I find there to be profound wisdom in proverbs, sayings and quotes and I marvel at the way they are so succinct in communicating messages to the reader.
Mostly anonymous, they come to us from past generations and from across cultures. They speak of the experiences of lives lived and lessons learned. Quotes, like proverbs, make us think more deeply about something.
This week I am featuring two quotes that you can find over at Priorhouse’s blog. There, you will find, an excellent page listing many inspirational memes, quotes and sayings. Here is, but two, that I find especially worth pondering about today:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
All truth goes through three stages.
First it is ridiculed.
Then it is violently opposed.
Finally, it is accepted as self-evident.
(Schopenhauer)
Something to Ponder About 
I like both but especially ‘only love can drive out hate.’
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They are powerful words, Gerard, or at the very least: inspiring! I think often of these words with some of the vitriol that is flung around in the political and social media sphere.
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Great quotea from Y’s blog. She has such a lovely blog and agree that she shares very meaningful sayings.
I’ve come across the first quote numerous times and it never gets old. The more we hate each other, the more we don’t get things solved. With hate comes jealously, rage and conceitedness. That is, with hate we tend to exclude rather than include as opposed to seeing the best in everyone and trying to work together towards the best possible outcome.
The quote also did make me wonder about how love and love might work together. Love is such a heartfelt emotion, one that brings out the best in others. Then again, maybe at one point there can be too much love and perhaps that can be destructive.
Ah, truth. That reminded me of the saying, “You can’t handle the truth”. Understandably the truth can be ridiculed and opposed at first – sometimes it can be too hard to believe and sound far-fetched. But this world is a strange place and more often than not stranger things have happened. Sometimes the truth might even leave us with nothing to say.
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I could not agree more with your comment, Mabel.Anyone in their right mind would. So, then, why does this message get lost. Why do we seek to exclude some people, rather than include. The answer, I think, is FEAR. Fear initiates negative reactions, protectiveness as well. Sometimes over protectiveness, a dangerous knee-jerk reaction towards self-preservation. The solution: Trust? Is Trust a solution to fear? We fear trusting too much and fear the outcome of misplaced trust. It is an intertwined circle of fear- hate – trust – mistrust – fear-exclusion – hate. By and large, good things happen in our lives. We feel secure most of the time. This must apply to the majority of the developed world, so then why are we so fearful and so frightened to trust, which in turn, leads to exclusion and hate. The challenge is to push through the darkness and move forward to compassion and light and love. I wonder if you would expand a little more on your comment of too much love? Were you alluding to ‘smothering’ love?
You can’s handle the truth? – Isn’t that a great quote? i feel sure everyone recognizes it. The world is a strange place and I often think the establishments are sometimes a little too quick to dismiss alternative or fringe methodologies or treatments. Perhaps we can learn something from them, even if they are proven wrong? When I read this quote I thought of the medieval philsophers and the Ancient Greeks. Some of their knowledge was far too advanced for their time and now it is taken as pure fact. The world has learnt through experience and growth that these things are in fact, truths! A wonderful quote that made really made me think.
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” Is Trust a solution to fear? We fear trusting too much and fear the outcome of misplaced trust” I love how you put this thought. Sort of like a catch-22 situation. We fear to trust and we trust to fear. Always a degree of fear and trust each way.
Yes, I was referring to smothering love. When we love someone too much, they can become overly dependent on us. And that will instigate more fear in them when they come out on their own or perhaps come across a new acquaintance.
Always love your quotes, Amanda. They are always so thought-provoking and even better, I like the engaging discussions that follow. Knowledge is power, just as much power leads us to knowledge to an extent.
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I am so happy to hear that you like these posts, Mabel. It is usually you or Raewyn that starts a inspiring discussion. I just provide the quote and then jump on for the ride!! But it really does make me think, and that is a good thing.
As for the love aspect of the discussion, it is, as a parent, interesting to read about smothering love. It is unquestionable that over protectiveness by the parent can be read as fear by the child. Why else would the parent be protective if there was nothing to fear. It is a whole new discussion getting into the reasons and rationales behind over- protectiveness, or the personality traits and genetic makeup that predisposes one to this kind of behaviour. However, I do think it is of interest to discuss smothering love between adults. Too much love by one person for antoher must, by logic, hide enormous insecurities and fear that something bad will happen. Love has such a positive context but is smothering love, really ‘love’ or caring deeply based on fear of losing that person to someone else? Then it becomes a selfish act? Designed to serve the person’s interests alone and not what is best for the other person. Perhaps jealousy is a component of smothering love? The adult wants to keep that person all for themselves? An interesting look at emotions and how love can sometimes be a negative force. It is amazing where the discussion leads!!
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I like the way you associated smothering love with selfish. I think you can love someone too much, up until that you not only disallow them to be the person that they can be, but you also lose yourself in the process.
It could either be insecurity or jealously as you said. Depends on the situation. Competition or the desire to own something or define ourselves through others could also be factors. Hmmm. Love is a complex thing.
Always love these discussions, Amanda. Thanks for keeping the conversation rolling.
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Love certainly is a complex thing. But the kind of love that is all consuming, to the point where the person loses themselves in the process, borders on the pathological I think. We all need to develop an identity apart from our partners and family I think and make sure that we have other friendships that offer us other types of trust, companionship and love. Otherwise, one can be all at sea (lost), if the partner or family support falls away.
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Powerful words by Martin Luther King. He advocated non violent protests as being violent will only add more hate and bitterness to the struggle. To relate it to the second quote. Being violent and hateful will blind one to accepting the truth. In other words the light is being blocked by the hatred. Once you move past that hatred then you can see the light/truth. (I used light from the photo). Just as the trees block the sun getting through, so hatred and bitterness blocks the truth from being accepted.
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They are indeed powerful words, Raewyn. Gandhi also was able to garner power through non-violent means.
I do like the way you are able to connect the two items presented in this post, Raewyn. And interpreted my photograph too. It is so wonderful reading your intelligent, well thought out comments.
Absolutely agree that hatred will block out the truth and cloud the mind. Yet we, as a species, seem more vulnerable to closed mindedness, as opposed to open-mindedness. Is this a protective mechanism based on common fears? Have we been conditioned to mistrust others/things who/which are different? Then, by logic, we must not have been rewarded enough for trusting and being open-minded? Yet we are rewarded many times in our everyday lives in the developed world. Do we not value this reward enough and become complacent about our comfortable life?
I really like to think more about this.
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I truly love that MLK quote. Hate will always create more hate. There is no way we can force our way to freedom.
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Passive non violent means seems to me to come from an inner strength a
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