#mira

Alcohol makes other people less tedious, and food less bland, and can help provide what the Greeks called entheos, or the slight buzz of inspiration when reading or writing. The only worthwhile miracle in the New Testament—the transmutation of water into wine during the wedding at Cana—is a tribute to the persistence of Hellenism in an otherwise austere Judaea. The same applies to the seder at Passover, which is obviously modeled on the Platonic symposium: questions are asked (especially of the young) while wine is circulated. No better form of sodality has ever been devised: at Oxford one was positively expected to take wine during tutorials. The tongue must be untied. It's not a coincidence that Omar Khayyam, rebuking and ridiculing the stone-faced Iranian mullahs of his time, pointed to the value of the grape as a mockery of their joyless and sterile regime. Visiting today's Iran, I was delighted to find that citizens made a point of defying the clerical ban on booze, keeping it in their homes for visitors even if they didn't particularly take to it themselves, and bootlegging it with great brio and ingenuity. These small revolutions affirm the human. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#ancient-greeks #atheism #boredom #brotherhood #cana

We're very open and outspoken about our faith and our beliefs. We also talk about our doubts, our moments of insecurities. We talk about it all day, how we're inspired by God. We recognize little miracles every day, and that's how we're raising our daughter. ↗

— Boris Kodjoe

#all day #also #beliefs #daughter #day

Sometimes we look for those thunderous things to happen in our life for our lives to change or go in the other direction. We seek the miracle. We seek the parting of the seas, the moving of the mountains. But no, it's a quiet thing. At least for me it was. ↗

— Ben Vereen

#direction #go #happen #least #life

There is no miracle cure for the many problems of the world. ↗

— Guy Verhofstadt

#many #miracle #problems #world

To expect the world to receive a new truth, or even an old truth, without challenging it, is to look for one of those miracles which do not occur. ↗

— Alfred Russel Wallace

#even #expect #look #miracles #new

To be one's self, and unafraid whether right or wrong, is more admirable than the easy cowardice of surrender to conformity. ↗

— Irving Wallace

#conformity #cowardice #easy #more #right

The basic problem with my love relationships with women is that my standards are so high - and they apply equally to both of us. I seek full-blast mutual intensity, fully fledged mutual acceptance, full-blown mutual flourishing, and fully felt peace and joy with each other. This requires a level of physical attraction, personal adoration, and moral admiration that is hard to find. ↗

— Cornel West

#admiration #adoration #apply #attraction #basic

I yield to no one in my admiration for the office as a social center, but it's no place actually to get any work done. ↗

— Katharine Whitehorn

#admiration #any #center #done #get

All children should be taught to unconditionally accept, approve, admire, appreciate, forgive, trust, and ultimately, love their own person. ↗

— Asa Don Brown

#admiration #american #canadian #counseling #encouraging-and-empowering-girls

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle. ↗

— Marianne Williamson

#everything #expressions #inspires #love #love is