The Quotes I Live By

Posted: May 18, 2010 at 7:23 pm | Tags: Fred Alan Wolf, Marilyn Manson, Quotations, Quotes, Tyler Clatanoff Quotes, wisdomhappy quotes

I really wanted a place to keep track of and update all of my favorite quotes, simply a place to keep track of the words I chose to live by. As a vegan, agnostic, Satanic moral-philosopher whose two favorite people are Mahatma Gandhi and Marilyn Manson; I realize I may seem full of contradiction. However, whatever strange force convinced us to think those concepts are in any sort of opposition is the very force that needs to be identified and addressed.

I decided a while ago that I needed to pretty much start from scratch about my understanding of the world. Each of my quotes essentially represents one of the few things I now think of as a ‘given’, and only because I have found these thought-nuggets very useful for understanding the world. Specifically, very useful for spotting bullshit, living a pleasant existence, and living up to the maximum potential.

Please feel free to use any of these quotes for anything. The ones by me you can feel free to quote as either Tyler Clatanoff, anonymous, wisdomhappy.com or unknown. Unknown because I am still unknown at this point of my life, and also because random names seem to dilute the power of a good quote.

I can save you ten thousand hours of silence if you can trust me, I only want this universe to be as beautiful as possible.

~~~

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.”
Mahatma Gandhi

I am but a dream with it’s own meat-suit. Some men have their own dream, however this dream has it’s own man.
~Tyler Clatanoff

To falsely assume that something is too good to be true is perhaps the most foolish mistake we are able to make.
~Tyler Clatanoff

Being lazy is good for the same reason shitting yourself is good.
~Tyler Clatanoff

What we make is what we are, everything else about us is just words.
~Tyler Clatanoff

Most of this worlds problems seem to reduce down to some combination of: 1) laziness (self-shitting), 2) selfishness (self-mutilation), or 3) fear of thinking (self-enslavement).
~Tyler Clatanoff

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
~Mahatma Gandhi

Without a doubt I am most grateful for the glorious feeling that is my gratitude
~Tyler Clatanoff

I’ll do it. But not for a price, and certainly not for you.
~Sherlock Holmes

I bet everyone feels almost the exact same feelings and emotions; the only difference seems to be that some feel for the unborn and the starving in the same way others feel about immediate family and best friends.
~Tyler Clatanoff

Religion, Race, Class, Patriotism and all other arrogant notions of dominance and separatism are the actual problem.
~ZEITGEIST THE MOVIE

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
~Stephen Roberts”

It does not matter the speed or degree of your progress, so long as you work at it every single day
~Unknown

It seems life would actually be the the heaven of heaven. If a spirit gets lucky enough they get to escape that repeating moment of perfection and be free to experience whatever glorious misery they chose. Sitting in clouds with harps and God himself sounds great, but without the freedom to be miserable, to learn and to bleed we are essentially slaves with halos, or at least would get jaded to the glory of God. Here, we have to look down to see heaven. We are above it, now free to create our own immortality. An immortality that isn’t just a freebie handout.
~Tyler Clatanoff

If you really look, you can see our stadiums, theaters, and malls as made of hundreds of thousands of dead children, like a stucco of hungry faces, innocent blood, and thick salty tears. In terms of opportunity cost, it all becomes morbid shrines to a lack of love and regard for human life.
~Tyler Clatanoff

Control through authority is essentially slavery, only through service can real leadership exist.
~Tyler Clatanoff

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.
~Aristotle

Change is the hardest part of anything. But remember, that which scares us is what thrills us the most
~Tyler Clatanoff, although adapted only slightly from Fred Alan Wolf at the end of What The Bleep Do We Know

There is no reason or excuse to ever think another negative thought; it is both pointless and unfair to those who have endured actual suffering. Remember these words always
~Tyler Clatanoff

“I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic. This is one nation under God.”
~George Bush the First

“What you would call selflessness I would call selfishness, and what you would call selfishness I would simply call sickness. There is only one self, it is all simply the universe becoming aware of itself.”
~Tyler Clatanoff

I never said to be like me, I say to be like you and make a difference.
~Marilyn Manson

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
~Mahatmas Gandhi

Since sanity is needlessly gorging on tortured flesh in front of the television while willfully ignoring that children are starving to death, I want no part of it.
~Tyler Clatanoff

Even more fulfilling than being surrounded by people who would die for the same things that you would, is being surrounded by friends who do give their lives to the same thing you do.
~Tyler Clatanoff

“I will plan as if I am going to live forever, and I will live as if I am going to die tomorrow.
~Tyler Clatanoff

“A body is nothing compared to the potential it possess.”
~Tyler Clatanoff

“It could be so easy, so simple and bloodless. If only the proper understanding about the problem is achieved, it it could be so easy and fun.”
~Tyler Clatanoff

“Remember: Life is a race. It is a race between you and your theoretical “most raced self’. You are racing for all of that extra life between when that raced self finishes before you, and when the self that didn’t have this thought finishes after you. READY GO!”
~Tyler Clatanoff

“I would like to take a moment to remind you that for the vast majority of American political and business decision-makers, life is simply this horrible inconvenience they are forced to endure between the thrill of exploitation, TV, and heaven. There are creationists, Mormons, white supremacists, and holocaust deniers making decisions about a “logical” course of action for you personally”
~Tyler Clatanoff

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
Mahatmas Gandhi

When love rules the world, mere words won’t be able to settle or create debts. Our currency will be respect and appreciation, so those with those most things for themselves will have the least of it. The day that there are no kings or ruling classes and the gifted have to be begged for their leadership is the day that love will finally rule. This is the world I create from the inside out.
~Tyler Clatanoff

My desire is to be pure again and not dirtied by the world. But it’s my duty to be as ugly and as filthy as I am, so the audience can experience what I have.
~Marilyn Manson

The problem was that I’m simply allergic to bullshit, negativity, and nonsense… which are all easy things to avoid once you realize what you are avoiding. Pretty much I just avoid the TV. Perhaps you have some of these same allergies?
~Tyler Clatanoff

It’s like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming ‘more power to the aristocracy.
~Dr David Runciman, a BBC analysist, on American voting trends

Things are exactly as difficult as we decide they are
~Tyler Clatanoff

Life is just a joke played on whoever isn’t currently laughing.
~Tyler Clatanoff

How ironic that we have all been God this whole time. What a joke, right?
~Tyler Clatanoff

MORE TO COME.

Please feel post (In English please) whatever questions or comments you have, I will be sure to answer.

If you liked this read, please share!
What quotes have you made that you live by? If you post a good enough one and I will add it!

What Is The Meaning Of Life? I Think I Figured It Out. Please Read!

Posted: July 23, 2009 at 9:15 pm | Tags: happiness, joy, LOVE, meaning of life, purpose, The Meaning Of Life, The Meaning Of Life explained

After thousands and thousands of hours of focused silence: I conclude that the meaning of life is to (ideally literally) live forever, in both a body and a legacy that as saturated with love as is possible. luckily the path to immortality and love but start with just being happy! Who would want to love someone who is not happy?

Happiness, however, is merely desired as it is an indicator that we are on the path to joy. I personally would define Joy as the feeling of satisfaction with your amount of love and also the achievement of your dreams. Love and dreams stand out above all because of they are paths to immortality. Love because it leads to the literal component of immortality: having many healthy, joyous children raised by joyous parents; this leads to more of your ideas, genetic information, and influence being perpetuated by your descendants as long as there are people on earth. Dreams are the other component of joy because they lead to your personal non-literal immortality, or your eternal influence. After death we keep living in the actions and ideas of future people; our presence remains as long as we are remembered, and it remains great directly in relation to how much joy it spreads.

However, it all goes back to LOVE, for without love no dream is being remembered for. Likewise, without love your children are unlikely to grow up as joyous as they could be. Even if they do both raise and teach themselves to grow up to spread and experience joy, they are unlikely to perpetuate any more of their parents than merely their genetic information.

SO GET OUT THERE AND LOVE!

I paid countless hours of silence to create this paragraph, figuring this out was one of my main goals starting when I was a freashman in high-school. The last few years I have been working on saying it in as few words as possible, and on developing specific arguments against anyone who claims this is not 100% right. So if you have questions, comments, or problems, I beg you to post them here as comments. And remember, this is a philosophy, not asserted facts. I am not saying that anyone who disagrees is with me is wrong, merely that I currently believe this is the most refined view of our goal on this earth as is possible.

The Perfect Meme

Posted: July 21, 2009 at 9:19 pm | Tags: perfect meme, perfection

Any action, thought, or information that more than one person has imitated as a result of influence from any other person is a meme. Or in other words, A meme is anything that is imitated.

Some memes, like marriage for example, are useful, as they can prevent disease, promote love, and/or aid successful child-raising. A meme seems, from my observations, to have it’s value determined by how beneficial they it is to the human race. Likewise there are hazardous memes, such as Scientology for example, that are more like a viral infection. They persist for a seemingly infinite number of reasons and do harm the human race. Some of the best examples are greed, hate, torture, undesirable physical traits, and religion.

If the worst possible meme is one that destroys all human kind, then what would the best possible meme be?

To me the perfect meme is that thought that brings every human together as an equal, peaceful, and most importantly infinitely loving race.

I think that one exists, and we really should define and then spread it. Think how quickly it would consume the world in love!

I have much more I could say about this, but I think less is more when it comes to words. Essentially I think the perfect meme is one that spreads the notion of loving primarily love at an increasingly increasing rate. I see this divine idea in my head, I know it is possible because I am able to imagine it perfectly. To continue looking, and pregressing this idea, I just need more experiences, more perspectives, more opinions, and most importantly MORE STORIES. I would be out traveling the world if I wasn’t at school right now at the U of Minnesota studying philosophy, management and economics. I made this website because I obsess over this vision, this dream, but I cant achieve it alone. Please post any and every question, comment, or suggestion about what I have just said. OR even better, post your own unique thoughts about the perfect meme!

Fourms

Posted: July 21, 2009 at 9:00 pm | Tags: advice, collaboration, community, development, fourm, Fourms, progress

These are obviously not forms yet, but I would love to get any feedback on the fourm catagories that I am thinking of. Really there is just a widget for fourms, they set themselves up. but I need to have the catagories all planned out.

Please let me know if there is anything that you want or do not want to see here!

Fourm Catagories:

+ Post a question or help answer one

+Help spread wisdom and happiness with your own unique thoughts, or help to develope the thoughts of this community.

+Post a thought-provoking poem, or read and discuss the though-provoking poems of others

+Post a link to add to the master list of the web’s most valuable links, or help evaluate the links that your communiy suggested.

+General “working harder, not smarter” fourms

+Off topic

Why We Should Literally Abolish The Word Justice

Posted: July 21, 2009 at 8:24 pm | Tags: ethics, justice, law, morality, philosophy

Ok, so I realize, abolishing a word doesn’t really make sense, or at least would be impossible to enforce.

But I hypothesize that if we could stop using this one word as a society, the world quickly would become a much better place. To me it seems so much of the worlds problems would at least be simplified, and perhaps even completely avoided, if we used a different word that justice each time we would be tempted to use the word. I am here to argue that the word justice should simply be blacklisted; unless, I suppose, when we want to talk about the bullshit of a legal system.

When I see phrases like “in the name of justice” or “for liberty and justice for all”, or even simply most instances of the word “justify”, I internally interpret the word justice differently than most people. To me, justice is that very specific type of bullshit that is a used as a tool to justify violence and human exploitation.

To those who are perplexed by my admittedly outrageous claim, simply take a step back. If you literally make the crude swap of every instances of the word justice with the word “exploitation” the world disturbingly all of a sudden makes sense, and it becomes apparent why there is so much disequilibrium and war in our world today. The problem is justice is or has become simply a bunk word, as it is so personally defined by each individual independently.

Really we only need to look at the dictionary to find where the problem is; so first, lets look what a dictionary says about this word. Lets look to the dictionary definition of this word first, if for no other reason than perhaps we can find the problem in the definition alone, and won’t even need to look at how it is used in practice. ( Definition taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/netdict/justice)

Main Entry: jus·tice

Pronunciation: \ˈjəs-təs\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French justise, from Latin justitia, from justus

Date: 12th century

1 a : the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments b : judge c : the administration of law; especially : the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity
2 a : the quality of being just, impartial, or fair b (1) : the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action (2) : conformity to this principle or ideal : righteousness c : the quality of conforming to law
3 : conformity to truth, fact, or reason : correctness

This is a lengthy definition, wow. But the thing that I note, is that it uses the word just in two of the definitions, so we are going to need to look up that next.

However the third definition is something to think critically about. Conformity to truth, fact or reason and being synonymous with “correctness”. This third explanation doesn’t seem to me to mean anything. This is because, at least for some people, it is true that it is a fact that they have reasoned that it is correct to commit morbid atrocities; such as Hitlers eugenics movement, or a southern slave owner who sincerely believed that blacks were such animals that owning them as slaves was doing them a favor. Or, you could see this same definition being “technically fulfilled” by the religious throughout all of history, such as in the crusades and suicide bombings. It is mind-blowing, but we need to keep in mind that for some people, it is both logical and correct to murder children because they are damned souls anyway and the suicide-bomber will receive seventy-two virgins or eternal heaven waiting for them after they murder these heathens.

The way the third part of the definition is set up, all you need to do is believe some sort of ridiculous nonsense (as much of humanity does), and suddenly even murder or slavery can be called justice.

Perhaps in the word just though, there is some sort of usable definition, one free from crazy archaic thinking. Merriam-Webster is so universally accepted, I am going to stick with them for this definition as well.

Main Entry: ²just

Pronunciation: \ˈjəst\

Function: adjective

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French juste, from Latin justus, from jus right, law; akin to Sanskrit yos welfare

Date: 14th century

1 a : having a basis in or conforming to fact or reason : reasonable <a just but not a generous decision> b archaic : faithful to an original c : conforming to a standard of correctness : proper <just proportions>
2 a (1) : acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good : righteous <a just war> (2) : being what is merited : deserved <a just punishment> b : legally correct : lawful

As apparent every time a family is literally ripped apart when a loving mother or father imprisoned, marked a felon and stripped of equal rights, and then isolated from their children OVER GROWING MARIJUANA, a harmless plant; the law is not always a fair or good thing, and can be even be both insane and evil.

Besides bringing legality into it, the word just it is still drawing on arbitrarily and individually defined words like “correct” and “good”. Remember, it could be argued that it is correct and good to own slaves, because the bible directly permits it in in Leviticus 25:44-46 , and my favorite; Exodus 21:20: “As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: You may buy your male and female slaves from the nations that are round about you … You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession forever.” So remember, its only unjust if you beat your slaves with a rod and they die sometime that isn’t between 24 and 72 hours after you whoop em! I think the trick to justice in this case is to cause sever internal bleeding and hope they die right when you need them to. Although, I am unsure what to do if they need to be re-beaten, does the clock start over? I have regressed, the point I am trying to make is that by literal denotation and connotation of the word, any nut-job can proclaim anything to be just and justice, as evident by the rampant corporate greed running a muck today and by religious zealots doing whatever they want in the name of their imaginary friend.

When people say the word justice, they REALLY seem to mean to be using a different word; such as equality, balance, fairness, revenge, karma, harmony, or any of the other words referring to shift back to a state of equilibrium or sustainability. I first wrote the bulk of my philosophical endeavors on this idea because I am able to see a harmonious future for mankind, and justice refers to “that nonsensical bullshit” of the past. Similar to how many of us feel about the words like slavery, rape, or genocide today, we should just blacklist this word and use a more specific word for talking about fairness, or retribution, ect.

To me it seems all about when to favor merit, such as property rewarded due to inheritance, when to favor need, such as property rewarded out of necessity, and when to favor effort, such as property rewarded due to a result of work.

How do we even begin to decide the best way to decide the best way to begin?

It seems to me that as long as we still need to argue what is or is not justice, that we will never reach the peace that we all want so badly. Not until we realize that it feels good to work hard, and feels good to do good for others, will we stop the wars and fighting. Seeking justice instead of fairness may be the root problem of all problems, so please help me stop evil committed in the name of justice; doing your part could be as simple as choosing to use a different word.

Archive of Very Valuable Information

Posted: July 21, 2009 at 7:34 pm | Tags: archive, crucial bookmarks, list, most important, valuable information

tarts! I Since I can remember, I have been bookmarking and then revisiting every habit-transforming web page I have ever found exceptionally worthy of carrying with me my entire life. I still come back to all of these frequently, as I remember useful advice and information that I have been hoarding like a packrat.

It is seriously SO NICE to be able to use the “find” function (ctrl+f) over a text document version of my bookmarks whenever I have a problem that isn’t obvious to me! If even one person finds this list half as valuable as I do, then it was without a doubt worth the time it took to share it with the world.

FAR TOO OFTEN I bring up something like a Ted.com

quote, Digg.com article, or mention something from a documentary I saw on freedocumentaries.net and someone has to halt the progress of the conversation to have those websites explained, and it just makes me sad. It makes literally sad that some people have simply not been exposed to many of the websites I mention, so I am doing something about it.

Not only that, I really hope this lets you all find some new websites to harvest wisdom and happiness from.

Please dont hesitate to leave comments and post your own valuable links, but even more importantly… PLEASE ENJOY THIS LIST! (and don’t forget to use the “Find” function).

Lets start with some of the obvious ones that make me literally mournful to know some people simply are unaware of.

www.ted.com (their slogan is “riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”. I strongly advise you to try to watch every single video, just think how much more intelligent and meaningful all of your conversations would be if all humans watched watched this instead of garbage like MTV)

freedocumentaries.net (when I found this I immediately felt like the world was given to me, followed immediately after by shame for all the time I wasted doing shit that is sickeningly less valuable or entertaining)

Digg.com (this is where I get all my news, and where I have found a large chunk of the very most interesting and hilarious websites I have experienced)

Ninite.com (“Install multiple apps at once without toolbars or clicking Next” is what they call it, but I would call it “every important program you would ever NEED on your PC made as easy as possible.”)

ratemyprofessors.com (this is where I look before I ever sign up for a college class. Taking a professor that has near perfect ratings from hundreds of people vs taking the same class from someone that everyone hates is ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Please go on here and rate your professors too so that this site gets larger and larger)

Craigslist.org (seems obvious but people some people somehow actually don’t know about or don’t use craigslist.com. To anyone concerned about strangers, remember to think of every human as another you that you just didn’t happen to be. I’m literally about 50-0 with having unbelievable experience, like for example when I met some new awesome friends who drove me for free 18 hours to Michigan for Rothbury after all else seemed hopeless)

From here, this list switches more from the epic websites that I frequent, to a random list of the very most valuable websites I have personally encountered. You will understand the general theme pretty quickly. Please remember to use the search(or find, aka ctrl+f) function, this will be more and more important as this list grows. Also, If you like an article, check out that articles main page. Everyone should be able to find at least one new website that they check regularly. In no particular order, you should at least quickly check out these links.

Why Worry? It’s completely unproductive

How to Make the Time for Your Personal Goals

10 Essencial Cheat Sheets to download

LearningSpace – LearningSpace – OpenLearn – The Open University (free learning materials)

FORA.tv (random example to demonstrate the kind of stuff here)

31 Simple Ways To Prevent Cancer

25 Ways to Help a Fellow Human Being Today

11 Solid Ways To Improve Your Time Management Skills

Most Common Errors in the English Language

10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy

How To Maximize Your Memory

50 Tools To Speed Up Your PC