enlightenment

A person must earn enlightenment, Eragon. It is not handed down to you by others, regardless of how revered they be.

The less you know, the more you will be knownThe less you want, the more you will haveThe less you are, the more you will be

We do not learn for the benefit of anyone, we learn to unlearn ignorance.

Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations. Books, the oldest and the best, stand naturally and rightfully on the shelves of every cottage. They have no cause of their own to plead, but while they enlighten and sustain the reader his common sense will not refuse them. Their authors are a natural and irresistible aristocracy in every society, and, more than kings or emperors, exert an influence on mankind.

They trespassed upon my thoughts. They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew. Their bearing, which was simply the bearing of commonplace individuals going about their business in the assurance of perfect safety, was offensive to me like the outrageous flauntings of folly in the face of a danger it is unable to comprehend. I had no particular desire to enlighten them, but I had some difficulty in restraining myself from laughing in their faces, so full of stupid importance.

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment.

If one does not make an ego out of gender, one would still know whether one is a man or a woman, gay, straight, bisexual, transgender__hatever else we may think of. But those identities need to fit very loosely and be worn very lightly. All sense of privilege or deprivation that has developed around one__ gender identity, all rigidity regarding proper roles and behaviors for the various genders, must be cut through.

When a man becomes a writer, I think he takes on a sacred obligation to produce beauty and enlightenment and comfort at top speed.

If we are too friendly to nice, decent bishops, we run the risk of buying into the fiction that there's something virtuous about believing things because of faith rather than because of evidence. We run the risk of betraying scientific enlightenment.

Movies can be instruments of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive - that you can touch the miracle of being alive - then that is a kind of enlightenment.

You are never alone. You are eternally connected with everyone.

The quest for enlightenment illustrates the paradox of desire__he fact that you must have desire to be motivated to transcend being ruled by desire.

You British plundered half the world for your own profit. Let's not pass it off as the Age of Enlightenment.

The problem is not that you have problems the problem is that you see having problems as a problem.

Everything, however complicated - breaking waves, migrating birds, and tropical forests - is made of atoms and obeys the equations of quantum physics. But even if those equations could be solved, they wouldn't offer the enlightenment that scientists seek. Each science has its own autonomous concepts and laws.

Always try and be a better person than you were yesterday, cause we aren't guaranteed tomorrow.

Really, the only thing that makes sense is to strive for greater collective enlightenment.