Gorean Related Quotes (Luther)

From Luther Scroll Archives

The following are a selection of quotes that touch upon Gorean themes and ideas, concepts and principles. Many, but not all of them, are from the works of philosophers. Over time, additional quotes may be added.

Books cannot answer back and respond to the objections they provoke; there is no real dialogue of minds between writer and reader, only between two people actually engaged in philosophical discussion. Plato is deeply influenced by the idea that true knowledge is something that can only be gained by each individual in his or her own case, by thinking things through and questioning everything accepted. There is no short-cut to understanding by passively reading a book. An Introduction to Plato's Republic" by Julia Annas, p.2

Don't ever forget these things:

The nature of the world.

My nature.

How I relate to the world.

What proportion of it I make up.

That you are part of nature, and no one can prevent you from speaking and acting in harmony with it, always.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Book 2, #9

A metaphysician is a `blind man in a dark room - looking for a black hat - which isn't there. Lord Bowen

All honor's wounds are self-inflicted. Andrew Carnegie

Philosophy begins when one learns to doubt--particularly to doubt one's cherished beliefs, one's dogmas and one's axioms. Who knows how these cherished beliefs become certainties with us, and whether some secret wish did not furtively beget them, clothing desire in the dress of thought? There is no real philosophy until the mind turns round and examines itself. "The Story of Philosophy" by Will Durant

The right to search for the truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true. Albert Einstein

…but far more important is the law of life, that we must do what follows from nature. For, if we desire in every matter, and in every circumstance, to keep to what is natural, it is clear that in everything we should make it our aim neither to pass over what is in accordance with nature, nor to accept what is in conflict with it. Epictetus, The Discourses, Book I, chapter 26

Do not act and speak as if asleep. Heraclitus

Dogs bark at strangers. Heraclitus

It makes more sense to throw out a corpse than manure. Heraclitus

The way up and the way down are one and the same. Heraclitus

A hidden connection is stronger than an apparent one. Heraclitus

Nature prefers to hide. Heraclitus

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck. Immanuel Kant

One is tempted to say that, disguise matters howsoever we will, philosophy remains an art, the product of a creative, disciplined imagination. Or to put it in less exalted terms, we sort of make it up as we go along. "The Cognitivity Paradox" by John Lange (p.62)

A man has honor if he holds himself to an ideal of conduct though it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or dangerous to do so. Walter Lippman

Mastery-of others and/or of oneself-is the definitive masculine trait in most of the Greek and Latin literary and philosophical texts that survive from antiquity. In certain of these texts, as we shall see, a (free) man's right to dominate others-women, children, slaves, and other social inferiors-is justified by his capacity to dominate himself. Moreover…this hegemonic conception of masculinity was less a dichotomy between male and female than a hierarchical continuum where slippage from most fully masculine to least masculine could occur. The individual male's position on this precarious continuum was never entirely secure. "Taking It Like A Man: Masculinity in 4 Maccabees" by Stephen Moore and Janice Anderson, p.250 in the Journal of Biblical Literature 117 (1998)

According to nature you want to live? O you noble Stoics, what deceptive words these are! Imagine a being like nature, wasteful beyond measure, indifferent beyond measure, without purposes and consideration, without mercy and justice, fertile and desolate and uncertain at the same time; imagine indifference itself as a power--how could you live according to this indifference! "Beyond Good and Evil" by Nietzsche

I have wondered sometimes why men tell stories. I suspect they have always done so. In the beginning perhaps they danced them, or drew them. A man is, after all, a story-telling animal. One needs no reason to tell a story, or to sing. Those are nice things about stories, and about singing. Perhaps the story, the song, like seeing, and thinking and breathing, if you like, is its own justification, is own reason. "The Chieftain" by John Norman, p.2

But the magnitude of man is not measured in the quantity of his being, that he lingers for such and such a time in such and such a place, a small time, in a small place, or that his frame contains so many cubits or less, but in his heart and soul, as tiny, as foul and dark as they may be. He, in his tiny place and time, may do deeds, and in these deeds he stands among the loftiest, farthest of stars. A smile, a gesture, an upraised fist, a laugh, a song, with these things, seemingly so small in themselves, he exceeds dimensions, he challenges all time and space. "The Chieftain" by John Norman, p.3

Some things will not be seen for what they are. One refuses to understand them. The defense mechanism is a familiar one, common to the rational species. "The Chieftain" by John Norman, p.10

Learn what you are and be such. Pindar

But isn't the phrase 'master of himself' an absurdity? The master of himself must surely also be slave to himself, and the slave to himself must be master of himself. It's the same person being talked about all the time. "The Republic" by Plato

What this way of speaking seems to me to indicate is that in the soul of a single person there is a better part and a worse part. When the naturally better part is in control of the worse, this is what is meant by 'master of himself.' It is a term of approval. But when as a result of bad upbringing or bad company the better element, which is smaller, is overwhelmed by the mass of the worse element, it is a matter for reproach. They call a person in this condition a slave to himself, undisciplined. "The Republic" by Plato

Because for a free man learning should never be associated with slavery...for the soul no forced learning can be lasting. "The Republic" by Plato

To teach how to live with uncertainty, yet without being paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy can do. Bertrand Russell

Mine honor is my life; both grow in one; take honor from me and my life is done. William Shakespeare

I do not insist that my argument is right in all other respects, but I would contend at all costs both in word and deed as far as I could that we will be better men, braver and less idle, if we believe that one must search for the things one does not know, rather than if we believe that it is not possible to find out what we do not know and that we must not look for it. Socrates

The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them. Socrates

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. Socrates

Rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud. Sophocles

About

Since the saga of the Books of GOR have started back in 1966 many texts have already been written and many persons have spent countless hours studying and sharing information to help others understand better what is GOR. One of these persons is known as “Ubar Luther” who wrote a series of papers (most seem to be over 15 to 20 years old, but still very up-to-date in many topics) called the “Luther’s Gorean Educational Scrolls” that were available on Gor-Now.net, but that site has been hacked. So to preserve them, I have moved them to this wiki.