Aristotle:We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.
Kurt Cobain: My body is damaged from music in two ways. I have a red irritation in my stomach. It's psychosomatic, caused by all the anger and the screaming. I have scoliosis, where the curvature of your spine is bent, and the weight of my guitar has made it worse. I'm always in pain, and that adds to the anger in our music.

The following quotes are about human body as whole, either as metaphysical or physical entity.

Quotes

  • Your body is like a bar of soap. It gradually wears down from repeated use.
    • Dick Allen, as quoted in "Devine agrees 'Douglass can do it'" by Cooper Rollow, in The Chicago Tribune (March 30, 1975), p. B3
  • Antony, however, according to his custom, returned alone to his own cell, increased his discipline, and sighed daily as he thought of the mansions in Heaven, having his desire fixed on them, and pondering over the shortness of man's life. And he used to eat and sleep, and go about all other bodily necessities with shame when he thought of the spiritual faculties of the soul. So often, when about to eat with any other hermits, recollecting the spiritual food, he begged to be excused, and departed far off from them, deeming it a matter for shame if he should be seen eating by others.
  • Antony ... used to say that it behooved a man to give all his time to his soul rather than his body, yet to grant a short space to the body through its necessities; but all the more earnestly to give up the whole remainder to the soul and seek its profit, that it might not be dragged down by the pleasures of the body, but, on the contrary, the body might be in subjection to the soul.
  • When you see the donkey (Hebrew: chamor) of your enemy lying under its burden, you might refrain from helping it; you must aid it" - When you carefully examine your "chomer" (English: materiality), your body, you will see "your enemy", that it restricts your Divine soul that longs for Godliness and the spiritual. You will see that it "lies under its burden" placed upon it by God, that it should become refined through Torah and Jewish observance, as the body is reluctant and materialistic. It may occur to you that "you will refrain from helping it", to enable it to fulfill its mission, and instead you will follow the path of asceticism, to break down the body's resistance to spirituality. However, not in this approach will the light of Torah reside, rather "you must aid it" by purifying and refining the body, rather than breaking it. This superior elevation transforms the body into a vehicle for the essential Divine purpose in physical Creation.
  • Flesh is our indisputable commonality. Whatever our race, our religion, our politics we are faced every morning with the fact of our bodies. Their frailties, their demands, their desires. And yet the erotic appetites that spring from - and are expressed through - those bodies, are so often a source of bitter dissension and division. Acts that offer a glimpse of transcendence to one group are condemned by another. We are pressured from every side - by peers, by church, by state - to accept the consensual definition of taboo; though so often what excites our imaginations most is the violation of taboo.
  • Clive Barker introduction to "One Flesh" exhibition, April 4-27, 1997
  • Joined together with bones and sinews, having a plastering of skin and flesh, covered with hide, the body is not seen as it really is—full of intestines, full of stomach, of the lump of the liver, of bladder, of heart, of lungs, of kidneys and of spleen, of mucus, of saliva, and of sweat, and of lymph, of blood, of synovial fluid, of bile, and of fat, ... and its hollow head is filled with brain. A fool, overwhelmed by ignorance, thinks of it as beautiful, but when it lies dead, swollen up and discoloured, cast away in a cemetery, relatives have no regard for it. Dogs devour it, and jackals, and wolves and worms. Crows and vultures devour it, and whatever other living creatures there are. The bhikkhu possessing knowledge here, having heard the Buddha's word, indeed understands it, for he sees the body as it really is.
  • No one in this earthly prison of the body has sufficient strength of his own to press forward with a due degree of watchfulness, and the great majority [of Christians] are kept down with such great weakness that they stagger and halt and even creep on the ground, and so make very slight advances.
    • John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life Page 22
  • There is also an old proverb, that they who pay much attention to the body generally neglect the soul.
    • John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life Page 90
  • Sometimes one would almost like to say: what really matters is only the mind. But where can you find a mind without a body?
    • Fausto Cercignani in: Brian Morris, Simply Transcribed. Quotations from Writings by Fausto Cercignani, 2014, quote 42.
  • Emotions are shown primarily in the face, not in the body. The body instead shows how people are coping with emotion. There is no specific body movement pattern that always signals anger or fear, but there are facial patterns specific to each emotion. If someone is angry, his body may show how he is coping with the anger. He may be tense and constrained (tight muscular tension in arms and legs, stiff posture). He may be withdrawing (a particular retreated position). There may be verbal attack (certain types of hand movements with his words), or the likelihood of physical attack (posture, orientation, hand movements). However, any of these movements can occur just as well when a person is afraid as when he is angry. Body movement reveals, of course, not just how someone copes with emotion, but also what a person’s attitudes, interpersonal orientations, etc. might be.
    • Paul Ekman, Wallace V. Friesen, ‘’Unmasking the Face’’, Cambridge MA, (2003), p. 7.
Robert Frost:A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body - the wishbone.
Mahatma Gandhi:A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.
Victor Hugo:Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.
  • It is a great thing to take a human body. Whoever comes to the earth must do work.
John F. Kennedy:Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
  • A person must take care to exercise moderate discipline over the body and subject it to the Spirit by means of fasting, vigils, and labor. The goal is to have the body obey and conform—and not hinder—the inner person and faith. Unless it is held in check, we know it is the nature of the body to undermine faith and the inner person.
    • Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520), M. Tranvik, trans. (Minneapolis: 2008), pp. 71-72
Marilyn Monroe:The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
  • Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own
  • Yea, much more those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary. And such as we think to be the less honourable members of the body, about these we put more abundant honour; and those that are our uncomely parts, have more abundant comeliness. But our comely parts have no need [...]
  • Then each of you will control his own body and live in holiness and honor— not in lustful passion like the pagans who do not know God and his ways.
  • (...) the body is a temple with ten senses, and we must install God in our hearts within this temple. This body is a moving temple of the Lord. He (Haidakhan Babaji) wants us to make this temple so beautiful that wherever it goes, people would like to worship, have great reverence for it, and try to gain knowledge from it.
    • Shri Shastriji, The Teachings of Babaji, 25 March 1982.
  • QI comes into existence in ZHONG JIAO and concentrates in the region of lungs. QI moves on the surface of the entire body and inside of it, day and night without stopping for an instant. QI is also motive power of blood circulation. XUE, blood, is the quintessence of water and cereals diluted in the spleen and the stomach. Blood concentrates in the heart and from there is supplied to the kidneys and the lung from a signal sent by the liver. Blood circulates throughout the whole body, it includes red and white components. The eyes, having received blood, can see. The ears, having received blood, can hear. The hands, having received blood, can take. The feet, having received blood, can walk. It means one should accumulate QI and feed the body with blood XUE.
  • To practise Gong Fu means to train QI. During training time QI sets into motion XUE and it circulates throughout the entire body. In such a way, step by step, you become strong and firm. You will be protected against epidemics of dangerous diseases, you will not be afraid of cold and heat, you will get out of any mess with confidence and overcome any difficulties. But for it you must strain every effort. QI should be trained to such a level that it could concentrate in any part of your body by an order or your will - from axillary ribs to finger tips. At the same time breathing volume (the volume of the chest) increases, appetite becomes better. From day to day your health, mind and will are improved. A well-trained man has a good health and strong will, therefore he can control his destiny.
  • “.... Don’t you dare take one look at my body and try to re-write my story. This body is strong, capable, and worthy. This fat body has endured abuse, survived trauma, healed itself, and continues to carry me through my journey,...Fat people can’t run? Oh honey, running is the least interesting ability this fat body has! But for the record I can run! I can dance, love, explore, create, fight. I can do absolutely whatever I want to! Don’t you dare put me in a box. Or her. Or him. Or any of us!"
    • Lexi Nimmo [1]>

See also

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