as if it is certainly today
Its not the saint or any other preacher
For us, unaware and uncertain ever, there is a true teacher
Death is that true teacher, he is astute
to justification of improvidence he will refute
Tormented by monotonous days, does boredom haunt?
Seek is help, he shall propel you to what you want
Spend moments of this invaluable dream called reality
towards awareness of inside, outside and their essentiality
Say, I will break the bounds, feel the real freedom
The real teacher taught me, A warrior is what I am
(c) 2010 - Venkatesh Jagannathan
poem by Venkatesh Jag
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
A Muslim Lady
I am a Muslim lady to think about a course,
But love is all that i see in this man;
And now that i have found my true lover,
What can i do?
Think about it and put me straight,
For i am a woman and never been loved before;
But now that i have found my true lover,
What can i do?
My true lover is a Jewish so,
Think about it and put me right;
Oh religion! Oh religion! ! Why this division?
Put me straight to make a positive decision,
For this is the sweetest time of my life;
And this man is my true lover oh religion!
Live and let us live too on this love,
For true love has no barrier!
And i hope that, nobody can stop me now.
I am burning up in the desire of this love,
And i cannot sleep at all at night;
So come and help me if you can,
For this man is all that my heart knows.
Now that i've found my true lover,
What can i do? Because i am a Muslim woman;
But i will go to my lover for wisdom,
Oh! I will go for him whom my heart desires.
He is the one to share my honour of love with,
And of the other Muslims and Jewish all around us;
But i am ready to live and stay with this man forever,
Becuase his love had really touched my heart.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Learning Class
The chairs are all laid out
within the classroom lair
for the gaining of knowledge
that will be taught there.
Some will ignore the learning call
and into the wilderness will fall.
Others will seek the pleasures
that knowledge always brings,
that wellspring of deliverance
that is within everyone’s grasp
when they come to sit
within the learning class.
16 July 2008
poem by David Harris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The non-existent truth
The defined and undefined truth,
Endowed with knowledge or without knowledge,
Sometimes real or unreal,
Certainly including being and non-being,
Accepting that being is true,
Accepting the non-existence of being,
When the absence of existence means the negation of being,
Accepting that truth did not exist,
And it would have been true that it did not exist, at the same time,
Understanding that truth is eternal,
Imagining the idea of a non-existing world,
Before its own existence,
Accepting the universal and immortal truth,
So interchangeable with being,
While the universal never ceases of itself,
Recognizing the truth always existing in an eternal intellect,
While the created truth is not existing,
Understanding the created truth as not existing,
Remaining truth, when the true things have been destroyed,
Or remaining truth, when all true things can be destroyed,
Or remaining truth, when our minds can not see the truth itself,
Truth, being in sense, always as a consequence of its act.
Truth, not being in sense because
The sense does not know the truth it truly judges,
Even it judges truly about things,
The existent and non-existent truth.......
Copyright © ® Marieta Maglas. All rights reserved.
A philosophical poem about truth.(references: The Lankavatara Sutra, Mulamadhyamaka, The Vedanta-Sutras and Spinoza.)
poem by Marieta Maglas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Lies kill
why do people hide behind lies
not to tell the truth
to hid from your self and others
no one knows me now
because i have lied
i know what it does
it kills you
takes over your life
there are to many lies and not enough truth
you make your self lost
you make your self confused
you make yourself crazy
i have been crazy
i've been crazy
i still am
and forever will be
cutting
they call me crazy
they call me insane
because death comes, and i invited him in, but he did not take me
i am scared
i am fearful
fearful of people because i am different
mu only true friend is my shadow
poem by Fred Chamberlain
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
You Have No Control Of Others, Only Yourself
Life is strange to those who don't know
Many go thru life as it comes with bliss or woe.
Looking always for good luck and foolish pleasures,
Knowing not that the uncontrolled mind
Can bring up bad luck or secret treasures.
If one listens for just any teachings of mankind
Specially if ignores the law of the Spirit
One can go blind.
Will be hooked on every earthly traps:
Foods, drinks, drugs and all pleasures,
Only sickness & malediction comes to them
With uncontrolled measures.
Only hope in the best, with faith in goodness,
Believing that everything works for true success,
No matter what happens, don't get angry, just call it 'good'
If you can believe, sooner of later it turns into good,
So, the law you really understood.
As it was said long ago, you have no control of others,
You have only yourself to blame or praise for anything happens.
With everything you become stronger and wiser,
If you only keep peace, goodwill, patience
And wait for your redeemer.
When you understand the law of Life,
You'll have everlasting peace, health and no more strife.
Going through life flexible as a palm tree
Happily learning the lessons and forever be free.
The secret of life is true humbleness,
Instead of dictatorship, apply only kindness.
Then the light will shine on you, everything will be supplied,
Only you loose the ego and the will, & you'll be satisfied.
When you became aware of the truth a lovely day,
That life is a school where we are like cars on the highway.
We all have a different destination,
Nobody is first, nobody is last
The lesson is up to your perception.
After you work out anger, hatred, jealousy
Frustration and envy,
Not to mention gluttony is another unnecessary thing
In the potpourri.
Then understanding comes with true happiness,
The road of life become the rainbow,
Traveling will be like weightlessness.
poem by LaSoaphia QuXazs
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Truth of Heart...
Truth be told …
In this soul in this mind is this heart a shrine
Pictures of this life a true heart you will find
Look into this heart of mind speaks of this life
Held in hand a truth of love memories of a kind
Sending love of messages of this love of mind
True to heart impatiently waiting for each line
Oh this heart answers when upon sounds ring
Of this soul of heart listening to who it brings
Truth be known of this heart beats of this life
Heart to ear speaks this mind within those near
In and of favorites who will be the one endeared
A cell phone is your heart within which a truth lies
poem by Knights Dreams
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
The Seed Market
Can you find another market like this?
Where,
with your one rose
you can buy hundreds of rose gardens?
Where,
for one seed
get a whole wilderness?
For one weak breath,
a divine wind?
You've been fearful
of being absorbed in the ground,
or drawn up by the air.
Now, your waterbead lets go
and drops into the ocean,
where it came from.
It no longer has the form it had,
but it's still water
The essence is the same.
This giving up is not a repenting.
It's a deep honoring of yourself.
When the ocean comes to you as a lover,
marry at once, quickly,
for God's sake!
Don't postpone it!
Existence has no better gift.
No amount of searching
will find this.
A perfect falcon, for no reason
has landed on your shoulder,
and become yours.
Lines
DAY gradual fades, in evening gray,
Its last faint beam hath fled,
And sinks the sun's declining ray
In ocean's wavy bed.
So o'er the loves and joys of youth
Thy waves, Indifference, roll;
So mantles round our days of truth
That death-pool of the soul.
Spreads o'er the heavens the shadowy night
Her dim and shapeless form,
So human pleasures, frail and light,
Are lost in passion's storm.
So fades the sunshine of the breast,
So passion's dreamings fall,
So friendship's fervours sink to rest,
Oblivion shrouds them all.
poem by Joseph Rodman Drake
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Sonnet: Give Up Your Lies
How far can lies take you in life on earth?
The more you say, the more you can't avoid;
Nor lies can give a person real mirth;
And lies once said can't become 'null and void'.
Cut off the habit at the earliest,
Lest clouds dense-black of punishment still loom;
'Tis best to learn to be always honest;
Nip off the urge bud-like 'fore it can bloom.
Free is the mind that airs its heart by Truth;
The peace it gives is worth the efforts made;
Oh, learn to speak the Truth right from your youth;
The glory God bestows, can never fade.
The things that lies can win you- are for now;
When Truth is God, why don't men learn to love?
poem by John Celes
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
It Has Always Been You - Pt3
Part 3
It was only through repeated experiences, I would learn
that, where I was heading, would surely make me burn.
Tempted with fancy indulgences my mind would lead me astray
and going from one extreme to the other in weakness I would stay.
Involved with those called 'friends' who really didn't know any better,
being like the blind following the blind, with many an unseen fetter.
It was living a life of sense pleasures; mainly that of wine, women and song,
which seemed to be what everyone else was doing, as each day came along.
Now and then I would stop to reflect on the state I found myself in
but, though I tried, didn't have the determination to leave and begin
a new life which would bring out and develop my real self
instead I wallowed in the mire of this worldly life like an elf.
Then the seemingly unexpected happened, while reeking with taints
I stumbled onto some wisdom through the words of one of Thy Saints.
Paramahansa Yogananda was one of Thy true and recent devotees;
mystic, philosopher, poet and saint, through Yoga he was all of these.
The story he told of life, in a far distant land, awakened my sleeping soul,
overwhelmed my mind with inspiration and taught that You were the goal.
He made the words of the New Testament come alive for me,
with patience and love, showing how real they could easily be.
Without any coercion he helped me realise the truth they contained
for many years escaping my attention though now readily attained.
By dispelling my ignorance he was leading me gently back to You
with Divine knowledge and practical wisdom, I did follow him too.
He helped to turn my gaze inside so that I may see the Inner Light
and by acting on his advice was able to behold that blessed sight.
Transforming my existence, he told me that which I hungered for,
ignorantly looking in the wrong direction not knowing any more.
I began to know the meaning of discipline, in a persons' life by which
any individual could rise from the bottom of existence and so reach
that state of consciousness from where all problems were resolved
through perserverence and grace did get myself seriously involved.
--------------------
poem by George Krokos
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
New Life
Earthly passing is not an end,
But sadness pervades family and friend,
Who remember a life well spent
By one who knew what true Love meant.
When body and soul depart
The Magnificence of Heaven will start
As truth and freedom thrive
In an existence never more alive.
This new life beyond the stars…
So much betters than ours.
It's where Love reigns supreme
As God's everlasting theme.
poem by Gregory Huyette
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
In the Morning of Life
In the morning of life, when its cares are unknown,
And its pleasures in all their new lustre begin,
When we live in a bright-beaming world of our own,
And the light that surrounds us is all from within;
Oh 'tis not, believe me, in that happy time
We can love, as in hours of less transport we may; --
Of our smiles, of our hopes, 'tis the gay sunny prime,
But affection is truest when these fade away.
When we see the first glory of youth pass us by,
Like a leaf on the stream that will never return,
When our cup, which had sparkled with pleasure so high,
First tastes of the other, the dark-flowing urn;
Then, then in the time when affection holds sway
With a depth and a tenderness joy never knew;
Love, nursed among pleasures, is faithless as they,
But the love born of Sorrow, like Sorrow, is true.
In climes full of sunshine, though splendid the flowers,
Their sighs have no freshness, their odour no worth;
'Tis the cloud and the mist of our own Isle of showers
That call the rich spirit of fragrancy forth.
So it is not 'mid splendour, prosperity, mirth,
That the depth of Love's generous spirit appears;
To the sunshine of smiles it may first owe its birth,
But the soul of its sweetness is drawn out by tears.
poem by Thomas Moore
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Old age has its pleasures, which, though different, are not less than the pleasures of youth.
quote by W. Somerset Maugham
Submitted by Lucian Velea
Vote! | Copy!
The Pleasures of Ordinary Life
I've had my share of necessary losses,
Of dreams I know no longer can come true.
I'm done now with the whys and the becauses.
It's time to make things good, not just make do.
It's time to stop complaining and pursue
The pleasures of an ordinary life.
I used to rail against my compromises.
I yearned for the wild music, the swift race.
But happiness arrived in new disguises:
Sun lighting a child's hair. A friend's embrace.
Slow dancing in a safe and quiet place.
The pleasures of an ordinary life.
I'll have no trumpets, triumphs, trails of glory.
It seems the woman I've turned out to be
Is not the heroine of some grand story.
But I have learned to find the poetry
In what my hands can touch, my eyes can see.
The pleasures of an ordinary life.
Young fantasies of magic and of mystery
Are over. But they really can't compete
With all we've built together: A long history.
Connections that help render us complete.
Ties that hold and heal us. And the sweet,
Sweet pleasures of an ordinary life.
poem by Judith Viorst
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!
Life Is A Privilege
Life is a privilege. Its youthful days
Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.
To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,
To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,
To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glow
With great ambitions – in one hour to know
The depths and heights of feeling – God! in truth,
How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!
Life is a privilege. Like some rare rose
The mysteries of the human mind unclose.
What marvels lie in the earth, and air, and sea!
What stores of knowledge wait our opening key!
What sunny roads of happiness lead out
Beyond the realms of indolence and doubt!
And what large pleasures smile upon and bless
The busy avenues of usefulness!
Life is a privilege. Thought the noontide fades
And shadows fall along the winding glades,
Though joy-blooms wither in the autumn air,
Yet the sweet scent of sympathy is there.
Pale sorrow leads us closer to our kind,
And in the serious hours of life we find
Depths in the souls of men which lend new worth
And majesty to this brief span of earth.
Life is a privilege. If some sad fate
Sends us alone to seek the exit gate,
If men forsake us and as shadows fall,
Still does the supreme privilege of all
Come in that reaching upward of the soul
To find the welcoming Presence at the goal,
And in the Knowledge that our feet have trod
Paths that led from, and must wind back, to God.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
Vote! | Copy!