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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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Resistance to Change – 29 November 2008
By Mary T. Hoffman

All through history new ideas have been rejected by the majority who prefer the status quo – even though the proposed changes would actually benefit them. Sometimes I wonder what it took to convince humans that eating other humans was a no-no; and what it will take for them to realize how wrong it is to consume the body parts and secretions of other sentient beings.

These quotations seem to reveal the frustration of those who see beyond the unquestioned traditions and customs that people follow:

“New opinions are always suspected and usually opposed, without any other reason, but because they are not already common.”
– John Locke (1632–1704),
English philosopher

“What is philosophy but a continual battle, an ever-renewed effort to transcend the sphere of blind custom and so become transcendental.”
– Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
Scottish-born English historian, biographer and essayist

“It often happens that the universal belief of one age, a belief from which no one was free or could be free without an extraordinary effort of genius or courage, becomes to a subsequent age, so palpable an absurdity, that the only difficulty is to imagine how such an idea could ever have appeared credible.” “No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought.”
– John Stuart Mill (1806–1873),
English author and philosopher

For a large collection of quotations, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/quote.html

Go on to: We Learned the Whole of Love – 30 November 2008
Return to: Kindness – 28 November 2008
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