Show the Passengers Where they Shall Eventually Arrive

"Several times the photographer of the expedition brought out his transparent pictures and gave us a handsome magic-lantern exhibition. His views were nearly all of foreign scenes, but there were one or two home pictures among them. He advertised that he would "open his performance in the after cabin at 'two bells' (nine P.M.) and show the passengers where they shall eventually arrive"--which was all very well, but by a funny accident the first picture that flamed out upon the canvas was a view of Greenwood Cemetery!"

~ Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

Red Umbrella

Mama smiled and grabbed her large bright-red umbrella and tackled it beneath her arm. I hated that umbrella. It was like carrying a big stop sign that made everyone pause and take a notice of us. A ridiculous umbrella for a ridiculous woman.'

...

"But red is the color of revolution." I hoped this would make her consider. Mama stopped walking to look at me. "No, Lucia. The revolution may have taken over a lot of things, but it doesn't own a color. For me, red is the symbol of strength, and that's all it will ever represent."

...

There, in the middle of the small crowd, against the bright blue sky, a big red umbrella opened up. Mama's umbrella. That big stupid thing had never looked so beautiful. A smile edged its way onto may face. Mama had found a way to say good-bye.

Source: 'The Red Umbrella' by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, 2010.

Mine is a Long and a Sad Tale!

"You promised to tell me your history, you know," said Alice, "and why it is you hate — C and D," she added in a whisper, half afraid that it would be offended again.

"Mine is a long and a sad tale!" said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and sighing. "It is a long tail, certainly," said Alice, looking down with wonder at the Mouse's tail; "but why do you call it sad?" 

And she kept on puzzling about it while the Mouse was speaking, so that her idea of the tale was something like this.

Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, 1869

Face That Made One Trust Him at Once

"There was something in his face that made one trust him at once. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. One felt that he had kept himself unspotted from the world." 

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, 1908

Karma, Cause and Effect

"Karma is literally 'action', 'doing', 'deed'. It is at once cause, effect, and the law which equilibrates the two."

Source: Karma or Cause-Effect, Buddhism, Christmas Humphreys

Things Are Not What They Seem

"Later, we realize that things are not what they seem. We begin to understand the relativity of all the things. From this in turn we pass to the final and perfect knowledge in which we know, beyond all doubting, that the world in which we live is only the appearance of the Essence of Pure Mind."

Source: Mind-Only, Buddhism, Christmas Humphreys

Truth Is a Sacred Trust

"Truth is a sacred trust, and he who reveals it to those unworthy of it bears the karma of his act and that of the evil, which flows from the wrong use of the truth revealed."

Source: The Buddha Talk, Buddhism, Christmas Humphreys

Why Do Humans Think? Can You Think Up the Answer

"Why do humans think? Why are we so fascinated with our ability to think? Why are we so distressed when something threatens our intellectual superiority? We respond with apprehension to thinking machines, but live comfortably around countless machines physically stronger than ourselves. Why do we guard our minds so jealously?"

Source: Ollivier Dyens Metal and Flesh, The Evolution of Man: Technology Takes Over

Nothing Natural Can Ever Grow Out of the Unnatural

"Recall that only natural foods can be even supposed to build natural or normal human bodies, that is to say healthy human bodies. It seems to me that much must be self-evident. Nothing natural can ever grow out of the unnatural."

Source: Robert G. Jackson, M.D., How to be Always Well