In our contemporary social and intellectual plight, it is nothing less than shocking to discover that those persons who claim to have discovered an absolute are usually the same people who also pretend to be superior to the rest. To find people in our day attempting to pass off to the world and recommending to others some nostrum of the absolute which they claim to have discovered is merely a sign of the loss of and the need for intellectual and moral certainty, felt by broad sections of the population who are unable to look life in the face.
quote by Karl Mannheim
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Fundamental of Liar Chapter XCVIII: Absolutely Relative
Expensive is absolute, cheap is relative
Far is absolute, near is relative
Ugly is absolute, beauty is relative
Weird is absolute, crazy is relative
Stubborn is absolute, brave is relative
Stupid is absolute, smart is relative
Weak is absolute, strong is relative
Old is absolute, mature is relative
Lose is absolute, win is relative
Rich is absolute, poor is relative
Sad is absolute, happy is relative
Misfortune is absolute, lucky is relative
Safe is absolute, fear is relative
Love is absolute, hate is relative
Important is absolute, forgotten is relative
Easy is absolute, difficult is relative
Wrong is absolute, right is relative
Bad is absolute, good is relative
Lie is absolute, truth is relative
poem by Maria Sudibyo
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Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.
Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Whether gods exist or not, there is no way to get absolute certainty about ethics. Without absolute certainty, what do we do? We do the best we can.
quote by Richard Stallman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Today, there are too many points of view of equal value and prestige, each showing the relativity of the other, to permit us to take any one position and to regard it as impregnable and absolute. Only this socially disorganized intellectual situation makes possible the insight, hidden until now by a generally stable social structure and the practicability of certain traditional norms, that every point of view is particular to a social situation.
quote by Karl Mannheim
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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I felt the need to get back to painting and I thought the best way was to start drawing, so I enrolled in a life drawing class. I soon discovered that people made very interesting subjects and I am still surprised that I had never discovered it before.
quote by Peter Wright
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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An intellectual is a person who has discovered something more interesting than sex.
quote by Aldous Huxley
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Divine Mission
I try to peep in divine eyes
I am not sure yet I find it is worth to try
I may get answer through lovely stare
Even though “Carolyn” may not find it fair
She is totally different with earthly figure
She may stand for principles for sure
What does she want in return?
Absolute welfare and wait for ordinary turn
Why do people waste their precious life in mission?
When many have blot on their face with guilt admission?
I am for sure about her social standing
She has everything to speak about and for understanding
I don’t believe in gossips
I too don’t like flying missionaries on trips
What do they have to claim for real struggle?
When life is uncertain and like water bubble
Not all can perform miracle with ordinary task?
So many may come forward and ask?
What can be real motives for such a horrible adventure?
When no one can offer anything for bright future?
She may be towering strength for many aspirants
Many might have come from distant land as migrants
To whom they can look as real figure for onward march?
I think she is there with all her vision for serving as torch
I know nothing about her inner zeal
Yet I feel so close and feel it real
Why do we need any angels to descend from heaven?
When we have enough in her as green
No eyes can stare or penetrate at you if lack sincerity
This is sign of greatness and very fine quality
Not all people may try to see the motives
As the people remain narrow minded and selective
I shall not adore her as something special
But can’t offer any criticism or denial
She is there by her own right
Else who comes forward with mission to fight?
poem by Hasmukh Amathalal
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Explain the Disasters
The explanations are final and absolute,
Find me a river, and find me some I already behold.
The disasters are discovered by priests,
Solutions to problems are them. The solidity
Is to see them light the road ahead.
poem by Naveed Akram
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You Have No Morals
The preachers of hate claim they hate the west,
While on their moral throne they sit,
Yet they'll take our money when put to the test,
Their ideals are straight from a pit.
If they really hate us why do they stay,
Don't you find it sickeningly funny,
They abuse our system then cause us affray,
But love taking our hard earned money.
Hypocrisy in terrorists will forever remain,
They are cowards every one,
Like their masters they're completely insane,
As for principles truth is they have none.
They have no scruples or moral code,
Their cowardice is for all to see,
Bravery to them is too heavy a load,
They wouldn't know the meaning of free.
To murder innocents is a total disgrace,
It's a cowardly and heinous act,
When you meet your maker he will say to your face,
Hell's where you're heading that's a fact.
The people you claim to represent,
Are very few and far between,
Decent people think you're ideals are bent,
With terrorist scum they wouldn't be seen.
If you truly detest the way we are,
Your choice is crystal clear,
Leave our country and travel afar,
But that thought just fills you with fear.
If you detest us as people the way you claim,
Return to the country you adore,
We will never allow you to achieve your aim,
Your ideals are rotten to the core.
You insult our freedom and our way of life,
Go elsewhere to have your quarrels,
The fact you can take from the people you hate,
Proves to us,
‘' You Have No Morals ‘'
Declaring
Find them a conscience declared in
an absolute casual
sun, find them a feat
declared by the happy
things
Absolute windows, absolute little lives
Always tell a wall, letter throne
stone desk-life, as it may
That which through
a cautious power dwells, accidental and passing
poem by Federico García Lorca
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To and Back From the Ocean
Oceanocracy the concept from my childhood memory
Dream holiday is worth 20 millions us $ saving it for 30 years for a dreamer of adventure from Russia to go up to the ISS (international space center)
I am a spaceman going to touch the sand of the ocean and the snow ball of the New Mexico mountains
From a small village from an unknown area of the world
I am bird of a new birth
Still watching the illusive dreams
To the ocean of the dreams
Coming back from the battle of the dreams
To reality-based wisdom, only true intellectuals touch the base of its interaction
what is your most important thing in life, a question to be explored and satoried like language has to be invented, life has to be discovered across disciplines
Bright future with ocean and village apart
intellectual infusion
intellectual genuineness
intellectual nothingness but moving quiteness
ploughshares on the spur of the moments
lines on the new edge of the modern science
Cutting edge is breezeness of change, the real one
Ten Grey hairs and a silver one
I discovered my first grey hair
when I was Seventeen years old
It had to do with broken up my first relationship
I discovered my second grey hair
when I was Twenty years old
It had to do with the quarrels at home
I discovered my third grey hair
when I was Twenty-one years old
It had to do with searching for work
I discovered my fourth grey hair
when I was Twenty-three years old
It had to do with loosing my job
I discovered my fifth grey hair
when I was Twenty-five years old
It had to do with giving up my unborn child
I discovered my sixth grey hair
When I was Twenty-eight years old
It had to do with opening my pub
I discovered my seventh grey hair
When I was thirty years old
It had to do with giving birth to my daughter
I discovered my eight grey hair
When I was thirty –two years old
It had to do with the first day at the kinder garden school
I discovered my ninth grey hair
When I was thirty-four years old
It had to do with to find out that some thing was missing
I discovered my tenth grey hair
When I was thirty-five years old
It had to do with the fights between my sisters and mum
My one Silver hair I discovered lately
Has to do with you
Because I miss you so hard …
poem by Pascale Ost
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Find It. Your Purpose
Find it.
Your purpose.
Once it has been discovered,
Do not let it be undermined.
Your purpose.
It is difficult to be oneself,
And declare oneself to 'be'.
It is much easier to locate acceptance,
When approval from others...
Does not threaten,
A routine enjoyed with unchanged beliefs.
Find it.
Your purpose.
Once it has been discovered,
Do not let it be undermined.
Your purpose.
And once it is recognized...
Be prepared to be criticized.
Be prepared to be humble too...
When a strength felt opens your eyes.
But never be apologetic,
For those steps you make.
Moving forward has been known,
To cause many heartache.
But find it,
You must...
Your purpose.
And trust that it is...
Your purpose!
And...
Once it has been discovered,
Do not let it be undermined.
Once it has been discovered,
Your purpose...
Will open and broaden your mind.
Finding one's purpose,
Does this every time!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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If Hitler had had the talents and the temperament of a genuine artist, if Stalin had had the capacity to become a first-rate theoretician, if Napoleon had had the makings of a great poet or philosopher they would hardly have developed the all-consuming lust for absolute power. Freedom gives us a chance to realize our human and individual uniqueness. Absolute power can also bestow uniqueness: to have absolute power is to have the power to reduce all the people around us to puppets, robots, toys, or animals, and be the only man in sight. Absolute power achieves uniqueness by dehumanizing others.
quote by Eric Hoffer
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Only when we realize that there is no eternal, unchanging truth or absolute truth can we arouse in ourselves a sense of intellectual responsibility.
For many decades now - and certainly during my adult life in academe - the Western intellectual world has not been convinced that theology is a pursuit that can be engaged in with intellectual honesty and integrity.
quote by Arthur Peacocke
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Those who desire to rise as high as our human condition allows, must renounce intellectual pride, the omnipotence of clear thinking, belief in the absolute power of logic.
quote by Alexis Carrel
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Discover
I used to stand alone
A civilization of just me
The only inhabitant
My mind
A culture of solitude
A lone figure
Crowded by the population
A culture of pretenders
A civilization of imitators
But the sky is never faithful
To the Sun
Mingling and twirling with clouds
So it came to pass
Under that blue sky
With white puffs of hope
That I met you
In halls
That no longer stand
A testament to time
A time of change
But if they stood today
Would we still discover
That some magic still does exist
In the dank corners
Where you hid
A lone figure
Much like myself
Would we come to find
That people much like us
Still come together
In those halls
That no longer stand
Where we discovered
Each other
Seemingly a millennia
Of love
Ago
poem by Alejandro Torres
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In passing, we should note this curious mark of our own age: the only absolute allowed is the absolute insistence that there is no absolute.
quote by Francis Schaeffer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Absolute Irony
'The universe
is a mysterious place',
the poet said.
'There might exist
other worlds wherein
the laws of nature
are different from ours.'
'No', the engineer said,
'in a vacuum
light travels at the speed
of 300,000 km per second
and nothing can move
faster than that.'
'Oh, absolute claims
are always
absolutely wrong',
the turtle said.
'But since this is
an absolute claim
it ought to be
wrong, too',
the engineer objected.
'Yes',
agreed the turtle,
'yet in being wrong
it is also
absolutely right.'
poem by Paul Hartal
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