Halifax Quotes

I was in a store in Halifax, Nova Scotia that I love, sort of like an environmental friendly sort of store. But they had a great book section. So I went in there all the time. The woman who worked there - which I feel so bad; I've forgotten her name - she handed me the book and she said, "Hey, you should read this. I think it would make a good movie." I remember reading the back of it and I was like, "Huh." Then I just devoured the book and I was so moved by it and said, "Why don't we start developing this into a film?" So that's how it [Into the Forest] all started. ~ Ellen Page

If none were to have Liberty but those who understand what it is, there would not be many freed Men in the world. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Death can come at any moment. You could die this afternoon; you could die tomorrow morning; you could die on your way to work; you could die in your sleep. Most of us try to avoid the sense that death can come at any time, but its timing is unknown to us. Can we live each day as if it were our last? Can we relate to one another as if there were no tomorrow? ~ Joan Halifax

He that spareth in everything is an inexcusable niggard. He that spareth in nothing is an inexcusable madman. The mean is to spare in what is least necessary, and to lay out more liberally in what is most required in our several circumstances. ~ Charles Montagu, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Speaking in Creations tongues, hearing Creations voices, the boundary of our soul expands. Earth has many voices. Those who understand that Earth is a living being, know this because they have translated themselves to the humble grasses and old trees. They know that Earth is a community that is constantly talking to itself; a communicating universe. And whether we know it or not, we are participating in the web of this community. ~ Joan Halifax

A fool hath no dialogue within himself, the first thought carrieth him without the reply of a second. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Compassion has enemies, and those enemies are things like pity, moral outrage, fear. ~ Joan Halifax

We believe that it takes a strong back and a soft front to face the world. ~ Joan Halifax

Perhaps the highest goodness attainable is a life of service to all mankind. Such an ideal is supported in nearly every page in the Gospels-the parables, the sermons, and the countless acts of service by our Lord Himself. The ideal is not limited to any particular kind of service, nor a given quantity of service. The ideal is accepting life itself as a trust to be used in the welfare of mankind. It is a life that is glad for the chance to be of any help, an attitude that 'service is the rent we pay for our own room on earth.' (Lord Halifax) ~ Obert C. Tanner

If politicians would think more they would act less. ~ George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

For me, Buddhism is a psychology and a philosophy that provides a means, upayas, for working with the mind. ~ Joan Halifax

Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be bought. It must be born with men, or else all the obligations in the world will not create it. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

The first gig we ever played was in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I'm from. I was in a band called the October Game, and we opened up for a Vancouver band. ~ Sarah McLachlan

I'm helped by a gentle notion from Buddhist psychology, that there are "near enemies" to every great virtue - reactions that come from a place of care in us, and which feel right and good, but which subtly take us down an ineffectual path. Sorrow is a near enemy to compassion and to love. It is borne of sensitivity and feels like empathy. But it can paralyze and turn us back inside with a sense that we can't possibly make a difference. The wise Buddhist anthropologist and teacher Roshi Joan Halifax calls this a "pathological empathy" of our age. In the face of magnitudes of pain in the world that come to us in pictures immediate and raw, many of us care too much and see no evident place for our care to go. But compassion goes about finding the work that can be done. Love can't help but stay present ~ Krista Tippett

The band may be small in terms of numbers with only two members, but Halifax rockers The Town Heroes are mighty in sound. ~ Ken Kelly

I've worked in the prison system, on death row and maximum security. I did that work for six years. I've worked with some of the most difficult people in our society. Buddhism was accessible and helpful for these individuals. ~ Joan Halifax

Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Service is the rent that we pay for our room on earth. ~ Charles Lindley Wood Halifax

We in the "developed" world seem to have many auditory strategies that insulate us from the presence of silence, simplicity, and solitude. When I return to Western culture after time in desert, mountain or forest, I discover how we have filled our world with a multiplicity of noises, a symphony of forgetfulness that keeps our won thoughts and realizations, feelings and intuitions out of audible range. ~ Joan Halifax

It is the English, not their Government; for if they were not blind cowards, they would lynch Chamberlain and Halifax and all the other smarmy traitors. ~ Enoch Powell

Most men's anger about religion is as if two men should quarrel for a lady they neither of them care for. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

The best party is but a kind of conspiracy against the rest of the nation. ~ George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

Most of us are shrinking in the face of psycho-social and physical poisons, of the toxins of our world. But compassion, the generation of compassion, actually mobilizes our immunity. ~ Joan Halifax

Catastrophe is the essence of the spiritual path, a series of breakdowns allowing us to discover the threads that weave all of life into a whole cloth. ~ Joan Halifax

Friendship cannot live with ceremony, nor without civility. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

In extraordinary circumstances and against the odds, Churchill became Prime Minister instead of Halifax, and that one decision changed the course of history. ~ Michael Dobbs

To the question, What shall we do to be saved in this World? there is no other answer but this, Look to your Moat. ~ George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

True merit, like a river, the deeper it is, the less noise it makes. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Friday 22 June 1821 [Halifax]
I owe a good deal to this journal. By unburdening my mind on paper I feel, as it were, in some degree to get rid of it; it seems made over to a friend that hears it patiently, keeps it faithfully, and by never forgetting anything, is always ready to compare the past & present and thus to cheer & edify the future. ~ Anne Lister

He who leaves nothing to chance will do few things poorly, but he will do few things. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

I was on a founding members of the Canadian theatre movement in the late 60's till the mid 70's and performed theatre from Halifax to Vancouver and all places in between. ~ Nick Mancuso

A man that steps aside from the world and has leisure to observe it without interest and design, thinks all mankind as mad as they think him. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

The Halifax area has long played a major role in Canada's military operations, being the port of departure for convoys, naval task forces and army units over the past 100 years or so. ~ Alex Morrison

Venice is truly magical. The Devon-Dorset coast in England is so beautiful, and its sandstone cliffs are full of fossils, which can make for some very exciting walks. And I love Halifax, a great place with all the modern things you could want, plus a wonderful sense of history, and, of course, the sea. ~ Jo Beverley

The people of Halifax also invented the harmonium, a device for castrating pigs during Sunday service. ~ Mike Harding

In our corrupted state, common weaknesses and defects contribute more towards the reconciling us to one another than all the precepts of the philosophers and divines. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Halifax against Spurs, the original David against Goliath confrontation ~ John Helm

Content is to the mind like moss to a tree; it bindeth it up so as to stop its growth. ~ Charles Montagu, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Don't ever think compassion is weak. Compassion is about strength. ~ Joan Halifax

The invisible thing called a Good Name is made up of the breath of numbers that speak well of you. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

All beings, including each one of us, enemy and friend alike, exist in patterns of mutuality, interconnectedness, co-responsibility and ultimately in unity. ~ Joan Halifax

Power is so apt to be insolent and Liberty to be saucy, that they are seldom upon good Terms. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

When people contend for their liberty they seldom get anything for their victory, but new masters. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Mountains have long been a geography for pilgrimage, place where people have been humbled and strengthened, they are symbols of the sacred center. Many have traveled to them in order to find the concentrated energy of Earth and to realize the strength of unimpeded space. Viewing a mountain at a distance or walking around its body we can see its shape, know its profile, survey its surrounds. The closer you come to the mountain the more it disappears, the mountain begins to lose its shape as you near it, its body begins to spread out over the landscape losing itself to itself. On climbing the mountain the mountain continues to vanish. It vanishes in the detail of each step, its crown is buried in space, its body is buried in the breath. On reaching the mountain summit we can ask, "What has been attained?" - The top of the mountain? Big view? But the mountain has already disappeared. Going down the mountain we can ask, "What has been attained?" Going down the mountain the closer we are to the mountain the more the mountain disappears, the closer we are to the mountain the more the mountain is realized. Mountain's realization comes through the details of the breath, mountain appears in each step. Mountain then lives inside our bones, inside our heart-drum. It stands like a huge mother in the atmosphere of our minds. Mountain draws ancestors together in the form of clouds. Heaven, Earth and human meet in the raining of the past. Heaven, Earth and human meet in the winds of the fut ~ Joan Halifax

A man that should call everything by its right name would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

In accepting death as inevitable, we don't label it as a good thing or a bad thing. As one of my teachers once said to me, Death happens. It is just death, and how we meet it is up to us. ~ Joan Halifax

Since we are already Buddhas, happy and suffering Buddhas, wise and confused Buddhas, we are already Buddha. ~ Joan Halifax

The several sorts of religion in the world are little more than so many spiritual monopolies. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Compassionate action emerges from the sense of openness, connectedness, and discernment you have created. ~ Joan Halifax

There is an accumulative cruelty in a number of men, though none in particular are ill natured. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

The more arguments you win, the less friends you will have ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

In being with dying, we arrive at a natural crucible of what it means to love and be loved. And we can ask ourselves this: Knowing that death is inevitable, what is most precious today? ~ Joan Halifax

The sense of ultimate truth is the intellectual counterpart of the esthetic sense of perfect beauty, or the moral sense of perfect good. ~ George Savile, 1st Marquess Of Halifax

The roots of all living things are tied together. Deep in the ground of being, they tangle and embrace. This understanding is expressed in the term nonduality. If we look deeply, we find that we do not have a separate self-identity, a self that does not include sun and wind, earth and water, creatures and plants, and one another. ~ Joan Halifax

No single answer can hold the truth of a good heart. ~ Joan Halifax

I don't know if a penny's dropped somewhere, but you've had 'Lark Rise to Candleford,' you've had 'Cranford,' you've had 'Last Tango in Halifax,' you've had 'Call the Midwife' ... I think the largest portion of the viewing public are over 55, and they like to see people they can identify with. ~ Judy Parfitt

Saturday 12 July 1823 [Halifax]
Could not sleep last night. Dozing, hot & disturbed ... a violent longing for a female companion came over me. Never remember feeling it so painfully before ... It was absolute pain to me. ~ Anne Lister

We live in a time when science is validating what humans have known throughout the ages: that compassion is not a luxury; it is a necessity for our well-being, resilience, and survival. ~ Joan Halifax

This stuff of a past not worthily lived is also medicine. ~ Joan Halifax

Everybody has a geography that can be used for change that is why we travel to far off places. Whether we know it or not we need to renew ourselves in territories that are fresh and wild. We need to come home through the body of alien lands. ~ Joan Halifax

Yes, creation is moving toward us; life is moving toward us all the time. We back away, but it keeps pushing toward us. Why not step forward and greet it. ~ Joan Halifax

A person may dwell so long upon a thought that it may take him a prisoner. ~ E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl Of Halifax

Some of us are drawn to mountains the way the moon draws the tide. Both the great forests and the mountains live in my bones. They have taught me, humbled me, purified me and changed me. ~ Joan Halifax

I believe that women and girls today have to partner in a powerful way with men - with their fathers, with their sons, with their brothers, with the plumbers, the road builders, the caregivers, the doctors, the lawyers, with our president and with all beings. ~ Joan Halifax