“
To insinuate that I would break an oath that I made to the ALMIGHTY for my own personal gain is an insult. An insult to me and an insult to the Order. An insult, worthy of death.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
Continue your search for the truth but remember one thing--all things are possible.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
I would have hoped you would have learned by now. No matter, a man who refuses to face his destiny offers himself to the GOD of chance—and chance is a wayward bitch.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
You are one, and we are many, We are everywhere and nowhere at the same time. We are the face of justice.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
Fear, your fear takes hold of you…I can smell it. You are in my world now, and in my world, darkness is light.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
Everyone is so enamored with the puppet; they never notice the man pulling the strings.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
The Order? Here inside such a weak soul?”
“His spirit is failing, his faith too old."
“He cannot be saved."
“Few have tried."
“He is consumed by the lion."
“He is overtaken by pride.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
Boy, you are a hothead, Bane. Your rage makes you an exceptional warrior but quite a boring conversationalist. Good thing I did not keep you for your manners and charm, eh? Now calm down, your spittle is getting all over me, my feet do not require a shower."
-Michael, The ArchAngel
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
HANG THE LAW AND FUCK THE RULES! Where is your love for others? Where is your compassion? All these warriors want is a chance to serve. Doesn’t their love supersede your rules?
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
You heard me. A creature from another world, a dark world, lurks the halls of Hellgate, tormenting victims at will. A grotesque, gnarled, twisted creature, with thick iron stakes impaled into its body, whip marks across its chest and back-- the beast got inside my brain.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
Monster? Monster, you say?” He scratched his chest, blood dripping from what seemed to be an old wound. “No, my friend. I have SEEN real monsters. I have faced real darkness, heart beating out of your chest with death all around you. The stench of piss and shit as men empty themselves in their final moments. I have experienced real terror. Terror, a simple man like you, could never fathom
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
Have you ever thought about why GOD did it? Why tempt such fragile beings in the first place? Did GOD give the race of man free will, knowing that they would use that will to defy him, or to take it a step further since GOD knows all, did he know that Adam and Eve would eat the forbidden fruit, allowing him to cast them out of paradise to toil and suffer for a living.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
A spark is exactly what it means. An igniting of something that spreads, and soon it becomes difficult to contain. The sparks, in this case, represent sin, not just any sin, a major undertaking of evil that spreads and infects life, changing the way humans live forever." " The Everlasting protects man for six of these catastrophes, but once there is a seventh, well… anything goes."
"I’m not destroying man; I’m saving man--from themselves.
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
We are Knights of the Trinity, Angels of the Third Realm of Heaven
Warriors of The Almighty
Defenders of Righteousness, Truth. And Justice
Protectors of the Weak and Downtrodden
Guardians of the realms of men.
We pledge our spirits, our swords, and our shields in service,
Not for glory, not for pride, but for the honor to serve the Most-High
May the forces of Darkness tremble in our wake and die at our hands! We are the Chosen Twelve, the Blessed, the Mighty War-riors of the Everlasting Order
Hazah! Hazah! Hazah!
”
”
J.B. Lion (The Seventh Spark: Volume One – Knights of the Trinity)
“
She started drawing up a mental list of everyone she didn’t trust, and had to stop immediately. She didn’t have all day.
”
”
Mick Herron (Dead Lions (Slough House, #2))
“
Lionel said as much to me once, how so many of the same people who are quick to empathize with physical disabilities don't understand why someone with depression can't just get up and get on with their day like the rest of the world. It's like they need a receipt that proves someone is actually going through some shit before they care about them.
”
”
Brandy Colbert (Little & Lion)
“
I want to be back to work next week.
'Let’s get you home first. I need to evaluate the extent of your mental impairment.' She tried to flash me the peace sign, but in her weakend condition, she only managed to raise her middle finger.
”
”
Nelson DeMille (The Lion (John Corey, #5))
“
Most people would deny such a world (ancient highly advanced civilizations in the remote past) ever existed because it would be so at odds with their daily experience. We would have the same we-can't-do-it-so-it-can't-be-done mentality...
”
”
David Icke (Human Race Get Off Your Knees: The Lion Sleeps No More)
“
YOUR GREATER ANIMAL
They say that if you are
Ever confronted by
A lion or bear,
To never act scared.
Instead act like
You are the greater animal
And that they're
The hare
That you are about
To tear.
This has been
Proven
And compared.
This is how presidents
Are loved
And feared.
Each one of us has an animal
Within us
That is armed with
Mental,
Physical or
Spiritual gifts
That could shoot spears
Through the air.
So next time
You are confronted in
A fight that seems unfair,
Just remember the lion and the bear.
MAGNIFY
Your greater animal
And all that feel your magnificence
Will quickly step away
And disappear.
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
Unless you drop your personality you will not be able to find your individuality. Individuality is given by existence; personality is imposed by the society.
Society cannot tolerate individuality, because individuality will not follow like a sheep. Individuality has the quality of the lion; the lion moves alone.
And every one of you is born a lion, but the society goes on conditioning you, programming your mind as a sheep.
It gives you a personality, a cozy personality, nice, very convenient, very obedient.
Society wants slaves, not people who are absolutely dedicated to freedom. Society wants slaves because all the vested interests want obedience.
”
”
Chandra Mohan Jain ("Osho")
“
The English will never develop into a nation of philosophers. They will always prefer instinct to logic and character to intelligence. But they must get rid of their downright contempt for 'cleverness'. They cannot afford it any longer. They must grow less tolerant of ugliness, and mentally more adventurous. And they must stop despising foreigners. They are Europeans and ought to be aware of it.
”
”
George Orwell (The Lion and The Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius)
“
Men often like to pretend their weaknesses don't exist, as if they are gods. But who would want to be a god? I would rather be a shag lion in a field, with no worry but my next meal, than to an all-knowing being with the weight of the sun and the stars on my shoulders.
”
”
Virginia Mary (Across the Great Ocean: Awakening)
“
growing up you need more than someone who’s, like, mentally programmed to love you. You need your tribe, your people, your sidekicks, and I didn’t have them. I was the lion cub in the desert, the trapped Genie, the hidden-away Quasimodo, but I was without a sidekick to bring me through the middle chapters of my story.
”
”
Chloé Hayden (Different, Not Less: A Neurodivergent's Guide to Embracing Your True Self and Finding Your Happily Ever After)
“
Life is a great big beautiful three-ring circus. There are those on the floor making their lives among the heads of lions and hoops of fire, and those in the stands, complacent and wowed, their mouths stuffed with popcorn.
I know less now than ever about life, but I do know its size. Life is enormous. Much grander than what we’ve taken for ourselves, so far.
When the show is over and the tent is packed, the elephants, lions and dancing poodles are caged and mounted on trucks to caravan to the next town. The clown’s makeup has worn, and his bright, red smile has been washed down a sink. All that is left is another performance, another tent and set of lights. We rest in the knowledge: the show must go on.
Somewhere, behind our stage curtain, a still, small voice asks why we haven’t yet taken up juggling. My seminars were like this. Only, instead of flipping shiny, black bowling balls or roaring chainsaws through the air, I juggled concepts.
The world is intrinsically tied together. All things march through time at different intervals but move ahead in one fashion or another.
Though we may never understand it, we are all part of something much larger than ourselves—something anchoring us to the spot we have mentally chosen. We sniff out the rules, through spiritual quests and the sciences. And with every new discovery, we grow more confused.
Our inability to connect what seems illogical to unite and to defy logic in our understanding keeps us from enlightenment. The artists and insane tiptoe around such insights, but lack the compassion to hand-feed these concepts to a blind world.
The interconnectedness of all things is not simply a pet phrase. It is a big “T” truth that the wise spend their lives attempting to grasp.
”
”
Christopher Hawke (Unnatural Truth)
“
An African proverb says, “When spiderwebs unite, they can tie up a lion.
”
”
Rheeda Walker (The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health: Navigate an Unequal System, Learn Tools for Emotional Wellness, and Get the Help You Deserve)
“
Trump, what is a Trump. A vast ungainly hog who has scalped a lion somehow. And staggers around in it. The rotting mane and pelt. Day after day, and year after year, eyes clenched, chin jutting, squealing and snorting and wheezing, daring you to say it, to tell him what he is.
You’re not a lion. You’re a dumb bad pig. A mentally ill pig, and no one likes you, you’re the worst, the worst one ever.
He was such a bad dumb little shit pig wasn’t he.
”
”
Mark Doten (Trump Sky Alpha)
“
She's wonderful and soulful. She has a sly sense of humor. I've seen her deliver a funnier joke with a single silent raise of her eyebrow than many stand up comedians. She guards a very sensitive heart. Any human suffering brings her to tears. She's smart. Talk down to her and find yourself mentally slapped. She's an excellent judge of character, and seems to know an original spirit from a forgery every time. Cross boundaries with her...in any improper way and suffer the wrath of a lion. ... She's principled and firm. Rude behavior doesn't materialize in her presence. She's a grown-up who fully sees and knows children as citizens, and people, and souls. And because she respects children, all children seem to respect her.
”
”
Shonda Rhimes (Year of Yes)
“
The seriousness of throwing over hell whilst still clinging to the Atonement is obvious. If there is no punishment for sin there can be no self-forgiveness for it. If Christ paid our score, and if there is no hell and therefore no chance of our getting into trouble by forgetting the obligation, then we can be as wicked as we like with impunity inside the secular law, even from self-reproach, which becomes mere ingratitude to the Savior. On the other hand, if Christ did not pay our score, it still stands against us; and such debts make us extremely uncomfortable. The drive of evolution, which we call conscience and honor, seizes on such slips, and shames us to the dust for being so low in the scale as to be capable of them. The 'saved' thief experiences an ecstatic happiness which can never come to the honest atheist: he is tempted to steal again to repeat the glorious sensation. But if the atheist steals he has no such happiness. He is a thief and knows that he is a thief. Nothing can rub that off him. He may try to sooth his shame by some sort of restitution or equivalent act of benevolence; but that does not alter the fact that he did steal; and his conscience will not be easy until he has conquered his will to steal and changed himself into an honest man...
Now though the state of the believers in the atonement may thus be the happier, it is most certainly not more desirable from the point of view of the community. The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life. Whether Socrates got as much happiness out of life as Wesley is an unanswerable question; but a nation of Socrateses would be much safer and happier than a nation of Wesleys; and its individuals would be higher in the evolutionary scale. At all events it is in the Socratic man and not in the Wesleyan that our hope lies now.
Consequently, even if it were mentally possible for all of us to believe in the Atonement, we should have to cry off it, as we evidently have a right to do. Every man to whom salvation is offered has an inalienable natural right to say 'No, thank you: I prefer to retain my full moral responsibility: it is not good for me to be able to load a scapegoat with my sins: I should be less careful how I committed them if I knew they would cost me nothing.'
”
”
George Bernard Shaw (Androcles and the Lion)
“
But this was more mental… mental deceit; dream. My head was out of order, as I realized even then. I was most aware of it at night, under the influence of fever, when mountains and idols and cattle and lions, and gross black women, the amazons, and the face of the king and the thatch of the hopo visited my mind, coming and going unannounced.
”
”
Saul Bellow (Henderson the Rain King)
“
In spite of his exceeding mental perturbation, Simpson struggled hard to detect its nature, and define it, but the ascertaining of an elusive scent, not recognized subconsciously and at once, is a very subtle operation of the mind. And he failed. It was gone before he could properly seize or name it. Approximate description, even, seems to have been difficult, for it was unlike any smell he knew. Acrid rather, not unlike the odor of a lion, he thinks, yet softer and not wholly unpleasing, with something almost sweet in it that reminded him of the scent of decaying garden leaves, earth, and the myriad, nameless perfumes that make up the odor of a big forest. Yet the 'odor of lions' is the phrase with which he usually sums it all up.
("The Wendigo")
”
”
Algernon Blackwood (Monster Mix)
“
Mr. Shaw himself said once, “I am a typical Irishman; my family came from Yorkshire.” Scarcely anyone but a typical Irishman could have made the remark. It is in fact a bull, a conscious bull. A bull is only a paradox which people are too stupid to understand. It is the rapid summary of something which is at once so true and so complex that the speaker who has the swift intelligence to perceive it, has not the slow patience to explain it. Mystical dogmas are much of this kind. Dogmas are often spoken of as if they were signs of the slowness or endurance of the human mind. As a matter of fact, they are marks of mental promptitude and lucid impatience. A man will put his meaning mystically because he cannot waste time in putting it rationally. Dogmas are not dark and mysterious; rather a dogma is like a flash of lightning—an instantaneous lucidity that opens across a whole landscape. Of the same nature are Irish bulls; they are summaries which are too true to be consistent. The Irish make Irish bulls for the same reason that they accept Papal bulls. It is because it is better to speak wisdom foolishly, like the Saints, rather than to speak folly wisely, like the Dons.
”
”
George Bernard Shaw (George Bernard Shaw: Collected Articles, Lectures, Essays and Letters: Thoughts and Studies from the Renowned Dramaturge and Author of Mrs. Warren's Profession, ... and Cleopatra, Androcles And The Lion)
“
The Bad-Moon Girls appear on days when Dad doesn't know what he is thinking, or even if he is thinking. Those days can weigh less than air or more than an ocean. He has blank thoughts without feelings, followed by heavy feelings without thoughts. Time means nothing. A minute ticks by in the same rhythm as an entire day. He can look at one thing for an hour without moving. He can see me or Victor without knowing we are in the room, peering at us as if we are underwater, moving in warped slow motion.
After the nothingness, he wades through a stagnant lake with the moon reflected in it, waiting for the daylight to rinse it away. He almost drowns while time ticks on. The sky is filled with black milk. No stars. Two days can pass before he surfaces.
Dad's brain-switch, the focusing thing the rest of us switch on to make things look better, is a bit buggered. Those are his words, not mine.
The Bad-Moon Girls whisper evil in Dad's ear, the sort of women who would set their own mother on fire if there were no other way to light their cigarettes. The trouble is, they can follow. Just as we were setting off to Clacton last autumn, they hunted him down.
”
”
Joanna Campbell (Tying Down the Lion)
“
threat condition state. Although Sheepdogs operate in “yellow,” they’re prepared to escalate to “orange” or “red” in a moment’s notice. Though the warrior trains for violence and can withstand the psychological impact of violence, he/ she abhors violence. Identifying and diffusing a threat is the largest segment of the Unbeatable Mind warrior training. Only when all else fails will the warrior engage in a violence to end the threat. When this happens, he/he terrifies their opponent with an offensive mind. Exercise Think about a violent and vicious animal - wolverine, lion, or bear. Sit in silence and begin your breath control. Count backwards from 100. At 50, invoke the image and psychological energy of your chosen animal. Feel the animal’s ferocious attack energy. Feel the animal’s emotions as it seeks to protect its offspring. Imagine yourself fighting a violent criminal with the same psychic animal. Now, practice turning this energy on and off, like a light switch. Repeat this exercise daily for a month. This will cultivate an offensive mind-set and provide an enormous amount of psychological energy to be used in the event of a violent encounter.
”
”
Mark Divine (Unbeatable Mind: Forge Resiliency and Mental Toughness to Succeed at an Elite Level)
“
Pagans were not impressed by the torture of Christians merely because it showed that they honestly held their opinion; they knew that millions of people honestly held all sorts of opinions. The point of such extreme martyrdom is much more subtle. It is that it gives an appearance of a man having something quite specially strong to back him up, of his drawing upon some power. And this can only be proved when all his physical contentment is destroyed; when all the current of his bodily being is reversed and turned to pain. If a man is seen to be roaring with laughter all the time that he is skinned alive, it would not be unreasonable to deduce that somewhere in the recesses of his mind he had thought of a rather good joke. Similarly, if men smiled and sang (as they did) while they were being boiled or torn in pieces, the spectators felt the presence of something more than mere mental honesty: they felt the presence of some new and unintelligible kind of pleasure, which, presumably, came from somewhere. It might be a strength of madness, or a lying spirit from Hell; but it was something quite positive and extraordinary; as positive as brandy and as extraordinary as conjuring. The Pagan said to himself: "If Christianity makes a man happy while his legs are being eaten by a lion, might it not make me happy while my legs are still attached to me and walking down the street?" The Secularists laboriously explain that martyrdoms do not prove a faith to be true, as if anybody was ever such a fool as to suppose that they did. What they did prove, or, rather, strongly suggest, was that something had entered human psychology which was stronger than strong pain. If a young girl, scourged and bleeding to death, saw nothing but a crown descending on her from God, the first mental step was not that her philosophy was correct, but that she was certainly feeding on something.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton (All Things Considered)
“
The next archetype, the Empress, is the Catalyst of the Mind, that which acts upon the conscious mind to change it. The fourth being the Emperor, which is the Experience of the Mind, which is that material stored in the unconscious which creates its continuing bias. Am I correct with those statements? Ra I am Ra. Though far too rigid in your statements, you perceive correct relationships. There is a great deal of dynamic interrelationship in these first four archetypes. (79.36) Questioner Would the Hierophant then be somewhat of a governor or sorter of these effects so as to create the proper assimilation by the unconscious of that which comes through the conscious? Ra I am Ra. Although thoughtful, the supposition is incorrect in its heart. (79.37) Questioner What would be the Hierophant? Ra I am Ra. The Hierophant is the Significator of the Body[57] complex, its very nature. We may note that the characteristics of which you speak do have bearing upon the Significator of the Mind complex but are not the heart. The heart of the mind complex is that dynamic entity which absorbs, seeks, and attempts to learn. (79.38) Questioner Then is the Hierophant the link, you might say, between the mind and the body? Ra I am Ra. There is a strong relationship between the Significators of the mind, the body, and the spirit. Your statement is too broad. (79.39) Questioner Let me skip over the Hierophant for a minute because I’m really not understanding that at all, and just ask you if the Lovers represent the merging of the conscious and the unconscious, or a communication between conscious and unconscious? Ra I am Ra. Again, without being at all unperceptive, you miss the heart of this particular archetype which may be more properly called the Transformation of the Mind. (79.40) Questioner Transformation of the mind into what? Ra I am Ra. As you observe Archetype Six you may see the student of the mysteries being transformed by the need to choose betwixt the light and the dark in mind. (79.41) Questioner Would the Conqueror, or Chariot, then, represent the culmination of the action of the first six archetypes into a conquering of the mental processes, even possibly removing the veil? Ra I am Ra. This is most perceptive. The Archetype Seven is one difficult to enunciate. We may call it the Path, the Way, or the Great Way of the Mind. Its foundation is a reflection and substantial summary of Archetypes One through Six. One may also see the Way of the Mind as showing the kingdom or fruits of appropriate travel through the mind in that the mind continues to move as majestically through the material it conceives of as a chariot drawn by royal lions or steeds. At this time we would suggest one more full query, for this instrument is experiencing some distortions towards pain. (79.42) Questioner Then I will just ask for the one of the archetypes which I am least understanding at this point, if I can use that word at all. I am still very much in the dark, so to speak, with respect to the Hierophant and precisely what it is. Could you give me some other indication of what that is, please? Ra I am Ra. You have been most interested in the Significator which must needs become complex. The Hierophant is the original archetype of mind which has been made complex through the subtile movements of the conscious and unconscious.[58] The complexities of mind were evolved rather than the simple melding of experience from Potentiator to Matrix. The mind itself became an actor possessed of free will and, more especially, will. As the Significator of the mind, the Hierophant has the will to know, but what shall it do with its knowledge, and for what reasons does it seek? The potential[s] of a complex significator are manifold.
”
”
Donald Tully Elkins (The Ra Contact: Teaching the Law of One: Volume 2)
“
For Harari the great innovation that separated us from the apes was what he calls the Cognitive Revolution, around 70,000 years ago when we started migrating out of Africa, which he thinks gave us the same sort of modern minds that we have now. “At the individual level, ancient foragers were the most knowledgeable and skilful people in history.… Survival in that area required superb mental abilities from everyone” (55), and “The people who carved the Stadel lion-man some 30,000 years ago had the same physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities we have” (44). Not surprisingly, then, “We’d be able to explain to them everything we know—from the adventures of Alice in Wonderland to the paradoxes of quantum physics—and they could teach us how their people view the world” (23). It’s a sweet idea, and something like this imagined meeting actually took place a few years ago between the linguist Daniel Everett and the Piraha foragers of the Amazon in Peru (Everett 2008). But far from being able to discuss quantum theory with them, he found that the Piraha couldn’t even count, and had no numbers of any kind.
”
”
C.R. Hallpike (Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense about Primitive Society)
“
She reeled back, not only because she’d smacked into Leo’s chest.
She mentally reeled.
He came back.
That more than anything shook her off balance, and she went over— someone yell timber.
She didn’t fall alone.
Her flailing hand caught Leo’s shirt, her foot somehow tangled around his ankle— totally accidental, really— and together they hit the floor.
Although, somehow, she ended on top of him. The man had rolled his body at the last moment so he took the brunt of the fall.
What have I done? How badly had she squashed him? Please don’t let him cry.
She hated it when they cried.
“You okay, Vex?”
He lived!
She raised her head and beamed his way. “You’re not screaming.”
He arched a brow. “Why would I be?”
“We hit the floor kind of hard.”
“Hard is right,” he grumbled. “But not in the way you think.”
Surely he didn’t imply… She squirmed into a better position to check— we have confirmation of an impressive erection.
He sucked in a breath. Dammit, had he lied about her injuring him? “Are you hurt, Pookie?”
“I am hurting bad, Vex. Want to kiss it better?” His wink had her lips twitching.
“I am beginning to think I misjudged you.”
“Misjudged me how?” Rolling her to the side, Leo got to his feet and then hauled her up.
“You are much more wicked than I gave you credit for.” She grinned. “That is so freaking awesome.
”
”
Eve Langlais (When an Omega Snaps (A Lion's Pride, #3))
“
Like trees, did humans sometimes lose their leaves? Is that what depression and mental illness were all about? Did people sometimes lose their leaves until some invisible force lifted them from the all-enveloping darkness and welcomed them back into a world filled with promise and light?
”
”
John Lyman (God's Lions - The Dark Ruin)
“
Hayder didn’t bother checking the time when he left the condo. He banged on the closest door and waited with arms crossed, foot tapping. It opened a moment later on a tousled-hair Luna, who scowled. “What do you want?”
“A lifetime supply of porterhouse steaks in my freezer.” Like duh. What feline wouldn’t?
“Smartass.”
“Thank you. I knew those IQ tests I took in college were wrong. But enough of my mental greatness, I need a favor.”
“I am not lending you my eighties greatest hits CDs again to use for skeet practice,” she grumbled.
“That’s not a favor. That’s just making the world a better place. No, I need you to watch Arabella’s place while I talk to the boss about her situation.”
Obviously the rumor mill had been busy because Luna didn’t question what he meant. “You really think those wolves would be stupid enough to try something here?” Luna slapped her forehead. “Duh. Of course they are. Must be something in their processed dog food that inhibits their brain processes.”
“One, while I agree that pack is mentally defective, you might want to refrain from calling them dogs or bitches or any other nasty names in the near future.”
“Why? Aren’t you the one who coined the phrase ‘ass-licking, eau de toilette fleabags’?”
Ah yes, one of his brighter inspirations after a few too many shots of tequila. “Yeah. But that was in the past. If I’m going to be mated to a wolf—”
“Whoa there, big guy. Back up. Mated? As in”— Luna hummed the wedding march—“ dum-dum-dum-dum.”
Hayder fought not to wince. Knowing he’d found the one and admitting it in such final terms were two different things. “Yes, mated. To Arabella.”
“The girl who is allergic to you?”
Luna needed the wall to hold her up as she laughed.
And laughed.
Then cried as she laughed.
Irritated, Hayder tapped a foot and frowned. It just made her laugh all the harder. “It isn’t that funny.”
“Says you.” Luna snorted, wiping a hand across her eyes to swipe the tears. “Oh, wait until the girls hear this.”
“Could we hold off on that? It might help if I got Arabella to agree first.”
Which, given her past and state of mind, wasn’t a sure thing.
“You’re killing me here, Hayder. This is big news. Real big.”
“I’ll let you borrow my treadmill.” Damned thing was nothing more than a clothes rack in his room. Indoor running just couldn’t beat the fresh adrenaline of an outdoor sprint.
“Really big news,” she emphasized.
He sighed. “Fine. You can borrow my car. But don’t you dare leave any fast food wrappers in it like last time.”
“Who, me?” The innocent bat of her lashes didn’t fool him one bit.
”
”
Eve Langlais (When a Beta Roars (A Lion's Pride, #2))
“
modern humans rarely have to contend with lion attacks. Instead, most of our stress today comes from mental processes: from worrying about things.
”
”
Paul Tough (How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character)
“
Oh, yes," Father Mancuso nodded. "As Father Ryan mentioned, I've seen and heard many who've come to me as a psychotherapist and as a parish priest." Chancellor Ryan picked up the thread. "Then there are the so-called extraordinary activities of the devil in the world. Usually these are material things around a person that are affected; that might be what you're up against. We call it infestation. It breaks down into different categories which we'll explain in a minute." "Obsession," Father Nuncio put in, "is the next step, in which the person is affected either internally or externally. And finally there is possession, by which the person temporarily loses control of his faculties and the devil acts in and through him." When Father Mancuso had come to the Chancellors' office to keep his appointment, he had been somewhat embarrassed as to how to approach his problem. But he relaxed as the two priests had shown keen interest. Now with their spelling out the guidelines he must take in this kind of situation, Father Mancuso raised his hopes for deliverance from this evil. "In investigating cases of possible diabolical interference," Chancellor Ryan went on, "we must consider the following: One, fraud and deception. Two, natural scientific causes. Three, parapsychological causes. Four, diabolical influences. And five, miracles. In this case, fraud and trickery don't seem plausible. George and Kathleen Lutz seem to be normal, balanced individuals. We think you are too. The possibilities therefore are reduced to psychological, parapsychological, or diabolical influences." "We'll exclude the miraculous," Father Nuncio broke in, "because the Divine would not involve itself in the trivial and foolish." "True," said Father Ryan. "Therefore the explanation would seem to include hallucination and autosuggestion - you know, like the invisible touches Kathy experienced - and when George thought he heard that marching band. But let's take the parapsychological line. Parapsychologists like Dr. Rhine, who works at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, define four main operations in the science. The first three come under the general heading of ESP-extrasensory perception. They are mental telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition, which could explain George's visions and 'picking up' information that seems to coincide with known facts about the DeFeos. The fourth parapsychological area is psychokinesis, where objects move by themselves. That would be the case with the Lutzes' ceramic lion - if it did move," he added. Father Nuncio got up to refill his cup. "All of what we've said, Frank, is part of the suggestion we have for the Lutzes. Have them contact some investigative organization like Dr. Rhine's to come in and look at the house. They'll do extensive testing and I'm sure they can come to some conclusion short of diabolical influence.
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Anonymous
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4.2.2.1.4. Teaching That the Cognition That Negates the Existence of Objects Is a Valid Cognition
"If valid cognition is not valid cognition, Isn't what is validated by it delusive? In true reality, the emptiness of entities Is therefore unjustified." [138]'-"
[903] This verse states the objection.
The opponents might say, "If you assert in your Centrist system that even all valid cognition-which is the means of evaluation-is not valid cognition, isn't a phenomenon that is validated by it delusive too? If one analyzes in accord with
true Centrist analysis, emptiness is not established, and, in consequence, meditation on emptiness is unjustified as well."
Without referring to an imputed entity, One cannot apprehend the lack of this entity. Therefore, the lack of a delusive entity Is clearly delusive [too]. [139]
This verse teaches that [everything] is mere delusion.
Without referring to-that is, without relying on-a mere imputed entity, one is also not able to apprehend or present the lack of this entity, which is emptiness. The reason is that if one does not rely on the conventional term [or notion of] space, one is not able to present space as [referring to] the lack of any entities."" Therefore, since sentient beings cling to the reality of delusive entities that are mere appearances, they plunge into cyclic existence. If one understands that these very [appearances] are unreal and illusionlike, this [understanding] surely serves as the remedy for the [clinging to reality]. However, emptiness-which is this imputation in the sense of the lack of such delusive [appearances] that appear as entities-is clearly delusive too. In the same way as an illusory lion kills an illusory elephant, this is [nothing more than] engaging in the [particular] reification of understanding emptiness as the remedy for the reification that conceives of real [entities].
Thus, when one's son dies in a dream, The conception "He does not exist" Removes the thought that he does exist, But it is also delusive. [140]
This verse teaches that the [cultivation of emptiness] is the remedy for reification.
Thus, if one experiences in a dream that one's son has been born and then dies, inasmuch as this is a dream, there is definitely no difference between the [son]'s birth and his death. Still, due to one's seeing [in the dream] that he has been born, there arises the mental state that conceives, "My son exists." When there is the appearance that he has died, there emerges the conception "My son has died and now he does not exist," [904] which removes the thought that fancies, "My son does exist." However, since both-the existence and the nonexistence of this son too-are equal in being a dream, they are alike in being delusive.
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Karl Brunnhölzl (The Center of the Sunlit Sky: Madhyamaka in the Kagyu Tradition (Nitartha Institute Series))
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Be a lion and not a mouse. Don't be mean, be noble, but still be a lion. One of these times you're going to stand your ground against something badder than you and it'll kill you, but you'll die with no regrets then because your life was a life lived out loud.
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Michael T. Stevens (The Art Of Psychological Warfare: How To Skillfully Influence People Undetected And How To Mentally Subdue Your Enemies In Stealth Mode)
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wonder idly if they’re all secretly lion shifters and then make a mental note to leave off the shifter romances
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Lily Morton (The Cuckoo's Call)
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Lions command respect. They are not followers. They are leaders.
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Germany Kent
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Something sweet tickled my nose, and something soft lingered on my lips. My heart beat with an intensity I had never felt in my life. If this was what they called “honey trapping,” then suddenly I understood this world’s fascination with the stuff. I might have been over forty mentally, but physically I was in my twenties. I felt like I was going to explode. “Yes, well. You too.” I shot my head down in an awkward bow. “Thank you. For the kiss, I mean.” This was my downfall. There was an entire legion of knights present to witness my display, and my act would become the subject of laughter among them for days to come. Even the Valkyries would join in on the teasing. And my team would simply leave me to die.
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Broccoli Lion (The Great Cleric (Light Novel): Volume 7)
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Cadmus.—It is not on account of the serpent I boast myself a greater benefactor to Greece than you. Actions should be valued by their utility rather than their éclat. I taught Greece the art of writing, to which laws owe their precision and permanency. You subdued monsters; I civilised men. It is from untamed passions, not from wild beasts, that the greatest evils arise to human society. By wisdom, by art, by the united strength of civil community, men have been enabled to subdue the whole race of lions, bears, and serpents, and what is more, to bind in laws and wholesome regulations the ferocious violence and dangerous treachery of the human disposition. Had lions been destroyed only in single combat, men had had but a bad time of it; and what but laws could awe the men who killed the lions? The genuine glory, the proper distinction of the rational species, arises from the perfection of the mental powers. Courage is apt to be fierce, and strength is often exerted in acts of oppression. But wisdom is the associate of justice. It assists her to form equal laws, to pursue right measures, to correct power, protect weakness, and to unite individuals in a common interest and general welfare. Heroes may kill tyrants, but it is wisdom and laws that prevent tyranny and oppression. The operations of policy far surpass the labours of Hercules, preventing many evils which valour and might cannot even redress. You heroes consider nothing but glory, and hardly regard whether the conquests which raise your fame are really beneficial to your country. Unhappy are the people who are governed by valour not directed by prudence, and not mitigated by the gentle arts!
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George Lyttelton
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Sherwood, Franklin Roosevelt’s speechwriter and biographer, wrote that although Churchill’s “consumption of alcohol… continued at quite regular intervals through most of his waking hours,” it did so “without visible effect on his health or mental processes. Anyone who suggested he became befuddled with drink obviously never had to become involved in an argument with him on some factual problem late at night….” Churchill’s drinking habits, Sherwood wrote, were “unique” and his capacity “Olympian.”18 Despite his prolonged, consistent, and prodigious consumption of alcohol, Churchill was not a drunk. But neither was he a moderate social drinker,
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William Manchester (The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965)
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Briefly, there are two types of cells that we inherit from our parents —body cells and germ cells. These cells are composed of chromosomes containing genes—a separate gene for each mental and physical characteristic. The body cells, dividing, multiplying, changing, growing, determine the sort of individual we are to be; the germ cells, remaining practically unchanged from our conception, determine what characteristics our progeny will inherit, through us, from our progenitors and from us. "I determined that heredity could be controlled through the transference of these genes from one individual to another. I learned that the genes never die; they are absolutely indestructible—the basis of all life on earth, the promise of immortality throughout all eternity. "I was certain of all this, but I could carry on no experiments. Scientists scoffed at me, the public laughed at me, the authorities threatened to lock me up in a madhouse. The church wished to crucify me. "I hid, and carried on my research in secret. I obtained genes from living subjects—young men and women whom I enticed to my laboratory on various pretexts. I drugged them and extracted germ cells from them. I had not discovered at that time, or, I should say, I had not perfected the technique of recovering body cells. "In 1858 I managed, through bribery, to gain access to a number of tombs in Westminster Abbey; and from the corpses of former kings and queens of England and many a noble lord and lady I extracted the deathless genes.
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Edgar Rice Burroughs (TARZAN OF THE APES SERIES - Complete 25 Book Collection (Illustrated): The Return of Tarzan, The Beasts of Tarzan, The Son of Tarzan, Tarzan and the Jewels ... Lion, Tarzan the Terrible and many more)
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One of the defining elements of the human animal is its capacity for abstract visualization. Other creatures are better than us at smelling, biting, hunting, running. We alone can create whole universes in our heads based on nothing more than thought. This is the basis of language, math, science, everything that defines human civilization. It is something monkeys and dolphins will never have. When evolutionary theorists seek to explain how this capacity for abstract thought arose, the story often goes like this Our ancestors, beset by all sorts of deadly horrors in the African savannah, needed some way to anticipate risks before the moment those risks jumped out of the bushes, red in tooth and claw. So began the slow process by which the neural networks in our head, under pressure from the ruthless mechanism of natural selection, created the means to model risk before the risk manifested itself. What would happen if I went to forage for berries in that field and a lion appeared? Would I be able to make it to the protection of that outcropping? How many berries would I be able to get? How hungry am I? Is it worth the risk? Out of these habits of mind grew the whole mental apparatus by which we play out life scenarios as a game within our mind, before putting life and limb on the line in a true sense. The relationship between board games and real life is in some ways close.
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Jonathan Kay (Your Move: What Board Games Teach Us about Life)
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This colonisation of the North by the South appears as a soft colonialism, without legal permission, relying on appeals to pity, asylum and equality. It is the ‘fox’s strategy’ (as opposed to the lion’s) noted by Machiavelli.[230] In reality, however, the coloniser, who justifies himself with the ‘modern’ Western ideology of his victim, whose values he pretends to adopt, does not share those values at all. He is anti-egalitarian, domineering (while claiming to be oppressed and persecuted), aiming at revenge and conquest. This is the clever ruse of a way of thinking that has remained archaic. To counter it, will it not be necessary to become mentally archaic again and rid ourselves of the demoralising handicap of ‘modern’ humanism?
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Guillaume Faye (Convergence of Catastrophes)
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Samael was the first angel, a god of immense power, the Black Flame was a great light which gave passion and consciousness to those of who he shared his fire with. The Gnostics name him Ialdabaoth (Yaltabaoth), a great Archon who could shape and destroy worlds. This Archon could assume many forms and shapes; within his empyrean clouds and a throne within the cold darkness his desire took the shape of a Lion-headed Serpent, whose visage was terrible and his eyes flashed as lightning. Ialdabaoth was also known as Saklas and Samael. Samael is thought to be a cacophemism for “Shemal”, an ancient Syrian deity whose name means “left”. Samael is both the “chief of all satans” as well as “The Greatest Prince in Heaven” who has authority and rule over angels and planetary powers. Samael brought into the world with his Black Light the knowledge of being your own master, having the choice to create and destroy, to become more and greater in your time. Samael introduced Carnal Desire, the “evil inclination” called “Yezer Ha-Ra” which rises from our primal instincts. In the Hebrew lore of the Adversary, Samael was a Great Prince of Demons, his aura was brighter and more terrifying than all the other gods, for his intelligence was great. Samael watched the clayborn humans slowly evolve but still without being aware of the self. Yahweh fostered these slave-humans who would do his will, yet Samael looked upon them with disgust. Yahweh the slave-god demanded the other gods should worship the mindless clay creation called man. On the Sixth Day, the Archangel Samael rebelled in disgust for the slaves symbolized as Adam and Eve. Samael proclaimed that those of his Essence, namely the Black Flame would not worship any lesser or greater being. When Adam was created from the dust, Samael was brilliant in his excellence and power. The Twelve-Winged Seraph descended to earth and took the form of a Serpent. He spoke to the woman Eve and with a mere spark of his fire to her clay, she became aware and knowledgeable of good and evil. Samael instructed her to eat of the Tree of Daath, that is, Death and the Wisdom found in Darkness. Eve shared this fruit with Adam, of which were only mildly aware and still happy in their slave-mentality.
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Michael W. Ford (Fallen Angels: Watchers and the Witches Sabbat)