During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD.
— John Coltrane
Off-limits Productive Life quotations
Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship.
It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.
Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself, to become what he potentially is. The most important product of his effort is his own personality.
Life, faculties, production- in other words, individuality, liberty, property- this is man. And in spite of the cunning of artful political leaders, these three gifts from God precede all human legislation, and are superior to it. Life, liberty and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.
You paint the way you have to in order to give.
That's life itself, and someone will look and say it is the product of knowing, but it has nothing to do with knowing, it has to do with giving.
In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation.
Those who participate in [sabbath] break the anxiety cycle.
They are invited to awareness that life does not consist in frantic production and consumption that reduces everyone else to threat and competition.
Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life.
The industrial way of life leads to the industrial way of death.
From Shiloh to Dachau, from Antietam to Stalingrad, from Hiroshima to Vietnam and Afghanistan, the great specialty of industry and technology has been the mass production of human corpses.
I took up leprosy work. Not to help anyone, but to overcome that fear in my life. That it worked out good for others was a by-product. But the fact is: I did it to overcome fear.
Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.
The control of the production of wealth is the control of human life itself.
In my own life, I decided to leave meat off my plate in medical school, but was a bit slow to realise that dairy products and eggs are not health foods either.
The establishment of the National Park Service is justified by considerations of good administration, of the value of natural beauty as a National asset, and of the effectiveness of outdoor life and recreation in the production of good citizenship.
The creative life of the commercial photographer is like the life of a butterfly. Very seldom do we see a photographer who is really productive for more than eight or ten years.
So long as the system of competition in the production and exchange of the means of life goes on, the degradation of the arts will go on; and if that system is to last for ever, then art is doomed, and will surely die; that is to say, civilization will die.
Our cells engage in protein production, and many of those proteins are enzymes responsible for the chemistry of life.
The purpose of arts education is not to produce more artists, though that is a byproduct. The real purpose of arts education is to create complete human beings capable of leading successful and productive lives in a free society.
We abandon the most important journey of our lives when we abandon desire.
We leave our hearts by the side of the road and head off in the direction of fitting in, getting by, being productive, what have you. Whatever we might gain – money, position, the approval of others, or just absence of the discontent self – it’s not worth it.
A soul mate is someone to whom we feel profoundly connected, as though the communication and communing that take place between us were not the product of intentional efforts, but rather a divine grace. This kind of relationship is so important to the soul that many have said there is nothing more precious in life.
The quality of your life is dependent upon the quality of the life of your cells. If the bloodstream is filled with waste products, the resulting environment does not promote a strong, vibrant, healthy cell life-nor a biochemistry capable of creating a balanced emotional life for an individual.
Directing Skyfall was one of the best experiences of my professional life, but I have theatre and other commitments, including productions of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and King Lear, that need my complete focus over the next year and beyond.
A college degree is not a sign that one is a finished product but an indication a person is prepared for life.
Doubt is a virus that attacks our self-esteem, productivity and confidence.
Faith that you and your life are perfectly unfolding is the strongest vaccine.
Choose to be entrepreneur because then YOU create value.
Choose to be an entrepreneur because the products, services, and jobs you create then become the lifeblood of our nation. But most of all, choose to be an entrepreneur because then you desire a life of adventure, endless challenge, and the opportunity to be your BEST SELF.
Complexity kills. It sucks the life out of developers, it makes products difficult to plan, build and test, it introduces security challenges, and it causes end-user and administrator frustration.
Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.
We never shall have any more time we have, and we have always had, all the time there is.
The goal is to live a full, productive life even with all that ambiguity.
No matter what happens, whether the cancer never flares up again or whether you die, the important thing is that the days that you have had you will have lived.
The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning;
to create a product or service to make the world a better place.
The pupil's imagination is 'schooled' to accept service in place of value.
Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work.
Sabbath is the celebration of life beyond and outside productivity.
We started our foundation because we believe we have a real opportunity to help advance equity around the world, to help make sure that, no matter where a person is born, he or she has the chance to live a healthy, productive life.
No greater tragedy exists in modern civilization than the aged, worn-out worker who after a life of ceaseless effort and useful productivity must look forward for his declining years to a poorhouse. A modern social consciousness demands a more humane and efficient arrangement.
Life is not a finished product, it is only what we make of it, and if we make nothing of it, someone else will, and we will be his slave.