"If you understand,
things are just as they are;
if you do not understand,
things are just as they are."
-- Zen proverb
"If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice."
-- Meister Eckhart
"There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle."
-- Albert Einstein
"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."
-- Victor Frankl
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first,
the lesson afterwards."
-- Unknown
"The shell must break before the bird can fly."
-- Tennyson
"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams;
who looks inside, awakes."
-- Carl Jung
"The years teach much that the days never know."
-- Emerson
"If you bring forth what is within you, it will heal you.
And if you do not bring forth what is within you, it will destroy you."
-- (from the Gospel of St. Thomas)
"Go to your bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know."
-- William Shakespeare
"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you and you don't know how or why."
-- Albert Einstein
"The only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve."
-- Albert Schweitzer
"The difference between a smart person and a wise person is that a smart person knows what to say and a wise person knows whether or not to say it."
-- Quote found on the wall of a recreation center office in Berkeley, California.
"Success is getting what you want.
Happiness is wanting what you get."
-- Dave Gardner
"We do not see things as they are;
we see things as we are."
-- Talmud
"There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word. Certainly there is a right for you that needs no choice on your part. Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which flows into your life. Then, without effort, you are impelled to truth and to perfect contentment."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have."
-- Author Unknown
"A thousand reasons for worry, A thousand reasons for anxiety, Oppress day after day the fool, But not the wise man."
-- Hitopadesa of Narayana
"Then, don't worry, be happy."
-- Meher Baba
"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
-- Goethe's
"I walk down the street. There is a hole. I don't see it. I fall in. It isn't my fault. It takes a very long time to get out. I walk down the same street. There is still a deep hole. I pretend not to see it. I fall in. I pretend it's still not my fault. It takes a long time to get out. I walk down the same street. There is still the same deep hole. I see it. I fall in anyway. It's a habit. I get out quicker this time. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole. I see it. I walk around it. I don't fall in. I walk down a different street."
-- Portia Nelson
"Codes of ethics are most often associated with prohibitions: Don't do this, don't do that. All the spiritual traditions I know have more or less the same lists of don'ts. This makes sense, since all the don'ts elaborate on the awareness that if we are not alert, our naturally arising impulses of greed and anger might lead us to do something exploitive or abusive.
The fundamental rule is,
'Don't cause pain.' It's Easier Than You Think"
The Buddhist Way to Happiness
by Sylvia Boorstein
"When we long for life without... difficulties,
remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."
-- Peter Marshall
"This too shall pass"
-- Author Unknown
"An old monk sat by the side of the road. With his eyes closed, his legs crossed and his hands folded in his lap, he sat. In deep meditation he sat. Suddenly his zazen was interrupted by the harsh and demanding voice of a samurai warrior. "Old man! Teach me about heaven and hell!" At first, as though he had not heard, there was no perceptible response from the monk. But gradually he began to open his eyes, the faintest hint of a smile playing around the corners of his mouth as the samurai stood there, waiting impatiently, growing more and more agitated with each passing second.
"You wish to know the secrets of heaven and hell?" replied the monk at last. "You who are so unkempt. You whose hands and feet are covered with dirt. You whose hair is uncombed, whose breath is foul, whose sword is all rusty and neglected. You who are ugly and whose mother dresses you funny. You would ask me of heaven and hell?" The samurai uttered a vile curse. He drew his sword and raised it high over his head. His face turned to crimson, and the veins of his neck stood out in bold relief as he prepared to sever the monk's head from its shoulders.
"That is hell," said the old monk gently, just as the sword began its descent. In that fraction of a second, the samurai was overcome with amazement, awe, compassion and love for this gentle being who had dared to risk his very life to give him such a teaching. He stopped his sword in mid-flight and his eyes filled with grateful tears. "And that," said the monk, "is heaven."
-- Old Zen Quote
"Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content."
-- Helen Keller
"If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, she learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, she learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, she learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, she learns justice. If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, she learns to like herself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world."
-- Author now identified as
Dorothy Nolte
Thanks to reader, Barbara S.
"One definition of insanity is to do something for twenty years that has not worked, and then do it again as if it will work."
-- Dick Olney
"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me."
-- George Bernard Shaw
"Today, like every other day,
we wake up empty and scared.
Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading.
Take down the dulcimer.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways
to kneel and kiss the ground."
-- Rumi
"To penetrate into the essence of all being and significance and to release the fragrance of that inner attainment for the guidance and benefit of others -- by expressing, in the world of forms, truth, love, purity, and beauty -- this is the sole game that has intrinsic and absolute worth. All other happenings, incidents, and attainments in themselves can have no lasting importance."
-- Meher Baba,
A Prayer for Peace, Growth, and Recovery
"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred...let me sow love.
Where there is injury...pardon.
Where there is doubt...faith.
Where there is despair...hope.
Where there is darkness...light
Where there is sadness...joy."
"Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled...as to console.
To be understood as to understand.
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life."
-- St. Francis of Assissi
"What is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul."
-- Victor Hugo
"A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart."
-- The Little Prince
"What makes life worth living? To be born with the gift of laughter and sense that the world is mad."
-- Searamouche
"Be glad of life because it give you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look at the stars."
-- Henry VanDyke
"Is it so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done?"
-- Matthew Arnold
"I always prefer to believe the best of everybody -- it saves so much trouble."
-- Rudyard Kipling
"Each friend represents a new world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meaning that a new world is born."
-- Anais Nin
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye."
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
"You see things that are and say, "Why?" but I dream things that never were, and say, "Why not?"
-- George Bernard Shaw
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
-- Voltaire
"We have enough religion to hate each other, but not enough to love each other."
-- Jonathan Swift
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that man's consent."
-- Abraham Lincoln
"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God."
-- Leo Buscaglia
"The dedicated life is the life worth living. You must give with your whole heart."
-- Annie Dillard
"We cannot really love anybody with whom we never laugh."
-- Agnes Repplier
"I have learned that it is the weak who are cruel, and that gentleness is to be expected only from the strong."
-- Leo Rosten
"When you come to the edge of all the light you know, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing one of two things will happen: There will be something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."
-- Patrick Overton
thanks Erle... you did good
"There are two ways of spreading light -- to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
-- Edith Wharton
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
-- Sir Winston Churchill
"The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to them their own."
-- Benjamin Disraeli
"Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul."
-- Democritus
"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts."
-- Charles Dickens
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurditites no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it well and serenely."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
-- Walter Bagehot
"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for."
-- Ernest Hemingway
"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."
-- Henry James
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special."
-- Stephen Hawking
"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You, too? Thought I was the only one."
-- C.S. Lewis
"Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition."
-- Alexander Smith
"Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."
-- F.P. Jones
"The great essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
-- Allen Chalmers
"May you live life every day of your life."
-- Gandhi
"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of life, that no person can sincerely try to help another without helping themself."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Happiness is not a destination; it is a method of life."
-- Burton Hills
"Be true to your work, your word, and your friends."
-- Henry David Thoreau
"I love the person that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection."
-- Thomas Paine
"Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing those you have well."
-- Josh Billings
"The harder you work, the luckier you get."
-- Gary Player
"Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you."
-- Aldous Huxley
"High expectations are the key to everything."
-- Sam Walton
"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
-- Eleanor Roosevelt
"Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration."
-- Thomas Edison
"Practice is the best of all instructors."
-- Pablilius Syrus
"Don't be afraid to take a big step; you can't cross a chasm in two small steps."
-- David Lloyd George
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
-- Dale Carnegie
"The expert at anything was once a beginner."
-- Hayes
"Even God cannot change the past."
-- Agathon
"He is able, who thinks he is able."
-- Buddha
"The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it."
-- Alan Saporta
"Advice is like snow, the softer it falls, the longer it dwells, and the deeper it sinks into the mind."
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
"It takes a great person to be a good listener."
-- Calvin Coolidge
"People are just as happy as they choose to be."
-- Abraham Lincoln
"Live out your imagination, not your history."
-- Stephen Covey
"To accomplish great things, we must not ony act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-- Anatole France
"The true test of character is not how much we know to do, but how we behave when we don't know what to do."
-- John Holt
"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams; live the life you have imagined."
-- Henry David Thoreau
"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was."
-- Richard L. Evans
"Real excellence and humility are not incompatible...on the contrary, they are twin sisters."
-- Jean Baptiste Lacordaire
"The only way to have a friend is to be a friend."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Dream things as they never were and ask, why not?"
-- George Bernard Shaw
"You find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you truly lived are when you have done things in the spirit of love."
-- Henry Drummond
"The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved."
-- Victor Hugo
"Peace... is a virtue, a state of mind... a disposition of benevolence, confidence, justice."
-- Baruck Spinoza
"To laugh often and much, to win affection of children,... to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others,... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; this is the meaning of success."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The mind is not a vessel to fill, but a fire to be kindled."
-- Plutarch
"Never look down on anybody unless you are helping them up."
-- Jessie Jackson
A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: "Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time." When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, "The one I feed the most."
"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic or to remember the limitations of being a human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you're telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself: if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see the beauty even when it is not pretty everyday, and if you can source your life from ITS presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver moon, "Yes"
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn't interest me who you are, or how you came here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments."
-- Oriah Mountain Dreamer
Link provided by Thunder
