My Life in Quotes- #5

  "Those seekers of wide learning are like hairs (i.e. too many), whereas those who understand the truth are like horns (i.e. too few)."- ibid.-

I use ibid. in my quotes document when I quote the same source in multiple entries, but that doesn’t work when I view them independently.  This one is from D.T. Suzuki, Zen Buddhism

I’m not sure who Suzuki is criticizing, or if he means to be critical.  Or maybe he’s just stating a fact?  It’s probably true that most folks are content to live their lives and not seek “wide learning.”

Still- my elevation of this quote does feel a bit like the arrogant thought of a young undergraduate who surely considered herself among the “seekers of wide learning.”

 About this series-

I love words.  I love when a word exactly captures the moment, the feeling.  How it precisely describes something that you experienced but didn’t know exactly how to express.  It’s like a warm bath or a deeply satisfying meal.

         And beyond that- a collection of words.   A deeply insightful phrase, thought-provoking and uplifting.  A quote to remember.

         I started collecting quotes when I was 16 years old.  (1972)  I’m 68 now, as I write these words, (2024), and there are 472 quotes in my collection.  At this precise moment. 

         That’s not really that many over the course of 52 years.  I guess I am fairly discriminating.  Sometimes years can go by and the collection lays dormant.  In other years there is a great harvest of quotes. 

         These are not necessarily famous quotes, things you’ll often hear referenced.  For the most part, they simply represent words that I read that made me stop for a moment to meditate and bask in their impact.  And quotes I enjoy reading and re-reading and quoting myself!

         These quotes represent the evolution of my thinking over the course of 52 years.  I look forward to pondering what it is that made me find each one meaningful enough to save.