Remain Quiet

Balance is the perfect state of still water. Let that be our model. It remains quiet within and is not disturbed on the surface.  ~ Confucius 

- How still is your 'water'?
- How quiet are you within?
- How can you cultivate more balance in your life?

A Portion of Thyself

Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of thyself.   ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.  ~ Richard Moss

Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.  ~ Mother Teresa

A Renaissance of Wonder

Wonder is what sets us apart from other life forms. No other species wonders about the meaning of existence or the complexity of the universe or themselves.  ~ Herbert W. Boyer

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.  ~ Albert Einstein

As knowledge increases, wonder deepens.  ~ Charles Morgan
 
We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic. ~ E. Merrill Root
 
If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in.  ~ Rachel Carson

Wonder is the beginning of wisdom. ~ Greek proverb 

The Combination for Success

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.  ~ Napoleon Hill

- How patient and persistent are you?
- How much of a work ethic do you have?
- What other quality would you suggest is a necessity for success?

Prayer of the Woods

My wife and I enjoyed a camping trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the northern part of Michigan's lower peninsula.  Here giant sand dunes cover a 60 kilometer stretch of Lake Michigan's eastern coastline as well as North and South Manitou Islands.  The glacial, sandy dunes tower as high as 460 feet above the lake and provide stunning vistas.

There are also beautiful hardwood, maple forests which were just beginning to turn into a palette of rainbow colours.  On one of our hikes we read this plaque:

Prayer of the Woods

I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights,
the friendly shade screening you from the summer sun,
and my fruits are refreshing draughts quenching your thirst as you journey on.
I am the beam that holds your house,
the board of your table, the bed on which you lie,
and the timber that builds your boat.
I am the handle of your hoe,
the door of your homestead,
the wood of your cradle,
and the shell of your coffin.
I am the bread of kindness and the flower of beauty.
'Ye who pass by, listen to my prayer: Harm me not.'

Life is Complex

Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience — to appreciate the fact that life is complex.   ~ M. Scott Peck
 
- For what issues, aspects of life are you tempted to simplify and to look for easy answers?
- What are some of the mysteries and paradoxes of life?
- What wondrous complexities could you appreciate more?

The Experience of Being Alive

The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.  ~ Mitch Albom

Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life.  ~ Elie Wiesel

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of.  You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.  ~ Albert Camus

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.  ~ Anais Nin

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.  ~ Aristotle

Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.  ~ Ernest Hemingway

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.    ~ Joseph Campbell 

Tags: quotes on meaning

Love Illuminates

Hatred paralyses life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.  ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. 

- How much room do you leave in your life for hate?
- What lessons has hatred taught you?
- How can you resolve to practice more love which releases, harmonizes, and illuminates?

Unconditional Acceptance

Acceptance is such an important commodity; some have called it "the first law of personal growth."   ~ Peter McWilliams

Living apart and at peace with myself, I came to realize more vividly the meaning of the doctrine of acceptance. To refrain from giving advice, to refrain from meddling in the affairs of others, to refrain, even though the motives be the highest, from tampering with another's way of life - so simple, yet so difficult for an active spirit. Hands off!    ~ Henry Miller
 
Of course there is no formula for success except perhaps an unconditional acceptance of life and what it brings.  ~ Arthur Rubinstein

The Only Real Counselor

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.  ~ Immanuel Kant

By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.  ~ Confucius

One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything.  ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg

Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue.  ~ Edith Wharton

Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.  ~ Norman Cousins

The highest form of wisdom is kindness.  ~ The Talmud

The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil.  ~ Cicero 

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.  ~ Lin Yutang

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.   ~ Kahlil Gibran

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotations.  ~ Isaac D'Israeli 

Tags: 10 quotes on wisdom

Curves of Emotions

A man does what he can; a woman does what a man cannot. ~Isabel Allende

I have seen too much not to know that the impression of a woman may be more valuable than the conclusion of an analytical reasoner. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

A woman's life is a history of the affections. ~ Washington Irving

A woman's life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man's life progresses. ~ Oscar Wilde

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.  ~ Washington Irving

The great question which I have not been able to answer, despite my 30 years of research into the feminine soul, is 'what does a woman want?'  ~ Sigmund Freud

Whatever a woman's reason may say, her feelings tell her the truth.  ~ Stefan Zweig 

Tags: quotes about women

Long Experience

I swim across a sea of quotes, splashing in the words and riding the waves of wisdom. ~Terri Guillemets

Proverbs are potted wisdom.  ~ Charles Buxton

Short sentences drawn from long experience.  ~ Miguel de Cervantes

In phrases as brief as a breath worldly wisdom concentrates.  ~ Willis Goth Regier 

Tags: quotes about quotes

Sowing Anew

In the chequered area of human experience the seasons are all mingled as in the golden age: fruit and blossom hang together; in the same moment the sickle is reaping and the seed is sprinkled; one tends the green cluster and another treads the wine-press. Nay, in each of our lives harvest and spring-time are continually one, until Death himself gathers us and sows us anew in his invisible fields.   ~ George Eliot

- To what extent do you see your life as a golden age?
- How diverse have been your experiences?
- How do you cultivate a personal peace?

Be still and wait

A lively understandable spirit
Once entertained you.
It will come again.
Be still.
Wait.  ~ Theodore Roethke

- How often have you been blessed with an understandable spirit?
- How do you cope when it departs?
- How patient are you for it to return?

Cultivating the Spirit

The spirit is life.  The mind is the builder.  The physical is the result.  ~ Edgar Cayce

- How healthy is your spirit?
- How can you cultivate it?
- What growth may result and into what tangible manifestations?

Open to Change

Keep your mind open to change all the time.  Welcome it.  Court it.  It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress.  ~ Dale Carnegie

- How open are you to change?
- Why can it be difficult?
- What are some of your opinions and ideas which may need reexamination?

Choose Energy

I believe everything in life is energy. If we're destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there's got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that.   ~ Ellen Degeneres

I don’t care how intelligent or attractive someone is, if he zaps your energy, he isn’t for you. True chemistry is more than intellectual compatibility. Beyond surfaces, you must be intuitively at ease.  ~ Judith Orloff

I believe in energies. Good energy has served me well. Being fair with others, compassionate towards them, remaining humble, and making a difference to someone are just a few of the things that I have seen create good energy. Beautiful things. Human things. I do my best to surround myself with these types of things, to generate an atmosphere thick with such energy. It has kept me safe in many situations.  ~ Ashly Lorenzana

I must choose between despair and Energy──I choose the latter.  ~ John Keats

Good over Evil

Life is composed of lights and shadows, and we would be untruthful, insincere, and saccharine if we tried to pretend there were no shadows. Most things are good, and they are the strongest things; but there are evil things too, and you are not doing a child a favor by trying to shield him from reality. The important thing is to teach a child that good can always triumph over evil. ~ Walt Disney

- What good things have you witnessed in your community?

- What portrayals of good have you seen in the mass media?

- What would you define as the shadows which lurk in life?

- How do you convey the important lesson to children about good over evil?

Kind Email about my Publications

I want to highlight a recent email I received about my venture into publishing.  I learned a lot about the digital revolution through this thoughtful correspondence.

"Thanks so much for making your books available at a token cost, Paul, and for “making visible what I might perhaps never have seen” ;-) - I have just used the 365 Quote Quest books as my first practice run of downloading Kindle books to read on my Android device and on my PC, as I don’t have a Kindle.

This worked well – and I learned that I can buy these books for friends as gifts, using their email addresses, as there are so many ways that the Kindle files can be read.

That may be something you can emphasize in your next post – your Kindle books are WONDERFUL value gifts that can be sent at the touch of a button – and hopefully many more people will be blessed by your labour of love!"

I thank this writer very much for her note.  Just to recap, here are the links to my two volumes on Kindle (which are transferable to other devices).

You may purchase Volume #1 of 365 Quote Quest, the Kindle e book version,  here and Volume #2 here.

(Perhaps a further observation, potential readers may peruse the opening pages of the books before purchasing them.)

The traditional paperback books may be purchased here and here.

(The Wordle image above is the email endorsement.)

Many thanks to readers for following my blogs and possibly recommending these low cost publications and my blogs to others.

Some Flax Golden Tales to Spin

Imagination is an inner resource. That's why it takes stopping, slowing, silencing, reassuring, embracing to allow it to speak.  ~ Suzanne Beth Stinnett

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.  ~ Robert Fulghum

If you are a dreamer come in
If you are a dreamer a wisher a liar
A hoper a pray-er a magic-bean-buyer
If you're a pretender come sit by my fire
For we have some flax golden tales to spin
Come in!
Come in!  ~ Shel Silverstein 

Tags: quotes on imagination

Make Visible

Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.  ~Robert Bresson

-For what do many people yearn?
-When have you seen something illuminated?
-What valuable thing, action, or idea could you make visible?

Announcing Several Self Published Books

Dear Readers,

Volumes #1, #2, and #3 of 365 Quote Quest are now available in print and in digital format for Kindle.  These books are a product of several years of posts in which I provide a quotation and offer about three questions to encourage reflection and enrichment.

For example entry #537 is entitled 'Be thyself':
Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he
Who finds himself, loses his misery. ~ Matthew Arnold

- How much do you try to be yourself?
- To what extent do you agree with Arnold that being yourself leads to greater happiness?
- What are other personal sources of happiness?

Another sample entry which offers an interesting juxtaposition with the above is #702, 'Changing yourself.'

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. ~Leo Tolstoy
 
- What changes would you like to make to the world?
- Heeding Tolstoy's advice, what could you begin changing about yourself?

I consider each of the 1,095 entries a meditation nugget.

You may read about my background and details about these two books at Amazon's Author Central.

Thank you for your readership here and at 365 Quote Quest and for any positive recommendations to others you may want to provide.

For those who may be interested, I self published the books at Createspace which provides distribution through Amazon.  Also convenient links are provided so that I could publish them as e books through Kindle Direct Publishing.

The Ecstatic Experience

I do not seek.  I find.  ~ Pablo Picasso

You lose it if you talk about it.  ~ Ernest Hemingway

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.  ~ Jean Cocteau

I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's.
I will not reason and compare;
My business is to create.  ~ William Blake

You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.  ~ Jack London

The soul should always stand ajar. Ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.  ~ Emily Dickinson

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.  ~Dr. Seuss

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.  ~ Steve Jobs

The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.  ~Alan Alda

Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.  ~Mary Lou Cook

Tags: 10 quotes on creativity

Flickering Will

Don't let your will roar when your power only whispers.  ~ Thomas Fuller

-How much power do you have over yourself, others?
-What are some of your convictions, desires?
-When is the opportune time to let some of your will flicker?

Reaching Out

You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth.  ~ H. L. Mencken

- Where lies your growth?
- Where do you experience enrichment?
- How can you reach out?

For All that Shall Be

Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.

The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.

Never, "for the sake of peace and quiet," deny your own experience or convictions.

"Freedom from fear" could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.

Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just.

For all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be — Yes. 

~ all quotes from Dag Hammarskjold, Swedish diplomat, UN Secretary-General, winner of Nobel Peace Prize. (1905-1961 who died in plane crash en route to ceasefire negotiations.)