Path

Path is word designating a trail for pedestrians, or a course taken by something or someone, including metaphorical courses — methods or directions of proceeding in various fields of endeavor.

Quotes

• He made the people follow the proper path. [...] That fathers should be feared and mothers respected, that sons should pay heed to the words of their fathers, and that mercy, compassion and pity should be shown, that one should provide even one's paternal grandparents with food and drink -- all this he established in Sumer and Akkad.
  • About Ishme-Dagan, Anonymous, A praise poem of Ishme-Dagan, First Dynasty of Isin, at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature

• I am the prince who decides the destiny of rolling rivers. I keep on the straight and narrow path the righteous who follow Enlil's counsel.
  • Anzud, in Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird, Ur III Period (21st century BCE).[1]

• A wilful plough-ox should be put back in the track, a balking ass should be made to take the straight path.
  • Anzud, in Lugalbanda and the Anzud Bird, Ur III Period (21st century BCE).[2]

• Just this noble eightfold path: right view, right aspiration, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration. That is the ancient path, the ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times. I followed that path. Following it, I came to direct knowledge of aging & death, direct knowledge of the origination of aging & death, direct knowledge of the cessation of aging & death, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of aging & death. I followed that path. Following it, I came to direct knowledge of birth... becoming... clinging... craving... feeling... contact... the six sense media... name-&-form... consciousness, direct knowledge of the origination of consciousness, direct knowledge of the cessation of consciousness, direct knowledge of the path leading to the cessation of consciousness. I followed that path.
  • Gautama Buddha, in Nagara Sutta, Samyutta Nikaya II.124, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu.

• I have learned the serenity
  of a mockingbird, the justice
  of a crow, blue jay's strength;
  I've dipped their feathers in blood
  to seal the pact—my path.
  • Lorna Dee Cervantes, Caribou Girl, Emplumada. University of Pittsburgh Press. 1981. ISBN 978-0-8229-5327-2. 

• What Heaven has conferred is called The Nature; an accordance with this nature is called The Path of duty; the regulation of this path is called Instruction. The path may not be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path. On this account, the superior man (Junzi) does not wait till he sees things, to be cautious, nor till he hears things, to be apprehensive.
  • Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean.

• I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not walked in — The knowing go beyond it, and the stupid do not come up to it. I know how it is that the path of the Mean is not understood — The men of talents and virtue go beyond it, and the worthless do not come up to it.
  • Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean.

• The Path is not far from man. When men try to pursue a course, which is far from the common indications of consciousness, this course cannot be considered The Path.
  • Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean.

• When one cultivates to the utmost the principles of his nature, and exercises them on the principle of reciprocity, he is not far from the path. What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others.
  • Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean.

• The superior man is quiet and calm, waiting for the appointments of Heaven, while the mean man walks in dangerous paths, looking for lucky occurrences.
  • Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean.

• How great is the path proper to the Sage! Like overflowing water, it sends forth and nourishes all things, and rises up to the height of heaven. All-complete is its greatness! It embraces the three hundred rules of ceremony, and the three thousand rules of demeanor. It waits for the proper man, and then it is trodden. Hence it is said, "Only by perfect virtue can the perfect path, in all its courses, be made a fact."
  • Confucius The Doctrine of the Mean.

• The wayfarer,
  Perceiving the pathway to truth,
  Was struck with astonishment.
  • Stephen Crane, "The Wayfarer" (1899).

• Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally.
  • Jiddu Krishnamurti, Ommen, The Netherlands (1929), Dissolution speech (3 August 1929).

• We have been told that all paths lead to truth — you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door — which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd. Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to — then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are — your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.
  • Jiddu Krishnamurti, Freedom From The Known (1969).

• The great awareness comes slowly, piece by piece. The path of spiritual growth is a path of lifelong learning. The experience of spiritual power is basically a joyful one.
  • M. Scott Peck, as quoted in The Enlightened Savage : Using Primal Instincts for Personal & Business Success (2006) by Anthony Hernandez, p. 147

• The road kept coming, and
  continued going somewhere alone.
  • Suman Pokhrel, A Story of the setting Sun and the Moon

• You should not feel that your path is the only right path and that other paths are wrong. You mustn't bear malice toward others.
  • Ramakrishna, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 514 (1942).

• Plain paths are not always straightforward. You might encounter uneven, sometimes steep, sometimes flat obstacles along the way. That's the nature of a path. Therefore, after reaching an easy path, the walking stick should not be discarded.
  • Sanu Sharma, Pharak

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 207-08.

• Hath the spirit of all beauty
  Kissed you in the path of duty?
  • Anna Katharine Green, On the Threshold.

• Knowledge is the hill which few may wish to climb;
  Duty is the path that all may tread.
  • Lewis Morris, Epic of Hades. Quoted by John Bright at Unveiling of Cobden Statue.

• Not once or twice in our rough island story,
  The path of duty was the way to glory.
  • Alfred Tennyson, Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington, Stanza 8.

See also

• Method
• Decisions
• Decision-making
• Will