Keep Stillness Inside

You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo.  ~ Sylvia Plath

Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.  ~ George Santayana

We live in a rainbow of chaos.  ~ Cezanne

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is drowned.  ~ William Butler Yeats

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.  ~ Deepak Chopra

Quotes about chaos, life

You Don't Have to Cook Fancy

The more you eat, the less flavor; the less you eat, the more flavor. ~ Chinese Proverb

Hunger is the best sauce in the world. ~ Cervantes

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. ~ Socrates

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you, and be silent. ~ Epictetus

Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper. ~ Adelle Davis

You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients.  ~ Julia Child

Quotes about eating, food, life

The Universe is Always Speaking to Us

When I was little, I had this science book. There was a section on 'What would happen to the world if there was no friction?' Answer: 'Everything on earth would fly into space from the centrifugal force of revolution.' That was my mood.  ~ Haruki Murakami

To have darkness behind me, in front of me a bright sky, flickering lights on the water, and to feel on the stony face a southern sun.  ~ Julia Harwick

The most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.  ~ Voltaire

The universe is always speaking to us, ...sending us little messages, causing coincidences, sending us serendipities, reminding us to stop, look around, to believe in something else, something more.  ~ Nancy Thayer

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams it's still a beautiful world.   Be cheerful.  Strive to be happy.  ~ Max Ehrmann

Quotes about moods, life

The Only Real Security

If we value independence, if we are disturbed by the growing conformity of knowledge, of values, of attitudes, which our present system induces, then we may wish to set up conditions of learning which make for uniqueness, for self-direction, and for self-initiated learning.  ~ Carl Rogers

Independence - is loyalty to one's best self and principles, and this is often disloyalty to the general idols and fetishes.  ~ Mark Twain

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Interdependency follows independence.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.  ~ Henry Ford


Quotes about independence,life

Surrender to What Is

Control is never achieved when sought after directly. It is the surprising outcome of letting go.  ~ James Arthur Ray

The closest to being in control we will ever be is in that moment that we realize we're not.  ~ Brian Kessler

The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender.  ~ William Booth

The condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart.  ~ Alan Redpath
 
Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.  ~ Eckhart Tolle

Quotes about surrender, life

I Answered Yes

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose — a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.   ~Mary Shelley

I don't know Who — or what — put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.   ~Dag Hammarskjöld

The grand essentials of happiness are: something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.   ~Allan K. Chalmers

 We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.   ~Fredrick Koeing

Quotes about a meaningful life

How to Live

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it.    ~ Mary Wilson Little

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.   ~ Katharine Hepburn

People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.   ~ Dale Carnegie

When a thing is funny, search it for a hidden truth.   ~ George Bernard Shaw

People here are funny. They work so hard at living, they forget how to live.   ~ Robert Riskin

Fun is a good thing but only when it spoils nothing better.  ~ George Santayana

Quotes about fun,life

No Trumpets Sound

Destiny is not a matter of chance but of choice. Not something to wish for, but to attain.   ~ William Jennings Bryan

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.  ~ William Shakespeare

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.  ~ Albert Schweitzer

It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.  ~ Sir Winston Churchill

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.  ~ Agnes De Mille

Quotes about destiny, life

Look for What is Good and Strong

Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would go on even without you. Don't take yourself so seriously.  ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Drop by drop fills the pot.  ~ Duala proverb

Do not think of your faults, still less of other's faults; look for what is good and strong, and try to imitate it. Your faults will drop off, like dead leaves, when their time comes.  ~ John Ruskin

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.  ~ Richard Dawkins

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.  ~ D. H. Lawrence

5 disparate quotes about drops, life

In Being Bold

There is plenty of intelligence in the world, but the courage to do things differently is in short supply.  ~ Marilyn Vos Savant

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.  ~ Winston Churchill

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.  ~ E. E. Cummings

Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim.  ~ Nora Ephron

A ship is safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for.  ~ William G. T. Shedd

Freedom lies in being bold.  ~ Robert Frost

Quotes about courage, life

The Whole Human Family

If I have been of service, if I have glimpsed more of the nature and essence of ultimate good, if I am inspired to reach wider horizons of thought and action, if I am at peace with myself, it has been a successful day.  ~ Alex Noble

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.  ~ Etty Hillesum

Whatever peace I know rests in the natural world, in feeling myself a part of it, even in a small way.  ~ May Sarton

Success isn't measured by money or power or social rank. Success is measured by your discipline and inner peace.  ~ Mike Ditka

No one can find inner peace except by working, not in a self- centered way, but for the whole human family.  ~ Peace Pilgrim 

Quotes about inner peace,life

A Hero to Me

If a child is to keep alive 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

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.  ~ Robert A. Heinlein

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.  ~ Roald Dahl

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.  ~ W. B. Yeats

Anyone who does anything to help a child in his life is a hero to me.  ~ Fred Rogers

Quotes about children, life

To Dance on a Shifting Carpet

To dance, put your hand on your heart and listen to the sound of your soul.  ~ Luigi

Kids: they dance before they learn there is anything that isn't music.  ~ William Stafford 

Everybody should be able to make some music... That's the cosmic dance!  ~ Ruth Gordon
 
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?  ~ William Butler Yeats

Live a balanced life - Learn some and think some, and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.   ~ Robert Fulghum

Instead of seeing the rug being pulled from under us, we can learn to dance on a shifting carpet.  ~ Thomas Crum 


Quotes about dance, life

It Takes Place Every Day

A man is judged by his deeds, not by his words.  ~ Russian Proverb

Beware so long as you live, of judging people by appearances.  ~ La Fontaine

Judge not, that ye be not judged.  ~Matthew 7:1

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.  ~ Mother Teresa

You can judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing to them or for them.  ~ Malcolm Forbes

Don't wait for the Last Judgement. It takes place every day.  ~ Albert Camus

Quotes about judgement, life

Energy Waiting to Happen

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.  ~ Thomas Merton

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.  ~ Mark Twain

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.  ~ Aesop

Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.  ~ Bill Bryson

Quotes about matter, life

Every Exit an Entry

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.  ~ William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Every exit is an entry somewhere.  ~ Tom Stoppard

Quotes about entrances, exits, life

Pick Up the Mirror

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.  ~Alexander Pope

When you descant on the faults of others, consider whether you be not guilty of the same. To gain knowledge of ourselves, the best way is to convert the imperfections of others into a mirror for discovering our own.  ~Henry Home

We should every night call ourselves to an account: What infirmity have I mastered to-day? what passion opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.  ~Seneca

How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then shalt thou know what is in thee.  ~ Goethe

Put down the magnifying glass and pick up the mirror.  ~ Hippocrates


Quotes about self, life

The Purpose of Life is Not to Be Happy

How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be
When there's no help in truth!  ~ Sophocles

You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest ways, improve yourself.   ~ John Ruskin
 
The best advisers, helpers and friends, always are not those who tell us how to act in special cases, but who give us, out of themselves, the ardent spirit and desire to act right, and leave us then, even through many blunders, to find out what our own form of right action is.    ~ Phillips Brooks

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
No one has ever become poor by giving. ~ Anne Frank


Quotes about helping, life

A Thousand Times Too Short

I've reached a milestone at 365 Quote Quest with one thousand entries.  So here are some select quotes about a thousand.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.  ~ Lao Tzu

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.  ~ Buddha

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.  ~ Marilyn Monroe

A hero is born among a hundred, a wise man is found among a thousand, but an accomplished one might not be found even among a hundred thousand men.  ~ Plato

I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories.  ~ Ray Bradbury

Is life not a thousand times too short to bore ourselves?  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

(Quotes about a thousand, life)

If you wish to read four reflective questions about this list, feel free to visit my other blog.   I've only got 95 more entries to go before I publish Volume #3 of 365 Quote Quest.  (365 x 3=1,095)  Volumes #1 and #2 are available here.

Thanks for following quoteflections and, possibly,  my complement, 365 Quote Quest.  Recommending/sharing these blogs is appreciated.

Keep the Pathway Open

The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden.  ~ Thomas More

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.  ~ Victor Hugo

Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful!' and sitting in the shade.  ~ Rudyard Kipling

God made a beauteous garden
With lovely flowers strown,
But one straight, narrow pathway
That was not overgrown.
And to this beauteous garden
He brought mankind to live,
And said "To you, my children,
These lovely flowers I give.
Prune ye my vines and fig trees,
With care my flowers tend,
But keep the pathway open
Your home is at the end.  ~ Robert Frost from 'God's Garden'

Quotes about the garden, life

Always Discoveries to Be Made

My kitchen is a mystical place, a kind of temple for me. It is a place where the surfaces seem to have significance, where the sounds and odors carry meaning that transfers from the past and bridges to the future.  ~Pearl Bailey

We owe much to the fruitful meditation of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen.  ~Joseph Conrad

In the childhood memories of every good cook there's a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.   ~ Barbara Costikyan 

The kitchen is a country in which there are always discoveries to be made.  ~Grimod de la Reynière

Cooking demands attention, patience, and above all, a respect for the gifts of the earth. It is a form of worship, a way of giving thanks.   ~Judith B. Jones

Quotes about kitchens, cooking, life

One of the Greatest Sources of Happiness

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.  ~ Ellen Parr

One who is too wise an observer of the business of others, like one who is too curious in observing the labor of bees, will often be stung for his curiosity.  ~ Alexander Pope

Every man ought to be inquisitive through every hour of his great adventure down to the day when he shall no longer cast a shadow in the sun. For if he dies without a question in his heart, what excuse is there for his continuance?  ~ Frank Moore Colby

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.  ~ Linus Pauling 

Quotes about curiosity, life

Forever is Composed of Now

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.  ~ C. S. Lewis

The point of power is always in the present moment.  ~ Louise L. Hay

With the past I have nothing to do; nor with the future.  I live now.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

People are always asking about the good old days.  How about the good now days?  ~ Robert M. Young

Forever is composed of now.  ~  Emily Dickinson

Quotes about the present, life

Growing through a Crack in the Concrete

It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them. And perhaps it is the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess.  ~ Walt Whitman

We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement.  ~ Herman Hesse

Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.  ~ Beatrix Potter

Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It's so heroic.  George Carlin

Quotes about uniqueness, life