#miracles

Because of my Marxism, I was not into myths or miracles, whether it was the virgin birth, the physical resurrection or casting out demons from an epileptic. ↗

— Lionel Blue

#birth #casting #demons #i #into

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

Having a vested interest in other souls unconditionally creates a ripple effect that produces miracles in the lives of those around us. ↗

— Molly Friedenfeld

#compassion #inspiration #inspirational-quotes #joy #kindness

My mother always called me an ugly weed, so I never was aware of anything until I was older. Plain girls should have someone telling them they are beautiful. Sometimes this works miracles. ↗

— Hedy Lamarr

#always #anything #aware #beautiful #called

To date, embryonic stem cell research has not produced a single medical treatment, where ethical, adult stem cell research has produced some 67 medical miracles. ↗

— Mike Pence

#cell #cell research #date #embryonic #embryonic stem cell

Good actresses can often accomplish miracles, and it is possible to be someone you've never been or will be. But in a sitcom, there's no time. ↗

— Patricia Richardson

#been #good #miracles #never #often

I think miracles exist in part as gifts and in part as clues that there is something beyond the flat world we see. ↗

— Peggy Noonan

#clues #exist #flat #gifts #i

His hands are miracles. I can watch them for hours, transforming wood into something it never dreamed of being. ↗

— Katja Millay

#miracles #dreams

يمضي الإنسان عبر الطبيعة متلمساً أملاً ومنتظراً معجزة، ينتظر راهباً أو حاجاً أو بوذا أو نبياً أو طائرا متكلماً حتى ليخبره إن كانت لديه روح لا ينقطع وجودها حتى مع الموت، ليخبره عن مادة تلك الروح، وليخبره عما فوق الإنسان، أي نظام، أي مخلوق أو كائن وفي أي انفجار عظيم كان أصله، وأين يتجه. يمضي الإنسان عبر الطبيعة منتظراً لقاءً، أو إشارة على الأقل، دون أن يعرف طبيعة هذا اللقاء أو تلك الإشارة ↗

— Ivan Klíma

#human #miracles #nature #soul #love

It’s true that if your religion failed to deliver a miracle, that a human sacrifice would certainly follow." "Ah...quite. You are a man of acute insight." "That’s not insight. That’s a personal guarantee. ↗

— Lois McMaster Bujold

#failure-is-not-an-option #guarantee #guarantees #human-sacrifice #insight