"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.
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