Meeting of Hearts

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

I never wake up in the morning and wonder why I am here. I wake up and wonder why I am not making here better.  ~Jeffrey Fry

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?  ~ Seneca

For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?  ~ James Allen

Whenever I get to a low point, I go back to the basics. I ask myself, 'Why am I doing this?'  It comes down to passion.  ~ Lyn St. James

We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?  ~ Gandhi

Quotes about why

Dance in the Rain

Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it.  ~ Winston Churchill

To be tested is good.  The challenged life may be the best therapist.  ~ Gail Sheehy

A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him.  ~ Sidney Greenberg

There are two ways of meeting difficulties.  You alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them.  ~ Phyllis Bottome

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass.  It's about learning how to dance in  the rain.  ~ Vivian  Greene

Quotes about rising above

Prepare the Umbrella

The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.   ~Joe Paterno

It's better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.  ~ Jacki Joyner-Kersey

I will study and prepare and one day my chance will come.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

He who is best prepared can best serve his moment of inspiration.  ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Prepare the umbrella before it rains. ~ Malay proverb

Quotes about preparing, preparation

The Drama of Life

Words may be false and full of art; sighs are the natural language of the heart.  ~ Thomas Shadwell

Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.  ~ William  Shakespeare

When I hear somebody sigh, 'Life is hard,'  I am always tempted to ask, 'Compared to what?'  ~ Sydney J. Harris

I teach my sighs to lengthen into songs.  ~Theodore Roethke

The drama of life begins with a wail and ends with a sigh.  ~ Minna Antrim

Quotes about sighs

To Crown One's Efforts

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

Success will never be a big step in the future; success is a small step taken just now.  ~ Jonatan Martenson

If at first you don't succeed, try something harder.  ~ Ann Landers

Never give up! Failure and rejection are only the first step to succeeding.  ~ Jim Valvano

These three things – work, will, success – fill human existence. Will opens the door to success, both brilliant and happy, work passes these doors, and at the end of the journey success comes in to crown one's efforts.   ~Louis Pasteur

Quotes about success, succeeding

Refiner's Fire

I am half agony, half hope.  ~ Jane Austin

Organize, don't agonize.  ~ Nancy Pelosi

There is not greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.  ~ Maya Angelou

Acting is happy agony.  ~ John Paul Sartre

In the pain, the agony, and heroic endeavors of life, we pass through a refiner's fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross, and make our faith bright, intact, and strong.  ~ James E. Faust

Quotes about agony

Greet its Flow

May what I do flow from me like a river, no forcing and no holding back, the way it is with children. ~Rainer Maria Rilke

I would like to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding. ~ John Donohue

My day shall be filled to overflowing; yet I shall not haste the day, nor shall I waste the day. ~ Walter Russell

Flow with whatever may happen and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate. ~ Zhuangzi

For this is Wisdom; to love, to live. To take what fate, or the Gods may give.
To ask no question, to make no prayer,
To kiss the lips and caress the hair,
Speed passion's ebb as you greet its flow
To have, -to hold -and -in time, -let go! ~ Laurence Hope

Quotes about flow

Never Gets Opened

Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.  ~ Ann Bradford

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.  ~ Elbert Hubbard

I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Dwelling on the negative simply contributes to its power.  ~ Shirley  MacLaine

I've tucked those negative thoughts in a drawer and for the most part it never gets opened.  ~ K. Martin Beckner

Quotes about negativity

Cleanse and Cool

Humor brings insight and tolerance.  ~Agnes Repplier

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs, jolted by every pebble in the road.  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Humor is an  antidote to isolation.  ~ Elizabeth Janeway

If it's sanity you're after; there's no recipe like Laughter.  Laugh it off.  ~ Henry Rutherford Elliot

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air, and you.  ~ Langston Hughes

Quotes about humor

Sing Anyway

Patient endurance attends to all things.  ~ Teresa of Avila

Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty.  ~ John Ruskin

We must endure what fortune sends.  ~ Greek proverb

The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last in it, and not be smashed by it.  ~ Ernest Hemingway

Some day there won't be a song in your heart.  Sing anyway.   ~ Emory Austin

Quotes about endurance

All We Need

The place to be happy is here. The time to be happy is now.  ~Robert G. Ingersoll

The future is always beginning now.  ~Mark Strand

If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments.  ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.  ~Mother Teresa

Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.    ~Eckhart Tolle

Quotes about mindfulness

Sharp Tools

Acceptance is the universal currency of real friendship. . . .It does not warp or shape or wrench a person to be anything other than what they are. ~Joan Chittister

Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. ~J. K. Rowling

I let it go. It's like swimming against the current. It exhausts you. After a while, whoever you are, you just have to let go, and the river brings you home. ~ Joanne Harris

Tolerance, compromise, understanding, acceptance, patience- I want those all to be very sharp tools in my shed. ~ Cee Lo Green

Quotes about acceptance

The Eternal Quest

Finding the center of strength within ourselves is in the long run the best contribution we can make to our fellow men.   ~Rollo May

Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple crumble to dust.   ~ Marcus Aurelius

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.   ~ African proverb

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.   ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

We may stumble, but always there is that eternal voice, forever whispering within our ear, that thing which causes the eternal quest, that thing which forever sings and sings.    ~Ernest Holmes

Quotes about within

Less traveled

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.  ~Jane Goodall

One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.   ~ John F. Kennedy

We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.   ~Bill Clinton

It's amazing the difference
A bit of sky can make.   ~Shel Silverstein

Two roads diverged in the wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.  ~ Robert Frost

Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.  ~ William James

Quotes about difference

Our Ultimate Freedom

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Energy is contagious: either you affect people or you infect people.  ~ T. Harv Eker

The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.  ~Bob Marley

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.   ~William James

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.  ~ Stephen Covey 

Quotes about affect (have an effect on; make a difference to; touch the feelings of someone; move emotionally)

Different, yet the Same

Diversity is the most basic principle of creation.  No two snowflakes, blades of grass or people are alike.  ~ Lynn Maria Laitala

Your significance is not in your similarity to others. It is in your differences.  ~ Mike Murdock

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.  ~ Anne Frank

Diversity: the art of thinking independently together.  ~ Malcolm S. Forbes

It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.  ~ Maya Angelou

If we cannot end our differences at least we can make the world safe for diversity.  ~ John F. Kennedy

Quotes about diversity

The Fairest Blossom

When you plant a seed of love, it is you that blossoms.  ~Ma Jaya Sati

Rather than turning over a new leaf, prune your tree so that new leaves continue to blossom.    ~Feroz Bham

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls happy.  ~ Marcel Proust

Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes about blossom

With Each Step

Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.   ~David Lloyd George

But you can build a future out of anything. A scrap, a flicker. The desire to go forward, slowly, one foot at a time.   ~Lauren Oliver

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.   ~ Lao Tzu

It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones as merely steps on the path and to proceed.  ~ Ram Dass

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.   ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Quotes about steps

To Enrich the World

What a miserable thing life is: you're living in clover, only the clover isn't good enough.   ~Bertolt Brecht

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.   ~Edwin Way Teale

Even Socrates, who lived a very frugal and simple life, loved to go to the market. When his students asked about this, he replied, "I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.  ~Jack Kornfield

It is the preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else that prevents us from living freely and nobly. ~Bertrand Russell

The be-all and end-all of life should not be to get rich, but to enrich the world.   ~B. C. Forbes

Quotes about materialism

Always a Frontier

Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.  ~ Chinese proverb

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.   ~Galileo

I never teach my pupils; I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.   ~Albert Einstein

The job of an educator is to teach students to see the vitality in themselves.  ~ Joseph Campbell

Where there is an open mind there will always be a frontier.  ~ Charles F. Kettering

Quotes about teaching, learning

From all over the Place

Without inspiration the best powers of the mind remain dormant; there is a fuel in us which needs to be ignited with sparks.  ~ Johann Gottfried Von Herder

I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning.  ~ Peter De Vries

Method is much, technique is much, but inspiration is even more.  ~ Benjamin Cardozo

Better beware of notions like genius and inspiration; they are a sort of magic wand and should be used sparingly by anybody who wants to see things clearly.  ~ Jose Ortega Y Gasset

The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.  ~ Pablo Picasso

Quotes about inspiration

Striving for Authenticity

The foundations of a person are not in matter but in spirit.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are not separate from spirit; we are in it.  ~ Plontius

Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.  ~e.e. cummings

No machine can replace the human spark: spirit, compassion, love and understanding.  ~ Louis V. Gerstner Jr.

What we're all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection.  ~ Oprah Winfrey

Quotes about human spirit

The Price of Success

Find a need and fill it.  ~ Ruth Stafford Peale

Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.  ~ Henry Ford

The first step towards success is to become interested in it.  ~ William Osler

Always aim for  achievement, and forget about success.  ~ Helen Hayes

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it...Success is shy- it won't come out while you're watching.  ~ Tennessee Williams

I know the price of success: dedication, hard work and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.  ~ Frank Lloyd Wright 

Quotes about success

Benefit of All

There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them.  ~Denis Waitley

Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.  ~ Dietrich Bonhoffer

Work while you have the light. You are responsible for the talent that has been entrusted to you.  ~ Henri-Frédéric Amiel

We've gotten to the point where everybody's got a right and nobody's got a responsibility.  ~ Newton Minow

I believe that to meet the challenge of the next century, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for his or her own self, family or nation, but for the benefit of all mankind.  ~ Dalai Lama

Quotes about responsibility

Do It On Purpose

The snow goose need not bathe to make itself white. Neither need you do anything but be yourself. ~Lao-Tzu

You are you. Now, isn't that pleasant?   ~Dr. Seuss

Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.   ~Judy Garland

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.   ~ Dolly Parton

Be yourself, but always your better self.  ~ Karl G. Maeser

Quotes about self

Who I Am

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. ~Raymond Hull

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on. ~Maxwell Maltz

Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable. ~Wendy Wasserstein

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. ~ Michel de Montaigne

I was once afraid of people saying, "Who does she think she is?" Now I have the courage to stand and say, "This is who I am." ~Oprah Winfrey

Quotes about self esteem

This is Enough

'Just living isn't enough,' said the butterfly. 'One must also have freedom, sunshine, and a little flower.' ~ Kahlil Gibran

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never ever have enough. ~ Oprah Winfrey

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do. ~ Goethe

Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough. ~ John Adams

There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle. ~ Robert Alden

Quotes about enough

The Bridge

With self discipline most anything is possible.   ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Lack of discipline leads to frustration and self-loathing.  ~ Marie Chapian

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.   ~ Jim Rohn

When things are steep, remember to stay level-headed.  ~ Horace

The only discipline that lasts is self-discipline. ~ Bum Phillips

Quotes about discipline

Formula for Success

A true measure of your worth includes all the benefits others have gained from your success.  ~ Cullen Hightower

A strong positive self image is the best possible preparation for success.  ~ Joyce Brothers

Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.  ~ Thomas Edison

The only failure is not to try.  ~ George Clooney

Formula for success: underpromise and overdeliver.  ~ Tom Peters

Quotes about success

Successful Outcome

Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitably bring about right results.  ~ James Allen

We should work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.  ~ W. Edwards Deming

To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.   ~T. F. Hodge

Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.  ~ Arthur Ashe

It is the Baby Steps you take, the everyday things you do, that eventually lead to the manifestation of your outcome.   ~David Emerald

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.   ~ William James

Quotes about outcome

Your Gift Back

Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?   ~Benjamin Franklin

True happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.    ~John W. Gardner

A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.   ~Larry Bird

Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.   ~ Leo Buscaglia

I have no particular talent. I am only passionately curious.   ~Albert Einstein

No one can arrive from being talented alone; work transforms talent into genius.  ~ Anna Pavlova

Quotes about talent

Makes you Eager

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.  ~Simone Weil

The best way to get somebody's attention is to stop giving them yours.  ~ unknown

You learn something every day if you pay attention.   ~ Ray LeBlond

Marketing is a contest for people's attention. ~ Seth Godin

Attention is vitality.  It connects you with others.  It makes you eager.  Stay eager.  ~ Simone Weil

Quotes about attention

Successfully Survived

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. ~ Samuel Johnson

Skill and confidence are an unconquered army. ~ George Herbert

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. ~ Goethe

When your confidence goes up, your competence goes up.. ~ Zig Ziglar

Confidence must be monitored so that it does not spoil or rot and turn to arrogance. ~ John Wooden

Self-confidence is the result of a successfully survived risk. ~ Jack Gibb

Quotes about confidence

Find a Place

Find a place inside where there is joy and the joy will burn out the pain.  ~ Joseph Campbell

You can design and create and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.  ~ Walt Disney

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, and then stand firm.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. ~ T. S. Elliot

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which yourself has altered.  ~ Nelson Mandela

Quotes about place

Keep Moving

Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement.  ~ Alfred Adler

All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.   ~ Martha Graham

Consciousness is only possible through change; change is only possible through movement.  ~ Aldous Huxley

To me, if life boils down to one thing, it's movement. To live is to keep moving.  ~ Jerry Seinfeld

Life is a balance between rest and movement.  ~ Osho

Quotes about movement.

You can Choose

Potential has a shelf life.  ~ Margaret Atwood

All we are not stares back at what we are.  ~ W. H. Auden

It isn't where you came from; it's where you're going that counts.  ~ Ella Fitzgerald

Your past is not your potential.  In any hour you can choose to liberate the future.  ~ Marilyn Ferguson

Use wisely your power of choice.  ~ Og Mandino

Quotes about potential

Be Ready and Willing

People in the West are always getting ready to live.  ~ Chinese proverb

We are always getting ready to live, but never living.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Miracles come in moments.  Be ready and willing.  ~ Wayne Dyer

It is the characteristic of the magnanimous person to ask no favor but to be ready to do kindness to others.  ~ Aristotle

Quotes about getting ready

Feel our Humanity

Be truthful, gentle, and fearless. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Being fearless isn't the point. That's impossible. It's learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it. ~ Veronica Roth

Fearlessness is delusional. Facing your fear is courage. Conquering your fear is growth. ~ Pierre Bennu

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. ~ Marie Curie

F-E-A-R has two meanings: 'Forget Everything And Run' or 'Face Everything And Rise.' The choice is yours. ~ Zig Ziglar

Fear makes us feel our humanity. ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Quotes about fear, fearlessness

We Have a Choice

Seek opportunities to be remarkable. ~ Seth Godin

Look for something different, something remarkable in a person, and you won’t be disappointed. ~ Jameson Currier

Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it. Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine. ~David Ogilvy

Babe Ruth was not afraid to strike out. And it was this fearlessness that contributed to his remarkable career.  ~Simon Sinek

The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. ~Charles R. Swindoll

Quotes about remarkable

A Personal Journey

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.   ~Marcel Proust

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.  ~Henry David Thoreau

If you don’t get lost, there’s a chance you may never be found.   ~unknown

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.  ~ Carl Jung

There is no satisfaction that can compare with looking back across the years and finding you’ve grown in self-control, judgment, generosity, and unselfishness.   ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Quotes about the journey of self discovery

Life as Art

Today's opportunities erase yesterday's failures.  ~ Gene Brown

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.  ~Meister Eckhart

Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death, can erase our good deeds.  ~ Buddha

To forgive is wisdom, to forget is genius.  ~ Joyce Cary

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.  ~ John W. Gardner

Quotes about erasing

Odd and Imperfect

Persistence. Perfection. Patience. Power. Prioritize your passion. It keeps you sane.   ~ Chriss Jami

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.   ~ Aristotle

Be intent upon the perfection of the present day.  ~ William Law

I am little concerned with beauty or perfection. I don't care for the great centuries. All I care about is life, struggle, intensity.  ~ Emile Zola

I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect- they are much more interesting.  ~ Marc Jacobs

Quotes about perfection

The Foundational Key

Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.  ~ Paul J. Meyer

My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.   ~ Francine Jay

Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work in hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.  ~ Alexander Graham Bell

Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.     ~Leo Babauta

Action is the foundational key to all success.   ~ Pablo Picasso

Quotes about productivity

Reveal our Hearts

The best of conversations occur when there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments.  ~ Samuel Johnson

I try to open up my heart as much as I can and keep a real keen eye that I don't get sentimental.  I think we're all afraid to reveal our hearts.  ~ Paul Simon

Some people will tell you there is a great deal of poetry and fine sentiment in a chest of tea.    ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sentiment has never been unpopular except with a few sick persons who are made sicker by the sight of a child, a glimpse of a wedding, or the thought of a happy home.   ~Oscar Hammerstein

All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.  ~ James Russell Lowell

Quotes about sentiments

Order is the Shape

Good order is the foundation of all great things.  ~ Edmund Burke

Order is a great person's need, and their true well being.  ~ Henri Frederic Amiel

Chaos often breeds life, when order breeds habit.  ~ Henry Brooks Adam

Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty, and dies with chaos.  ~ Will Durant

Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.  ~Pearl Buck

Quotes about order and chaos

Field of Energy

Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement. ~Jack Kornfield

We are perishing for lack of wonder, not for lack of wonders. ~ G. K. Chesterton

Be infinitely flexible and constantly amazed. ~ Jason Kravitz

Amazement + Gratitude + Openness + Appreciation = an irresistible field of energy. ~ Frederick Dodson

When it's over I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement. ~ Mary Oliver

Quotes about wonder and amazement

One With a Heart

When you discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.  ~Jean Shinoda Bolen
 
It isn't until you come to a spiritual understanding of who you are — not necessarily a religious feeling, but deep down, the spirit within — that you can begin to take control.  ~Oprah Winfrey

Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being.  ~David Steindl-Rast

There are some people who have the quality of richness and joy in them and they communicate it to everything they touch. It is first of all a physical quality; then it is a quality of the spirit.  ~ Thomas Wolfe

There are many paths to enlightenment.  Be sure to take one with a heart.  ~ Lao Tzu


Quotes about spirituality

Lighting Candles

The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge. ~Bertrand Russell

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand. ~José Ortega y Gasset

Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do. ~ Goethe

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.  ~ Isaac Asimov

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.  ~Margaret Fuller

Quotes about knowledge

The Stillness Dancing

One's action ought to come out of an achieved stillness: not to be mere rushing on.   ~ D. H. Lawrence

Be still;
Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity. ~ Lao Tzu

To meet everything and everyone through stillness instead of mental noise is the greatest gift you can offer to the universe. ~Eckhart Tolle

Being still does not mean don't move. It means move in peace. ~ E. A. Gardner

Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen- that stillness becomes a radiance. ~ Morgan Freeman

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing. ~ T.S. Eliot

Quotes about stillness

A Way to Live

The world does not turn without moments of grace.  Who cares how small.  ~ Colum  McCann

In life as in the dance, grace glides on blistered feet.  ~ Alice Abrams

It is the nature of grace always to fill spaces that have been empty.  ~ Goethe

Grace,
She takes the blame,
She covers the shame,
Removes the stain.  ~ U2, Grace

Grace isn't a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal.  It's a way to live.  ~ Jackie Windspear

Quotes about grace

The Deepest Foundations

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost. That is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.   ~Henry David Thoreau

Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.  ~ J.K. Rowling

Discontent, blaming, complaining, self-pity cannot serve as a foundation for a good future, no matter how much effort you make.  ~ Eckhart Tolle

Inclusive, good quality education is a foundation for dynamic and equitable societies.  ~ Desmond Tutu

Humility is the solid foundation of all virtues.  ~ Confucius

The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love, and loyalty.   ~Zig Ziglar

The loftiest edifices need the deepest foundations.  ~ George Santayana

Quotes about foundations

The Reckoning

Every day do something that will inch you closer to a better tomorrow.  ~ Doug Firebaugh

You learn something every day if you pay attention.  ~ Ray Le Blond

Do one thing every day that scares you.  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Write it in your heart that every day is the best day of your life.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

To sensible men, every day is a reckoning.  ~ John W. Gardner

Quotes about every day living 

Where Are You Going?

There is only one direction you can coast.

Courage combined with integrity is the foundation of character.

The future belongs to the risk takers not the comfort seekers.

Every great human achievement is preceded by extended periods of dedicated, concentrated effort.

It doesn't matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

Quotes by Brian Tracy

Oxygen of the Soul

You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.  ~ Robert Frost

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.  ~ Moshe Dayan

Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better.  ~ Albert Camus

Freedom is the will  to be responsible to ourselves.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Quotes about freedom

Tides of Life

The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide.  ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The emotions attached to them were like sand castles in the tide, slowly washing out to sea.  ~ Nicholas Sparks

When the tides of life turn against you,
and the current upsets your boat,
don't waste those tears on what might have been;
just lie on your back and float.   ~ unknown

Someday after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.   ~ Teilhard de Chardin

The sea is calm tonight.
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits;- on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.  ~ Matthew Arnold

Quotes about the tide

To Survive

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.  ~ Horace Mann

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.  Then the victory is yours.  ~ Buddha

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.  ~ Edwin Markham

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment; full effort is full victory.  ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Concentration and mental toughness are the margins of victory.  ~ Bill Russell

Who is speaking of victory?  To survive is everything.  ~ Rainer Maria Rilke 

Quotes about victory

My Big Secret

Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.  ~Gail Sheehy

Growth is an erratic forward movement: two steps forward, one step back. Remember that and be very gentle with yourself.  ~Julia Cameron

You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay?  ~ Jim Rohn

The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart.  ~John Welwood

I like wherever I am. That's my big secret.  ~Warren Zevon

Quotes about growth,  change, transition 

Life is What Happens

It is not enough to be busy.   So are the ants.  The question is: what are we busy about?  ~ Henry David Thoreau

Focus on being productive instead of busy.  ~ Tim Ferris

Being busy is better than being bored.  Bored left a long time ago.  Busy is always around for me.  ~Tabitha Robin

If you want to conquer fear, don't sit home and think about it.  Go out and get busy.  ~ Dale Carnegie

Never be so busy as not to think of others.  ~ Mother Teresa

 Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.  ~John Lennon

Quotes about being busy

First Rate Version

If you make friends with yourself, you will never be alone.  ~ Maxwell Maltz

A friend is a gift you give yourself.  ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.  ~ Oscar Wilde

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else, is the greatest accomplishment.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.  ~ Judy Garland

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble and reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.  ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Quotes about yourself

The Mother of Freedom

Expect nothing.  Live frugally on surprise.  ~ Alice Walker

I am a practitioner of elegant frugality.  I don't feel comfortable telling other people what to do, so I just try and lead by example.  ~ Amory Lovins

Frugality is the daughter of common sense, the sister of moderation, and the mother of freedom.  ~ Samuel Smiles

Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?  ~ Cicero

We make ourselves rich by making our wants few.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do.  One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out.  ~ Jeff Bezos

Quotes about frugality

Make it a Bestseller

To live is the rarest thing in the world.  Most people exist, that is all.  ~ Oscar Wilde

Do anything, but let it produce joy.  ~ Walt Whitman

If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.  ~ Emile Zola

Whoever uses the spirit within him creatively is an artist.  To make living itself an art, is the goal.  ~ Henry Miller

Your life is a book; make it a bestseller.  ~ Shanon Grey

Quotes about living life

Go Around It

Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; you put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.  ~Bruce Lee

Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.   ~ Steve Maraboli

Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.   ~ Margaret Atwood

Quotes about water and life 

To Survive and Thrive

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.  ~ Maya Angelou

Live today, not yesterday.  Not tomorrow.  Just today.  Inhabit your moments.  Don't rent them out to tomorrow.  ~ Jerry Spinelli

Thriving.  That's fighting... Surviving is barely getting by.  ~ Jillian Michaels

High above the noise and fear mongering of cynics softly speaks your true self.  ~ Mollie Marti

It takes but one positive thought when given a chance to survive and thrive to empower an entire army of negative thoughts.  ~ Robert H. Schuller

Quotes about surviving

Horizon Leans Forward

There will always be a Frontier where there is an open mind and a willing hand.  ~ Charles F. Kettering

Poetry is like a bird; it ignores all frontiers.  ~ Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier.  ~ Dorothea Brande

The world is always open  waiting to be discovered.  ~ Dejan Stojanovic

The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.  ~ Maya Angelou

Quotes about the horizon, frontier

Carry it with Us

Travel ennobles the spirit and does away with our prejudices.   ~Oscar Wilde

The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.   ~Augustine

A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.  ~Lao Tzu

Not all those who wander are lost.  ~J.R.R. Tolkien

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.   ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
 
We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls. ~ Anais Nin 

Quotes about travel

Let Them See

A good example is far better than a good precept.  ~ Dwight L. Moody

Example is not the main thing in influencing others.  It is the only thing.  ~ Albert Schweitzer

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.  ~ Mark Twain

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right.  But do not care to convince him.  Men will believe what they see.  Let them see.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

We learn by example and by direct experience because there are real limits to the adequacy of verbal instruction.  ~ Malcolm Gladwell

Quotes about setting a good example

To Be Greater

Love is the first ingredient in the relief of suffering.  ~Padre Pio

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering.  ~ Ben Okri

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.  Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.  ~ Helen Keller

Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies.  ~ Erich Fromm

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and the unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.  ~ Bertrand Russell

Quotes about suffering

A New Possibility

The horizon leans forward, offering you space to place new steps of change.  ~ Maya Angelou

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.  ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

A person can grow only as much as his horizon allows.  ~ John Powell

You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore.   ~ William Faulkner

A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.  ~ Howard Thurman

Quotes about horizon

Transcendent Moments

In everyone's life at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.  ~ Albert Schweitzer 

It really shocks me when I encounter people who think kindness doesn't matter.  Because I think it's pretty much the only thing that does.  ~ Josh Radnor

Give love and unconditional acceptance to those you encounter, and notice what happens.  ~ Wayne Dyer

I relate to happiness as an ecstatic moment- something you don't create, you encounter.  ~ Yoko Ono

Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.  ~ John Milton

Quotes about encounter

Live your Life

If some longing goes unmet, don't be astonished.  We call that life.  ~ Anna Freud

Longing and desire go further than instant satisfaction.  That's human nature.  ~ Anna Sui

All lovers live by longing and endure; summon a vision and declare it pure.  ~ Theodore Roethke

My library is an archive of longings.  ~ Susan Sontag

So come to the pond, or the river of your imagination, or the harbor of your longing, and put your lips to the world.  And live your life.  ~ Mary Oliver

Quotes about longing

Your Own Resolution

I couldn't wait for success, so I went on without it.  ~ Jonathan Winters

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

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.  ~ Donald Kendall

Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day and day out.  ~ Robert Collier

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Quotes about success

Reveals the Human Spirit

If you never budge, don't expect a push.  ~ Malcolm S. Forbes

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free.  ~ Paul Tillich

Life is inherently risky.  There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.  ~ Denis Waitley

Then the time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
  Anais Nin

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit.  ~ e e cummings

Quotes about risk taking

Fraternity of Strangers

The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.  ~ Shirley Maclaine

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world.  ~ Francis Bacon

There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't yet met.  ~  William Butler Yeats

I am a stranger in a strange land.   ~ Carson McCullers 

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.  ~ Victor Hugo

Quotes about strangers

What We Do Today

We are made wise not by the recollection of our past but by the responsibility for our future.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.  ~ Jane Howard

Do more than belong: participate.
Do more that care: help.
Do more than believe: practice.
Do more than be fair: be kind.
Do more than forgive: forget.
Do more than dream: work.  ~ William Arthur Ward

The greatest ability is dependability. ~ Robert Jones

What we do today, right now, will have an accumulated effect on all our tomorrows.  ~ Alexandra Stoddard

Great Discoveries

The world is always open waiting to be discovered.  ~ Dejan Stojanovic

If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.   ~Isaac Newton

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.   ~Marcel Proust

The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.  ~ Oprah Winfrey 

By mutual confidence and mutual aid – great deeds are done, and great discoveries made.   ~Homer

Quotes about discovery 

An Appeal

Dear Readers,

(Cheers to good quotes.)

Greetings to all who have stumbled upon this blog in one way or another over the last five years.  

Many of you know that this blog has been an enriching hobby for me, and I appreciate any interest that you have shown.  

If you enjoy this blog or find it meaningful in any way,  I wonder if you would consider:

-sharing or recommending quoteflections or any of my posts to others through email?

-'liking' quoteflections now on Facebook?  Here I provide regular updates.

-following quoteflections on Twitter?  Here I provide frequent submissions.

-following  365 Quote Quest?  Here I provide reflective questions for each of my regular posts from quoteflections.   Consider them meditation nuggets. 

-visit my Author Central page at Amazon where I have published four books.  (By the way, I enjoy a miniscule royalty stream; my reward is the daily posting.)

I welcome emails if you wish to provide some feedback.  Thanks to all who may glean some inspiration from this blog....'celebrating life with enduring quotes.'

To Bright Unclouded Day

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.  ~ Mark Twain

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.  ~ J. R. R. Tolkien

There is no investment which you can make which will pay you so well as the effort to scatter sunshine and good cheer in your establishment.  ~ Orison Swett Marden

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.  ~ Percy Bysshe Schelley

The best book, like the best speech, will do it all- make us laugh, think, cry and cheer- preferably in that order.  ~ Madeleine Albright

And from the midst of cheerless gloom
I passed to bright unclouded day.  ~ Emily Bronte

Quotes about cheer

Completing the Circle

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.  ~ Samuel Johnson

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and diligence.  ~ Abigail Adams

There is nothing which persevering effort and unceasing and diligent care cannot accomplish.  ~ Seneca

Persevere in virtue and diligence.  ~ Plautus

The seven factors of awakening are mindfulness, investigation of phenomenon, diligence, joy, ease, concentration, and letting go.  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Completing the circle is both philosophical and tactical- there is a growing sense of mastery that comes with practice, diligence, and experience.  ~ Eric Mann 

Quotes about diligence 

The Capacity to Receive

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.  ~ Aldous Huxley

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive.  ~ Martin Luther King Jr.

Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.  ~ Rabindranath Tagore

I believe that the measure of my soul is my capacity to love imperfect people.  ~ Joseph Grenny

Quotes about capacity

Own the Vision

Dreams are extremely important.  You can't do it unless you can imagine it.  ~ George Lucas

Vision animates, inspires, transforms purpose into action.  ~ Warren Bennis

The best vision is insight.  ~ Malcolm Forbes

Vision is the art of seeing things invisible. ~ Jonathan Swift

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.  ~ Jack Welsh

Where there is no vision the people perish.  ~ Proverbs 29:18

Quotes about vision

The Seed of Potential

Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every human heart.  ~ Rumi

All men want something to do, or rather something to be.  ~ Henry David Thoreau

As long as you feel inspired, your life is being well spent.  ~ Hugh McLeod

May we serve with much fire, much heart, much desire, and much prayer.  ~ Ronna Detrick

Desire is the seed of potential.  ~ Alaina Odessa

Quotes about desire, accomplishment

Humanity Matters More

It is not our differences that divide us.  It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.  ~ Andre Lorde

Strength lies in differences, not similarities.  ~ Stephen Covey

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.  ~ M. Scott Peck

Differences are not intended to separate and alienate.  We are different in order to realize our need of one another.  ~ Desmond Tutu

We all live under the same sky, but we all don't have the same horizon.  ~ Konrad Adenauer

We all do better when we work together.  Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.  ~ Bill Clinton

Quotes about differences

Dreams of a Shadow

Learn what you are and be such.

The best of healers is good cheer.

The test of any man lies in action.

People are the dreams of a shadow.

The days that are still to come are the wisest witnesses.

Quotes by Pindar, Greek poet, 522-443 BC

Not Let Go

Necessity is the mother of invention, it is true, but its father is creativity, and knowledge is the midwife.  ~ Jonathan Schattke

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.  ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.  ~ Dwight David Eisenhower

I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you.  ~ Annie Dillard

Quotes about necessity

Finding that Synergy

Law: an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community.  ~ Thomas Aquinas

There is no higher religion than human service.  To work for the common good is the greatest creed.  ~ Woodrow Wilson

No decisions should ever be made without asking the question: is this for the common good?  ~ Michael Moore

A nation is formed by the willingness of each of us to share in the responsibility for upholding the common good.  ~ Barbara Jordan

Religion creates community, community creates altruism, and altruism turns us away from self and towards the common good... There is something about the tenor of relationships within a religious  community that make it the best tutorial in citizenship and good neighborliness.  ~ Johnathan Sacks

When it all boils down, it's about embracing each others' stories and maybe even finding that synergy to collaborate for the common good.  ~ Dhani Jones

Quotes about the common good

There you Are

Be/Accept/Value/Forgive/Bless/Express/Trust/Love/Empower....Yourself.  ~ unknown

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.  ~ Oscar Wilde

Yesterday I was so clever, so I wanted to change the world.  Today I am wise so I am changing myself.  ~ Rumi

A day wasted on others is not wasted on oneself.  ~ Charles Dickens

And remember, no matter where you go, there you are.  ~ Confucius

Quotes about self

How Much you Care

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.  ~ Albert Einstein

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

Take care of your body.  It's the only place you have to live.  ~ Jim Rohn

Take care of all your memories.  For you cannot relive them.  ~ Bob Dylan

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.  ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Quotes about care, caring

Peace amid

He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment.  ~ Meister Eckhart

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books.   ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
 
The great critic must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.  ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.  ~ Thomas Szasz

Serenity is not freedom from the storm, but peace amid the storm. ~ unknown

Quotes about serenity, tranquility 

Nurtures and Builds

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.  ~ Benjamin Disraeli

Find out what your gift is and nurture it.  ~ Katy Perry

Our young people are assets to be cultivated and nurtured.  ~ Jane Fonda

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant...You've got to really look after it and nurture it.  ~ John Lennon

Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart, one who looks for the best in people.  ~ Marvin J. Ashton

Quotes about nurture

Tomorrow is another one

The body, she says, is subject to the force of gravity. But the soul is ruled by levity, pure.   ~Saul Bellow

I try to conduct my life with a little levity.  ~ Sheryl Crow

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say with the utmost levity.  ~ George Bernard Shaw

Today was good.  Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.  ~ Dr. Seuss

If you want an interesting party sometime, combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.  ~Robert Fulghum

Quotes about levity, fun

The Deepest Capacities

We all have a choice in every difficult situation in our life. We can become either bitter or better. ~ Corina Zalace
 
Pain comes like the weather, but joy is a choice.  ~ Rodney Crowell

You are where you are today because you have chosen to be there.   ~ Harry Browne

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.   ~ George Eliot

Being oppressed means the absence of choices.   ~ Bell Hooks

We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.  ~ Thomas Merton

Quotes about choice

The Best Portion

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.  ~ Charles Kuralt

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.  ~ Goethe

The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.   ~ William Wordsworth

Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.   ~ Eric Hoffer

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?   ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau

Quotes about kindness

A Warmth and Richness

The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into lustre.   ~ D.H. Lawrence

The whole point of being alive is to evolve into the complete person you were intended to be.   ~ Oprah Winfrey

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, an integrated wholeness.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.  ~ Oscar Wilde

Quotes about wholeness in life

The Doors We Open and Close

If not now, when?  ~ Hillel

Choices are the hinges of destiny.  ~ Pythagorus 

If you chase two rabbits, both will escape.  ~unknown

Decisions become easier when your will to please God outweighs your will to please the world.  ~ Anso Coetzer 

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.  ~ Flora Whittemore

Quotes about decision making

The Art of Living

When the waves close over me, I dive down to fish for pearls.   ~Masha Kaleko

To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.  ~ Bertrand Russell

I have woven a parachute out of everything broken.  ~ William Stafford

It's a hard life if you don't weaken.  ~ Stephen King

The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.  ~ Bernard M. Baruch

Quotes about hardship, adversity, difficulty

Doors Yet to Open

We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise we harden.   ~Goethe
 
To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.  ~Gail Sheehy
 
A challenge only becomes an obstacle when you bow to it.   ~Ray Davis

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.  ~Seneca
 
Bless those who challenge us for they remind us of doors we have closed and doors we have yet to open.   ~Native American Prayer

Quotes about challenges, new beginnings