The mortal instruments Quotes

“The only instrument through which time could be converted to yield greatness is the instrumentality of work.”

“An instrument s a tool that is actively used to change something, and God has called all of his people to be instruments of change in his redemptive hands”

“It's easy to play any musical instrument: all you have to do is touch the right key at the right time and the instrument will play itself.”

“In this life, you only need to do this much: You must know that the other person is instrument (nimit, in bringing you the results of your own karmas) so you must remain silent. Do not let the mind spoil in the slightest. If it does, then ask for forgiveness: ‘Dear Instrument! You are simply an instrument. I ask for forgiveness for spoiling my mind.’ You have to do only this much! That is the effort [purusharth]!”

“A great voice is a unique instrument, not to sound like another instrument, but to be played like one.”

“You can remain faultless only when you constantly remain as a nimit [instrument, one of the doer and not the whole and sole doer] and remain in the intent of being an instrument [intent that I am one of the doer of many scientific circumstantial evidences]”

“Insofar as he makes use of his healthy senses, man himself is the best and most exact scientific instrument possible. The greatest misfortune of modern physics is that its experiments have been set apart from man, as it were, physics refuses to recognize nature in anything not shown by artificial instruments, and even uses this as a measure of its accomplishments.”

“That which is external, it is instrumental (naimitik); it is relative and it is perishable [destructive]. Instrumental means no one has a say in it. One’s actions are not of his own free will; he is under the control of external power. So on what basis do you need to object? Sooner or later you will have to become free from objections.”

“I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made out of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.”