New Books and transcendent quotes from one of them.
So, I finally found a used copy of Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. I've been looking for that for about five or six years but I try not to buy new books. I'm happy even if I've got a number of other books that I need to finish before I start something of that weight.
At the same time, I also found a used copy of Cleansing the Doors of Perception: the Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals by Huston Smith. He's the fellow that wrote The World's Religions, one of the few of that type of book that I've actually enjoyed.
There were two quotes that I wanted to share from the frontispiece of this book:The greatest of blessings come to use through madness, when it is sent as a gift of the Gods. Heaven-sent madness is superior to man-made sanity.
- Plato, in the Phaedrus
Ecstasy! In common parlance ecstasy is fun. But ecstasy is not fun. Your very soul is seized and shaken until it tingles. After all, who will choose to feel undiluted awe? The unknowing vulgar abuse the word; we must recapture its full and terrifying sense.
- R. Gordon Wasson
At the same time, I also found a used copy of Cleansing the Doors of Perception: the Religious Significance of Entheogenic Plants and Chemicals by Huston Smith. He's the fellow that wrote The World's Religions, one of the few of that type of book that I've actually enjoyed.
There were two quotes that I wanted to share from the frontispiece of this book:The greatest of blessings come to use through madness, when it is sent as a gift of the Gods. Heaven-sent madness is superior to man-made sanity.
- Plato, in the Phaedrus
Ecstasy! In common parlance ecstasy is fun. But ecstasy is not fun. Your very soul is seized and shaken until it tingles. After all, who will choose to feel undiluted awe? The unknowing vulgar abuse the word; we must recapture its full and terrifying sense.
- R. Gordon Wasson