Three of my children are medical doctors; they know at least a hundred times as much about your body as my grandfather knew, but they don't know much more about soul than he did.
Interpretation
While modern knowledge of the body is vast, understanding of the soul remains limited and timeless.
John Templeton reflects on the disparity between the vast medical knowledge acquired by his children and the timeless wisdom that his grandfather possessed regarding the soul. This quote emphasizes that although advancements in science and medicine have greatly expanded our understanding of the physical body, the deeper existential questions related to the soul and human essence remain as profound and mysterious as ever.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of balancing scientific knowledge with spiritual understanding.
The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be. It's self centered to think that human beings, as limited as we are, can describe divinity.
Life is made up not necessarily of great sacrifices or high-level duties but of little things. The smiles, the kindnesses, the commitments and obligations and responsibilities that are given habitually and lovingly are the blessings that win and preserve the heart and bring comfort to one's self as we as to others. This is the ministry of service performed by every useful life.
The correct description is that we try every day to become more humble when we talk about divinity, we try to realize how little we know and how open minded we should be.
The objective of our religious foundations is to teach people that they are hurting themselves when they say they believe something. What we should realize is we know almost nothing about God and therefore we should be eager to search and to learn.
The idea that an individual can find God is terribly self-centered. It is like a wave thinking it can find the sea.
I focus on spiritual wealth now, and I'm busier, more enthusiastic, and more joyful than I have ever been.
We are all important, but we are not indispensable.
Where quality is the thing sought after, the thing of supreme quality is cheap, whatever the price one has to pay for it.
The cosmic humor is that if you desire to move mountains and you continue to purify yourself, ultimately you will arrive at the place where you are able to move mountains. But in order to arrive at this position of power you will have had to give up being he-who-wanted-to-move-mountains so that you can be he-who-put-the-mountain-there-in-the-first-place. The humor is that finally when you have the power to move the mountain, you are the person who placed it there--so there the mountain stays.
You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide.
The right to know is like the right to live. It is fundamental and unconditional in its assumption that knowledge, like life, is a desirable thing.
Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - whole-heartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.
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