Favorite Quotes of Rob Bednark

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.
   -William Hutchinson Murray (1913-1996), from his 1951 book entitled "The Scottish Himalayan Expedition"
(often misattributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe<)
[German Myth 12 : The Famous "Goethe" Quotation]
["The Scottish Himalayn Expedition" in Google Books] {Added 21 Oct 2011}

"...at the end of the talk someone from the audience asked the Dalai Lama, "Why didn't you fight back against the Chinese?"
The Dalai Lama looked down, swung his feet just a bit, then looked back up at us and said with a gentle smile, "Well, war is obsolete, you know."
Then, after a few moments, his face grave, he said, "Of course the mind can rationalize fighting back... but the heart, the heart would never understand. Then you would be divided in yourself, the heart and the mind, and the war would be inside you."
   - Contributor Unknown [ livingwithheart.com ] {Added 17 Oct 2011}

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
   - Moshe Dayan, Newsweek, Oct 17, 1977; (Israeli military leader and politician, 1915-1981) [seen on "Good Earth" teabag; wikiquote.org ] {Added 17 Oct 2011}

Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue... as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. ...success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it."
   - Viktor E. Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning" {Added 15 July 2011}

People who are suffering don't need advice, diagnoses, interpretations and interventions. They need sincere and complete empathy-attention. Once they have the feeling that the other person is putting themselves in their shoes, they are able to let go of their suffering and head down the path of healing. Attention--being completely available--may well be the most coveted gift. We silently hope that someone will want to do that for us. Pure attention is given without judgement and without advice. Attention is a type of friendliness and the lack thereof is the worst kind of rudeness. Attention is the means that allows us to let friendliness flow. Anyone who can't give others attention, will never be friendly. Attention gives energy, while the lack of attention takes it away.
   - Piero Ferrucci [from book "Survival of the Kindest", quoted in Tricycle magazine] {Added 17 Oct 2011}

Don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue... as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to a course greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. ...success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it."
   - Viktor E. Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning" {Added 15 July 2011}

People who are suffering don't need advice, diagnoses, interpretations and interventions. They need sincere and complete empathy-attention. Once they have the feeling that the other person is putting themselves in their shoes, they are able to let go of their suffering and head down the path of healing. Attention--being completely available--may well be the most coveted gift. We silently hope that someone will want to do that for us. Pure attention is given without judgement and without advice. Attention is a type of friendliness and the lack thereof is the worst kind of rudeness. Attention is the means that allows us to let friendliness flow. Anyone who can't give others attention, will never be friendly. Attention gives energy, while the lack of attention takes it away.
   - Piero Ferrucci [from book "Survival of the Kindest", quoted in Tricycle magazine] {Added 10 May 2011}

The most sensible way to look after our own self-interest, to find freedom and be happy, is not to directly pursue these things but to give priority to the interests of others. Help others to become free of their fear and pain. Contribute to their happiness. Its all really very simple. You dont have to choose between being kind to yourself and others. Its one and the same.
   - Piero Ferrucci [quoted on p. 214 of book "It's Not About the Money" by Brent Kessel, 2008] [also from Ode magazine] {Added 10 May 2011}

Happiness is being able
to be content in life.
We win a little. We lose a little.
If you want to be happy,
be happy with you.
   - Wong Loh Sin See [from sinseecenter.com {Added 30 Dec 2010}

Embrace the self as much as possible through meditation. Be sincere in what you do.
What you do, you do for yourself.
Give meaning to what you do
and let what you do
give meaning to you.
   - Wong Loh Sin See [from sinseecenter.com {Added 30 Dec 2010}

If you know yourself, you will never be lost.
   - Wong Loh Sin See [from sinseecenter.com {Added 30 Dec 2010}

We learn from the past.
What was good in the past can be brought into the present.
   - Wong Loh Sin See [from sinseecenter.com {Added 30 Dec 2010}

Give 100% of your focus
to what you are doing
and do your best.
That is enough.
   - Wong Loh Sin See [from sinseecenter.com {Added 30 Dec 2010}

Its not what I want.
Its not what I wish for.
Its what I am presented with
and what I do with that.
   - Wong Loh Sin See [from sinseecenter.com {Added 30 Dec 2010}

I don't know what I want, but I know it's not this.
   -title of a book by Barbara Sher {Added 18 Oct 2010}

Pay attention to what gets your attention.
   -Gina Mollicone-Long {Added 18 Oct 2010}

I think the most important question facing humanity is, "Is the universe a friendly place?" This is the first and most basic question all people must answer for themselves.
For if we decide that the universe is an unfriendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to achieve safety and power by creating bigger walls to keep out the unfriendliness and bigger weapons to destroy all that which is unfriendly--and I believe that we are getting to a place where technology is powerful enough that we may either completely isolate or destroy ourselves as well in this process.
If we decide that the universe is neither friendly nor unfriendly and that God is essentially playing dice with the universe, then we are simply victims to the random toss of the dice and our lives have no real purpose or meaning.
But if we decide that the universe is a friendly place, then we will use our technology, our scientific discoveries and our natural resources to create tools and models for understanding that universe. Because power and safety will come through understanding its workings and its motives.
   -Albert Einstein [link] {Added 8 Oct 2010}

A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe... a part limited in time and space. He experiences his thoughts and feelings as separated from the rest--a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
   -Albert Einstein [link] {Added 8 Oct 2010}

Spirit leads the willing and drags the reluctant.
   -Lucius Annaeus Seneca [he said "fate" instead of "spirit", Patrick Pinson quoted it using "Spirit"] [daily quote (Excerpted from the workshop in Detroit, MI on Saturday, July 8th, 2000 #468)] {Added 8 Oct 2010}

I thought life was mad at me, it turns out it just wanted me to be stronger. Me and life are on good terms now.
   -unknown [I saw this on Facebook, googled it, and got 9 results, but none with author attributed.] {Added 29 June 2010}

We would like you to release the word "achieve" or "earn" from your vocabulary and from your understanding, altogether, and we would like you to replace those words with the word "allow". You're wanting to allow your Well-being, not achieve it. It's not something that you need to earn. All you have to do is decide what it is you would like to experience, and then allow it in order to achieve it. It isn't something you have to struggle for or try for. You are all worthy beings. You are deserving of this Well-being.
   -Abraham [daily quote (Excerpted from the workshop in Detroit, MI on Saturday, July 8th, 2000 #468)] {Added 14 June 2010}

Decisiveness is a characteristic of a high-performer. Almost any decision is better than no decision at all.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

I've found that luck is quite predictable. If you want more luck, take more chances. Be more active. Show up more often.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, "What's in it for me?"
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

Successful people are simply those with successful habits.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

Teamwork is so important that it is virtually impossible for you to reach the heights of your capabilities or make the money that you want without becoming very good at it.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire, not things we fear.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

The more credit you give away, the more will come back to you. The more you help others, the more they will want to help you.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

The more you seek security, the less of it you have. But the more you seek opportunity, the more likely it is that you will achieve the security that you desire.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

We always tend to fulfill our own expectation of ourselves.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

Whatever you dwell on in the conscious grows in your experience.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (brainyquote.com) {Added 14 June 2010}

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
   -Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and author (1884-1962) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 June 2010}

When in trouble, take one step toward what you love.
   -Eric Robert [via Charles Walsh] {Added 13 May 2010}

What do you think enlightenment is? Enlightenment is a blessing for being a good human being. Its not like you have to sit in a cave. What is a good person, though? What is a good human being? A good human being is one who is aware of the negative side of themselves but functions from the positive side. It doesnt mean the person is absolutely good. No one is absolutely good.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [from Chee Hau newsletter] {Added 13 May 2010}

If there must be trouble, let it be in my day,
that my child may have peace.
   -Thomas Paine [quoted in zennotes email list by Jim Lorentzen] {Added 20 February 2009}

To be honest, I really don't believe any book can change your life -- only you can. Two people read the same book: one is inspired while the other is bored. It's the person -- not the book -- that creates the transformation.
   -Bernie Siegel ["You've Got to Read This Book!" by James Canfield and Gay Hendricks] {Added 13 February 2009}

When I look at someone's face, I look beyond that face and into the cellular memory in my heart that says, "Finally you and I have met again. And now we must find out why."
   -Caroline Myss [from spiritedwoman.com ] {Added 21 January 2009}

Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it?
   -Caroline Myss [from spiritedwoman.com ] {Added 21 January 2009}

To choose is also to begin.
   -Starhawk [from spiritedwoman.com ] {Added 21 January 2009}

The closer we get to uncovering ourselves, the more difficult it becomes to face the truth. Sooner or later we stop running, out of sheer exhaustion and desperation, and turn around to face our image. The pain that we go through during this revelation is negligible compared to the state of grace that we enter into when we have finally moved on.
   -Dr. Christiane Northrup [from spiritedwoman.com ] {Added 21 January 2009}

Seekers are offered clues all the time from the world of spirit. Ordinary people call these clues coincidences.
   -Deepak Chopra [from spiritedwoman.com ] {Added 21 January 2009}

If you knew who walks beside you on this path that you have chosen, fear would be impossible.
   -A Course in Miracles [from spiritedwoman.com ] {Added 21 January 2009}

When you laugh, you change. And when you change, the whole world changes around you.
   -Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of Laughter Yoga International, LaughterYoga.org/ {Added 10 December 2008}

I'm a big believer in tolerance. I think that religion at it's best comes with a big dose of doubt. I'm suspicious of too much certainty in the pursuit of understanding just because I think people are limited in their understanding.
   -Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States interview with Cathleen Falsani, March 27, 2004 {Added 14 November 2008}

I've arrived at the place if I'm not taking a career risk, I'm not happy. If I'm scared, then I know I'm being challenged.
   -Jim Carrey, brainyquote.com {Added 28 July 2008}

If you aren't in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.
   -Jim Carrey, brainyquote.com {Added 28 July 2008}

That's the trouble with being me. At this point, nobody gives a damn what my problem is. I could literally have a tumor on the side of my head and they'd be like, 'Yeah, big deal. I'd eat a tumor every morning for the kinda money you're pulling down.'
   -Jim Carrey, brainyquote.com {Added 28 July 2008}

I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.
   -Jim Carrey, brainyquote.com {Added 28 July 2008}

These spiritual window-shoppers,
who idly ask, 'How much is that?' Oh, I'm just looking.
They handle a hundred items and put them down,
shadows with no capital.

What is spent is love and two eyes wet with weeping.
But these walk into a shop,
and their whole lives pass suddenly in that moment,
in that shop.

Where did you go? "Nowhere."
What did you have to eat? "Nothing much."

Even if you don't know what you want,
buy something, to be part of the exchanging flow.

Start a huge, foolish project,
like Noah.

It makes absolutely no difference
what people think of you.
   -"We are Three", Jalaluddin Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) {Added 28 July 2008}

A few seconds of stillness allows you to return to yourself. To find balance, you must always return to you.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Pam] {Added 19 Apr 2008}

If he were absolutely determined to discover the truth, he could free himself anytime.
   -From the film "The Truman Show" [from an email from Badeish Lange] {Added 8 Jan 2008 }

When you write a book, you need to have more than an interesting story. You need to have a desire to tell the story. You need to be personally invested in some way. That was what happened. If you're going to live with something for two years, three years, the rest of your life, you need to care about it.
   -Malcolm Gladwell, from interview by David Weich at Powell's Books web site http://www.powells.com/authors/gladwell.html {Added 8 Jan 2008 }

If someone does not smile at you, be generous and offer your own smile. Nobody needs more a smile than the one that cannot smile to others.
   -(author unknown) [quoted in email from Doug Pulak] {Added 20 Dec 2007}

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right.
   -Laurens van der Post, explorer and writer (1906-1996) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 5 Dec 2007}

That some good can be derived from every event is a better proposition than that everything happens for the best, which it assuredly does not.
   -James Kern Feibleman, philosopher and psychiatrist (1904-1987) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness.
   -Khalil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Do something for somebody every day for which you do not get paid.
   -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 5 Dec 2007}

There are few things more disturbing than to find, in somebody we detest, a moral quality which seems to us demonstrably superior to anything we ourselves possess. It augurs not merely an unfairness on the part of creation, but a lack of artistic judgment. Sainthood is acceptable only in saints.
   -Pamela Hansford Johnson, poet and novelist (1912-1981) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Love involves a peculiar, unfathomable combination of understanding and misunderstanding.
   -Diane Arbus, photographer (1923-1971) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
   -Buddha (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.
   -James M. Barrie (1860-1937) novelist, dramatist, playwright (including Peter Pan) (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Formula to live your dream: 1. Be bold. 2. Begin now. 3. No exceptions.
   -William James (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Those who irk you have come by your invitation to help you find peace where you once thought it absent.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

The best cure for anger is delay.
   -Seneca (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Feel good before you get there, and you will get there quicker.
   -Abraham-Hicks (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Think less about what went wrong and more about how you would like to to go right.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

We're all kissed by angels but some of us never think to pucker.
   -Amethyst Snow-Rivers (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

When you step beyond a fear or challenge, you help many more people than yourself.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Every moment of quiet time that you find to replenish your spirit will bear fruit a thousand times over.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.
   -Oren Arnold (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.
   -Phillips Brooks (1835-1893) clergyman and author (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.
   -Sally Koch (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
   -Elizabeth Bibesco (1897-1945) writer, poet (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

You will rise by lifting others.
   -Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) political leader, orator (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.
   -Muhammad Ali [Cassius Clay] (b. 1942), athlete, boxer (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

A smile is the light in your window that tells others that there is a caring, sharing person inside.
   - Denis Waitley inspirational author, keynote speaker (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
   -Dr. Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998), author, professor of special eduaction (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

When we share - that is poetry in the prose of life.
   -Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 5 Dec 2007}

They laughed when I said I was going to be a comedian. They're not laughing now.
   -Bob Monkhouse, comedian (1928-2003) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

It is not giving children more that spoils them; it is giving them more to avoid confrontation.
   -John Gray, author (b. 1951) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
   -Colette, author (1873-1954) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror.
   -Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
   -Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Genius is eternal patience.
   -Michelangelo Buonarroti, sculptor, painter, architect, and poet (1475-1564) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

He had the rare quality of not only loving but respecting childhood -- its innocence, its keen sense of justice, its passionate and yet sensitive affections.
   -Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, novelist and poet (1826-1887) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

I may be a despicable person, but when Truth speaks through me I am invincible.
   -Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.
   -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
   -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.
   -Roy Amara, engineer, futurist (b. 1925) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

The real measure of our wealth is how much we'd be worth if we lost all our money.
   -John Henry Jowett, preacher (1864-1923) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Do not be too quick to assume your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. Perhaps he is your enemy because he thinks you are a savage. Or perhaps he is afraid of you because he feels that you are afraid of him. And perhaps if he believed you are capable of loving him he would no longer be your enemy.
   -Thomas Merton, writer (1915-1968) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.
   -Jalaluddin Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

The butterfly flitting from flower to flower ever remains mine, I lose the one that is netted by me.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 14 Nov 2007}

In life you can never be too kind or too fair; everyone you meet is carrying a heavy load. When you go through your day expressing kindness and courtesy to all you meet, you leave behind a feeling of warmth and good cheer, and you help alleviate the burdens everyone is struggling with.
   -Brian Tracy (b. 1944) author, motivational speaker (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.
   -Helen Keller (1880-1968) author, lecturer, activist (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
   -Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) 39th President of the United States, Nobel Peace Prize winner (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Depend upon yourself. Make your judgement trustworthy by trusting it. You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body - by judicious, daily exercise. To be known as a person of sound judgement will be much in your favor.
   -Grantland Rice (1880 - 1954), American sportswriter (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future, making it predictable and reliable to the extent that this is humanly possible.
   -Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) political philosopher, writer, educator (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.
   -Henry Miller (1891-1980) author, writer (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to the spirit of self-sacrifice. The spirit of self-sacrifice creates trust in the power of love.
   -Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969) founder of the Japanese martial art Akido (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Only the curious will learn and only the resolute overcome the obstacles to learning. The quest quotient has always excited me more than the intelligence quotient.
   -Eugene S. Wilson (1900-1981) Dean of Admissions at Amherst College (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
   -Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) theologian, philosopher, physician (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
   -George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Irish dramatist, novelist and critic (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Self-sacrifice is the real miracle out of which all the reported miracles grow.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) poet, essayist and lecturer (quoted on the daily quote email from the Alan Cohen website) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you... with the strength of conviction that you can move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respects.
   -Neil Simon, (b. 1927) American playwright, screenwriter (quoted on the daily quote email from the Foundation for a Better Life) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Dare to be wrong so love can be right.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

When we use our imagination properly it is our greatest friend; it goes beyond reason and is the only light that takes us everywhere.
   -Swami Vivekananda (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards.
   -Anatole France (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Life is the only school where the exam comes before the lesson.
   -(source unknown) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

There is no afterlife. There is only life, which begins now, and goes on forever.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.
   -Abraham Joshua Henschel (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

The difference between successful people and those less successful, is that successful people keep moving ahead even when voice of self-doubt chides them to stop or go back.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Prayer does not change God, but it changes the one who prays.
   -Soren Kierkegaard (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

What voice tells you that you have to do something?
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Act freely when you are tuned in, centered and loving. Avoid acting when you are upset.
   -Ken Keyes, Jr. (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Your relationship is safe as long as one of you remains sane at any given time.
   -Alan Cohen (adapted from A Course in Miracles) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

If the sun and moon should doubt, they'd immediately go out.
   -William Blake (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Go where you are valued.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

I used to be different. Now I'm the same.
   -Werner Erhart (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Leaving space is as important as filling it.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

When you become your own greatest lover, you will have lots of competition for the position.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

How long are you willing to do absolutely nothing until you receive guidance as to your next step?
   -Rick Jarrow (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

The faster you rush, the farther you push yourself from what you are truly trying to reach.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Very young people and very old people are the most honest, for they do not have an investment in the fears and games that make other people dishonest.
   -Guide Mary (Carla Gordon) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Criticism is often more of a reflection of the critics self-criticism than an evaluation of the recipient. Criticism sandwiched with appreciation is believable.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

The closer you are to awe and wonder, the closer you are to reality.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

If you did know the answer, what would it be?
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Less rules, more intuition.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Everything that happens is moving you to live a bigger truth.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Nothing you really want is upstream.
   -Abraham-Hicks (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

All love returns to you. All fear returns to dust.
   -Emmanuel (Pat Rodegast) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Life does not make mistakes. Mistakes exist only in our thoughts. See clearly, and perfection will reveal itself everywhere you look.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Laughter is an instant vacation.
   -Milton Berle (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

You will get the answer when you want it more than the question.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 14 Nov 2007}

Satan is always in a hurry, God never is. Slow down.
   -(Author Unknown) {Added 13 Nov 2007}

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.
   -Author Unknown {Added 27 Oct 2007}

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed
I hope you still feel small when you stand by the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me you'll give faith a fighting chance
-
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
I hope you dance
-
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Living might mean taking chances but they're worth taking
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth making
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to selling out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
-
Time is a real and constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their youth and wonder
Where those years have gone
   -Lee Ann Womack, song "I Hope you Dance" {Added 26 Sep 2007}

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on -- have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear -- what remains? Nature remains.
   -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 17 Sep 2007}

You change the past when you change the way you see it.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 17 Sep 2007}

We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure.
   -Aristotle (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 17 Sep 2007}

Missed opportunities will come again, and you will be ready.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 17 Sep 2007}

Regret is an appalling waste of energy. You can't build on it; it is only good for wallowing in.
   -Katherine Mansfield (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 17 Sep 2007}

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone.
   -Lin Yutang (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 8 Sep 2007}

Don't doubt!
   -Rising Sun (told to me by Patrick Pinson) {Added 8 Sep 2007}

You life is none of your business.
   -(author unknown; heard from Patrick Pinson; saw some references on the web but no attributions) {Added 8 Sep 2007}

The purpose of life is for the individual to become greater than the definitions he has inherited.
   -James Baldwin (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 8 Sep 2007}

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 31 Aug 2007}

You have to work a lot less to stay strong than to stay weak.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 29 Aug 2007}

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
   -Victor Borge (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 29 Aug 2007}

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
   -Charles Schulz (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 29 Aug 2007}

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
   -Dale Carnegie (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 29 Aug 2007}

If you took one tenth of the energy you invest in criticism and converted it to gratitude, your life would improve a hundredfold.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 29 Aug 2007}

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 29 Aug 2007}

Doubt comes in at the window when inquiry is denied at the door.
   -Benjamin Jowett (1817-1893) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 16 Aug 2007}

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from that of their social environment.
   -Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 16 Aug 2007}

The barriers are not erected which can say to aspiring talents and industry, "Thus far and no farther."
   -Ludwig van Beethoven, composer (1770-1827) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 16 Aug 2007}

The truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is dull without it.
   -Pearl S. Buck (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

If you want to improve your strength to forgive, the best place to start is with yourself.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

What would you do today if you loved yourself?
   -Alan Cohen (?) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

Don't follow people. Follow truth.
   -Alan Cohen (?) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

Silence is richer and fuller than all the words you may speak.
   -Alan Cohen (?) (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

Empowerment is all about letting go so that others can get going.
   -Kenneth Blanchard (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

There is no such thing as a bad emotion.
   -Dr. Leonard Licht (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

It is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate.
   -George Burns (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

Do you want the problem or do you want the answer?
   -A Course in Miracles (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

For everything that falls through, something equal or better comes through.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 16 Aug 2007}

If something you are doing isn't working, doing more of it will not work better.
   -Source unknown. (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 7 Aug 2007}

God gives every bird his worm, but he does not throw it into the nest.
   -Swedish proverb [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist."
   -Maria Montessori, educator (1870-1952) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Along this tree
From root to crown
Ideas flow up
And vetoes down.
   -A senior executive, quoted by Peter Drucker [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Conceal a flaw, and the world will imagine the worst.
   -Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.
   -Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

In death the many become one; in life the one become many.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The best work is done with the heart breaking, or overflowing.
   -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

A different language is a different vision of life.
   -Federico Fellini, film director and writer (1920-1993) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language.
   -Andrew Cohen, professor of linguistics (1944- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The soul is healed by being with children.
   -Fyodor Dostoyevsky, novelist (1821-1881) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.
   -Steven Wright, comedian (1955- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.
   -John Wooden, sports coach (1910- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
   -Michel De Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.
   -Robert A. Heinlein, science-fiction author (1907-1988) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Children's plays are not sports, and should be deemed as their most serious actions.
   -Michel De Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?
   -Paul Sweeney [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The conscience of the world is so guilty that it always assumes that people who investigate heresies must be heretics; just as if a doctor who studies leprosy must be a leper. Indeed, it is only recently that science has been allowed to study anything without reproach.
   -Aleister Crowley, author (1875-1947) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
   -Andre Gide, author, Nobel laureate (1869-1951) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.
   -Henry Ford, industrialist (1863-1947) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.
   -Louis L'Amour, novelist (1908-1988) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
   -Stephen King, novelist (1947- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.
   -William Feather, author, editor and publisher (1889-1981) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

All kids are gifted; some just open their packages earlier than others.
   -Michael Carr [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

It is an ironic habit of human beings to run faster when we have lost our way.
   -Rollo May, psychologist (1909-1994) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.
   -Roger Miller, musician (1936-1992) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.
   -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

My greatest skill has been to want but little.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The living are soft and yielding; the dead are rigid and stiff.
Living plants are flexible and tender; the dead are brittle and dry.
   -Lao Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Evil is like a shadow - it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
   -Shakti Gawain, teacher and author (1948- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Interruptions are the best part of my day.
   -Source unknown. (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.
   -John Henry Newman (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Television is where you invite people in your living room that you would not want near your house.
   -Groucho Marx (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Your relationship with God is as unique as your fingerprints. Do not try to replicate another's; trust in your own.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
   -Confucius (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

It doesn't take much to start feeling better. Simply start doing more of what you love and less of what you don't love.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

You can't force the petals of a rose open. Simply nurture the plant and they will unfold in their own perfect way and time.
   -Source unknown (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Don't ask anyone a question unless you know the answer you want, and that they will give it to you.
   -Jerry Hicks (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

How well you receive compliments symbolizes how well you receive love. Practice being a wide receiver.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

If you need to do something specific to serve the plan of good, you will be shown what it is. Otherwise, relax and enjoy the ride.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The universe is constantly seeking to prove false your sense of inadequacy and replace it with confidence in your magnitude.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.
   -Albert Einstein (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go.
   -A Course in Miracles (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

It's not a small world after all.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Being crazy is the only thing that keeps me sane.
   -Source unknown. (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

A person who makes no mistake does not usually make anything.
   -William Connor Magee (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

You empower what you fight. You withdraw power from what you release.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

When of thy mortal goods thou find theyself bereft,
And from the goodly store two loaves alone are left...
Sell one, and with the dole
buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.
   -Moslih Eddin Saadi (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The voice of guilt is a poor guide to where your heart seeks to go.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

What you hide hides you.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The tide always comes back in.
   -Norman Vincent Peale (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

If you hear a voice within you say, "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
   -Vincent Van Gogh (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

When the solution is simple, God is answering.
   -Albert Einstein (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

Laughter releases. Analysis binds.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

People who pressure you usually deserve a "no." People who are patient with you usually deserve a "yes."
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

I have a large seashell collection which I keep scattered all over the beaches of the world... Maybe you've seen it?
   -Steve Wright (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.
   -Tolstoy (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

I have good news and I have bad news: The bad news is that there is no key to the universe. The good news is that the door has never been locked.
   -Swami Beyondananda (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
   -Albert Einstein (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 6 Aug 2007}

The essence of pleasure is spontaneity.
   -Germaine Greer http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/germaine_greer.html {Added 18 July 2007}

Django: This is the way things are; you can't change nature.
Remy: Change is nature, Dad. The part that we can influence. And it starts when we decide.
   -from movie "Ratatouille", 2007 http://imdb.com/title/tt0382932/quotes {Added 18 July 2007}

Free yourself from the responsibility of making others happy.
   -Stephen C. Paul (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

Every decision you make stems from what you think you are, and represents the value that you put upon yourself.
   -A Course in Miracles (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

Quit trying to improve yourself and recognize your shining self that is whole, perfect, and complete right now.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

How much of what you want have you asked for?
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.
   -Thoreau (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

When it is not necessary to make a decision, it is necessary not to make a decision.
   -Lord Falkland (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

The platform from which you act -- faith or fear -- determines your results more than the actions themselves.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

Nature is the original church. Worship there daily.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

Delight will net you far more spiritual mileage than analysis.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 5 July 2007}

Every action is either an expression of love or a call for love. Reframe all aberrant behavior as a call for love, and you will have the key to healing. You will know what to do for yourself and you will know what to do for others.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You do not need to prove your worth to anyone. You just need to know it.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
   -Marguerite Gardiner Blessington (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

True progress comes not through action, but through awakening.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

The march to freedom is irreversible.
   -Nelson Mandela (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Don't try to lose weight. Take delight in gaining fitness.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.
   -May Sarton, poet and novelist (1912-1995) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 1 July 2007}

Don't be yourself. Be someone a little nicer.
   -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 1 July 2007}

Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well.
   -Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director (1921-2004) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 1 July 2007}

It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts.
   -Bill Vaughan, journalist (1915-1977) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 1 July 2007}

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
   -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 1 July 2007}

I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil.
   -Norman Mailer, author (1923- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org) daily email] {Added 1 July 2007}

Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us?
   -Lois McMaster Bujold, writer (1949- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive.
   -Mignon McLaughlin, author (1915-) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
   -Alan M. Eddison [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

Underground nuclear testing, defoliation of the rain forests, toxic waste ... Let's put it this way: if the world were a big apartment, we wouldn't get our deposit back.
   -John Ross [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

Let your tears come. Let them water your soul.
   -Eileen Mayhew [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.
   -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

The only person you should ever compete with is yourself. You can't hope for a fairer match.
   -Todd Ruthman [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

An open mind is a prerequisite to an open heart.
   -Robert M. Sapolsky, neuroscientist and author (1957- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

It's like, at the end, there's this surprise quiz: Am I proud of me? I gave my life to become the person I am right now. Was it worth what I paid?
   -Richard Bach, writer (1936- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

Language is the armory of the human mind; and at once contains the trophies of its past, and the weapons of its future conquests.
   -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic, and philosopher (1772-1834) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.
   -Mignon McLaughlin, journalist and author (1913-1983) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much.
   -Germain G. Glien [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

Do I believe God is going to take away my illness when he turned an entirely deaf ear to the six million Jews who went into the gas chambers?
   -Karen Armstrong, author (1944- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.
   -Yasutani Roshi, Zen master (1885-1973) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself.
   -Rita Mae Brown, writer (1944- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham.
   -Anna Sewell, writer (1820-1878) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves.
   -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

I would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.
   -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.
   -Edgar Guest, poet (1881-1959) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.
   -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 1 July 2007}

Life is a privilege, not a problem.
   -Alan Cohen [?] (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You do not need to prove your worth to anyone. You just need to know it.
   -Alan Cohen [?] (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
   - Max Ehrmann (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

If you keep asking, eventually someone will say yes.
   - Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Give yourself the benefit of the doubt.
   - Abraham-Hicks (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

When you do what you are here to do, you help others do what they are here to do.
   - Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Change can come in the twinkling of an eye.
   - St. Paul (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

The purpose of life is not to fight against evil and misfortune; it is to unveil magnificence.
   - Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Give up your lust for growth.
   - White Eagle (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

In my world, all is well.
   - Sri Nisargadatta (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

If you keep going in the direction you are walking, you will end up where you headed.
   -Zen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

I do not seek good fortune -- I am good fortune!
   -Walt Whitman (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

God does not test you. God simply gives you opportunities to recognize the presence of love where you thought it was absent.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You always have enough time to do the things that Spirit would have you do.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.
   -Jane Heard (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You are as old as God and as young as the morning.
   -Hilda Charlton (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You don't need to put more energy out. You need to let more spirit in.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

The life of the body proceeds from the vitality of the spirit; nurture your spirit, and your body will thrive.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

It's important to let people know what you stand for. It's equally important to let them know what you won't stand for.
   -Source unknown. (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.
   -Mark Twain (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

When you think or say, "I don't know," ask yourself, "If I did know, what would it be?"
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Everything works out somehow.
   -Source unknown (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You already know.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what yo have to do.
   -Epictetus (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Simplicity is the flower that brings the intellect to its knees.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Conflict exists strictly as an opportunity to raise our consciousness.
   -Carl Jung (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

There's nothing you can't do, and nothing you have to do.
   -Source unknown (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Forget what you've been taught so you can remember what you know.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

In the middle of every difficulty lies an opportunity.
   -Albert Einstein (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

"I will relax when ..." is not the same as "I choose to relax now."
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

You can never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.
   -Buckminster Fuller (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Less trying will make your life less trying.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible.
   -Doug Larson (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Quit trying to make what's not it, "it," and "it" will reveal itself plainly.
   - Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
   -Martin Luther King, Jr. (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Because you are divine by nature, only divine attributes befit you.
   - Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Let a benevolent universe have its way, and you will recognize a bigger plan than you understood when you looked through the eyes of fear.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Make the most of what comes, and the least of what goes.
   -[source unknown] (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

The thought that you should be doing something else is a distraction. Be fully present with what you are doing, and it will lead to better.
   -Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

The chief danger in life is that you may take too many precautions.
   -Alfred Adler (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 1 July 2007}

Just sit there right now. Don't do a thing. Just rest... You can use my soft words as a cushion for your head.
   - Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 4 Jan 2007}

If you want to be prosperous, make someone else prosperous.
   - Neale Donald Walsch (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 4 Jan 2007}

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
   - Stephen Wright (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 4 Jan 2007}

Remain established in your calm center, and everything will take care of itself in miraculous ways far more wonderful than you could manipulate.
   - Alan Cohen (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 30 Dec 2006}

He who would be a leader must be a bridge.
   -Welsh proverb [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
   -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong.
   -Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

They have a right to censure, that have a heart to help: The rest is cruelty, not justice.
   -William Penn, Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania (1644-1718) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
   -Henri Frederic Amiel, philosopher and writer (1821-1881) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such.
   -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

Man is the best computer we can put aboard a spacecraft and the only one that can be mass produced with unskilled labor.
   -Wernher von Braun, rocket engineer (1912-1977) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

He who binds to himself a joy,
Does the winged life destroy;
He who kisses the joy as it flies,
Lives in Eternity's sun rise.
   -William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax.
   -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. 'The first thing,' I said, 'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.'
   -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 30 Dec 2006}

Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money.
   -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 14 Nov 2006}

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
   -Theodore Rubin, psychiatrist and writer (1923- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 27 Sep 2006}

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.
   -Milton Friedman, economist, Novel laureate (1912- ) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 15 Sep 2006}

In the small matters trust the mind, in the large ones the heart.
   -Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 15 Sep 2006}

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest.
   -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) [quoted on A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 15 Sep 2006}

How come we put a man on the moon before we figured out how to put wheels on suitcases?
   -Stephen Wright (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 15 Sep 2006}

It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to.
   -Annie Gottlier (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 15 Sep 2006}

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
   -Frank Tibolt -(quoted on the quotationspage.com) {Added 13 Sep 2006}

I shut my eyes in order to see.
   -Paul Gauguin (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 06 Sep 2006}

What could you not accept, if you but knew that everything that happens, all events, past, present, and to come, are gently planned by One Whose only purpose is your good?
   -"A Course in Miracles", (quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 05 Sep 2006}

I think the next best thing to solving a problem is finding some humor in it.
   -Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 05 Sep 2006}

The secret of life is to believe.
The more I ask, the more I receive.
   -source unknown (from the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 31 Aug 2006}

Rather than setting goals for what you will do, set goals for how you will feel. Replace your To Do list with a To Feel list, or a To Be list. The only thing more important than what you get done is how you feel when you are doing it.
   -Alan Cohen, from this web page) {Added 31 Aug 2006}

"My grandfather says that almost the whole world is asleep... Everybody you know... Everybody you see... Everybody you talk to... He says that only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement."
   -from the move "Joe Versus the Volcano" {Added 31 Aug 2006}

It's amazing-- you take all the love with you.
   -from the movie "Ghost" from this web page) {Added 31 Aug 2006}

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.
   -Martin Buber from this web page) {Added 31 Aug 2006}

The force that created the unimaginable splendors and the unimaginable horrors has taken refuge in us, and it will follow our commands.
   -St. Catherine of Siena from this web page) {Added 31 Aug 2006}

Their watch toward glory despite outward horrors has made the mystics of all time the most powerful engines for miraculous good that the world has held.
   -Emma Curtis Hopkins (from the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 22 Aug 2006}

One's true religion is what one cares about most.
   -Walter Starcke (from the website of Alan Cohen ) {Added 15 Aug 2006}

When you speak from your heart, everyone listens -- because God is talking.
   -(source unknown) from the website of Alan Cohen {Added 15 Aug 2006}

Why is it only Christians who cannot see the nonviolence of Jesus?
   -Mahatma Gandhi [p. 3, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

Man desires a world where good and evil can be clearly distinguished, for he has an innate and irrepressible desire to judge before he understands.
   -Milan Kundera [p. 3, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

We need the idea of a God who makes mistakes.
   -Ursula K. Le Guin [p. 26, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

God breathes through us so completely, so gently, we hardly feel it.
   -John Coltrane [p. 27, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

I do not understand the ways of God.
   -Mother Teresa [p. 29, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

Joshu: Should I turn to the way or not?
Nansen: If you turn to it, then you're going against it.
Joshu: If I don't turn to the way, how can I know that it is the way?
Nansen: The way does not belong to knowing or not-knowing.
   [p. 29, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

We can do no great things -- only small things, with great love.
   -Mother Teresa [p. 117, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

God doesn't ask us to win. He asks us to try.
   -Mother Teresa [p. 114, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

The only cure for grief is a pill, called Grief. And if you don't take your medicine, you won't get well.
   -Ivy Push [p. 114, "God Laughs and Plays : Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right" by David James Duncan, 2006] {Added 18 Jul 2006}

Slow and steady wins the race.
   -[from the Hare and Tortoise fable] {Added 14 Jul 2006}

Keep life simple.
   -Rob Bednark {Added 14 Jul 2006}

Intuition rises from the depths of the human heart.
   - Hazrat Inayat Khan [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Do not lose your inward peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.
   -Saint Francis De Sales [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

I went everywhere with longing in my eyes, until here in my own house, I felt truth filling my sight.
   -Lalla [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Let the power of joy pervade your soul and lift you above the tribulations of your life with a sense of ease.
   -Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

I found the beloved within me; all outward search was but fruitless effort.
   -M. Angha [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
   -Tao Te Ching [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Let your hands touch something that makes your eyes smile. I bet there are a hundred objects close by that can do that.
   -Mirabai [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

You cannot do meditation, you can be only be in meditation. It is not a question of doing something, it is a question of being. It is not an act, but a state.
   -Osho [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Sing because this is a food our starving world needs. Laugh because that is the purest sound.
   -Hafiz [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.
   -Martin Luther King, Jr. [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now.
   -Buddha [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

We start our lives trying to be teachers; it is very hard to learn to be a pupil.
   -Hazrat Inayat Khan [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.
   -The Dalai Lama [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

You need not give up all you have in order to become spiritual. If you think that, it is a great pity.
   -Hazrat Inayat Khan [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

First of all, you should understand your own greatness and your own divinity. Then, you will understand the divinity in others.
   -Swami Muktananda [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.
   -William Ellery Channing [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

There are many paths to enlightenment. Be sure to take the one with a heart.
   -Lao-tzu [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

You are the Sun in drag. You are God hiding from yourself.
   -Hafiz [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
   -Aristotle [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

When life has so many surprises, boredom never settles in you.
   -Osho [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Whatever perceptions arise, you should be like a little child going into a beautifully decorated temple; he looks, but grasping does not enter into his perception at all.
   -Dudjom Rinpoche [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!
   -Eckhart Tolle [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Happiness is a shadow of harmony; it follows harmony. There is no other way to be happy.
   -Osho [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Could you also kiss the hand that caused each scar, for you will not find me until you do.
   -Rabia [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way.
   -Lao-tzu [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The measure of your life will not be in what you accumulate, but in what you give away.
   -Dr. Wayne Dyer [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The bravest are the tenderest, the loving are the daring.
   -Inazo Nitobe [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

On action alone be thy interest... never on its fruits.
   -The Bhagavad Gita [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Focus determines your reality.
   -Qui-Gon Jinn (Star Wars, Episode I) [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind.
   -Dr. Wayne W. Dyer [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The body is not me. I am not limited by the body. I am life without boundaries.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The emphasis on the ego is on doing and the emphasis on consciousness is on being.
   -Osho [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
   -Sosan [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

You have to seek and search for that point within you which never sleeps.
   -Osho [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Each of us contains a blueprint for the continual discovery of our true nature and purpose.
   -Julia Mossbridge [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Who sees all beings in his own Self, and his own Self in all beings, loses all fear.
   -The Upanishads [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
   -Charles DuBos [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

No one will experience in life what is not meant for him.
   -Hazrat Inayat Khan [from Hamid Shibata Bennett's website transcendingtouch.com] {Added 13 Jul 2006}

Everyone confesses that exertion which brings out all the powers of body and mind is the best thing for us; but most people do all they can to get rid of it, and as a general rule nobody does much more than circumstances drive them to do.
   -Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and novelist (1811-1896) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.
   -Charles A. Beard, historian (1874-1948) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy.
   -E.B. White, writer (1899-1985 [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

Civilizations in decline are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity.
   -Arnold Toynbee, historian (1889-1975) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

Look into any man's heart you please, and you will always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has to keep concealed.
   -Henrik Ibsen, playwright (1828-1906) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

This world is divided roughly into three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; and those whose people don't know where their next meal is coming from.
   -David S. Landes, author, professor of economics and history (1924- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.
   -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

The further one grows spiritually, the more and more people one loves.
   -Gale D. Webbe, clergyman and author (1909-2000) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

The object of most prayers is to wangle an advance on good intentions. <-- memorize -->
   -Robert Brault [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006} {Added 11 Jul 2006}

You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy. <-- memorize -->
   -Eric Hoffer (quoted by David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)) {Added 21 Jun 2006}

Make known the unknown.
   -Ramtha {Added 21 Jun 2006}

The barn's burnt down
Now I can see the moon. <-- memorize -->
   -Masahide [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 30 May 2006}

How painful to see people
All wrapped up in themselves.
   -Ryokan [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 30 May 2006}

Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
   -Edward R. Murrow, journalist (1908-1965) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 May 2006}

Slow down. Take a few moments to breathe. Close your eyes, and listen to the sound of your breathing. Can you hear the sound of the birds chirping and chattering? Of a squirrel gnawing at an acorn? Of a bee pollinating a flower?
   -email from David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 10 May 2006}

We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same.
   -Carlos Castenada, mystic and author (1925-1998) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 10 May 2006}

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh; otherwise, they'll kill you.
   -Oscar Wilde [from Craig Newmark's blog (Craig is the founder and CEO or craigslist.com)] {Added 8 May 2006}

The artist deals with what cannot be said in words. The artist whose medium is fiction does this in words.
   -Ursula K. Le Guin [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 8 May 2006}

There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.
   -Leonard Cohen, musician (1934- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 5 May 2006}

While science revels in explaining how the world works, myth and poetry explain why. Its stories and images... give a sense of the movements of the soul's experience of the world. This is why myths are lies that tell the truth.
   -Phil Cousineau [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 5 May 2006}

Have you ever noticed how we seek less adventure and more stability as we age? We seek predictability and control at the expense of adventure and discovery.
   -email from David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 4 May 2006}

When we are afraid, we put up our defenses and pull back from life. When we love, we open to all that life has to offer with acceptance and even passion and excitement. In any moment, we can ask ourselves: Do I choose love or fear? Do I choose to back away or move toward? And when we choose love, our lives transform!
   -Patrice Robson, in email from David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 4 May 2006}

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.
   -Zora Neale Hurston, folklorist and writer (1891-1960) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 25 Apr 2006}

Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.
   -Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 25 Apr 2006}

What is desired is that teachers cease being lecturers; satisfied with transmitting ready-made solutions; their role should rather be that of mentors stimulating initiative and research.
   -Jean Piaget, quoted on p. 44 of book "Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius : Enhancing Curiousity, Creativity, and Learning Ability" book by Thomas Armstrong, PhD, 1991. {Added 21 Apr 2006}

There are no perfect parents! What's important is that you keep moving in the direction of good parenting. If you remain honest about where you are, your children's trust in you will increase. They care about truth, not perfection, and it is an impossible job for a human to play God. Yet many parents saddle themselves with this terribile responsibility.
   -Virginia Satir, quoted on p. 31 of book "Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius : Enhancing Curiousity, Creativity, and Learning Ability" book by Thomas Armstrong, PhD, 1991. {Added 21 Apr 2006}

The question why there is evil in existence is the same as why there is imperfection... But this is the real question we ought to ask: Is this imperfection the final truth, is evil absolute and ultimate?
   -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 Apr 2006}

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change.
   -Richard Bach, writer (1936- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 19 Apr 2006}

Competition, which is the instinct of selfishness, is another word for dissipation of energy, while combination is the secret of efficient production.
   -Edward Bellamy, quoted on p. 257 of "Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius : Enhancing Curiousity, Creativity, and Learning Ability" book by Thomas Armstrong, PhD, 1991. {Added 17 Apr 2006}

We destroy the... love of learning in children, which is so strong when they are small, by compelling them to work for petty and contemptible rewards -- gold stars, or papers marked 100 and tacked to the wall, or A's on report cards, or honor rolls, or Dean's list, or Phi Beta Kappa keys -- in short, for the ignoble satisfaction of feeling that they are better than somebody else.
   -John Holt, quoted on p. 258 of "Awakening Your Child's Natural Genius : Enhancing Curiousity, Creativity, and Learning Ability" book by Thomas Armstrong, PhD, 1991. {Added 17 Apr 2006}

There are thousands upon thousands of students who have practiced meditation and obtained its fruits. Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
   -Dogen Zenji [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 17 Apr 2006}

A different language is a different vision of life.
   -Federico Fellini, film director and writer (1920-1993) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 11 Apr 2006}

My life has become easier because I got out of my own way; I started to take things less seriously and remember that really very few things in life are in my control. The rest of it sort of happens, and my job is to recognize opportunities and navigate through them.
   -from a post on monkeyquiz.com, quoted by David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 11 Apr 2006}

Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you -- all of the expectations, all of the beliefs -- and becoming who you are.
   -Rachel Naomi Remen [quoted in Usenet news group] {Added 11 Apr 2006}

The river does not swell with clear water.
   -Italian proverb [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 06 Apr 2006}

If wishes were fishes, nobody would go hungry.
   -quoted by David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 06 Apr 2006}

And somewhere along the line, the men in headsets have managed to coach the instincts out of a promising young quarterback, Jake Plummer.
   -Dan Bickley, sports writer, Arizona Republic 12/02/02 on Jake Plummer, Arizona Cardinals quarterback; quoted on p. 20 in book "Powered by Instinct : 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts" by Kathy Kolbe, 2004. {Added 3 Apr 2006}

I don't think about things that much. I watch, I absorb, and then I follow instinct.
   -Tiger Woods, analyzing his success, from Sports Illustrated, 2000, quoted on p. 19 in book "Powered by Instinct : 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts" by Kathy Kolbe, 2004. {Added 3 Apr 2006}

Intellectual awareness cannot move us to do anything.
   -David Hume (1711-1776), quoted on p. 16 in book "Powered by Instinct : 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts" by Kathy Kolbe, 2004. The books says that this is what Hume argues in his book "Treatise on Human Nature", Book II, Part III, Section II. {Added 3 Apr 2006}

When you fail at something, it is God's way of telling you that you're going in the wrong direction.
   -Oprah Winfrey, quoted on p. 58 in book "Powered by Instinct : 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts" by Kathy Kolbe, 2004. {Added 3 Apr 2006}

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.
   -Martha Graham, quoted on p. 57 in book "Powered by Instinct : 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts" by Kathy Kolbe, 2004. {Added 31 Mar 2006}

'They mean well' is useless unless they do well.
   -Plautus, quoted on p. 52 in book "Powered by Instinct : 5 Rules for Trusting Your Guts" by Kathy Kolbe, 2004. {Added 31 Mar 2006}

Language is the archives of history.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 27 Mar 2006}

Once upon a time a man whose ax was missing suspected his neighbor's son. The boy walked like a thief, looked like a thief, and spoke like a thief. But the man found his ax while digging in the valley, and the next time he saw his neighbor's son, the boy walked, looked and spoke like any other child.
   -Lao-tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 23 Mar 2006}

I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.
   -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., writer (1922- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 21 Mar 2006}

Children are constantly using their imaginations, but adults are usually too caught up in reality to exercise what becomes a "lost art" as we age. Close your eyes now. Imagine you are riding a raindrop down through the sky. Imagine you are weaving your way through the Milky Way. Imagine melting and seeping into the ground. Imagine flying. It is not hard to do. You might need to lock yourself into a room with no distractions. You might need to wait a few moments to distance your thoughts from email messages, spilled juice or scheduling conflicts...but freeing your imagination is worth it.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 21 Mar 2006}

You don't trust somebody until you make yourself vulnerable. Trust is about giving control to another person, expecting that they will take good care of that control on your behalf.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 16 Mar 2006}

A child sees things very simply. Adults tend to complicate things.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 16 Mar 2006}

A poet looks at the world as a man looks at a woman.
   -Wallace Stevens, poet (1879-1955) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 15 Mar 2006}

Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.
   -William Strunk and E.B. White, authors of The Elements of Style [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 13 Mar 2006}

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
   -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian and writer (1906-1945) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 13 Mar 2006}

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
   -Herbert Alexander Simon, economist, Nobel laureate (1916-2001) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 10 Mar 2006}

God is conscience. He is even the atheism of the atheist.
   -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 10 Mar 2006}

What we believe about ourselves can hold us hostage. Over the years I have learned to respect the power of people's beliefs. The thing that amazes me is that a belief is more than just an idea--it seems to shift the way we experience ourselves and our lives. According to Talmudic teaching, "We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are."
   -Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., "Kitchen Table Wisdom" book, quoted by Mark Morin on sci.psychology.personality {Added 09 Mar 2006}

We might well ask if anything which cannot be addressed in scientific terms is really worthy of our attention. Yet most of the things that give life its depth, meaning, and value are impervious to science.
   -Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., "Kitchen Table Wisdom" book, quoted by Mark Morin on sci.psychology.personality {Added 09 Mar 2006}

There never was a horse that couldn't be rode, and there never was a cowboy that couldn't be throwed.
   [quoted in message by Peter Schug on rec.music.makers.bowed-strings] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.
   -Nelson Mandela [quoted in message on mahatma_gandhi_reflection group] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

We cannot have peace if we are only concerned with peace. War is not an accident. It is the logical outcome of a certain way of life. If we want to attack war, we have to attack the way of life.
   -A.J. Muste [quoted in message on mahatma_gandhi_reflection group] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.
   -Martin Luther King, Jr. [quoted in message on mahatma_gandhi_reflection group] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love, or total war.
   -David Dellinger [quoted in message on mahatma_gandhi_reflection group] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.
   -Moshe Dayan [quoted in message on mahatma_gandhi_reflection group] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

We have grasped the mystery of the atom, and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.
   -General Omar Bradley [quoted in message on mahatma_gandhi_reflection group] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.
   -Anne Lamott, writer (1954- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 08 Mar 2006}

Be still. Listen carefully to everything around you. Can you hear the refrigerator? Can you hear an animal outside? Can you hear the clock ticking in the next room? Now listen carefully inside yourself. Can you hear your heart beating? Can you hear your thoughts? Can you hear your feelings?
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 07 Mar 2006}

Oscar Wilde said, "True friends stab you in the front." An enemy is someone who stabs you in the back, who hurts you when you are not aware, who says things you don't want to hear when you are not listening. A true friend hurts you right up front by saying the things you don't want to hear when they know you are listening. Thank your friend for telling things you didn't want to hear.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy)] {Added 07 Mar 2006}

I fear nothing, I hope for nothing, I am free.
   -Nikos Kazantzakis, poet and novelist (1883-1957) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 06 Mar 2006}

The best politics is right action.
   -Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 03 Mar 2006}

A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.
   -Robert Quillen, journalist and cartoonist (1887-1948) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 03 Mar 2006}

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
   -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 03 Mar 2006}

I am malicious because I am miserable. ... If any being felt emotions of benevolence towards me, I should return them a hundred and a hundred fold.
   (words of Frankenstein monster). -Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author (1797-1851) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 03 Mar 2006}

It came to me that reform should begin at home, and since that day I have not had time to remake the world.
   -Will Durant, historian (1885-1981) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 24 Feb 2006}

One should be so aware of one's great dignity and sacredness as a human being that even when walking down the narrowest of streets and alley ways, one feels as if a chorus of angels goes before thee, gloriously singing, "Make Way! Make Way! Make Way for the Image of God!"
   -Huston Smith [quoted by Oroville Mercury-Register article] {Added 22 Feb 2006}

Let us face a pluralistic world in which there are no universal churches, no single remedy for all diseases, no one way to teach or write or sing, no magic diet, no world poets, and no chosen races, but only the wretched and wonderfully diversified human race.
   -Jacques Barzun, professor and writer (1907- ) [from A-Word-A-Day (wordsmith.org)] {Added 22 Feb 2006}

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
   -Nikos Kazantzakis, writer (1883-1957) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 21 Feb 2006}

Knowledge is being able to recall facts, means of doing things, labels and information. There is a lot of knowledge at the library and on the Internet. Wisdom is understanding the meaning and the implications of all the facts. There is no wisdom at the library and no wisdom on the internet. No matter how much knowledge you accumulate, it will never replace even a small amount of wisdom you develop.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy) {Added 21 Feb 2006}

Like scientific evidence, mistakes confirm what we should not do. In fact, without mistakes, there is no real learning. Without mistakes, all actions are based on superstition.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy) {Added 21 Feb 2006}

Never let criticism get the better of you. Don't let someone else control your sense of self-worth. By the same token, don't let praise get the better of you. After all, you alone should control your sense of self-worth.
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy) {Added 20 Feb 2006}

The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.
   -Joanna Macy, writer and teacher (1929- ) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 20 Feb 2006}

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
   -Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president (1809-1865)

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
   -John Adams, 2nd US president (1735-1826) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 13 Feb 2006}

As the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Feb 2006}

When we have the courage to speak out -- to break our silence -- we inspire the rest of the "moderates" in our communities to speak up and voice their views.
   -Sharon Schuster [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Feb 2006}

Lying is done with words and also with silence.
   -Adrienne Rich, writer and teacher (1929- ) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Feb 2006}

It does not require many words to speak the truth.
   -Chief Joseph, native American leader (1840-1904) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Feb 2006}

Why should I give them my mind we well?
   -Dalai Lama, when asked if he wasn't angry at the Chinese for taking over his country. (1935- ) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Feb 2006}

When the telephone rings, do you answer it? Of course you do, because it could be someone important. It could be someone you want to speak to. Of course, it could be a telemarketer, but then all you have to do is hang up. So why say no to other opportunities? Sure, you never know if they will go well or not. But isn't it that way with the phone, and you answer it just the same? When opportunity knocks, open the door. You can always close it back later. And what opportunity could be worse than a telemarketer?
   -David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy) {Added 09 Feb 2006}

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is
   -German proverb, quoted by David Leonhardt (The Happy Guy) {Added 09 Feb 2006}

I love you, and because I love you, I would sooner have you hate me for telling you the truth than adore me for telling you lies.
   -Pietro Aretino, satirist and dramatist (1492-1556) [from A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Fine minds are seldom fine souls.
   -Jean Paul Richter, writer (1763-1825) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.
   -William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

If you wouldn't write it and sign it, don't say it.
   -Earl Wilson, columnist (1907-1987) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.
   -Edgar Watson Howe, novelist and editor (1853-1937) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?
   -Thomas Wolfe, novelist (1900-1938) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security.
   -Dwight David Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

We love flattery, even though we are not deceived by it, because it shows that we are of importance enough to be courted.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

The problem with being sure that God is on your side is that you can't change your mind, because God sure isn't going to change His.
   -Roger Ebert, film-critic (1942- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

An open mind is a prerequisite to an open heart.
   -Robert M. Sapolsky, neuroscientist and author (1957- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

I'll tell you how the sun rose--
A ribbon at a time.
   -Emily Dickinson, poet (1830-1886) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.
   -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

I don't hate my enemies. After all, I made 'em.
   -Red Skelton, comedian (1913-1997) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

A society that presumes a norm of violence and celebrates aggression, whether in the subway, on the football field, or in the conduct of its business, cannot help making celebrities of the people who would destroy it.
   -Lewis H. Lapham, editor and writer (1935- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

We perceive when love begins and when it declines by our embarrassment when alone together.
   -Jean de la Bruyere, essayist and moralist (1645-1696) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.
   -William Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Don't wait for the Last Judgement. It takes place every day.
   -Albert Camus, writer and philosopher (1913-1960) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
   -John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner ... on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. ... That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.
   -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality.
   -Theodor Adorno, philosopher and composer (1903-1969) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Extreme justice is extreme injustice.
   -Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Earth is here so kind, that just tickle her with a hoe and she laughs with a harvest.
   -Douglas William Jerrold, playwright and humorist (1803-1857) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
   -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

If only I could so live and so serve the world that after me there should never again be birds in cages.
   -Isak Dinesen (pen name of Karen Blixen), author (1885-1962) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Be good and you will be lonesome.
   -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
   -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 Jan 2006}

It is no nonviolence if we merely love those who love us. It is nonviolence only when we love those who hate us. I know how difficult it is to follow this grand law of love. But are not all great and good things difficult to do? Love of the hater is the most difficult of all. But by the grace of God, even this most difficult thing becomes easy to accomplish if we want to do it.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [p. 53, "The Wisdom of Gandhi", compiled by Trudy S. Settel, 1995] {Added 23 Jan 2006}

The first condition of nonviolence is justice all round in every department of life. Perhaps it is too much to expect of human nature. I do not, however, think so. No one should dogmatize about the capacity of human nature for degradation or exaltation.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [p. 52, "The Wisdom of Gandhi", compiled by Trudy S. Settel, 1995] {Added 23 Jan 2006}

Joy comes not out of infliction of pain on others but out of pain voluntarily borne by oneself.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [p. 54, "The Wisdom of Gandhi", compiled by Trudy S. Settel, 1995] {Added 23 Jan 2006}

Humans and their deeds are two distinct things. It is quite proper to resist and attack a system, but to resist and attack its author is tantamount to resisting and attacking oneself. For we are all tarred with the same brush and are children of one and the same Creator, and as such the divine powers within us are infinite. To slight a single human being is to slight those divine powers and thus to harm not only that being but with them the entire world.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [p. 55, "The Wisdom of Gandhi", compiled by Trudy S. Settel, 1995] {Added 23 Jan 2006}

God sits in the hearts of all and that there should be no fear in the presence of God.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [p. 58, "The Wisdom of Gandhi", compiled by Trudy S. Settel, 1995] {Added 23 Jan 2006}

Your life is not around the next corner, or in your plans for tomorrow, or in your thoughts, desires, and regrets. Your life is right now, with whatever you are doing at the moment. Your life is the aches and pains that you are feeling, the boredom and emptiness you are experiencing, the person next to you, the silence and the noise, and everything that you want to run away from.
   -Rob Bednark, 19 Jan 2006 {Added 19 Jan 2006}

Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, brilliant and fabulous. Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God... you are... and your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in every one of us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
   --Marianne Williamson (often incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela; I've done some Googling to see where the quote comes from, but haven't found the source yet; I "Searched inside book" on Amazon through a couple of Marianne Williamson's books, but didn't find it there. I also tried Google Print, but no luck there either. I got this email from someone named Melanie: I saw this quote on your list and I wanted to let you know the source of it (if you haven't already found it). I saw Marianne on Larry King Live with "Oprah & Friends" and Oprah said that those words were in a letter that Marianne sent her years ago. Somehow the letter got on the internet and people started attributing it Nelson Mandela. So, it was just in a letter, not in any of her books.) {Added 17 Jan 2006; updated 16 Aug 2007}

If you want to change, don't ask "why am I this way?", ask "how can I change?".
   --Rob Bednark, from idea in Bradford Keeney's book "Everyday Soul" {Added 12 Jan 2006}

Our identification with this mental blind spot, this idea that life must be controlled, means that we have lost contact with change. With have lost contact with our true nature. Change is freedom. It is the end of attachment. It is the end of fear. There is nothing that binds us, there never has been.
   --Steven Harrison, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 70, 1997. {Added 12 Jan 2006}

Thought is incapable of perceiving the evanescence of reality, because thought is reality and cannot perceive its own nature.
   --Steven Harrison, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 69, 1997. {Added 12 Jan 2006}

Fear is what drives this center and what it fears is its own cessation. But, the fact is there is nothing to fear, because there is nothing to cease. The crisis is over because there is nothing left to resist. Change is the movement of energy without hindrance. It is the echo of life itself. Change moves through us, through our habits, our resistance, our denial. Change is the truth of life. We can observe this directly, without help, without interpretation. There is nothing we can find that stays the same.
   --Steven Harrison, 69, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 69, 1997. {Added 12 Jan 2006}

...we struggle to control change. We want what is dynamic and free, what is arising spontaneously and passing away, what is impermanent to be static and controllable. But, life is not that way.
   --Steven Harrison, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 69, 1997. {Added 12 Jan 2006}

Crisis is the resistance to change. Change is the nature of our existence. Thought, embodied in the "me", is static because it can only approximate life. Change, which is movement, is dynamic and is a threat to the dominance of thought. Change contradicts thought and it's center, the "me".
   --Steven Harrison, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 67, 1997. {Added 6 Jan 2006}

Can we embrace change and understand that it releases us from the endless repetition of thought and conditioning? Change is the only exit from our selves. Without this embrace, we will experience the awakening of our own true nature not as change but as crisis. Without this embrace, we will be left with just our resistance and reaction.
   --Steven Harrison, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 67, 1997. {Added 6 Jan 2006}

Change is dynamic. We are static. We cannot change, we can only resist change. We resist out of fear.
   --Steven Harrison, "Doing Nothing : Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search", p. 68, 1997. {Added 6 Jan 2006}

I think it is bad to write when you don't have a compelling need to say something.
   -Robert M. Pirsig, taken from the Afterward of the 25th Anniversary edition of the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 15 Dec 2005}

That innate trust to relax into unfamiliar territory inside and to trust that vulnerability is actually an acceptable presence. That I do not know the answers at times, and I can enter that mystery with a sense of uncertainty, and the quality of feeling my uncertainty is preferable to wisdom itself.
   -Alan Clements, book "Natural Freedom: The Dharma Beyond Buddhism" [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 15 Dec 2005}

Enlightenment is a natural state of being, in as much as we define enlightenment as ultimate diversity of being rather than a state to be achieved.
   -Alan Clements, book "Natural Freedom: The Dharma Beyond Buddhism" [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 15 Dec 2005}

[Truth] cannot be received at second hand. Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 15 Dec 2005}

Distinct cultures represent unique visions of life itself, morally inspired and inherently right... It seems to me such an obvious thing that diversity is not just a foundation of stability; it's an article of faith. It's a fundamental indicator of the way God wanted the world to be.
   -Juniper Glass, from an interview/article by Juniper Glass in the March/April 2004 issue of Utne Reader (page 63), which had taken it from the Fall 2003 issue of Ascent. [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 15 Dec 2005}

Remember that the human imagination is vast, fluid, and infinite in its capacity for social and spiritual invention... The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. These other cultures aren't failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.
   -Juniper Glass, from an interview/article by Juniper Glass in the March/April 2004 issue of Utne Reader (page 63), which had taken it from the Fall 2003 issue of Ascent. [from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection] {Added 15 Dec 2005}

A noviolent person can do nothing save by the power and grace of God. Without it they will not have the courage to die with anger, without fear, and without retaliation. Such courage comes from the belief that God sits in the hearts of all and that there should be no fear in the presence of God.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [p. 58, "The Wisdom of Gandhi", compiled by Trudy S. Settel, 1995] {Added 8 Dec 2005}

It used to seem to me that my life went on too fast. So I had to take it slowly just to make the good parts last.
   -Steve Winwood [quoted by Mike Brescia] {Added 5 Dec 2005}

What are we here for and what is it that we should be doing? A person, let's say, is just a mother all their life until they die. Is that a calling? Yes, that IS a calling. You may not be an impact in society, but your children may be. Even though you are not fruitful in the eyes of society, you are fruitful in the big picture. But "I" says it's not enough. If that is the calling, do the best at what is presented to you. If I am a chef and that is all I do for my whole life, that is enough. Calling is not what I want; it's what is presented to me. We cannot compare ourselves with others. We cannot compare callings. You are given certain things in life as you go along in life. The roles in your callings change as you progress. Sure, we want to make a difference. But don't force something to happen when it's not happening. Accept what is presented to you. Sometimes it's not what we want that's important, it's what presents itself to us that's important. It's strange, but humans don't see being human as a career! To live life the best way we can and to give all the love we can, that is a career.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 2 Dec 2005}

What is it that causes us to change our behavior? It's mostly a mystery. With ourselves and others, be patient, kind, and encouraging, and remember that we always change when the time is right.
   -Rob Bednark {2 Dec 2005}

Your are a parent and a child unto yourself. Be kind to yourself, for part of you is always learning and growing and in need of love.
   -Rob Bednark {2 Dec 2005}

I've said many times to myself, 'This is going to be no problem. I've done this before.'
   -Tiger Woods, professional golfer [quoted by Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

We cling to our bad feelings and beat ourselves with the past when what we should do is let go of it, like St. Peter did. Once you let go of guilt, then you go out and change the world.
   -James Carroll [quoted by Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

War would end if the dead could return.
   -Stanley Baldwin, statesman (1867-1947) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 30 Nov 2005}

When you are feeling fear of some project or idea or dream, ask yourself, 'What am I still curious enough about to override my fear?' Follow your curiosity like a delicious scent leading you to a kitchen. Let your curiosity peel back the dry, bitter skin of drudgery to find the sweet fruit of fun at the core. Focus on what you love rather than fixating on the feelings of discomfort that sometimes accompany desire.
   -Carol Lloyd [quoted by Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Go back to any time in your life when you reached your outcome. You probably knew what the obstacles were and you planned to overcome them. So you focused on your goal and when you were nearing a potential delay or "pothole," you saw it, navigated around it and moved on without commotion. You've no doubt done this thousands of times. One of the keys to being successful at a skill set and enjoying the process of accomplishment in it is being able to get to the point where you can become unconsciously aware, without effort, of the obstacles to success and happily move around them without concern and without apparent effort. That takes practice. So practice!
   -Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

A comical thing is that most people focus only on the obstacles. They never get where they want to be because after they get started, hurdles appear. And suddenly the entire focus becomes the hurdles. The goal gets fuzzier and harder to see. "What are we doing this for?" is a common thought. A main reason most people don't get where they originally steer their ship is that they have no clue where the rocks are... and once they see those rocks, they throw their compass away. They get so focused on the obstacles and turned around that it often is impossible to reach their original objective.
   -Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Q: Do you think that religious phenomena, like the virgin birth, are symbolic or literal?
A: Symbolic. [Just as] science can access the very small and the unimaginably large with their special language, which is mathematics and equations, we in religion need a technical language to describe sacred things. And this [language] is myth, poetry, parable. Jesus spoke to them in parables. And so everything that transpires in that infinite world of the divine must be expressed metaphorically, not literally.
Q: So when we talk of the virgin birth, it resonates with something in us about purity, about divinity.
A: No, no, don't try to say it. In ordinary language it won't work. Something happened. Something happened. And I sincerely believe it really happened. And it was really vital, crucial to Christ. But don't try to psych it out in ordinary language. Go at it in terms of symbols, which stretch our understanding from the finite to the infinite.
   -'God Speaks to Each Person in Their Own Language' - Huston Smith, interviewed by Wendy Schuman] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Archibald MacLeish said, "An age ends when its metaphor dies". And the metaphor of modernity has been endless progress through endless technology. And that is dead.
   -'God Speaks to Each Person in Their Own Language' - Huston Smith, interviewed by Wendy Schuman] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Scientism smuggles in two untenable points. Namely, that science is, if not the only reliable, then the most reliable [way of knowing]. And second, that the stuff that science deals with, matter, is the most fundamental stuff of the universe. Those are not scientific statements. There is nothing in the way of science to prove they're true. And truth to tell, they are both wrong.
   -'God Speaks to Each Person in Their Own Language' - Huston Smith, interviewed by Wendy Schuman] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

My life didn't get better until I realized that every benefit demands a payment. Just like a store that requires money for their goods, life demands that you put in effort and sacrifice for its rewards. There are no overnight success stories. The good news is that usually, the sacrifice is only inside your own head. And this sacrifice doesn't take away from you. It actually adds to you. Life gives you back exactly what you put out.
   -Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Shakespeare said, "Nothing is either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." So if it's all an illusion, why not choose a happy illusion?
   -Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

My competitive spirit didn't stop because I became physically disabled. I never said, "Why me?" After my car accident, I still said, "Now, what's my purpose?"
   -Joseph Russell (Paralympian, Powerlifting) [Mike Brescia] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Because we don't understand the brain very well we're constantly tempted to use the latest technology as a model for trying to understand it. In my childhood we were always assured that the brain was a telephone switchboard. And I was amused to see that Sherrington, the great British neuroscientist, thought that the brain worked like a telegraph system. Freud often compared the brain to hydraulic and electromagnetic systems. Leibniz compared it to a mill, and now, obviously, the metaphor is the digital computer.
   -John R. Searle, philosophy professor (1932- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.
   -Arthur Koestler, novelist and journalist (1905-1983) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

If you want to work on your art, work on your life.
   -Anton Chekhov, short-story writer and dramatist (1860-1904) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
   -Abraham Joshua Heschel, theology professor (1907-1972) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Nov 2005}

For me, words are a form of action, capable of influencing change.
   -Ingrid Bengis, writer and teacher (1944- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art.
   -Susan Sontag, author and critic (1933-2004) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.
   -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

The power to command frequently causes failure to think.
   -Barbara Tuchman, author and historian (1912-1989) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

Several excuses are always less convincing than one.
   -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
   -Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
   -Robert T. Pirsig, author and philosopher (1928- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated.
   -Margaret Halsey, novelist (1910-1997) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Nov 2005}

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. I possess tremendous power to make a life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or dehumanized. If we treat people as they are, we make them worse. If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) [from Judy Ford's website] {Added 27 Oct 2005}

The problem with the Course is "students" have bantered it to pieces, hoping beyond hope, that discussion of its contents actually yields anything.
   --Jeanette Joy {Added 24 Oct 2005}

Be solution focused, not problem focused.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 21 Oct 2005}

Stop worrying about what others think.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 21 Oct 2005}

Happiness is more about serving others than about serving ourselves.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 20 Oct 2005}

What leads to unhappiness is making pleasure the chief aim.
   -William Shenstone [quoted by Mike Brescia] {Added 20 Oct 2005}

You can change yourself by changing your environment and changing your thoughts.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 19 Oct 2005}

If you focus your thoughts on empowering outcomes and ask yourself questions that give you answers that inspire you, then you'll find that your anxiety and panic attacks will reduce.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 19 Oct 2005}

Emancipation from the bondage of the soil is no freedom for the tree.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 18 Oct 2005}

Planning is important, because it prepares your mind to be able to change if your plan doesn't work.
   -Niels Malotaux {Added 14 Oct 2005}

A fool is somebody who keeps doing the same thing and expects a better result.
   {Added 14 Oct 2005}

What has surprised you recently? Inspired you? Stirred your emotions? Focus on these things, and you may find that your attitude changes in a positive way.
   {Added 14 Oct 2005}

In some restaurants that serve fresh fish, they put a predator in the tank with the fish. This keeps them lively and they stay fresher. People also need challenges to keep themselves healthy and happy.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

Imagine that a few years from now, you're sitting around, you say to the person next to you, "I was watching TV about 6 years ago at home. Boy, what a night!" Breathe life into yourself instead and stop being scared of just one thing... just for today. Do what you're scared of and you'll look back afterwards and you'll see you grew right then.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

Today is the day that you make great progress. Tomorrow is just a dream. "Right Now" is the only currency you've got.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

Listen to people who've achieved what you want to achieve. Seek them out. If you don't know any, then find them. Read their books. Study what you need to learn.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

When bad things happen, there is always some kind of lesson in them. Either you uncover the lesson or you don't. It's as simple as that. If you don't, then you'll continue to get P.O.'d at the most inane stuff, you'll carry on with your little grudges, you'll fight fire with fire, and your state of mind immediately after these mental episodes will prevent you from performing at your best and holding any peace in your mind.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 14 Oct 2005}

What you are doing is not good. Instead of drilling one deep well, you are drilling ten shallow wells. It is the deep wells that reach water.
   -(told to Huston Smith by a guru in an Indian monastery, regarding his sampling of religions) [from this article] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
   -Spanish proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Than tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense has been found
By some to be the most profound.
   -Samuel Butler, poet (1612-1680) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Helping others is why we were put here on earth, not to play and entertain ourselves all day. If you don't help others, you have no purpose. You don't need tremendous strength and capabilities to make yourself useful. You just need the ability to care.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 13 Oct 2005}

People usually stop being enthusiastic about helping out and serving others when they feel they are under-appreciated.
   -Rob Bednark [based on a quoted by Mike Brescia {Added 13 Oct 2005}

One of the most amazing things ever said is Jesus' statement: "He that is greatest among you shall be your servant." Nobody has one chance in a billion of being thought really great after a century has passed except those who have been the servants of all.
   -Harry Emerson Fosdick, D.D. [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Every human being has conflict. You need to find what's in here to resolve it. Once you have conflict, it is something solid. You need an element to dissolve it. Good is an element. It can dissolve it. Good is like water.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

I meditate from my heart. In my meditation, I must find love, for I know love exists in my heart. The word forgive -- it does not matter what anyone has done to me or whatever has happened to me since childhood. This word "forgive" means if I meditate from my heart, I will always be able to forgive. I must forgive myself for having the negative things in me, for all the negative things I have done.... Here, this is where I stand physically. My presence with me allows me to forgive. I see all this as one. I represent my heart. I am the heart.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Returning to innocence seems impossible, doesn't it? The word pure requires a lot of filtering. Spiritual cultivation is like layers and layers of filtering... in the course of your life, yours is to find the purity of your own heart. Each day is important. Every day that you wake up, it is important. One day at a time. Know that you want to find the pureness of your own heart. It's there. All you have to do is see it and function from it.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Whenever something nice happens, write it down and look at it through a magnifying glass. See how your perspective can make things better. When something bad happens to you, write it down and look at it through binoculars "backwards".
   -David Leonhardt {Added 13 Oct 2005}

Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.
   -Lebanese proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 11 Oct 2005}

There is a field beyond all notions of right and wrong. Come, meet me there.
   -Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 11 Oct 2005}

The paradox of our time is that we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.
   - {Added 11 Oct 2005}

Your beliefs control your attitudes and emotions, which directly control your actions.
   -Mike Brescia {Added 05 Oct 2005}

The principles you live by create the world you live in; if you change the principles you live by, you will change your world.
   -Blaine Lee [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Why not use your feelings of fear as a trigger to be courageous?
   -modified version of a quote from Mike Brescia on todayisyourdaytowin.com {Added 05 Oct 2005}

It is not enough to do your best; you must know what to do, and THEN do your best.
   -W. Edwards Deming [seen quoted on http://home.att.net/~quotesexchange/wedwardsdeming.html] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Mistakes are necessary to living a happy, successful life
   -Mike Brescia todayisyourdaytowin.com {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Learn from the mistakes of others.
   -Mike Brescia todayisyourdaytowin.com {Added 05 Oct 2005}

Do that which you fear. Be brave. Be courageous. That is where the growth and happiness is. Do this enough times, and you will find that there is nothing to fear.
   -Rob Bednark [inspired by "what goes in must come out" quote from todayisyourdaytowin.com] {05 Oct 2005}

Life is very interesting, if you make mistakes.
   -Georges Carpentier [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

What goes in must come out. Read books that give you hope, watch uplifting movies, listen to relaxing music, look at beautiful art, think good thoughts, eat healthy food, do good deeds, spend time in nature, and associate with people that inspire you.
   -Rob Bednark [inspired by "what goes in must come out" quote from todayisyourdaytowin.com] {05 Oct 2005}

Drink from good books.
   -John Wooden, basketball coach [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 05 Oct 2005}

The person who has lived the most is not the one with the most years but the one with the richest experiences.
   -Jean-Jacques Rousseau [quoted in p. 55, "O - The Oprah Magazine", Oct 2005 {Added 04 Oct 2005}

Think in ways you've never thought before
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you've ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats
--
Think that someone may bring
a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged;
or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake,
and he's carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom
you've never seen.
--
When someone knocks on the door,
think that he's about
To give you something large:
tell you you're forgiven,
Or that it's not necessary to
work all the time or that it's
Been decided that if you lie down
no one will die.
   -Robert Bly, from books "Morning Poems" and "Eating the Honey of Words" [quoted on p. 63, "O - The Oprah Magazine", Sept 2005 {Added 04 Oct 2005}

The body travels more easily than the mind, and until we have limbered up our imagination, we continue to think as though we had stayed home. We have not really budged a step until we take up residence in someone else's point of view.
   -John Erskine [quoted on todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 04 Oct 2005}

Self-realization internally is having a strong belief in who I am, that I have this good inside of me. Each time I function, yes, it's always good. The word God has different meanings for different people. God is small and very big. In order to see the big God, embrace the small God (points to his heart). The big one takes care of itself. Embrace the small one and say, this is God. Focus on what you need to do. Do what you need to do. It will be there.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
   -Albert Einstein, quoted in [thehappyguy.com] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
   -Ambrose Bierce, quoted in [thehappyguy.com] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it.
   -Madame De Stael, writer (1766-1817) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 3 Oct 2005}

A timid question will always receive a confident answer.
   -Henry Lytton Bulwer, diplomat and author (1801-1872) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 30 Sep 2005}

A quiet conscience sleeps in thunder.
   -English proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 30 Sep 2005}

If you cannot see light, make light. When we get stuck, we feel we cannot get out of it. But we can. You have to move yourself from here to there. You have a tremendous amount of power over yourself to move from here to there. I am responsible, and no one else is.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Choice is a good thing. Follow your heart and do it. Who's to say it's a right or wrong choice? It may turn out well; it may turn out not well. Every human being makes mistakes. When they make mistakes, they think they're wrong, but if you don't make mistakes, you're not human...The heart is at the center of everything. If we put our hearts into something, we give our very best. It doesn't matter if it succeeds or fails; we give our best.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Meditation helps us to center. It gives us the strength to be who we are.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

The path is for us to walk. The light is for us to shine on people.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Christianity swept the Roman Empire, he believes, because it "suddenly and dramatically" lifted "three intolerable burdens" from humanity: guilt, fear - including the fear of death - and narrow concentration on one's own ego.
   -article "Huston Smith, famed scholar on world religions, focuses anew on his own faith of Christianity" by Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer [http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3056356]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

...liberal Christianity has turned religion into mere morality, leaving churches with "nothing to offer their members except rallying cries to be good. ... The authority of religion has waned along with the mystery of the sacred."
   -article "Huston Smith, famed scholar on world religions, focuses anew on his own faith of Christianity" by Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer [http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3056356]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

"Science is not omnicompetent, Our physical senses are not the only senses we have." As his book puts it: "No one has ever seen a thought. No one has ever seen a feeling. Yet our thoughts and feelings are where we primarily live our lives." "Discounting invisible realities" is the "modern mistake" promoted by an intolerant secularism that says only empirical, scientific knowledge is valid.
   -article "Huston Smith, famed scholar on world religions, focuses anew on his own faith of Christianity" by Richard N. Ostling, AP Religion Writer [http://www2.sbsun.com/news/ci_3056356]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

There is no end; there is only beginning. Don't think of the end, think of the beginning. Mo matter what journey you go on, take yourself along. Don't look too far; it's always there.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

How to relax? Don't think too much; laugh at everything; don't take things too seriously.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

See the best in people always. If you see the best in people, you bring out the best in yourself. If you see the worst in people, you bring out the worst in yourself. See the best. It is very easy to see the bad in people. But it takes so much out of you to see the good...But you want to be good. If you want to BE good, see good.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 29 Sep 2005}

The only way you'll ever feel great inside your own skin and become successful at anything, especially in business, is if you decide to become of service to others. Period. Start taking an interest in other people instead of just yourself. Help out everywhere you can. You will be amazed. As if by magic you'll learn faster, your relationships will improve, your job will be more fun, money will probably cease to be a problem... in short everything will be better for you.
   -Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

Objects we ardently pursue bring little happiness when gained; most of our pleasures come from unexpected sources.
   -Herbert Spencer (seen in [todayisyourdaytowin.com]) {Added 29 Sep 2005}

No matter how big your suffering, make it small. You are the only one who can make it small.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

To learn about the unknown, learn about the unknown in you.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

When you close your eyes, the first thing you do is to embrace yourself.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.
   --John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 27 Sep 2005}

Always be light so you can be the light for someone.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [transcribed by Aviva] {Added 23 Sep 2005}

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Sep 2005}

There was an old man who sat next to the road and greeted people who entered and exited just outside his small village. When travelers came in, often they would ask what kind of people were in the town. The man responded by asking them what the people were like in the town they just left. If the traveler said the people were terrific, the man told them that he'd find the people in this town were much the same. If the traveler said the other town had horrible people in it, the man said that they'd find the people here much the same.
   -from [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 20 Sep 2005}

People believe what they want to believe.
   -Julius Caesar [quoted in interview with Huston Smith] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

... If I have no other qualities, I can succeed with love alone. Without it I will fail though I possess all the knowledge and skills in the world.
   -Og Mandino, "The Greatest Salesman in the World", [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

Praise is well, compliment is well, but affection-that is the last and most precious reward that any man can win, whether by character or achievement.
   -Mark Twain [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

Benjamin Franklin made a list of 13 virtues that he valued but did not possess. He worked on only one virtue at a time, noting when he messed up, and when he succeeded in using the virtue. He made turning himself into a person who possessed that virtue his mission and did not worry about any of the other 12 until he had mastered the first one.
   -Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury.
   -John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 19 Sep 2005}

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.
   -Edmund Burke, statesman and writer (1729-1797) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 Sep 2005}

Make one person happy each day, and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time, at least.
   -Charley Willey [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 14 Sep 2005}

Practice learning and enjoying only one thing at a time, or else the first thing will be missed, as it gets plowed over by the next one. We are always given enough time for everything we need.
   -Rob Bednark, inspired by a quote from Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {12 Sep 2005}

As statistics show, most of what is written in the world's greatest self-help and how-to books goes unread by the buyers. And the material that is read is typically not used. Most people just aren't self-disciplined enough to take a bit, study it, master it then move on to the next level. That's why universities are so valuable and so expensive... they do it right. They give you a little bit, test you and then give you some more -- building on your knowledge after you've learned the easier stuff.
   -Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 12 Sep 2005}

Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.
   -George Horace Lorimar [from todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 9 Sep 2005}

A sneer is the weapon of the weak.
   -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 9 Sep 2005}

Good humor is tonic for the mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.
   -Grenville Kleiser [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 6 Sep 2005}

Forgiveness does not judge. It does not say that what was done was right or wrong. It simply acknowledges that a mistake was made and it is OK.
   -David Leonhardt {Added 6 Sep 2005}

You never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view.
   -Harper Lee, writer (1926- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 6 Sep 2005}

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.
   -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Sep 2005}

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.
   -Dave Barry, author and columnist (1947- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Sep 2005}

What am I willing to give up in order to reach my objective?
   -Mike Brescia [todayisyourdaytowin.com] {Added 30 Aug 2005}

You can tell whether a person is clever by their answers. You can tell whether a person is wise by their questions.
   -Naguib Mahfouz, writer (1911- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

The less justified a person is in claiming excellence for their own self, the more ready they are to claim all excellence for their nation, their religion, their race or their holy cause. A person is likely to mind their own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, they take their mind off their own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
   -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December's tsunami, when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran after the ebbing surf, and all the 'dumb' animals made for the hills.
   -B.R. Myers, author (1963- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

I met, not long ago, a young man who aspired to become a novelist. Knowing that I was in the profession, he asked me to tell him how he should set to work to realize his ambition. I did my best to explain. 'The first thing,' I said, 'is to buy quite a lot of paper, a bottle of ink, and a pen. After that you merely have to write.'
   -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas, and not for things themselves.
   -John Locke, philosopher (1632-1704) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Aug 2005}

There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.
   -Henry van Dyke, poet (1852-1933) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 19 Aug 2005}

Change is exciting. A new car. A new romance. A promotion. Pumpkin pie for breakfast. You just can't beat change.
Change is terrifying. Facing a new boss. Losing a love. Throwing out that tattered old high-school shirt.
Come to think of it, change is exactly what you want it to be: exciting or terrifying. So why not make change exciting?
   -David Leonhardt {Added 16 Aug 2005}

There is only one way that I can think of to become happy, and that is to choose to be happy. Everything else is just noise and distractions, and choosing to be happy involves cutting out the noise and ignoring the distractions.
   -David Leonhardt (I paraphrased his actual quote) {Added 12 Aug 2005}

Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes.
   - George Soros [http://en.wikiquote.org] {Added 12 Aug 2005}

As I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more.
   -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 11 Aug 2005}

Every now and then I am approached by someone who says they want to get out of a rut. Or by someone who thinks life could be better. They want me to tell them what to do. So I ask them where they want to be, and I feel a bit like the Cheshire cat:
One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. "Which road do I take?" she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I don't know," Alice answered. "Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
   -David Leonhardt {Added 11 Aug 2005}

...this neurotic momentum into the next as if the next would provide something that the moment couldn't.
   - Alan Clements, from book "Natural Freedom: The Dharma Beyond Buddhism" {Added 10 Aug 2005}

They say that's just the way it is,
Some things never change.
But don't you believe them.
   - Bruce Hornsby, "That's Just the Way It Is" (song) {Added 4 Aug 2005}

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, let me sow pardon.
Where there is doubt, let me sow faith.
Where there is despair, let me sow hope,
Where there is darkness, let me sow light.
And where there is sadness, let me sow joy.
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
It is in giving that we receive,
and it is in pardoning that we are pardoned.
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
   - Saint Francis [quoted in thehappyguy.com] {Added 4 Aug 2005}

Happiness comes from spiritual wealth, not material wealth... Happiness comes from giving, not getting. If we try hard to bring happiness to others, we cannot stop it from coming to us also. To get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy, we must scatter it.
   - John Templeton [ quoted in thehappyguy.com] {Added 3 Aug 2005}

Fatigue is the best pillow.
   -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

It is as easy to dream a book as it is hard to write one.
   -Honore de Balzac, novelist (1799-1850) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Illness is in part what the world has done to a victim, but in a larger part it is what the victim has done with his world.
   -Karl Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Remember, we all stumble, every one of us. That's why it's a comfort to go hand in hand.
   -Emily Kimbrough, author and broadcaster (1899-1989) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

True religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.
   -Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Literature encourages tolerance - bigots and fanatics seldom have any use for the arts, because they're so preoccupied with their beliefs and actions that they can't see them also as possibilities.
   -Northrop Frye, writer (1912-1991) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself?
   -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded.
   -Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 2 Aug 2005}

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
   -James Baldwin, writer (1924-1987) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 15 Jul 2005}

The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.
   -Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (1632-1677) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 08 Jul 2005}

One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers' plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul.
   -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 07 Jul 2005}

Worrying is like praying for what you don't want.
   -(heard from Morgine Jurdan) {Added 07 Jul 2005}

Wherever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
   -Harry S. Truman, 33rd US president (1884-1972) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 05 Jul 2005}

If moral behavior were simply following rules, we could program a computer to be moral.
   -Samuel P. Ginder, US navy captain [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 05 Jul 2005}

Those who put out the people's eyes, reproach them for their blindness.
   -John Milton, poet (1608-1674) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Jun 2005}

What's done to children, they will do to society.
   -Karl A. Menninger, psychiatrist (1893-1990) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 15 Jun 2005}

If one
Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs
Attraction; from attraction grows desire,
Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds
Recklessness; then the memory--all betrayed--
Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind,
Till purpose, mind, and humanity are all undone
   -Bhagavad Gita, 2nd chapter, quoted by Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), "The Story of My Experiments in Truth : An Autobiography", 1957. [p. 53 of "Mohandas Gandhi : Essential Writings", selected by John Dear, 2002] {Added 15 Jun 2005}

...whatever is possible for me is possible even for a child, and I have sound reasons for saying so. The instruments of the quest of truth are as simple as they are difficult. They may appear quite impossible to an arrogant person, and quite possible to an innocent child. Seekers after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but seekers after truth should so humble themselves that even the dust could crush them. Only then, and not until then, will they have a glimpse of truth.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), "The Story of My Experiments in Truth : An Autobiography", 1957. [p. 52 of "Mohandas Gandhi : Essential Writings", selected by John Dear, 2002] {Added 15 Jun 2005}

Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish.
   -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 14 Jun 2005}

It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
   -George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 8 Jun 2005}

You can out-distance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you.
   -Rwandan Proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 6 Jun 2005}

Every single human culture that had a written history had these two steps within them. The first is a repetition, and that repetition can be a prayer. The other is a disregard of other thoughts when they come to mind.
   --Dr. Herbert Benson, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, referring to study he did on benefits of meditation/prayer, quoted on TV show "Burt Wolf Travels and Traditions : The Shrine at Guadalupe Mexico City", 2004. {Added 1 Jun 2005}

You can think about a sacred place, or you can think with it.
   -quoted by Burt Wolf on one of his TV shows {Added 1 Jun 2005}

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
   -Hans Hofmann, painter (1880-1966) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 31 May 2005}

I am, indeed, a king, because I know how to rule myself.
   -Pietro Aretino, satirist and dramatist (1492-1556) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 31 May 2005}

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.
   -Hosea Ballou, preacher (1771-1852) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 May 2005}

Grasp the subject, the words will follow.
   -Cato the Elder, statesman, soldier, and writer (234-149 BCE) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 May 2005}

A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world.
   -Paul Dudley White, physician (1886-1973) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 25 May 2005}

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

A stiff apology is a second insult. The injured party does not want to be compensated because they have been wronged; they want to be healed because they have been hurt.
   -G.K. Chesterton, author (1874-1936) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Many a secret that cannot be pried out by curiosity can be drawn out by indifference.
   -Sydney J. Harris, journalist (1917-1986) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich.
   -Saadi, poet (1184-1291) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

It is human nature to hate the person whom you have hurt.
   -Publius Cornelius Tacitus, historian (c.55-c.120) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, God must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.
   -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.
   -Thomas Pynchon, writer (1937- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

I cannot walk through the suburbs in the solitude of the night without thinking that the night pleases us because it suppresses idle details, just as our memory does.
   -Jorge Luis Borges, writer (1899-1986) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
   -Woody Allen, author actor, and filmmaker (1935- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

It is kindness immediately to refuse what you intend to deny.
   -Publilius Syrus, writer (c. 1st century BCE) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, and of the bitter effects of staying at home with all the narrow prejudices of an Islander, that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us.
   -Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

The desire of the man is for the woman, but the desire of the woman is for the desire of the man.
   -Madame de Stael, writer (1766-1817) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!
   -Henri Frederic Amiel philosopher and writer (1821-1881) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

Every act of conscious learning requires the willingness to suffer an injury to one's self-esteem. That is why young children, before they are aware of their own self-importance, learn so easily; and why older persons, especially if vain or important, cannot learn at all.
   -Thomas Szasz, author, professor of psychiatry (1920- ) [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 16 May 2005}

To know enough's enough
Is enough to know.
   -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching [chapter 46, "Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way", by Lao Tzu, version by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1997] from my friend Howard Abram's quote collection {Added 5 May 2005}

You only have what you give. It's by spending yourself that you become rich... What is the point of having experience, knowledge or talent if I don't give it away? Of having stories if I don't tell them to others? Of having wealth if I don't share it?... It is in giving that I connect with others, with the world and with the divine.
   -Isabelle Allende, "In Giving I Connect With Others", Apr 4, 2005, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4568464 {Added 6 Apr 2005}

If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.
   -Noam Chomsky, linguistics professor and political activist (1928- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the person of imagination, nature is imagination itself.
   -William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Soon silence will have passed into legend. People have turned their backs on silence. Day after day they invent machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster their egos.
   -Jean Arp, artist and poet (1887-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

And none will hear the postman's knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
   -W.H. Auden, poet (1907-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

And Silence, like a poultice, comes
To heal the blows of sound.
   -Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., poet, novelist, essayist, and physician (1809-1894) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience.
   -French proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

A teacher who is attempting to teach, without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn, is hammering on a cold iron.
   -Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

In the absence of touching and being touched, people of all ages can sicken and grow touch-starved.
   -Diane Ackerman, writer (1948- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border.
   -Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life - the sick, the needy and the handicapped.
   -Hubert Horatio Humphrey, US Vice President (1911-1978) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

The more people are reached by mass communication, the less they communicate with each other.
   -Marya Mannes, writer (1904-1990) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Nature can provide for the needs of people; [she] can't provide for the greed of people.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
   -H. Jackson Brown, Jr., writer [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Good deeds are the best prayer.
   -Serbian proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this.
   -Emo Phillips, comedian, actor (1956- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1 Apr 2005}

Mahatma Gandhi was once leading a large protest across India. A few days into the march, he found out that there was going to be a great deal of violence, and he abruptly announced that he was ending the march. Some of his followers and supporters said, "But Gandhiji, you can't call off this march. Many people, from all over India, left their jobs and came great distances to be on this march." Gandhi replied, "Only God knows absolute truth. I just know relative truth. My allegiance must be to truth, not consistency."
   -from Mickey Lemle, "Truth and Perception", from Parabola magazine, p. 47, Nov 2003, Vol 28, No 4 {Added 31 Mar 2005}

I don't want to justify religion in terms of its benefits to us. I believe that, on balance, it does a lot of bad things, too -- a tremendous amount. But I don't think that the final justification of religion is the good it does for people. I think the final justification is that it's true, and truth takes priority over consequences. Religion helps us deal with what is most important to the human spirit: values, meaning, purpose, and quality.
   -Huston Smith http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/1997/11/snell.html (Huston Smith, from interview by Marilyn Snell, "Mother Jones" magazine, Nov/Dec 1997 issue) {Added 24 Mar 2005}

It is always the secure who are humble.
   -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Patience is also a form of action.
   -Auguste Rodin, sculptor (1840-1917) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money.
   -Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist (1918- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

There's a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig -- an animal easily as intelligent as a dog -- that becomes the Christmas ham.
   -Michael Pollan, professor and writer (1955- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time.
   -Stephen Swid, executive [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The spirit of democracy cannot be imposed from without. It has to come from within.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.
   -Lao-Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.
   -Robert Louis Stevenson, novelist, essayist, and poet (1850-1894) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. -John Burroughs, naturalist and writer (1837-1921)
   [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The most perfect technique is that which is not noticed at all.
   -Pablo Casals, cellist, conductor, and composer (1876-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.
   -Viktor Frankl, author, neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (1905-1997) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?"
   -k.d. lang, singer (1961- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Mar 2005}

The world doesn't lack for good stories. The world lacks for good storytellers.
   -Malcolm Gladwell, from interview by David Weich at Powell's Books web site http://www.powells.com/authors/gladwell.html {Added 22 Mar 2005}

Forgetting this familiar world of fact is a necessary step toward remembering the truths that matter. We need to go into a dark theater, shutting out bright life, and tune into the mystery of the movie. We need to go to bed, turn out the light, and have a dream that will give a hint about the theater we lived during the day. We need to shut our eyes in the church, temple, or mosque, and in that gesture of forgetting remember who we are at the deepest level.
   -Thomas Moore, "Songs of Unforgetting", from Parabola magazine, p. 9, Nov 2003, Vol 28, No 4 {Added 22 Mar 2005}

A bit of perfume always clings to the hand that gives the rose.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

The only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take.
   -Adlai Stevenson, statesman (1900-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

Everything is for the eye these days - TV, Life, Look, the movies. Nothing is just for the mind. The next generation will have eyeballs as big as cantaloupes and no brain at all.
   -Fred Allen [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

A person is not old until their regrets take the place of dreams.
   -Yiddish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.
   -Theodore M. Hesburgh, educator (1917- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

If you don't find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

A visitor from Mars could easily pick out the civilized nations. They have the best implements of war.
   -Herbert V. Prochnow, banker (1897-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

I thank Thee first because I was never robbed before;
second, because although they took my purse they did not take my life;
third, because although they took my all, it was not much;
and fourth because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed.
   -Matthew Henry, minister (1662-1714) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 Mar 2005}

People think in frames. If the facts do not fit a frame, the frame stays and the facts bounce off.
   -George Lakoff {Added 18 Mar 2005}

Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind - even if your voice shakes.
   -Maggie Kuhn http://www.dailycelebrations.com/080303.htm {Added 16 Mar 2005}

For those of us with a hunger to know the truth, painful emotions are like flags going up to say, "You're stuck!" We regard disappointment, embarassment, irritation, jealousy, and fear as momements that show us when we're holding back, how we're shutting down. Such uncomfortable feelings are messages that tell us to perk up and lean into a situation when we'd rather cave in and back away.
   -Pema Chodron, p. 7, "Comfortable with Uncertainty : 108 Teachings", 2002. {Added 15 Mar 2005}

Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear?
   -Pema Chodron, p. 6, "Comfortable with Uncertainty : 108 Teachings", 2002. {Added 15 Mar 2005}

Conservatives, Dr. Smith argues, are too dogmatic, convinced that they alone know the truth. Conservatives also are stuck in what he calls an unworkable literalism. They seem to ignore the idea that symbolism, art, music and parables are equally valid ways of talking about God.
But liberals also can be blind. Liberals should realize that they helped spawn the conservative movement by embracing Darwins theories of evolution and secular, academic criticism of the Bible, Dr. Smith said.
   -Huston Smith, paraphrased by Bill Bell, Jr. in http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2005a/011405/011405q.php {Added 14 Jan 2005}

Science can only take us so far. Science is based on what we can see and measure. But no one has ever seen a thought. No one has ever seen a feeling.
   -Huston Smith, paraphrased by Bill Bell, Jr. in http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2005a/011405/011405q.php {Added 12 Jan 2005}

Your cable TV is experiencing difficulties. Please, do not panic. Resist the temptation to read or talk to loved ones. Do not attempt sexual relations, as years of TV radiation have left your genitals withered and useless.
Wiggum: [checking under the covers] Well I'll be damned.
   -"The Simpsons" TV show

...if one candidate's trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes... vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.
   -Bill Clinton, U.S. president (in a speech for John Kerry, 25 October 2004)

Each person takes care that their neighbor shall not cheat them. But a day comes when they begin to care that they do not cheat their neighbor. Then all goes well -- they have changed their market-cart into a chariot of the sun.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
   -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)

Even a lie is a psychic fact. -Carl Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961)

What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul. -Jewish proverb

To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy. -Hippocrates, physician (460-c.377 BCE)

The world is a looking glass, and gives back to every person the reflection of their own face. -William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (1811-1863)

God comes to the hungry in the form of food. -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

Those who wish to sing always find a song. -Swedish proverb

You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end -- much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you.
   -Brenda Ueland, writer (1891-1985)

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
   -Zen saying

The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
   -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

No person ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and they are not the same person.
   -Heraclitus, philosopher (c. 540-470 BCE)

Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up.
   -Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice (1841-1935)

The light which experience gives is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us.
   -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet, critic (1772-1834)

In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
   -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
   -Pericles, statesman (430 BCE)

Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
   -Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)

When money speaks, the truth keeps silent.
   -Russian proverb

One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
   -Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience.
   -Harper Lee, writer (1926- )

There is no surer way to misread any document than to read it literally.
   -Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961)

When you enjoy loving your neighbor it ceases to be a virtue.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

The things we admire in [people], kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while [people] admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.
   -John Steinbeck, novelist, Nobel laureate (1902-1968)

To the complaint, 'There are no people in these photographs,' I respond, 'There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.'
   -Ansel Adams, photographer (1902-1984)

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.
   -Carl Sagan, astronomer and writer (1934-1996)

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
   -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

The highest exercise of charity is charity towards the uncharitable.
   -J.S. Buckminster, clergyman and editor (1797-1812)

When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings.
   -William Clifford Roberts, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Cardiology

Home is not where you live but where they understand you.
   -Christion Morgenstern, writer (1871-1914)

Money may be the husk of many things but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintance, but not friends; servants, but not loyalty; days of joy, but not peace or happiness.
   -Henrik Ibsen, playwright (1828-1906)

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter, and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.
   -Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865)

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single kind act is better than a thousand head-bowings in prayer.
   -Saadi, poet (c. 1200 AD)

The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to humanity. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
   -Iris Murdoch, writer (1919-1999)

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.
   -H.G. Wells, writer (1866-1946)

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.
   -Henny Youngman, comedian, actor (1906-1998)

People and their deeds are two distinct things. Whereas a good deed should call forth approbation, and a wicked deed disapprobation, the doer of the deed, whether good or wicked, always deserves respect or pity as the case may be.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)

She who sings scares away her woes.
   -Miguel de Cervantes, novelist (1547-1616)

Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
   -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900)

Television's perfect. You turn a few knobs, a few of those mechanical adjustments at which the higher apes are so proficient, and lean back and drain your mind of all thought. And there you are watching the bubbles in the primeval ooze. You don't have to concentrate. You don't have to react. You don't have to remember. You don't miss your brain because you don't need it. Your heart and liver and lungs continue to function normally. Apart from that, all is peace and quiet. You are in the man's nirvana. And if some poor nasty minded person comes along and says you look like a fly on a can of garbage, pay him no mind. He probably hasn't got the price of a television set.
   -Raymond Thornton Chandler, writer (1888-1959)

If you came and you found a strange man... teaching your kids to punch each other, or trying to sell them all kinds of products, you'd kick him right out of the house, but here you are; you come in and the TV is on, and you don't think twice about it.
   -Jerome Singer

A man who works with his hands is a laborer;
a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman;
but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist.
   -Louis Nizer, lawyer (1902-1994)

I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

In the faces of men and women I see God.
   -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-1892)

Our society must make it right and possible for old people not to fear the young or be deserted by them, for the test of a civilization is the way that it cares for its helpless members.
   -Pearl S. Buck, Nobelist novelist (1892-1973)

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.
   -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969)

A person should never be ashamed to own that they have been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.
   -Alexander Pope, poet (1688-1744)

Once one of my students told me about acting.
"The secret is that you cannot use a negative motivation," he said. "You cannot portray 'not wanting to stay,' only 'wanting to leave.' You cannot be a person who 'does not want to be alone,' only a person who is 'eager to be with others.'"
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because this knowledge has changed my life."
"I am not following you."
"Acting starts with just that. Action. It starts with a simple act portraying a simple positive intention. One intention, one action, then another, and another, and gradually you are asserting your vision. Your audience--the people who are around you--can recognize and respond to something solid and authentic... It's a gradual process, of course, but the point simply is to make an inital act toward what you want to become. Stop ruminating and reconsider your life in terms of actions you can take... It helps to tame the helplessness."
   - [pp 68-69 Minatoya, Lydia "Talking to High Monks in the Snow : An Asian American Odyssey" 1992]

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them and try to follow them.
   -(from Ajay Srivastava email) {Added 5 Mar 2004}

All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known that there are none to be envied.
   -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.
   -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks.
   -Phillips Brooks, bishop and orator (1835-1893) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

In solitude, when we are least alone.
   -Lord Byron, poet (1788-1824) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.
   -Emile Herzog, writer (1885-1967) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could; Some blunders and absurdities crept in; Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.
   -J. William Fulbright, US Senator (1905-1995) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

So long as we have enough people in this country willing to fight for their rights, we'll be called a democracy.
   -Roger Baldwin, civil rights advocate (1884-1981) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
   -Dalai Lama [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
   -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

We require from buildings, as from men, two kinds of goodness: first, the doing their practical duty well: then that they be graceful and pleasing in doing it; which last is itself another form of duty.
   -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.
   -Chinese Proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.
   -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
   -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Only the hand that erases can write the true thing.
   -Meister Eckhart, theologian (c. 1260-1327) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Earth laughs in flowers.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
   -Socrates, philosopher (469?-399 BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Ships that pass in the night and speak to each other in passing;
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness;
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another,
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.
   -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
   -John Donne, poet (1573-1631) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

I was never less alone than when by myself.
   -Edward Gibbon, historian (1737-1794) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
   -John Morley, statesman and writer (1838-1923) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Black holes are where God divided by zero.
   -Steven Wright, comedian (1955-) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

What a child doesn't receive they can seldom later give.
   -P.D. James, writer (1920- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.
   -Carl Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
   -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 Feb 2004}

I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.
   -George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880) [Word-A-Day] {Added 29 Sept 2003}

People change and forget to tell each other.
   -Lillian Hellman, playwright (1905-1984) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.
   -William Butler Yeats, writer, Nobel laureate (1865-1939) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.
   -Chuang-Tzu, philosopher (4th c. BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always.
   -Rita Rudner, comedienne (1955- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone. My wish has come true. I no longer know how to use my telephone.
   -Bjarne Stroustrup, computer science professor, designer of C++ programming language (1950- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
   -Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

Say oh wise man how you have come to such knowledge? Because I was never ashamed to confess my ignorance and ask others.
   -Johann Gottfried Von Herder, critic and poet (1744-1803) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

He will always be a slave who does not know how to live upon a little.
   -Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

Those who failed to oppose me, who readily agreed with me, accepted all my views, and yielded easily to my opinions, were those who did me the most injury, and were my worst enemies, because, by surrendering to me so easily, they encouraged me to go too far... I was then too powerful for any man, except myself, to injure me.
   -Napoleon Bonaparte, emperor of France 1769-1821) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

The secret of joy is the mastery of pain.
   -Anais Nin, writer (1903-1977) [Word-A-Day] {Added 26 Sept 2003}

When you cook, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. When you clean the floor, there is a chance to attain enlightenment. If you go to the rest room, there is a chance to attain enlightenment.
   -Shunryu Suzuki, "Not Always So", p 15 quoted on my friend Howard Abram's web site {Added 4 Sept 2003}

When we bathe in the river today that we bathed in yesterday, is it the same river? The water in the river today is completely different from the water we bathed in yesterday. Yet it is the same river.
--
The insight of impermanence helps us to go beyond all concepts. It helps us to go beyond same and different, coming and going. It helps us to see that the river is not the same river but is also not different either. It shows us that the flame we lit on our bedside candle before we went to bed is not the same flame of the next morning. The flame on the table is not two flames, but it is not one flame either.
--
We are often sad and suffer a lot when things change, but change and impermanence have a positive side. Thanks to impermanence, everything is possible. Life itself is possible... If your daughter is not impermanent, she cannot grow up to become a woman. Then your grandchildren would never manifest. So instead of complaining about impermanence, we should say, "Warm welcome and long live impermanence." We should be happy. When we can see the miracle of impermanence our sadness and suffering will pass.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh; from article in September 2002 issue of "Shambala Sun"; quoted on my friend Howard Abram's web site {Added 2 Sept 2003}

The Buddha saw that human existence is characterized by three qualities: impermanence, suffering, and selfishness. He discovered that we suffer because we try to make ourselves solid and permanent, while our fundamental state of being is unconditionally open and changing. The Buddha encouraged others to discover this open state of being for themselves in the process of sitting meditation.
   -article "A Healthy Sense of Self" by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche (in the July 2003 issue of Shambhala Sun) {Added 27 Aug 2003}

It is not our abilities that show what we truly are. It is our choices.
   -Professor Dumbledore, book/movie "Harry Potter" [from email sig] {Added 24 July 2003}

Tears are not arguments.
   -Machado de Assis, writer (1839-1908) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 July 2003}

To confront a person with his own shadow is to show him his own light.
   -Carl G. Jung, psychiatrist (1875-1961) [Word-A-Day] {Added 21 July 2003}

They who would make their own liberty secure must guard even their enemy from oppression; for if they violates this duty they establish a precedent that will reach to themself.
   -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) [Word-A-Day] {Added 21 July 2003}

It is the greatest of all advantages to enjoy no advantage at all.
   -Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862) [Word-A-Day] {Added 21 July 2003}

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd US President (1882-1945) [Word-A-Day] {Added 21 July 2003}

Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
   -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) [Word-A-Day] {Added 21 July 2003}

The principal contributor to loneliness in this country is television. What happens is that the family 'gets together' alone.
   -Ashley Montagu, anthropologist and writer (1905-1999) [Word-A-Day] {Added 21 July 2003}

When I approach a child, she inspires in me two sentiments; tenderness for what she is, and respect for what she may become.
   -Louis Pasteur, chemist and bacteriologist (1822-1895) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.
   -Lawrence Durrell, novelist and poet (1912-1990) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.
   -Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (1924-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange.
   -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

If a triangle could speak, it would say, that God is eminently triangular, while a circle would say that the divine nature is eminently circular.
   -Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (1632-1677) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

The course of true love never did run smooth.
   -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government.
   -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
   -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.
   -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
   -Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president (1809-1865) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2 July 2003}

To follow the Way
is not to need fulfillment.
Unfulfilled, one may live on
needing no renewal.
   -["People of Power", chapter 15, p. 29, "Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way", by Lao Tzu, version by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1997] {Added 25 June 2003}

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the person, the surer they are that they know precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure."
   - H.L.Mencken [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

When governments fear the people there is liberty.
When the people fear the government there is tyranny.
   -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

The most important political office is that of private citizen.
   -Louis Brandeis, lawyer, judge, and writer (1856-1941) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Oh, we have a home. We just need a house to put it in.
   -An anonymous child [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Perfect love is rare indeed - for to be a lover will require that you continually have the subtlety of the very wise, the flexibility of the child, the sensitivity of the artist, the understanding of the philosopher, the acceptance of the saint, the tolerance of the scholar and the fortitude of the certain.
   -Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (1924-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

A teacher affects eternity; they can never tell where their influence stops.
   -Henry Adams, historian and teacher (1838-1918) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Anyone can look for fashion in a boutique or history in a museum. The creative explorer looks for history in a hardware store and fashion in an airport.
   -Robert S. Wieder, journalist [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Children enter school as question marks and leave as periods.
   -Neil Postman, professor and author (1931- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.
   -Leo Buscaglia, author, speaker and professor (1924-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

The true measure of a person is how they treat someone who can do them absolutely no good.
   -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
   -Leo Buscaglia, author (1924-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
   -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.
   -Leo Buscaglia, author (1924-1998) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

The fool doth think they are wise, but the wise person knows themself to be a fool.
   -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9 June 2003}

What if to reach the highest place,
You had to fall?
   -Peter Mayer, song "Fall", from album "Million Year Mind" {Added 27 May 2003}

Which is nearer,
name or self?
Which is dearer,
self or wealth?
Which gives more pain,
loss or gain?
--
All you grasp will be thrown away
All you hoard will be utterly lost.
--
Contentment keeps disgrace away.
Restraint keeps you out of danger
so you can go on for a long time.
--
   -["Fame and fortune", chapter 44, p. 59, "Tao Te Ching : A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way", by Lao Tzu, version by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1997] {Added 12 May 2003}

One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay "in kind" somewhere else in life.
   -Anne Morrow Lindbergh, writer (1906-2001) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 April 2003}

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 April 2003}

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
   -Ovid, poet (43 BCE - CE 17) [Word-A-Day] {Added 23 April 2003}

Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does Nature, because in her inventions, nothing is lacking and nothing is superfluous.
   -Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

Of course, it's possible to love a human being -- if you don't know them too well.
   -Charles Bukowski, writer (1920-1994) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

Once you have decided to keep a certain pile, it is no longer yours; for you can't spend it.
   -Michel De Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

I don't need time. What I need is a deadline.
   -Duke Ellington, jazz pianist, composer, and conductor (1899-1974) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art.
   -Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat and writer (1884-1962) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

Nature uses as little as possible of anything.
   -Johannes Kepler, astronomer (1571-1630) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
   -Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919) [Word-A-Day] {Added 22 April 2003}

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.
   - Eleonora Duse http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
   - Mark Twain http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

This is courage: to bear unflinchingly what heaven sends.
   - Euripedes http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.
   - George Iles http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.
   - Mother Teresa http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on, Hold fast, Hold out. Patience is genius.
   - Comte Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

Pride is concerned with who is right. Humility is concerned with what is right.
   - Ezra Taft Benson http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.
   - Dag Hammarskjold http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
   - Martin Luther King, Jr. http://www.pathways-to-peace.com {Added 22 April 2003}

When Mother Teresa received her Nobel Prize, she was asked the question, "What can we do to promote world peace?" She replied, "Go home and love your family."
   - Mother Teresa [http://www.pathways-to-peace.com/] {Added 22 April 2003}

Laughter is inner jogging.
   -Norman Cousins, editor and author (1915-1990) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.
   -Jules Renard, writer (1864-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
   -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
   -Robert Maynard Hutchins, educator (1899-1977) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
   -Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux, poet (1636-1711) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

Self-esteem is the reputation we acquire with ourselves.
   -Nathaniel Branden, psychotherapist (1930- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
   -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969) [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.
   -Helen Keller [from a circulating email] {Added 3/27/2003} [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

I'm not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship.
   -Louisa May Alcott [from a circulating email] {Added 3/27/2003} [Word-A-Day] {Added 03/24/2003}

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.
   -William James, psychologist (1842-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.
   -Lucius Annaeus Seneca, philosopher and writer (c. 3 BCE - AD 65) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.
   -Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
   -Chinese Proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

A good cook is like a sorceress who dispenses happiness.
   -Elsa Schiaparelli, fashion designer (1890-1973) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

One of the strongest characteristics of genius is the power of lighting its own fire.
   -John W. Foster, clergyman (1770-1843) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

People are so made that they can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another.
   -Anatole France, novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1844-1924) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs instead of tugs.
   -Shel Silverstein, writer (1930-1999) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
   -Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

The body is a house of many windows: there we all sit, showing ourselves and crying on the passers-by to come and love us.
   -Robert Louis Stevenson, writer (1850-1894) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
   -Dwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. general and 34th president (1890-1969) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

Dreams pass into the reality of action. From the actions stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.
   -Anais Nin, writer (1903-1977) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives the rose.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
   -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
   -Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President (1809-1865) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: Humility is endless.
   -T.S Eliot, poet (1888-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/25/2003}

It is easy to pick up and move when the culture you know is all McDonald's.
   -Glenn Petre, on why Louisiana is the nation's least transient state. [from an article on nytimes.com, 9/30/2002] {Added 1/23/2003}

Know thyself.
   -Plato

You can sometimes count every orange on a tree but never all the trees in a single orange.
   -A.K. Ramanujan, poet (1929-1993) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of discussion.
   -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Danger and delight grow on one stalk.
   -English Proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration.
   -Igor Stravinsky, composer (1882-1971) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Everything you've learned in school as `obvious' becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.
   -R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul, and yet no one ever comes to sit by it.
   -Vincent van Gogh, painter (1853-1890) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

A guidance counselor who has made a fetish of security, or who has unwittingly surrendered his thinking to economic determinism, may steer a youth away from his dream of becoming a poet, an artist, a musician or any other of thousands of things, because it offers no security, it does not pay well, there are no vacancies, it has no "future".
   -Henry M Wriston, 11th president of Brown University (1889-1978) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the idea is quite staggering.
   -Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer (1917- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

No two persons ever read the same book.
   -Edmund Wilson, critic (1895-1972) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

To do great work a man must be very idle as well as very industrious.
   -Samuel Butler, poet (1612-1680) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
   -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

The only difference between saints and sinners is that every saint has a past while every sinner has a future.
   -Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

While we are asleep in this world, we are awake in another one.
   -Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?
   -Thomas J. Watson, industrialist (1874-1956) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the spaces between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.
   -Maya Angelou, poet (1928- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

What is the purpose of the giant sequoia tree? The purpose of the giant sequoia tree is to provide shade for the tiny titmouse.
   -Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight... The truly wise person is color-blind.
   -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
   -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

The only gift is giving to the poor.
All else is exchange.
   -Thiruvalluvar, poet (c. 30 BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/07/2003}

Every night I pray to God above me,
To send His love along with lots of money,
'Cause in my heart I feel Him calling me
To Easy Street.
...
Grant us peace, O God, and feed the hungry
And don't forget to give me lots of money
'Cause I believe you have a plan for me
On Easy Street.
   - Peter Mayer, song "Easy Street", from album "Elements", 2001. {Added 01/02/2003}

Is this a world of many souls, or just one very large one?
   - sign in Irish pub, mentioned in Peter Mayer song "Molly O'Malley's", from album "Straw House Down", ca 1995. {Added 01/02/2003}

Are there many songs, or just one that goes on and on?
   - sign in Irish pub, mentioned in Peter Mayer song "Molly O'Malley's", from album "Straw House Down", ca 1995. {Added 01/02/2003}

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, they find it attached to the rest of the world.
   -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what they have already achieved, but at what they aspire to.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.
   -Moliere, actor and playwright (1622-1673) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

If the rich could hire someone else to die for them, the poor would make a wonderful living.
   -Jewish Proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.
   -Thomas Wolfe, novelist (1900-1938) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.
   -Thomas Merton, writer (1915-1968) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

No one has ever become poor by giving.
   -Anne Frank, Holocaust diarist (1929-1945) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
   -Paulo Freire, educator (1921-1997) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.
   -Peter Ustinov, actor, writer and director (1921- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
   -R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

I learned long ago that being Lewis Carroll was infinitely more exciting than being Alice.
   -Joyce Carol Oates, writer (1938- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.
   -Spanish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

Please subdue the anguish of your soul. Nobody is destined only to happiness or to pain. The wheel of life takes one up and down by turn.
   -Kalidasa, dramatist (c. 4th century) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

God, to me, it seems, is a verb, not a noun, proper or improper.
   -R. Buckminster Fuller, engineer, designer, and architect (1895-1983) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

Without darkness there are no dreams.
   -Karla Kuban, novelist [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.
   -Harry Emerson Fosdick, preacher and author (1878-1969) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

When a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
   -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

Little strokes
Fell great oaks.
   -Benjamin Franklin, statesman, author, and inventor (1706-1790) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

You become a writer by writing. It is a yoga.
   -R.K. Narayan, novelist (1906-2001) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

A good heart is better than all the heads in the world.
   -Edward Bulwer-Lytton, writer (1803-1873) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

God never occurs to you in person but always in action.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

Compassion is the basis of morality.
   -Arnold Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/02/2003}

The meaning of communication is the response you get. If you are not getting the response you want, change what you are doing.
   -Dr. Genie Z. Laborde (from email signature of Jay Kiekbusch of IBM in Lenexa) {Added 11/25/2002}

Nothing that grieves us can be called little: by the eternal laws of proportion a child's loss of a doll and a king's loss of a crown are events of the same size.
   -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/01/2002}

We grow tyrannical fighting tyranny. The most alarming spectacle today is not the spectacle of the atomic bomb in an unfederated world, it is the spectacle of the Americans beginning to accept the device of loyalty oaths and witchhunts, beginning to call anybody they don't like a Communist.
   -E.B. White, writer (1899-1985) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/24/2002}

If the secret sorrows of everyone could be read on their forehead, how many who now cause envy would suddenly become the objects of pity.
   -Italian proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/24/2002}

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.
   -Maya Angelou, novelist, poet (1928- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/20/2002}

A painting is never finished - it simply stops in interesting places.
   -Paul Gardner, painter [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/18/2002}

The great high of winning Wimbledon lasts for about a week. You go down in the record book, but you don't have anything tangible to hold on to. But having a baby -- there isn't any comparison.
   -Chris Evert Lloyd, tennis player (1954- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/18/2002}

God could not be everywhere, and therefore God created mothers.
   -Jewish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/18/2002}

Nothing contributes so much to tranquilizing the mind as a steady purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
   -Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author (1797-1851) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/18/2002}

The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
   -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, philosopher (1844-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
   -Buddha (c. 566-480 BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

It's a shallow life that doesn't give a person a few scars.
   -Garrison Keillor, radio host and author (1942- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing.
   -Walt Whitman, poet (1819-92) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

I call architecture frozen music.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
   -Lao-Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: 'Only stand out of my light.' Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.
   -John W. Gardner, author and educator (1912-2002) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

Nonviolence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.
   -Thomas Edison, inventor (1847-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/05/2002}

You free yourself with your heart, not your mind.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [Chee Chung Newsletter, circa 1998-2002] http://www.cheehaucenter.org {Added 8/15/2002}

Belief in self is the first key to opening doors of self.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [Chee Chung Newsletter, circa 1998-2002] http://www.cheehaucenter.org {Added 8/15/2002}

Life has a life of its own -- let life be life.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [Chee Chung Newsletter, circa 1998-2002] http://www.cheehaucenter.org {Added 8/15/2002}

Each experience is like a door.
You must have something to open it...
the heart.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [Chee Chung Newsletter, circa 1998-2002] http://www.cheehaucenter.org {Added 8/15/2002}

Look in front of you. As you do this, things can unveil themselves.
Walking backwards is difficult, walking forward is easy, and we change.
It is not thoughts that make changes; actions create changes.
Thoughts take us back, actions take us forward.
   -Wong Loh Sin See [Chee Chung Newsletter, circa 1998-2002] http://www.cheehaucenter.org {Added 8/15/2002}

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience.
Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.
   -Hal Borland, journalist (1900-1978) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/30/2002}

Don't forget, there is an alternative. You can give up. You are in control of that decision. And keeping that in mind can help you stay in as long as you want.
   -Meg Greenfield {Added 5/29/2002}

The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.
   -Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/29/2002}

Coincidences are spiritual puns.
   -G.K. Chesterton, essayist and novelist (1874-1936) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/29/2002}

Kindness makes [people] feel good whether it's being done to [them] or by [them].
   -Frank A. Clark [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/17/2002}

And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
   -Anais Nin, writer (1903-1977) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/01/2002}

I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful.
   -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/25/2002}

God has no religion.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/22/2002}

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/22/2002}

There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge, and fox, and squirrel.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/22/2002}

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
   -Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BC) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/22/2002}

The mind commands the body and the body obeys.
The mind commands itself and finds resistance.
   -St. Augustine (354-430) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/05/2002}

I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/18/2002}

Compassion will cure more sins than condemnation.
   -Henry Ward Beecher, preacher and writer (1813-1887) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/4/2002}

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/4/2002}

God Himself... does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?
   -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/4/2002}

Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, poet, dramatist, novelist, and philosopher (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/29/2002}

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
is all the sad world needs.
   -Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (1850-1919) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/29/2002}

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?
   -Jean Jacques Rousseau, philosopher and author (1712-1778) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/24/2002}

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children.
   -Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet and artist (1883-1931) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/16/2002}

Bed is the poor man's opera.
   -Italian proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing.
   -Margaret Chittenden, writer [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.
   -Robert Service, writer (1874-1958) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

We are all born originals - why is it so many of us die copies?
   -Edward Young, poet (1683-1765) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

It is a bit embarrassing to have been concerned with the human problem all one's life and find at the end that one has no more to offer by way of advice than "try to be a little kinder."
   -Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

Ultimately, the only power to which a person should aspire is that which they exercise over themself.
   -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (1928- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

Language is not neutral. It is not merely a vehicle which carries ideas. It is itself a shaper of ideas.
   -Dale Spender, writer (1943- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/9/2002}

Peace is every step, it turns the endless path to joy.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

If you love someone, the greatest gift you can give them is your presence.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

Peace is the walk. Happiness is the walk. Walk for yourself and you walk for everyone.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

With each step, a gentle wind blows, with each step, a flower blooms.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

We don't rush to the future, because we know that everything is here in the present moment.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

All generations of our ancestors and all future generations are present in us.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

Our joy, peace, freedom, and harmony are the joy, peace, freedom, and harmony of our ancestors, our children, and their children.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh (from 2001 Thich Nhat Hanh calendar) {Added 1/7/2002}

One kind word can warm three winter months.
   -Japanese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/28/2001}

What a person says drunk they have thought sober.
   -Flemish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/28/2001}

Simplicity doesn't mean to live in misery and poverty. You have what you need, and you don't want to have what you don't need.
   -Charan Singh, mystic (1916-1990) [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/28/2001}

To do good is my religion.
   -Thomas Paine [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/24/2001}

The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand the meaning of life.
   -Leo Tolstoy, author (1828-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/24/2001}

Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter.
   -African proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/12/2001}

When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall.
   --Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
   -Edgar Allan Poe, poet and short-story writer (1809-1849) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much.
   -Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

When the master has come to do everything through the slave, the slave becomes their master, since they cannot live without them.
   -George Bernard, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

Sometimes to remain silent is to lie.
   -Miguel de Unamuno, philosopher and writer (1864-1936) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

As against having beautiful workshops, studios, etc., one writes best in a cellar on a rainy day.
   -Van Wyck Brooks, writer, critic (1886-1963) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.
   -Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behaviour toward creatures, all men were Nazis.
   -Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, Nobel laureate, (1904-1991) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

In truth everything and everyone
Is a shadow of the Beloved,
And our seeking is His seeking
And our words are His words...
We search for Him here and there,
while looking right at Him.
Sitting by His side, we ask:
"O Beloved, where is the Beloved?"
   -Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

A person is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, they are responsible for everything they do.
   -Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/2001}

I don't even have an e-mail address. I have reached an age where my main purpose is not to receive messages.
   -Umberto Eco, quoted in the New Yorker, from (Donald Knuth's web page) {Added 8/01/2001}

When a man wants to murder a tiger he calls it sport; when the tiger wants to murder him he calls it ferocity.
   -George Bernard Shaw, writer, Nobel laureate (1856-1950) {Added 7/6/2001}

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.
   -Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 7/2/2001}

If the aborigine drafted an IQ test, all of Western civilization would presumably flunk it.
   -Stanley Marion Garn, anthropologist (1922- ) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 7/2/2001}

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
   -Henri Frederic Amiel, philosopher and writer (1821-1881) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 7/2/2001}

Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.
   -Frank Lloyd Wright, architect (1867-1959) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 7/2/2001}

Shall I tell you the secret of the true scholar? It is this: every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 7/2/2001}

If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself;
if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself.
   -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and philosopher (1772-1834) {Added 6/18/2001}

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
   -Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/14/2001}

...They're like the vietcong...vermitcong. So what you got to do...you got to fall back on superior firepower and superior intelligence. And that's all she wrote.
   -Carl Spackler, greenskeeper, movie "Caddyshack", played by Bill Murray [from www.carlspackler.com] {Added 6/6/2001}

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
   -Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (1918- ) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 6/6/2001}

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.
   -Edith Wharton, novelist (1862-1937) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 6/6/2001}

...And I said, Hey Lama, how 'bout a little something, you know, for the effort? And he says, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed you will receive total consciousness. So I got that going for me, which is nice.
   -Carl Spackler, greenskeeper, movie "Caddyshack", played by Bill Murray [from www.carlspackler.com] {Added 5/21/2001}

Your future is your neighbor, so destruction of your neighbor is destruction of yourself. The concept of war is out of date.
   -Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV, from a speech to high school students in Portland, OR 5/14/2001 {Added 5/15/2001}

"Speak before you think" is creation's motto.
   -E. M. Forster, p. 116, "Information Anxiety 2" by Richard Saul Wurman

People who need to exert rational control over their world are very slow learners.
   -Philip Slater, p. xii, "The Wayward Gate : Science and the Supernatural", 1977. {Added 5/15/2001}

Reality is merely what we need.
   -Philip Slater, p. 5, "The Wayward Gate : Science and the Supernatural", 1977. {Added 5/15/2001}

So you're having a conversation with the Great Spirit, the maker of all things, and you're doing the talking?
   -George, Dharma's spirit guide, on TV Show "Dharma and Greg" {Added 05/15/01}

Without music, life would be a mistake... I would only believe in a God who knew how to dance.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche [p. 183 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

God created the Universe in order to hear music, and everything has a song of praise for God.
   -Louis Ginsberg [p. 174 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

God made a statue of clay in his own image, and asked the soul to enter into it; but the soul refused to be imprisoned, for its nature is to fly about freely. Then God asked the angels to play their music. Moved to ecstasy, the soul then entered the body.
   -Hafiz [p. 170 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Where speech fails, then music begins. It is the natural medium for the expression too strong and deep to be expressed in words.
   -Charles W. Landon [p. 157 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Music is a spiritual doorway... Its power comes from the fact that it plugs directly into the soul, unlike a lot of visual art or textual information that has to go through the more filtering processes of the brain.
   -Peter Gabriel [p. 133 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

For me, music is this magic acoustic element that makes perfectly rational people who have come to realize the unalterable fact that they are truly alone in the world somehow feel for fleeting moments that maybe they're not alone after all.
   -Billy Joel [p. 126 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

My stuff is definitely up for discussion. When you're listening to an Ice-T album you're listening to me in the middle of a park yelling out my attitudes, my ideas. You can agree or disagree. But you should never think everything I'm thinking 'cause then only one of us is thinking.
   -Ice-T [p. 125 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

The best way to get to knowing any bunch of people is to go and listen to their music.
   -Woody Guthrie [p. 125 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Where I come from we say that rhythm is the soul of life, because the whole universe revolves around rhythm, and when we get out of rhythm, that's when we get into trouble.
   -Babatunde Olatunji [p. 113 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Rock 'n' roll is like a drug. I don't take very much rock 'n' roll, but when I do rock 'n' roll, I fuckin' do it. But I don't want to do it all the time 'cause it'll kill me. When you're singing and playing rock 'n' roll, you're on the leading edge of yourself. You're tryin' to vibrate, tryin' to make something happen. It's like there's somethin' alive and exposed.
   -Neil Young [p. 17 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

I can tell you much more about what a man is really thinking by listening to him play than by hearing him talk. You can't hide anything in that horn.
   -Jo Jones [p. 110 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Civilization is spread more by singing than by anything else, because whole big bunches can sing a particular song where not every man can join in on the same conversation. A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.
   -Woody Guthrie [p. 105 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Rock won't eliminate your problems,. But it will let you sort of dance all over them.
   -Pete Townshend [p. 104 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Rock's noise has been neessary to break through the crust of self-consciousness accumulated over these last three thousand years. So that a place long asleep in us would wake. In the instant environment of rock, the literally deafening noise cancels out the rest of the culture.
   -Michael Ventura [p. 98 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

The Rolling Stones found the frequency, they sounded the chime, they dripped the tap on to the bucket, they cracked the mirror and busted the glass. "Satisfaction" can never be unwritten.
   -Germaine Greer [p. 98 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

What we call low-down in blues doesn't mean that it's dirty or bad or something like that. It gets down into the individual to set him on fire, dig him up or dig her up way down there 'til they come out with an expression verbally.
If they're in the church, they say, "Amen."
If they're in the blues, they say, "Sing it now."
   -Thomas A. Dorsey [p. 97 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

You can't go by what the preacher say because he and the bluesman looking for the same thing -- some money, some chicken, and a nice looking woman.
   -James "Son" Thomas [p. 96 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

One Planet, One Music.
   -MTV Advertisement [p. 95 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

You know, there's this place where a river runs into an ocean and the fresh water and the salt water all get mixed in together. And that's what America is all about, and that's what American music is about, and that's what rock 'n' roll is about. It actually wasn't invented by anybody, and it's not just black and white, either. It's Mexican and Appalachian and Gaelic and everything that's come floating down the river.
   -T-Bone Burnett [p. 93 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

There will come a time when the diseased condition of a soul life will not be described as it is by psychologists, but it will be spoken of in musical terms, as one would speak, for instance, of a piano that was out of tune.
   -Rudolph Steiner [p. 86 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

For the first time with my physical ears I heard a sound that had kept recurring in my dreams as a boy--a high whistling C sharp. It came to me as I worked in my Westside apartment where I could hear all the river sounds--the lonely foghorns, the shrill peremptory whistles--the whole wonderful river symphony that moved me more than anything ever had before.
   -Edgard Varese [p. 69 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

It's not like music begins or ends. All kinds of sounds are working into each other. Sometimes I'll just stop on the street because there's a sequence of sirens going on; it's like a melody I'll never hear again.
   -Jeff Buckley [p. 69 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

If a composer could state in words what being a composer means, she would no longer need to be a composer.
   -Ned Rorem [p. 68 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

A young composer once came to Mozart for advice on how to develop creatively.
"Begin writing simple things first," Mozart told him; "songs, for example."
"But you composed symphonies when you were only a child," the man exclaimed.
"Ah," Mozart answered, "but I didn't go to anybody to find out how to become a composer!"
   -David Ewen [p. 67 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

There's this great line in a Chrissie Hynde song where she says, "When I first heard a song flying to the sun, I wanted to be one." You know, it's not that you want to sing the song, it's that you want to be one.
   -Joan Osborne [p. 59 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

I believe it's no good to talk about your songs; it's wrong. You should leave your songs alone and let them say what they say; let people take what they want from them.
   -Paul Simon [p. 58 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

Romanticism, and sorrow, and greed--they can all be put into music. I can definitely recognize greed. I know when a man is playing for money.
   -Coleman Hawkins [p. 50 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

I never practice, I always play.
   -Wanda Landowska [p. 40 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

I'm not very good technically, but I can make it fuckin' howl and move.
   -John Lennon [p. 38 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

I cannot tell you how much I love to play for people... Sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle my impluse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me.
   -Arthur Rubinstein [p. 32 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart and Frederic Lieberman 1999] {Added 05/11/01}

The best cure for worry, depression, melancholy, brooding, is to go deliberately forth and try to lift with one's sympathy the gloom of somebody else.
   -Arnold Bennett, novelist (1867-1931) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 5/1/2001}

When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.
   -Corrie Ten Boom, author and Holocaust survivor {Added 3/7/2001}

Desire + desire = desire
Desire + action = results
   -Rob Bednark 1/26/2001 {3/7/2001}

Desire is like a match. If not struck, there is no flame.
   -Rob Bednark 1/26/2001 {3/7/01}

You can keep wanting, but without doing, you're never gonna be getting.
   -Rob Bednark 1/26/2001 {3/7/01}

Longing can ignite change, but longing alone does bring about change.
   -Rob Bednark 1/26/2001 {3/7/01}

If you want something, that is what you get--the WANT. Rather then desire, embrace through action.,
   -Anderson Rice 1/25/2001 (paraphrase from book "Conversations With God" by Neale Donald Walsch) {Added 3/7/01}

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.
   -Alan Alda, actor and director (1936-) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 02/21/01}

Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.
   -Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626) [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/09/01}

I don't like the sound of all those lists he's making - it's like taking too many notes at school; you feel you've achieved something when you haven't.
   -Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle, 1948 [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/09/01}

If you must play, decide on three things at the start: the rules of the game, the stakes, and the quitting time.
   -Chinese Proverb [from Word-A-Day] {Added 02/09/01}

It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.
   -Anatole France (1844 - 1924) [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/09/01}

How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/07/01}

Even God cannot change the past.
   -Agathon (448 BC - 400 BC) [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/07/01}

Some things have to be believed to be seen.
-- Ralph Hodgson, on ESP [from Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/01/01}

You ask me why I do not write something....I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.
   -Florence Nightingale, in Cecil Woodham-Smith, Florence Nightingale, 1951 [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 02/01/01}

I don't choose what I compose, it chooses me.
   -Gustav Mahler [p. 18 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart"] {Added 01/29/01}

The best way to kill your music is to sit down every day and work at it. You got to sneak up on it and catch it when it's not looking.
   -Iggy Pop [p. 19 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart"] {Added 01/29/01}

It took me twenty years of study and practice to work up to what I wanted to play in this performance. How can she expect to listen five minutes and understand it?
   -Miles Davis (when a lady in the audience complained that she didn't understand what Miles Davis was playing) [p. 38 "Spirit Into Sound" by Mickey Hart"] {Added 01/29/01}

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.
   -Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662) [from Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/29/01}

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true either is true or becomes true.
   -John Lilly [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/29/01}

We only do well the things we like doing.
   -Colette, Prisons and Paradise, 1932 [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/29/01}

Be very circumspect in the choice of thy company. In the society of thine equals thou shalt enjoy more pleasure; in the society of thy superiors thou shalt find more profit. To be the best in the company is the way to grow worse.
   -Francis Quarles [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/26/01}

Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.
   -Ovid (43 BC - 18 AD) [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/26/01}

They say that God is everywhere, and yet we always think of Him as somewhat of a recluse.
   -Emily Dickinson [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/25/01}

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
   -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882) [from Word-A-Day] {Added 01/24/01}

Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882) [from Motivational Quotes of the Day] {Added 01/18/01}

To live for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top.
   -Robert M. Pirsig, author [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance] [from Word-A-Day] {Added 12/18/00}

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after.
   -Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon [from http://www.fiction.net/quotes/former.quotes.html] {Added 12/14/00}

When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.
   -Mark Twain [from Word-A-Day] {Added 12/05/00}

In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything.
In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone's letter.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/29/00}

Absolute freedom mocks at justice.
Absolute justice denies freedom.
   -Albert Camus, writer philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/28/00}

He who would travel happily must travel light.
   -Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author and aviator (1900-1945) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/21/00}

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
   -Chuang Tzu, mystic and philosopher (c. 4th century BC) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/20/00}

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/10/00}

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds -
all they have had,
all they have now,
and all they expect to have.
   -Edward Everett Hale, author (1822-1909) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/09/00}

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (1861-1941) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/07/00}

I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.
   -Gloria Steinem, women's rights activist, editor (1934- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/20/00}

Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults.
   -Antisthenes [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/2/00}

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
   -Elbert Hubbard, author, editor, printer (1856-1915) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/28/00}

Life is a long lesson in humility.
   -James M. Barrie, novelist, short-story writer, and playwright (1860-1937) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/25/00}

Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.
   -Edsger W. Dijkstra, computer science professor [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/22/00}

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
   -John Nichols, novelist (1940- ) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/22/00}

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/22/00}

I wish I were either rich enough or poor enough to do a lot of things that are impossible in my present comfortable circumstances.
   -Don Herold [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/08/00}

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 8/22/00}

The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
   -Martin Luther King, Jr., civil-rights leader (1929-1968) [Word-A-Day] {Added 8/22/00}

When one is pretending, the entire body revolts.
   -Anais Nin [p. 212 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

If one can actually revert to the truth, then a great deal of one's suffering can be erased--because a great deal of one's suffering is based on lies.
   -R. D. Laing [p. 191 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Truth guides the way I relate to the rest of the world. I know what's true for me. And that's enough.
   -Annie McAvoy, English teacher [p. 189 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
   -The Dalai Lama [p. 187 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to them their own.
   -Benjamin Disraeli [p. 184 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
   -Lao Tzu [p. 178 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.
   -G. K. Chesterton [p. 163 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Yesterday is ashes, tomorrow wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.
   -Old Eskimo saying [p. 158 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

To be alive, to be able to see, to walk... it's all a miracle. I have adapted the technique of living life from miracle to miracle.
   -Artur Rubinstein [p. 156 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Do not worry about tomorrow's trouble, for you do not know what the day may bring. Tomorrow may come and you will be no more, and so you will have worried about a world that is not yours.
   -Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Yevamot [p. 153 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think... I can't believe I'm here. This is so wonderful!
   -Leslie Darin, historian [p. 151 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Whatever is flexible and loving will tend to grow;
whatever is rigid and blocked will wither and die.
   -Lao Tzu [p. 149 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
   -Agnes de Mille [p. 144 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

You are lost the instant you know what the result will be.
   -Juan Gris [p. 141 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Q: "What do you see yourself doing five years from now?"
A: "I have no idea. I've never had a career plan and never will. I just always make sure that I'm doing something I love at the moment, and I find out where it takes me. I float downriver, then I wake up and say, 'Oh, here I am. I've had a swell float.'"
   -Diane Sawyer, interviewed in US magazine, Sept., 1997 [p. 140 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish.
   -Ovid [p. 134 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/14/00}

A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.
   -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/12/00}

I'm free when I allow my life to unfold. As soon as I restrict myself to known outcomes, I've got a noose around my neck.
   -Adele Goldstone, caterer [p. 131 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/11/00}

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.
   -Golda Meir [p. 107 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/11/00}

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards: they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
   -Margaret Young [p. 92 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/11/00}

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.
   -Rita Mae Brown [p. 87 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/11/00}

A person will be called to account on judgment day for every permissible thing that [they] might have enjoyed but did not.
   -Jerusalem Talmud, tractate Kiddushin, chapter 4, paragraph 12 [p. 85 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

We have what we seek. It is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us.
   -Thomas Merton [p. 82 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Knowing others is wisdom,
knowing yourself is enlightenment.
   -Lao Tzu [p. 80 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
   -Emma Goldman [p. 76 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

If you do not ask yourself what it is you know, you will go on listening to others and change will not come because you will not hear your own truth.
   -Saint Bartholomew [p. 70 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

How do I stay happy? I listen to my heart.
   -Paul Hardin, accoutant [p. 69 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Let me listen to me and not to them.
   -Gertrude Stein [p. 51 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Shallow [people] believe in luck, believe in circumstance. Strong [people] believe in cause and effect.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [p. 45 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

All of us who are happy have the intention of being happy. It seems to me that intention is the key.
   -Janet Jantzen, fundraiser [p. 19 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Those who wish to sing always find a song.
   -Swedish proverb [p. 19 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.
   -Victor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning" [p. 23 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not.
   -Ludwig Wittgenstein [p. 24 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Why not seize the pleasure at once? How many times is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation?
   -Jane Austen [p. 26 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.
   -Agnes Repplier [p. 35 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Joy has nothing to do with material things, or with a person's outward circumstance... A person living in the lap of luxury can be wretched, and a person in the depths of poverty can overflow with joy.
   -William Barclay [p. 38 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

Here's my happiness philosophy in a nutshell: I feel that I'm directly responsible for what happens in my life.
   -Mike Carr, electronics salesman [p. 45 from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.
   -Muriel Rukeyser [p. xvii from book "How We Choose to Be Happy" by Rick Foster and Greg Hicks 1999] {Added 7/10/00}

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/05/00}

Do not believe that it is very much of an advance to do the unnecessary three times as fast.
   -Peter Drucker (1909-) [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/05/00}

Kindness is loving people more than they deserve.
   -Joseph Joubert, French moralist and essayist (1754-1824) [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/30/00} *

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed be doing at that moment.
   -Robert Benchley [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/28/00}

Write the bad things that are done to you in the sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.
   -Arabian wisdom [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/28/00}

If I can stop one Heart from breaking
I shall not live in vain
If I can ease one Life from Aching
Or cool one Pain
Or help one fainting Robin
Unto his Nest again
I shall not live in Vain.
   -Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/9/00}

If you want something really important to be done you must not merely satisfy the reason, you must move the heart also.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/7/00}

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
   -T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/7/00}

Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen.
   -Leonardo Da Vinci [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/17/00}

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/15/00}

The half a pound of chopped ground round,
Is still a burger when it goes downtown.
   -John Prine "New Train" (song) {Added 5/8/00}

I have one share in corporate Earth, and I am nervous about the management.
   -E.B. White [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/4/00}

They called me mad, and I called them mad, and damn them, they outvoted me.
   -Nathaniel Lee (on being consigned to a mental institution, circa 17th c.) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/1/00}

The words of truth are always paradoxical.
   -Lao Tzu [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/27/00}

To teach is to learn twice.
   -Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/25/00}

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/24/00}

A man too busy to take care of his health is like a mechanic too busy to take care of his tools.
   -Spanish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/24/00}

The less I seek my Source for some definitive,
The closer I am to fine.
   -Indigo Girls, song "Closer to Fine" 1989 {Added 4/24/00}

To be satisfied with what one has; that is wealth. As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount, that man isn't rich.
   -Mark Twain (1835-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/17/00}

If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.
   -[from a circulating email] {Added 4/14/00}

A problem arises when life becomes, by and large, a mixture of work, family chores, and shopping. It's a little like the hollow world Clifford Stoll writes of in "Silicon Snake Oil", his critique of the on-line revolution: "It is an overpromoted, hollow world, devoid of warmth and human kindness." This also applies to shopping. An afternoon dragging your kids through the mall is no substitute for a day tobogganing with them or taking them to see jellyfish in a tidal pool.
   -David Brancaccio, book "Squandering Aimlessly : My Adventures in the American Marketplace" 1999. {Added 4/6/00}

A child on the farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place.
A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and thinks of home.
   -Carl Burns [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/28/00}

There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.
   -Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/09/00}

You can never solve a problem at the level at which it was created. You have to go to at least one level beyond.
   -attributed to Albert Einstein by Deepak Chopra [in an Amazon.com interview] {Added 3/7/00}

Light energy enters our being through our eyes, but our vision of reality is determined more by what we see with our mind's eye than what we see with our physical eye. In fact, I found that our eyesight is simply a reflection of our view of reality. So when the mind begins to see more clearly, the eyes also begin to see more clearly...
   -Dr. Jacob Liberman, "Take Off Your Glasses and See" [quoted on p. 7 of "28 Days to Reading Without Glasses" by Lisette Scholl 1998] {Added 3/3/00}

You'll see it when you believe it.
   -Wayne Dyer [quoted on p. 26 of "28 Days to Reading Without Glasses" by Lisette Scholl 1998] {Added 3/3/00}

Belief creates biology.
   -Norman Cousins [quoted on p. 34 of "28 Days to Reading Without Glasses" by Lisette Scholl 1998] {Added 3/3/00}

The best exercises for you are the ones you will do.
   -Edgar Cayce [quoted on p. 68 of "28 Days to Reading Without Glasses" by Lisette Scholl 1998] {Added 3/3/00}

When your attention is in the past or the future, you are in the field of time, creating age.
   -Deepak Chopra "Ageless Body, Timeless Mind" [quoted on p. 152 of "28 Days to Reading Without Glasses" by Lisette Scholl 1998] {Added 3/3/00}

We remember what we understand, we understand only what we pay attention to, we pay attention to what we want. This chain gives us memory. When memory fails, the problem lies in the inability to move along the chain.
   -Edmund Blair Bolles "Remembering and Forgetting: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Memory" [quoted on p. 144 of "28 Days to Reading Without Glasses" by Lisette Scholl 1998] {Added 3/3/00}

If there is anything we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.
   -Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist (1875-1961) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/03/00}

If Jesus would have been killed in modern times Christians would wear little electric chairs around their necks.
   -Lenny Bruce ["Traveling Mercies" by Anne Lamott] {Added 2/29/00}

A lion was holding a mouse up by it's tail and said,
"You are the smallest, weakest, puniest animal in the kingdom."
And the mouse said, "I've been sick, lately."
   -["Traveling Mercies" by Anne Lamott] {Added 2/29/00}

The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) [Beyond Good and Evil, 1886] [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/29/00}

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
:
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
:
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
:
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
:
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
:
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
:
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
   -Mother Theresa {Added 2/28/00} [from an email]

I don't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened by old ones.
   -John Cage [from somebody's email sig] {Added 02/17/00}

The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back.
   -Abigail Van Buren [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/15/00}

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.
   -Lisa Alther [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/11/00}

As long as a man stands in his own way, everything seems to be in his way.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/11/00}

No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
   -Booker T. Washington [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/07/00}

Instead of saying
"Don't just sit there; do something,"
we should say the opposite,
"Don't just do something; sit there."
   -Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh [p. 41 from book "A Geography of Time"] {Added 2/4/00}

A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine.
   -Meher Baba [p. 33 from book "A Geography of Time"] {Added 2/4/00}

In a world where time cannot be measured, there are no clocks, no calendars, no definite appointments. Events are triggered by other events, not by time. A house is begun when stone and lumber arrive at the building site. The stone quarry delivers stone when the quarryman needs money.... Trains leave the station...when the cars are filled with passengers... Long ago, before the Great Clock, time was measured by changes in heavenly bodies: the slow sweep of stars across the night sky, the arc of the sun and the variation in light, the waxing and waning of the moon, tides, seasons. Time was measured also by heartbeats, the rhythms of drowsiness and sleep, the recurrence of hunger, the menstrual cycles of women, the duration of loneliness.
   -Alan Lightman, "Einstein's Dreams" [quoted on p. 81 from book "A Geography of Time"] {Added 2/4/00}

It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/02/00}

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.
   -Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (1804-1864) [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/02/00}

Language is an archeological vehicle... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history.
   -Russell Hoban [Novelists in Interview] [Word-A-Day] {Added 02/02/00}

I do not hesitate to read ... all good books in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable--any real insight or broad human sentiment.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [Society and Solitude] [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/24/00}

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/24/00}

Seven blunders of the world that lead to violence:
wealth without work,
pleasure without conscience,
knowledge without character,
commerce without morality,
science without humanity,
worship without sacrifice,
politics without principle.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/17/00}

Why is it that when we talk to God we're said to be praying, but when God talks to us we're schizophrenic?
   -Lily Tomlin {Added 1/14/00}

The whole drift of my education goes to persuade me that the world of our present consciousness is only one out of many worlds of consciousness that exist.
   -William James [Word-A-Day] {Added 01/06/00}

My commitment must be to truth and not to consistency.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) {Added 12/30/99}

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
   -Alice Walker (1944-) [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/20/99}

I will love the light for it shows me the way,
Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars.
   -Og Mandino [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/16/99}

Experience is the mother of illusion.
   -Clive S. Lewis, "The Screwtape Letters", 1959, 1961. p. 102, chapter XXVIII {Added 12/13/99} (Lewis paraphrased from Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, where Kant says: "For whereas, so far as nature is concerned, experience supplies the rules and is the source of truth, in respect of the moral laws it is, alas, the mother of illusion!" Lewis' extended quote from "The Screwtape Letters": "A great human philosopher nearly let our secret out when he said that where Virtue is concerned 'Experience is the mother of illusion'; but thanks to a change in Fashion, and also, of course, to the Historical Point of View, we have largely rendered his book innocuous." ) [Thanks to Jeremy Hedges for emailing me the Kant background]

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I will not forget you.
   -William Arthur Ward, American newspaper editor, writer [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/10/99}

Don't look forward to the day you stop suffering, because when it comes you'll know you're dead.
   -Tennessee Williams [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/01/99}

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
   -Abraham Lincoln [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/01/99}

You train people how to treat you by how you treat yourself.
   -Martin Rutte [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/01/99}

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.
   -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/16/99}

Just remember--when you think all is lost, the future remains.
   -Bob Goddard [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/11/99}

Only a mediocre writer is always at his best.
   -William Somerset Maugham, British writer (1874-1965) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/08/99}

Most of us ask for advice when we know the answer but we want a different one.
   -Ivern Ball [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/08/99}

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer and philosopher (1803-1882) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/04/99}

Let us be of good cheer, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those which never happen.
   -James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/25/99}

To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs.
   -Aurobindo Ghose, Indian philosopher (1872-1950) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/18/99}

When the effective leader is finished with his work, the people say it happened naturally.
   -Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (6th century B.C.) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/01/99}

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/27/99}

To hold and fill to overflowing
Is not as good as to stop in time.
Sharpen a knife-edge to its very sharpest,
And the edge will not last long.
   -Lao-Tzu, Chinese philosopher (circa 600 BC) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/20/99}

The refusal to choose is a form of choice; disbelief is a form of belief.
   -Frank Barron [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/99} *

I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
   -Aldous Leonard Huxley, British writer (1894-1963) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/07/99}

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
   -Chuang-tzu (B.C. 350) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/01/99}

Alcohol drunks not - Man drunks himself.
Beauty charms not - Man charms himself.
   -Buddhist proverb [from email signature] {Added 8/26/99}

If a man points at the moon, an idiot will look at the finger.
   -Sufi wisdom [Word-A-Day] {Added 8/18/99}

Son, when you grow up you will know who I really am. I am just a child like you who has been forced to act responsibly.
   -Rod Byrnes [Word-A-Day] {Added 8/16/99}

Knowing all truth is less than doing a little bit of good.
   -Albert Schweitzer [The Thoughts of Albert Schweitzer] [Word-A-Day] {Added 8/09/99}

The unwanting soul sees what's hidden,
The ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants.
   -Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching {Added 8/06/99}

When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.
   -Francois de La Rochefoucauld [Word-A-Day] {Added 8/04/99}

You just pick a chord, go TWANG, and you've got Music
   -Sid Vicious

The more I study physics, the more I am drawn to metaphysics.
   -Albert Einstein [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/28/99}

To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.
   -[CoolSig] {Added 7/28/99}

One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer.
   -Stephen Hawking [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/26/99}

The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
   -William Thackeray [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/20/99}

They may forget what you say,
they may forget what you do,
but they will never forget how you made them feel.
   -Carl W. Buechner [Word-A-Day] {Added 7/19/99}

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?
Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.
   -Abraham Lincoln [From a web site] {Added 7/14/99}

We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make our world.
   -The Buddha [p. 275 "The Corporate Mystic : A Guidebook for Visionaries with their Feet on the Ground" by Hendricks, Gay and Ludeman, Kate 1996] {Added 7/13/99}

People don't see the world as it is, but as they are.
   -[CoolSig] {Added 7/7/99}

Children will soon forget your presents, they will always remember your presence.
   -Dobson [CoolSig] {Added 06/30/99}

The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
   -Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/28/99}

Do not keep the slanderer away,
treat him with affection and honour:
Body and soul, he scours all clean,
babbling about this and that.
   -Kabir [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/22/99}

When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion.
   -Ethiopian proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/22/99}

To wish to be well is a part of becoming well.
   -Seneca [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/9/99}

One should count each day a separate life.
   -Marcus Arelius [Word-A-Day] {Added 6/2/99}

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much of life. So aim above morality. Be not simply good; be good for something.
   -Henry David Thoreau [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/19/99}

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
   -Antoine de Saint-Exupery [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/19/99}

I am a kind of paranoiac in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
   -J.D. Salinger [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/19/99}

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?
   -Satchel Paige {Added 5/14/99}

What is passion? Passion is surely the becoming of a person.
   -John Boorman [p. 140 "Something More" by Sarah Ban Breathnach] {Added 5/13/99}

I have yet to meet a person who has not felt betrayed.
   -Caroline Myss [p. 140 "Something More" by Sarah Ban Breathnach] {Added 5/13/99}

The universe works with you and for you. It is not your enemy.
   -David Spangler [p. 190 "Something More" by Sarah Ban Breathnach] {Added 5/13/99}

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
   -Joseph Campbell [p. 39 "Something More" by Sarah Ban Breathnach] {Added 5/13/99}

Let him that would move the world, first move himself.
   -Socrates [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/12/99}

Every child comes with the message that God is not yet tired of man.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet (1861-1941) [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/12/99}

Do not praise yourself nor slander others:
There are still many days to go and anything could happen.
   -Kabir [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/12/99}

If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire - then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience.
   -Robert Fulghum [Word-A-Day] {Added 5/12/99}

God is dead. -Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead. -God
   - {Added 5/12/99}

If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.
   -Henry Ford [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/27/99}

Be the change you want to see in the world.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/26/99}

My drug of choice is called "more".
   -Anne Lamott (speaking at Powell's Books 4/22/99) {Added 4/23/99}

The illusion that we are separate from one another is an optical delusion of our consciousness.
   -Albert Einstein [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/16/99}

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
   -Samuel Johnson [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/12/99}

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it away from him. An investment of knowledge always pays the best interest.
   -Benjamin Franklin [Word-A-Day] {Added 4/12/99}

My earliest memory is of water. I was submerged in it. I had stepped off a dock into Clark Lake. Before my Aunt Rui jumped in after me I had time to hit bottom -- the lake was about three feet deep -- and look around. A bubble formed around my head and I could breathe in it. I was two and a half. I learned this much: adults could not breathe underwater, but a child could do anything. About four years later, I held a paper bag above my head and jumped off a roof. Instantaneously, I reached full speed and slammed into the ground. I learned this much: adulthood begins at six.
   -Leo Kottke (in liner notes to CD "Great Big Boy") {Added 4/7/99}

The only journey is the one within.
   -Rainer Maria Rilke {Added 4/7/99}

Millions yearn for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
   -Susan Ertz {Added 3/26/99}

The heart is wiser than the intellect.
   -Josiah Holland (1819-1881) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/23/99}

The miracle is not to fly in the air, or to walk on the water, but to walk on the earth.
   -Chinese proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/22/99}

When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized that I was talking to myself.
   [CoolSig] {Added 03/15/99}

You've got to sing like you don't need the money. Love like you'll never get hurt. Dance like there's nobody watching. It's got to come from the heart if you want it to work. -Susanna Clark and Richard Leigh
   [CoolSig] {Added 03/15/99} [quoted on the website of Alan Cohen ] {Added 5/23/2007}

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/15/99}

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.
   -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/11/99}

Think like a person of action, act like a person of thought.
   -Henri Bergson [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/10/99}

A note of music gains significance from the silence on either side.
   -Anne Morrow Lindberg [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/10/99}

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
   -either Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) or Oliver Goldsmith [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/10/99}

Twenty men crossing a bridge,
Into a village,
Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges,
Into twenty villages...
   -Wallace Stevens [quoted on p. 38 of "The Lens of Perception" by Hal Zina Bennett 1987.]

Now I can look at you in peace; I don't eat you any more.
   -Franz Kafka, while admiring fish in an aquarium [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/5/99}

If you take the word "NO" out of the English language, some people would be speechless.
   -attributed to an Irish negotiator for peace {Added 3/2/99}

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
   -Heraclitus, Greek philosopher (500 B.C.) [Word-A-Day] {Added 3/1/99}

In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/26/99}

Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.
   -Stanislaw J. Lee [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/22/99}

Those who give you a serpent when you ask for a fish, may have nothing but serpents to give. It is then generosity on their part.
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/22/99}

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.
   -Thomas Huxley (1825-1895) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/18/99}

Mistakes live in the neighborhood of truth and therefore delude us.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet (1861-1941) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day.
   -Alexander Woollcott [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
   -Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

If I try to be like him, who will be like me?
   -Yiddish proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

There are men who would quickly love each other if once they were to speak to each other; for when they spoke they would discover that their souls had only separated by phantoms and delusions.
   -Ernest Hello [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

Take time to come home to yourself everyday.
   -Robin Casarjean [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

When we quit thinking primarily about ourselves and our own self-preservation, we undergo a truly heroic transformation of consciousness.
   -Joseph Campbell [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
   -B.F. Skinner [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

If you can persuade your customer to tattoo your name on their chest, they probably will not switch brands.
   -an Indiana University professor (Re: Harley-Davidson owners) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time
like dew on the tip of a leaf.
   -Rabindranath Tagore, Indian Poet (1861-1941) (1861-1941) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

A raindrop, dripping from a cloud,
Was ashamed when it saw the sea.
`Who am I where there is a sea?' it said.
When it saw itself with the eye of humility,
A shell nurtured it in its embrace.
   -Saadi of Shiraz (c. 1200 AD) [Word-A-Day] {Added 2/16/99}

Life is the childhood of our immortality.
   -Goethe (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/28/99}

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it.
   -Charles Caleb Cotton [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/27/99}

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
   -Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues" song, 1965.

If you always give
You will always have.
   -Chinese Proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/26/99}

The world, we are told, was made especially for man--a presumption not supported by all the facts... Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?
   -John Muir, Naturalist and explorer (1838-1914) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/22/99}

O senseless man, who cannot possibly make a worm and yet will make Gods by the dozen!
   -Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/21/99}

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.
   -Latin proverb [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/20/99}

Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.
   -Mark Twain, U.S. Author (1835-1910) [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/14/99}

When you see a man led to prison say in your heart,
"[Perhaps] he is escaping from a narrower prison."
And when you see a man drunken say in your heart,
"[Perhaps] he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful."
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/14/99}

Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.
   -Adlai Stevenson [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/5/99}

The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.
   -Leonardo da Vinci [Word-A-Day] {Added 1/4/99}

A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.
   -Albert Einstein [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/28/98}

Man is unhappy because he doesn't know he's happy. If anyone finds out he'll become happy at once.
   -Dostoyevsky [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/28/98}

Change your thoughts and you change your world.
   -Norman Vincent Peale [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/17/98}

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve immortality by not dying.
   -Woody Allen [CoolSig] {Added 12/17/98}

This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.
   -Dorothy Parker {Added 12/11/98}

Nothing contributes more to peace of soul than having no opinion at all.
   -Georg Christoph Lichtenberg [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/9/98}

The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather what he does not say.
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] [Word-A-Day] {12/7/98}

Life is like a dog-sled team. If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes.
   -Lewis Grizzard [Word-A-Day] {12/3/98}

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi {Added 12/2/98}

What we say is important... for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
   -Jim Beggs [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/2/98}

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
   -Voltaire, French Philosopher (1694-1778) [Word-A-Day] {Added 12/1/98}

Boy, don't make me open up a can of whoop ass!
   -from movie "There's Something About Mary" 1998 {Added 11/30/98}

The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
   -Thomas Paine [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/23/98}

If I look confused it's because I'm thinking.
   -Samuel Goldwyn [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/20/98}

Wisdom sends us back to our childhood.
   -Pascal [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/18/98}

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;
it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.
   -Alice M. Swaim [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/17/98}

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.
   -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/12/98}

How can you sing if your mouth be filled with food? How shall your hand be raised in blessing if it is filled with gold?
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/11/98}

We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.
   -Alan Watts [Word-A-Day] {Added 11/4/98}

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
   -Plutarch {Added 11/4/98}

And remember that when you look long into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
   -Nietzsche {Added 11/2/98}

For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like.
   -Abraham Lincoln {Added 10/27/98}

How long a minute is depends on which side of the bathroom door you're on.
   {Added 10/26/98}

Experience is what causes a person to make new mistakes instead of old ones.
   {Added 10/23/98}

If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.
   -Woody Allen, "Without Feathers" {Added 10/23/98}

Losing your drivers' license is just God's way of saying "BOOGA, BOOGA!"
   {Added 10/22/98}

Notes for a ballet, "The Spell": ... Suddenly Sigmund hears the flutter of wings, and a group of wild swans flies across the moon ... Sigmund is astounded to see that their leader is part swan and part woman -- unfortunately, divided lengthwise. She enchants Sigmund, who is careful not to make any poultry jokes ...
   -Woody Allen {Added 10/22/98}

People will buy anything that's one to a customer.
   {Added 10/20/98}

Never eat more than you can lift.
   -Miss Piggy {Added 10/20/98}

It's not an optical illusion, it just looks like one.
   -Phil White {Added 10/16/98}

Yes, there is Nirvanah; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] [Word-a-Day] {Added 10/16/98}

One of my less pleasant chores when I was young was to read the Bible from one end to the other. Reading the Bible straight through is at least 70 percent discipline, like learning Latin. But the good parts are, of course, simply amazing. God is an extremely uneven writer, but when He's good, nobody can touch Him.
   -John Gardner, NYT Book Review, Jan 1983 {Added 10/15/98}

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
   -Bertrand Russell [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/13/98}

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia.
   -Charles Schultz {Added 10/12/98}

To kill in war is not a whit better than to commit ordinary murder.
   -Albert Einstein (1879-1955) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/12/98}

And the fox said to the little prince: men have forgotten this truth, but you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.
   -Antoine de Saint-Exupery [The Little Prince] [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/12/98}

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright --
And this was very odd, because it was
The middle of the night.
   -Lewis Carroll, "Through the Looking Glass" {Added 10/8/98}

I can't go back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.
   -Lewis Carroll [Through the Looking Glass] (1832-1898) [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/8/98}

Wagner's music is better than it sounds.
   -Mark Twain {Added 10/7/98}

United Nations, New York, December 25. The peace and joy of the Christmas season was marred by a proclamation of a general strike of all the military forces of the world. Panic reigns in the hearts of all the patriots of every persuasion. Meanwhile, fears of universal disaster sank to an all-time low over the world.
   -Isaac Asimov {Added 10/7/98}

Happiness is having a scratch for every itch.
   -Ogden Nash {Added 10/6/98}

A city is a large community where people are lonesome together.
   -Herbert Prochnow {Added 10/5/98}

Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.
   -Hebrew proverb [A-Word-A-Day] {Added 10/5/98}

Your true value depends entirely on what you are compared with. {Added 10/5/98}

The angels know that too many practical men eat their bread with the sweat of the dreamer's brow.
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam] [Word-A-Day] {Added 10/2/98}

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
   -Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" {Added 10/2/98}

Millions of sensible people are too high-minded to concede that politics is almost always the choice of the lesser evil. "Tweedledum and Tweedledee," they say, "I will not vote." Having abstained, they are presented with a President who appoints the people who are going to rummage around in their lives for the next four years. Consider all the people who sat home in a stew in 1968 rather than vote for Hubert Humphrey. They showed Humphrey. Those people who taught Hubert Humphrey a lesson will still be enjoying the Nixon Supreme Court when Tricia and Julie begin to find silver threads among the gold and the black.
   -Russel Baker, "Ford without Flummery" {Added 10/2/98}

For years a secret shame destroyed my peace -- I'd not read Eliot, Auden or MacNiece. But now I think a thought that brings me hope: Neither had Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope.
   -Justin Richardson. {Added 10/1/98}

Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today, because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.
{Added 10/1/98}

They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!
{Added 10/1/98}

Honk if you love peace and quiet.
{Added 10/1/98}

It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
   -R. Serling {Added 10/1/98}

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
   -William James [Oracle humor email list] {Added 9/30/98} *

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it -- and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again -- and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore.
   -Mark Twain [Oracle humor email list] {Added 9/30/98}

The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."
{Added 9/30/98}

I embrace emerging experience. I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector.
   -William Stafford (The Little Zen Calendar)

It's more about letting go than it is about trying.
   -Zoa Rockenstein {Added 9/30/98}

Let go. {Added 9/30/98}

All the really good ideas I ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
   -Grant Wood, painter [p. 22 "The Creative Spirit" Goleman, Daniel 1992] {Added 9/30/98}

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.
   -Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/30/98}

Three ingredients of creativity stew:
1. Domain skills (vegetables & meat)
2. Creative thinking skills (herbs & spices)
3. Passion / instrinsic motivation (the first that cooks the stew)
   -paraphrased from Therese Amabile [pp. 29-30 "The Creative Spirit" Goleman, Daniel 1992] {Added 9/30/98}

Three steps in creativity process:
1. Immersion
2. Incubation
3. Illumination
   {Added 9/30/98}

It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.
   -Gertrude Stein (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/30/98}

Springtime is the land awakening.
The March winds are the morning yawn.
   -Lewis Grizzard (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/30/98}

What are your choices?
   -Rob Bednark 9/96 {Added 9/30/98}

You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
   -Mark Twain {Added 9/30/98}

Talk does not cook rice.
   -Chinese proverb (Little Zen Calendar) {Added 9/29/98}

He who can take no great interest in what is small will take false interest in what is great.
   -John Ruskin (WWW home page) {Added 9/29/98}

No thought, no reflection, no analysis,
No cultivation, no intention;
Let it settle itself.
   -Tilopa (WWW home page) {Added 9/29/98}

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
   -Scott Adams (Serial Quotes listserv) {Added 9/29/98}

Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.
   -Hannah Arendt (Serial Quotes listserv) {Added 9/29/98}

Form is liberating.
   -artist's aphorism [p. 47 "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick Brooks] {Added 9/29/98}

Representation is the essence of programming.
   -Frederick Brooks [p. 103 "The Mythical Man-Month"] {Added 9/29/98}

Don't do as others do.
   -Gurdjieff (from Dan Bednark) {Added 9/29/98}

Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue has ever been erected to a critic.
   -Jean Sibelius (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/29/98}

Don't wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day.
   -Albert Camus (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/29/98}

There are no facts, only interpretations.
   -Friedrich Nietzsche (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/29/98}

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.
   -Word-A-Day {Added 9/29/98}

Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has magic, power and genius in it. Commitment is everything.
   -W. H. Murphy (Thanks Annie) (Serial Quotations email list) {Added 9/29/98}

If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blosson grows in all the millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: 'Somewhere, my flower is there...'
   -from "The Little Prince," by Antoine de Saint-Exupery {Added 9/29/98}

We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
   -Max DuPree (Serial Quotes listserv) {Added 9/29/98}

God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through.
   -Paul Valery (Little Zen Calendar) {Added 9/29/98}

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
   -George Bernard Shaw {Added 9/28/98}

A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
   -Antoine de Saint-Exup'ery (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/28/98}

Complete possession is proved only by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you.
   -Andre Gide {Added 9/28/98}

Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.
   -Henry Emerson Fosdick [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/28/98}

A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.
   -(Word-A-Day) {Added 9/28/98}

There is a budding morrow in midnight.
   -John Keats {Added 9/28/98}

Two step formula for handling stress:
1. Don't sweat the small stuff.
2. Remember that it's all small stuff.
   -Anthony Robbins (Word-A-Day) {Added 9/28/98}

If you consult enough experts, you can confirm any opinion.
   -Word-A-Day {Added 9/28/98}

If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
   -Anatole France {Added 9/25/98}

If triangles had a God, he would have 3 sides.
   -Montesquieu {Added 9/25/98}

It it weren't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done. {Added 9/25/98}

Look at everthing as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time. Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.
   -Betty Smith {Added 9/25/98}

No problem is so formidable that you can't just walk away from it.
   -"A Word a Day" {Added 9/25/98}

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
   -seen on a t-shirt {Added 9/25/98}

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
   -Mark Twain {Added 9/24/98}

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
   -Albert Einstein {Added 9/24/98}

Work to become, not to acquire.
   -Elbert Hubbard {Added 9/24/98}

Where ideas lurk
There is no creativity in certainty;
no discovery in absolutes;
no breakthrough ideas birthed
in the bright light of established fact.
   -joyce@thinksmart.com (Joyce Wycoff) {Added 9/24/98}

Don't be afraid to take a big step. You can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
   -David Lloyd George {Added 9/24/98}

The way of the mystic and the way of the artist are related, except that the mystic doesn't have the craft.
   -Jean Erdman {Added 9/24/98}

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.
   -Groucho Marx {Added 9/24/98}

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.
   -(from the Oracle Service Humor Mailing List) {Added 9/24/98}

If you think you're too small to make a difference, you've never been in bed with a mosquito!
   -from an unknown contributor, quoted by Joyce Wycoff of Innovative Thinking Network {Added 9/24/98}

The fecal material has hit the air circulating device. {Added 9/24/98}

Everything we come across is to the point.
   -John Cage {Added 9/23/98}

Still round the corner there may wait,
a new road or a secret gate.
   -J.R.R. Tolkien {Added 9/23/98}

You cannot paint "Mona Lisa" by assigning one dab each to a thousand painters.
   -Willian F. Buckley, Jr. {Added 9/23/98}

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
   -Margaret Mead {Added 9/23/98}

I still miss my ex-husband, but my aim is getting better.
   -(from the Oracle Service Humor Mailing List) {Added 9/23/98}

Why kill time when one can employ it.
   -French proverb {Added 9/22/98}

Furious activity is no substitute for understanding.
   -H.H. Williams {Added 9/22/98}

Security is when everything is settled. When nothing can happen to you. Security is the denial of life.
   -Germaine Greer {Added 9/22/98}

People only see what they are prepared to see.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson {Added 9/22/98}

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
   -Francois de La Rochefoucauld {Added 9/21/98}

The purpose of life is a life of purpose.
   -Robert Byrne {Added 9/21/98}

Life begets life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich.
   -Sarah Bernhardt {Added 9/21/98}

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my ax.
   -Abraham Lincoln {Added 9/21/98}

I always keep in mind that anything that anybody has done is an achievement, no matter how futile or painful it may be. People aren't broken; they work perfectly! The important question is, "How do they work now?" so that you can help them work perfectly in a way that is more pleasant and useful.
   -[p. 143 "Using Your Brain -- For A Change" Bandler, Richard Moab, Utah: Real People Press, 1985] {Added 9/21/98}

Most of life is a meditation, most of it unintentional.
   -Joseph Campbell {Added 9/21/98}

You won't be happy with more until you're happy with what you've got.
   -Viki King {Added 9/21/98}

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"
   -Sydney J. Harris {Added 9/21/98}

Education ... has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.
   -G.M. Trevelyan [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/21/98}

A very simple change in the way something is looked at can have profound effects.
   -Edward de Bono {Added 9/21/98}

Fears
Fear is the perception of possible loss. We have not lost anything yet, from life to a bought object or keys. But we are afraid of losing something and so often inhibit ourselves from risking living a new life. The unconscious reaction to fear is to contract. Contraction freezes us and severely limits our ability to interact with what is seeking to harm or destroy us or our things. Better to tremble and shake in the face of adversity, for at least that releases energy which may be the preparation for activity and movement. Still better would be centered coping with what is difficult in the moment, doing this without fear but with a lively consciousness. Fear is being afraid of that which does not yet exist. If we are fully in each moment we will not be afraid and will act without fear. Whatever happens will be a success because we have fully given ourselves to the moment that is. A good preparation for being this centered is to practice letting go of anything to which we become attached. Attachment is what limits us. If we are identified with something or someone, and therefore afraid of experiencing a loss, we will limit ourselves. You must act as if the deep relationship you have, the object you have bought or created, the life you live, will be gone tomorrow, if not sooner. For in fact what happens tomorrow is going to be new and not a repetition of today. Let even the good stuff go, as you live vitally and without fear. Voluntary sacrifice is the only true insurance there is.
   -Strephon Kaplan-Williams [pp. 224-225 "Transforming Childhood : A Handbook for Personal Growth" by Kaplan-Williams, Strephon Element Books 1983,1990] {Added 9/18/98}

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
   -Henry David Thoreau {Added 9/18/98}

America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there.
   -Laurence J. Peter {Added 9/18/98}

I am NOT simply complaining. I AM interested in doing the best job possible with integrity.
   -Catherine Van Den Bos 11/17/95 {Added 9/18/98}

Create a good day! :)
   -Catherine Van Den Bos 11/17/95 {Added 9/18/98}

There are no facts, only perceptions.
   -Rob Bednark 11/22/95 {Added 9/18/98}

You may have to be at the top of the mountain to see the easiest way up..
   -Edward de Bono {Added 9/18/98}

You see in other people a true picture of the things you already have in your own deeper self.
   -Woody Guthrie {Added 9/17/98}

Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.
The current of the river swept silently over them all -- young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self.
Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go, and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.'
The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah, come to save us all!'
And the one carried in the current said, 'I am no more Messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.'
But they cried the more, 'Saviour!' all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Saviour.
   -Bach, Richard "Illusions" (pp. 6-10) {Added 9/17/98}

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.
   -Rebecca West, 1913 {Added 9/17/98}

Who am I to blow against the wind?
   -Paul Simon, song, "I Know What I Know" {Added 9/17/98}

And though my lack of education hasn't hurt me none,
I can read the writing on the wall.
   -Paul Simon, song, "Kodachrome" {Added 9/17/98}

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father -- prepare to die.
   -from movie "The Princess Bride" {Added 9/16/98}

The last thing feminism is about is exclusion. Feminists can be defined as those women and men who recognize that the earth doesn't revolve around anybody's son -- or around any one group.
   -Regina Barreca, _They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted_ {Added 9/16/98}

Should reality be something that only a handful of the world's most advanced physicists understand? One would expect at least a majority of people to understand it. Should reality be expressible only in symbols that require university-level mathematics to manipulate? Should it be something that changes from year to year as new scientific theories are formulated? Should it be something about which different schools of physics can quarrel for years with no firm resolution on either side? If this is so then how is it fair to imprison a person in a mental hospital for life with no trial and no jury and no parole for failing to understand reality? By this criterion should not all but a handful of the world's most advanced physicists be locked up for life? Who is crazy here and who is sane?
   -book "Lila" by Robert Pirsig {Added 9/16/98}

Oh Bentson, you are so mercifully free from the ravages of intellect.
   -Evil, The Time Bandits {Added 9/16/98}

Better not take a dog on the space shuttle, because if he sticks his head out when you're coming home his face might burn up.
   -Jack Handey (from "Saturday Night Live" {Added 9/16/98}

I am in search of myself. Have you seen me anywhere?
   -from an internet newsgroup posting {Added 9/15/98}

I wanted Perl to work smoothly in the way that natural languages work smoothly, not in the way that mathematics works smoothly.
   -Larry Wall {Added 9/15/98}

Why is the reality most acceptable to science one that no small child can be expected to understand?
   -Henri Poincare (mathematician and astronomer) {Added 9/15/98}

Empty drums make the most noise.
   -Guyanese saying (from Earl Benjamin) {Added 9/15/98}

Your greatest responsibility is to become everything that you are, not only for your benefit, but for mine.
   -Leo Buscaglia {Added 9/15/98}

It is not the meaning of life that we seek
But rather the experience of being alive.
   -Joseph Campbell {Added 9/15/98}

Good taste is the enemy of creativity.
   -Pablo Picasso {Added 9/15/98}

We are not independent but interdependent.
   -(from "Buddha's Little Instruction Book" book) {Added 9/14/98}

There are really not many jobs that actually require a penis or a vagina, and all other occupations should be open to everyone.
   -Gloria Steinem {Added 9/14/98}

Santa Claus wears a Red Suit,
He must be a communist.
And a beard and long hair,
Must be a pacifist.
What's in that pipe that he's smoking?
   -Arlo Guthrie {Added 9/14/98}

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.
   -Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/14/98}

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
   -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) [Word-A-Day] {Added 9/14/98}

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
   -George Santayana (1863-1952) {Added 9/14/98}

People deeply resent being told that part of what they believe is wrong. Just as perception is reality, belief is truth -- and powerful truth. All the world's religions are based on belief.
   -p.5 book "Thinking About Quality : Progress, Wisdom, and the Deming Philosophy" by Lloyd Dobyns and Clare Crawford-Mason {Added 9/14/98}

I never saw a moor,
I never saw the sea;
Yet know I how the heather looks
And what a wave must be.
   -Emily Dickinson (quoted in book "Finding Your Life Mission" by Naomi Stephan) {Added 9/11/98}

We know that the first step towards the intellectual mastery of the world in which we live is the discovery of general principles, rules and laws which bring order into chaos. By such mental operations we simplify the world of phenomena, but we cannot avoid falsifying it in doing so, especially when we are dealing with processes of development and change.
   -Sigmund Freud "Analysis Terminable and Interminable" (quoted in book "Mindfulness" by Ellen J. Langer) {Added 9/11/98}

Failure is impossible.
   -Susan B. Anthony, on her eighty-sixth birthday (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/11/98}

Smile. Greet people. Make people feel comfortable. Imagine that you are the host in every room that you enter and make people feel welcome.
   -Susan RoAne, "How to Work a Room" (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/11/98}

An individual has to find what electrifies and enlivens his own heart, and wakes him.
   -Joseph Campbell (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/11/98}

At the still point of the turning wheel, where the dance is.
   -T.S. Eliot (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/11/98}

The best advice I ever heard was "There are two questions people must ask themselves. The first is 'Where am I going?' and the second is 'Who will go with me?'"
   -Sam Keen, "Fire in the Belly" (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/10/98}

To live is to change; to be perfect is to have changed often.
   -Cardinal Newman (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/10/98}

The heart has its reasons that reason cannot know.
   -Pascal, "Pensees" (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/9/98}

I am always ready to learn, but I do not always like being taught.
   -Winston Churchhill (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/9/98}

Reality is made up of circles, but we see in straight lines.
   -Peter Senge "The Fifth Discipline" (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/9/98}

What we call human nature is actually human habit.
   -Jewel Kilcher (on front of CD "Pieces of You" by Jewel) {Added 9/9/98}

No one can beat you as long as you are doing your best.
   -John A. Caple (1905-1979) (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/9/98}

The realization of your bliss, your true being, comes when you have put aside what might be called the "passing moment" with its terror and with its temptations and its statement of requirements of life that you should live this way....I always tell my students to follow their bliss--where the deep sense of being is from, and where your body and soul want to go. When you have that feeling, then stay with it, and don't let anyone throw you off. I say don't be afraid to follow your bliss and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.
   -Joseph Campbell (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/9/98}

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies the silent knowledge of the beyond; and like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring. Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
   -Kahlil Gibran (quoted in book "Finding the Hat That Fits" by John Caple) {Added 9/9/98}

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) [from "A Word of the Day"] {Added 9/9/98}

Be an early-riser and you can sleep all day.
   -English quote, recited by Harold Shore {Added 9/8/98}

Make everything a process.
   -told to Rob Vatalaro by guy at Unisys {Added 9/8/98}

More programming atrocities have been committed by programmers trying to make code more efficient. (from memory, not an exact quote, from Derek Groft in 11/93, from some article that he came across) {Added 9/8/98}

So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied.
   -Helen Keller {Added 9/8/98}

Science is the tool of the Western mind and with it more doors can be opened than with bare hands. It is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is.
   -C.G. Jung (1875-1961) [from "A Word of the Day"] {Added 9/8/98}

Lots of folks confuse bad management with destiny.
   -Kin Hubbard [from "A Word of the Day"] {Added 9/8/98}

What makes the Universe so hard to comprehend is that there is nothing else to compare it with.
   -Unix fortune {Added 9/8/98}

PMS is women's excuse to act the way men do all the time. {Added 9/8/98}

We know too much and feel too little.
   -Bertrand Russell {Added 9/8/98}

When you label me, you negate me.
   -Soren Kierkegaard (qouted in movie "Wayne's World" where Wayne is speaking Korean with his girlfriend) {Added 9/4/98}

In the land of the dark, the Ship of the Sun is driven by the Grateful Dead.
   -Egyptian Book of the Dead {Added 9/3/98}

You can't teach people to be lazy - either they have it, or they don't.
   -Dagwood Bumstead {Added 9/3/98}

I wish there was a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence. There's a knob called "brightness", but it doesn't work.
   -Gallagher {Added 9/3/98}

The reward of a thing well done is to have done it.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson {Added 9/2/98}

In a study of longevity of old people, many of them ate a lot of fat, smoked, drank, and didn't exercise, but what most of them had in common was that none of them complained, and accepted life as it is.
   -from piece on TV show, seen by Myrna, maybe "Inside Edition" {Added 9/1/98}

If it's going to be, it's up to me.
   -Lynne Dreissiger {Added 9/1/98}

We have met the enemy, and he is us.
   -Walt Kelly, cartoonist (1913-1973) {Added 9/1/98}

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.
   -Henry C. Link {Added 9/1/98}

We are what we pretend to be.
   -Kurt Vonnegut Jr. {Added 9/1/98}

recursive, adj. See 'recursive' {Added 9/1/98}

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single person contemplates it, bearing within them the image of a cathedral.
   -Antoine de St.-Exupery {Added 9/1/98}

If I am not for myself, who will be?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
   -Rabbi Hellell (30 BC - 9 AD) {Added 8/28/98}

Practical people would be more practical if they would take a little more time for dreaming.
   -J. P. McEvoy {Added 8/28/98}

I have yet to find the man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.
   -Charles Schwab {Added 8/25/98}

We all have times when we think more effectively, and times when we should not be thinking at all.
   -Daniel Cohen (quoted on p. 84 of Gross, Ronald; "Peak Learning : How to Create You Own Lifelong Education Program for Personal Enjoyment and Professional Success"; 1991) {Added 8/24/98}

To change the modality we must change the metaphor.
   -Jean Houston (quoted on p. 78 of Gross, Ronald; "Peak Learning : How to Create You Own Lifelong Education Program for Personal Enjoyment and Professional Success"; 1991) {Added 8/24/98}

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.
   -Isaac Asimov (quoted on p. 42 of Gross, Ronald; "Peak Learning : How to Create You Own Lifelong Education Program for Personal Enjoyment and Professional Success"; 1991) {Added 8/24/98}

Experience isn't what happens to you. It's what you make out of what happens to you.
   -Aldous Huxley (quoted on p. 71 of Gross, Ronald; "Peak Learning : How to Create You Own Lifelong Education Program for Personal Enjoyment and Professional Success"; 1991) {Added 8/24/98}

The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas.
   -Linus Pauling {Added 8/24/98}

What is done well is done quickly enough.
   -Augustus Caesar {Added 8/24/98}

To live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else.
   -Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) {Added 8/21/98}

Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.
   -Hans Margolius {Added 8/19/98}

If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.
   -William Blake, quoted in opening page of Huxley, Aldous "The Doors of Perception" and "Heaven and Hell" 1954,1955,1956. {Added 8/18/98}

Georgia [O'Keeffe] was suddenly struck by the realization that her feelings governed the way she saw the scene. It was a moment of transformation: the entire visual world, she realized, was dependent on the emotional world.
   -p 73 Robinson, Roxana. "Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life". 1989. quoted on p. 121 of "A Second Way of Knowing : The Riddle of Human Perception" by Bolles, Edmund Blair; 1991. {Added 8/18/98}

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling.
   -Margaret Lee Runbeck {Added 8/18/98}

Imagination "is Reason in her most exalted mood"
   -Wordsworth, "The Prelude", XIV, line 192. Quoted on p. 56 of Egan, Kieran "The Educated Mind : How Cognitive Tools Shape Our Understanding" 1997. {Added 8/17/98}

The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
   -Marcel Proust {added 8/17/98}

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
   -Alvin Toffler {added 8/14/98}

The most important step in arriving at the right answer is asking the right question.
   -Albert Einstein {added 8/13/98}

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening, a thief visited the hut to discover there was nothing in it to steal. Ryokan returned and caught him. "You may have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift." The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could give him this beautiful moon."
   -"Zen Flesh, Zen Bones" (quoted on p. xv in "Getting There Without Drugs : Techniques and Theories for the Expansion of Consciousness" by Buryl Payne. 1973.)

Reading with acknowledgment is nothing -- doing is everything. You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life? Grasp the Joy of Living.
   -The Invisibles (quoted on front page in "Getting There Without Drugs : Techniques and Theories for the Expansion of Consciousness" by Buryl Payne. 1973.)

It's all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.
   -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
   -Oscar Levant

Faced with a choice between changing one's mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
   -John Kenneth Galbraith

Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation.

Now Ophelia, she's beneath the window
For her I feel so afraid
On her twenty-second birthday
She's already an old maid
To her, death is quite romantic
She wears an iron vest
Her profession's her religion
Her sin is her lifelessness
And though her eyes are fixed upon
Noah's great rainbow
She spends her time peeking
Into Desolation Row
   -Bob Dylan, "Desolation Row" (song) 1965.

Fat man lookin' in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin' at his last meal
Hollow man lookin' in a cottonfield
For dignity
--
Wise man lookin' in a blade of grass
Young man lookin' in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin' thorough painted glass
For dignity
   -Bob Dylan, "Dignity" (song) 1989.

You don't count the dead
When God's on your side.
   -Bob Dylan, "With God On Our Side" (song) 1963.

You never ask questions
When God's on your side.
   -Bob Dylan, "With God On Our Side" (song) 1963.

In a many dark hour
I've been thinkin' about this.
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss.
But I can't think for you
You'll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.
   -Bob Dylan, "With God On Our Side" (song) 1963.

I care not for a man's religion whose dog or cat are not the better for it.
   -Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Now it is a strange thing, but things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.
   -J. R. R. Tolkein, "The Hobbit", 1937, p. 60.

The nights were comfortless and chill, and they did not dare to sing or talk too loud, for the echoes were uncanny, and the silence seemed to dislike being broken -- except by the noise of water and the wail of wind and the crack of stone.
   -J. R. R. Tolkein, "The Hobbit", 1937, p. 64.

Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
   -James Dean

Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you;
be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you.
   -Nicholai Velimirovic

A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.
   -D. Elton Trueblood

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
   -Kierkegaard

A great many people mistake opinions for thoughts.
   -Herbert V. Prochnow

Don't want to put the paddle in the water,
That would be a crazy thing to do.
I don't want to be no fishes fodder,
I don't want to tip in that canoe.
I'd rather be a dreamer on the shoreline
Then a hero at the bottom of a lake.
Don't want to put the paddle in the water,
That'd be a dangerous mistake.
   -Peter Mayer, song "The Canoe Song", from album "Bountiful", 1997.

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.
   -Gaius Plinius (c. 61-112 A.D.)

Interviewer: "What made you go the rock 'n' roll route?"
Bob Dylan: "Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I start drinking. The first thing I know, I'm in a card game. Then I'm in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a 'before' in a Charles Atlas 'before-and-after' ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes in and burns the house down. The delivery boy--he ain't so mild. He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I'm in Omaha (Neb.). It's so cold there, but this time I'm robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high-school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain't much to look at but who's built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything's going good until that delivery boy shows up and tries to knife me. Needless to say, he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say?"
Interviewer (holding on): "And _that's_ how you became a rock 'n' roll singer?"
Dylan: "No, that's how I got tuberculosis."
   -From the 3/27/94 Columbus (OH) Dispatch. From tlundgre@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Sat Apr 2 10:23:44 PST 1994 Newsgroups: rec.music.dylan Subject: On Being a Rock Star Date: 28 Mar 1994 23:56:36 GMT

Heredity is a splendid phenomenon that relieves us of responsibility for our shortcomings.
   -Doug Larson

If you assume that there's no hope, you guarantee that there will be no hope. If you assume that there is an instinct for freedom, there are opportunities to change things, there's a chance you may contribute to making a better world. That's your choice.
   -Noam Chomsky (from book "Chronicles of Dissent")

Making the decision to have a child is momentous -- it is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
   -Elizabeth Stone

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
   -Derek Bok, President, Harvard University

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment, and especially on their children, than the unlived lives of the parents.
   -Carl Jung

There must be more to life than sitting wondering if there is more to life.

You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.
   -Scott Adams, Dilbert's Laws of Work

I saw weird stuff in that place last night--weird, strange, sick, twisted, eerie, godless, evil stuff! And I want in!
   -Homer Simpson

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good [people] to do nothing.
   -Edmund Burke

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn...and change.
   -Carl Rogers

When you have solved all mysteries of life you long for death, for it is but another mystery of life.
   -Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) [Sand and Foam]

The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong.
   -Scott Adams, Dilbert's Laws of Work

There was a little wave, bobbing along in the oean, having a grand old time. He's enjoying the wind and the fresh air -- until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore. "My God, this is terrible," the wave says. "Look what's going to happen to me!" Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, "Why do you look so sad?" The first wave says, "You don't understand! We're all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn't it terrible?" The second wave says, "No, you don't understand. You're not a wave, you're part of the ocean."
   -story quoted by Morrie Schwartz "Tuesdays with Morrie", Mitch Albom, 1997. p. 82

You must be the general contractor of your health, and realize that all doctors are only sub-contractors.
   -Rob Bednark 5/98

Love each other or perish.
   -W. H. Auden (quoted in "Tuesdays with Morrie", Albom, Mitch. 1997. p. 91)

Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live.
   -Morrie Schwartz, "Tuesdays with Morrie", by Mitch Albom, 1997. p. 82

To see the world in a grain of sand,
And the heaven in a wild flower,
To hold infinity in the palm of my hand,
And eternity in an hour.
   -William Blake

There are no holy places
And no holy people,
Only holy moments,
Only moments of wisdom.
   -Interlude web page [http://www.Interluderetreat.com]

The metaphysics of one era is the science of the next.
   -Max Born, Nobel Prize winning scientist [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit)]

You and I possess within ourselves, at every moment of our lives, under all circumstances, the power to transform the quality of our lives.
   -Werner Erhard [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The act of contemplation creates the thing contemplated.
   -Isaac D'Israeli [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

You're about as happy as you make up your mind to be.
   -Abraham Lincoln [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method that rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
   -Martin Luther King [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The point of power is in the present!
   -Marshall Thurber [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

What is the use of living, if it be not to make this world a better place for those who live in it, after we are gone.
   -Winston Churchill [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
   -William Shakespeare [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt.
   -William Shakespeare [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Life is good only when it is magical and musical. A perfect timing and consent and when we do not anatomize it. You must hear the bird song without attempting to render it into nouns and verbs.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The ancestor of every action is a thought.
   -Ralph Waldo Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

It is our attitude at the beginning that more than anything else produces a successful outcome.
   -Earl Nightingale [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Our attitude towards others determines their attitude towards us.
   -Earl Nightingale [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.
   -Albert Einstein [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
   -Albert Einstein [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
   -Albert Einstein [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

We all know, from what we experience with and within ourselves, that our conscious acts spring from our desires and our fears.
   -Albert Einstein [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Things do not change, we change.
   -Henry David Thoreau [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

It is difficult to make people miserable while they feel they are worthy of themselves and claim kindred to the great God who made them.
   -Abraham Lincoln [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The essence of sacred knowledge is word and sound, and the essence of word and sound is OM.
   -the Upanishads [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The quality of your life is the quality of your communications.
   -Anthony Robbins [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

It is so critical to focus in life on what we want versus what we don't want.
   -Anthony Robbins [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

If you want to succeed, it would be wise for you to choose your beliefs carefully.
   -Anthony Robbins [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Don't follow any advice, no matter how good, until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think in your mind that the counsel is wise.
   -David Seabury [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men -- that is genius.
   -Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.
   -Robert Ingersoll [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.
   -Franklin D. Roosevelt [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Whoso would be a person must be a nonconformist.
   -Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

I myself believe that the evidence for God lies primarily in inner personal experiences.
   -William James [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all -- that has been my religion.
   -John Burroughs [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great people are they who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
   -Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even--if you will--eccentricity. That is, something that can't be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned impostor couldn't be happy with.
   -Joseph Brodsky [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.
   -Janis Joplin [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.
   -Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
   -Dr. Samuel Johnson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
   -George Bernard Shaw [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
   -Emerson [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Peace is not absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
   -Spinoza [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

Follow your bliss.
   -Joseph Campbell [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.
   -Henry Miller [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, "I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along..." You must do the thing you think you cannot do.
   -Eleanor Roosevelt [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

To be poor and independent is very nearly an impossibility.
   -William Cobbett [from "Spirit to Spirit" (http://www.sdaine.com/spirit/s-quotes.html)]

If you expect to find joy, peace, love, and abundance in your life, that is what you will experience. If you turn away from fear, doubt, and negativity, and look for the good in every situation, even those more difficult experiences in life can be handled more easily, can be treated as an opportunity for growth, and will be a stepping stone to a more wonderful and fulfilling experience.
   -cornerstone of Science of Mind

Where attention goes, energy flows.

Cost can be a discouraging factor [as a restriction for motivation] but is very often a perceptual matter of balance. Many people would be happy to spend forty dollars on a meal for two which would be over in a short time, but very reluctant to spend that amount on a book that would be around forever. Many people might be willing to spend thousands of dollars on a course that could better equip them for life but reluctant to spend very much less on skill development that was not labelled as a 'course'.
   -Edward De Bono [Edward De Bono's Web Site (http://www.edwdebono.com)]

Companies with effective employees and good products usually do well.
   -Scott Adams, "The Dilbert Principle", p. 316

To live!
Like a tree alone and free
Like a forest in brotherhood
   -from email sig for Coskun Susoy

The way of cowardice is to embed ourselves in a cocoon, in which we perpetuate our habitual patterns. When we are constantly recreating our basic patterns of behavior and thought, we never have to leap into fresh air or onto fresh ground.
   -Chogyam Trungpa, "The Sacred Path of the Warrior"

Why do we kill people who kill people to teach them that killing people is wrong?
   -seen on a bumper sticker

I'd rather be in Samadhi.
   -seen on a bumper sticker

Life ain't nothing but a funny money riddle,
Thank God I'm a country boy.
   -John Denver, "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" (song)

Worry is a misuse of the imagination.
   -Audrey Woodhall (quoted in Sark book)

Trust yourself and you will know how to live.
   -Goethe (quoted in Sark book)

...I have learned that when I put people on a pedestal, I am also putting myself down. It is really my lack of self-esteem that causes me to put another person on a pedestal, and this only increases our separation from each other.
   -William Elliott p 123 "Tying Rocks to Clouds : Meetings and Conversations with Wise and Spiritual People" 1995.

Wish I was a Kellogg's Cornflake
Floatin' in my bowl, takin' movies,
Relaxin' awhile,
livin' in style,
Talkin' to a raisin who occassionaly plays L.A.,
Casually glancing at his toupee.
   -Simon and Garfunkel, song "Punky's Dilemma"

...which gets more attention in the media:
  "citizen kills entire family with wrong mushrooms"
or:
  "doctor kills four patients with overdose of radiation"?
How about:
  "chiropractor feeds off of unwary patients with practices that do more harm than good"?
or:
  "nutritionist gets rich prescribing herbs that have little effect"?
Are any of these more or less alarming than:
  "doctor becomes millionaire removing gall bladders"
and:
  "pharmeceutical company takes Prozac to the bank"?
   -"John R. Carter" (from Dr. Weil mailing list)

Warrior's Creed
I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents.
I have no home: I make awareness my home.
I have no life or death: I make the tides of breathing my life and death.
I have no divine power: I make honesty my divine power.
I have no means: I make understanding my means.
I have no magic secrets: I make character my magic secret.
I have no body: I make endurance my body.
I have no eyes: I make the flash of lightning my eyes.
I have no ears: I make sensibility my ears.
I have no limbs: I make promptness my limbs.
I have no strategy: I make "unshadowed by thought" my strategy.
I have no designs: I make "seizing opportunity by the forelock" my design.
I have no miracles: I make "right action" my miracles.
I have no principles: I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles.
I have no tactics: I make emptiness and fullness my tactics.
I have no talents: I make ready wit my talent.
I have no friends: I make my mind my friend.
I have no enemy: I make carelessness my enemy.
I have no armor: I make benevolence and righteousness my armor.
I have no castle: I make immovable-mind my castle.
I have no sword: I make absence of self my sword.
   -Anonymous Samurai, Fourteenth Century [p. 2 "The Awakened Warrior : Living With Courage, Compassion, and Discipline" Rick Fields, editor. 1994]

The self is learned. What is learned can be taught.
   -Virginia Satir "Peoplemaking" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

If my heart could do my thinking would my brain begin to feel?
   -Van Morrison [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

In acquiring any new global skill, the initial learning is often a struggle, first with each component skill, then with the smooth integration of components... Later, one almost forgets about having _learned_ to read, _learned_ to drive, _learned_ to draw.
   -Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

Telling ain't teaching and listening ain't learning.
   -Bob Barkley [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.
   -Mother Theresa [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.
   -Joan Borysenko, Ph.D "Guilt Is the Teacher, Love is the Lesson" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves...This is our responsibility, yours and mine, because however small may be the world we live in, if we can bring about a radically different point of view in our daily existence, then perhaps we shall affect the world at large.
   -J. Krishnamurti, "The First and Last Freedom" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

Our mind creates categories--space and time, above and below, inside and outside, myself and others, cause and effect, birth and death, one and many--and puts all physical and psychological phenomomena into categories like these before examining them and trying to find their true nature. It is like filling many different shapes and sizes of bottles with water in order to find out the shape and size of water.
   -Thich Nhat Hanh, "The Sun My Heart" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

There are two models of society--the dominator model involves the consciousness of ranking of some of humanity over the rest, symbolized by a blade and the power to take rather than give life as the ultimate power to establish and enforce domination. The second, when social relations are based on the consciousness of linking, is the partnership model, symbolized by a chalice, life generating and nurturing powers of the universe.
   -Riane Eisler, "The Chalice and the Blade" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

We remember wholeness so readily, because we don't have very far to look for it. It is always within us, usually as a vague feeling or memory left over from when we were children. But it is a deeply familiar memory, one you recognize immediately as soon as you feel it again, like coming home after being away a long time. When you are immersed in doing without being centered, it feels like being away from home. And when you re-connect with being, even for a few moments, you know it immediately. You feel like you are at home no matter where you are and what problems you face.
   -Jon Kabbat-Zin, Ph.D., "Full Catastrophe Living" [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

It is better to give and receive.
   -Bernard Gunther [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

There is a time for expansion and a time for contraction; one provokes the other and the other calls for the return of the first.
   -Swami Vivekananda [from "The Art of the Possible : A Compassionate Approach to Understanding the Way People Think, Learn and Communicate" by Dawna Markova, Ph.D. 1991.]

People develop different sensory modalities either by temperament or training... A.R. Luria discovered that the different centers of the brain are processing and contexting centers, not storage depots... They classify and context, pump information in and out but do not store it.... Karl Pribram of Stanford University was the first to build a theory of memory using the holographic model. He found it impossible to localize memory... Visual and auditory imaging and memory have been extensively studied using a variety of techniques. However, other forms of memory have been neglected.
   -Edward T. Hall, "Beyond Culture"

It doesn't matter who my father was; it matters who I remember he was.
   -Anne Sexton

Man seeks for himself, in whatever manner is suitable for him, a simplified and lucid image of the world, and so to overcome the world of experience by striving to replace it to some extent by this image.
   -Albert Einstein

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once they grow up.
   -Pablo Picasso

In the coming world, they will not ask me, 'Why were you not Moses?' They will ask me, 'Why were you not Zusya?'
   -Zusya

When we learn something, cells in many parts of the brain learn a new rhythm of firing corresponding to the learning. The memory of what is learned is not to be found in any specific brain region but rather in its unique cell firing rhythm. The brain's rhythms count for as much or more than the way it is put together.
   -Daniel Goleman, E. Roy John, "How the Brain Wroks--A New Theory," Psychology Today

Different students remember and integrate information with different sensory modalities.
   -Edward T. Hall, "Beyond Culture"

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live; it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
   -Ruth Rendell

Spend the afternoon. You can't take it with you.
   -Annie Dillard

We meet ourselves time and again in a thousand disguises on the path of life.
   -Carl Jung

Every individual is representative of the whole... and should be intimately understood, and this would give a far greater understanding of mass movements and sociology.
   -Anais Nin

The Blues is the truth. You'd better believe that what they're telling you is the truth.
   -Buddy Gray

If you want to write the truth, you must write about yourself. I am the only real truth I know.
   -Jean Rhys

--but it is always living, moving, and your mind is like that. It is in the flowing river there are so many things--fishes, leaves, dead animals everlastingly restless, flitting from one thing to another like a butterfly--just watch your mind. It is great fun. If you try it as fun, as an amusing thing, you will find that the mind begins to settle down without any effort on your part to control it.
   -J. Krishnamurti, "Think On These Things"

A poem...begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness... It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.
   -Robert Frost

My life in writing, or my life as a writer, comes to me as two parts, like two rivers that blend. One part is easy to tell: the times, the events, the places, the people. The other part is mysterious; it is my thoughts, the flow of my inner life, the reveries and impluses that never get known--perhaps even to me.
   -William Stafford, "You Must Revise Your Life"

The fabled musk deer searches the world over for the source of the scent which comes from itself.
   -Ramakrishna

The highest human capacity is the capacity for metaphor.
   -Aristotle

Perhaps [we] would do well to lose the plan, throw away the map, get off the motorcycle, put on a very strange-looking hat, bark sharply three times, and trot off looking thin, yellow, and dingy across the desert and up into the digger pines... We're in a rational dilemma, an either/or situation as perceived by the binary computer mentality, and neither the either nor the or is a place where people can live... I am offered the Grand Inquisitor's choice. Will you choose freedom without happiness, or happiness without freedom? The only answer one can make, I think, is: No.
   -Ursula K. LeGuin, "Dancing at the Edge of the World"

If love is the answer, could you please rephrase the question?
   -Lily Tomlin

Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.
   -Jose Ortega y Gasset

Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand.
   -Confucius

I learn through my hands and my eyes and my skin, what I can never learn through my brain.
   -M. C. Richards, "Centering"

All paths lead to the same goal: to convey to others what we are. And we must pass through solitude and difficulty, isolation and silence, in order to reach forth to the enchanted place where we can dance our clumsy dance and sing our sorrowful song...
   -Pablo Neruda [p. 69]

If we could shrink the Earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this:
- There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South) and 8 Africans.
- 51 would be female; 49 would be male
- 70 would be non-white; 30 white.
- 70 would be non-Christian; 30 Christian.
- 50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people and all 6 would be citizens of the United States.
- 80 would live in substandard housing.
- 70 would be unable to read.
- 50 would suffer from malnutrition.
- 1 would be near death, 1 would be near birth
- Only 1 would have a college education.
- No one would own a computer
   -(received in email from Derek and others)

Give people more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

Never interrupt when you are being flattered.

Until he extends his circle of compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
   -Albert Schweitzer

Children aren't happy without something to ignore,
And that's what parents were created for.
   -Ogden Nash

Asked what he thought of Western civilization, Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi said,
"I think it would be an excellent idea."

I think you're pretty smart, don't I?
   -Daffy Duck

The more we care for others, the greater our own sense of well-being becomes.
   -Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV

Cultivating a warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease and helps remove whatever fears and insecurities we may have.
   -Tenzin Gyatso, Dalai Lama XIV

The basic difference between an ordinary person and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary person takes everything as either a blessing or a curse.
   -Carlos Casteneda, interviewed in "The Awakened Warrior", by Rick Fields, 1994.

Will rather than reason is the most important faculty of humans.
   -Carlos Casteneda, interviewed in "The Awakened Warrior", by Rick Fields, 1994.

Everything they teach in school is oriented so that they can test it to show that you know it, instead of taking note of the obvious, which is that people learn by doing what people want to do.
   -Roger Schank, quoted in "The Third Culture", by John Brockman

For myself, I have answers. For others, I have no answers, only ideas.
   -Rob Bednark 3/98

When you want to fly -- simplify;
When in doubt, throw it out.
   -Chungliang Al Huang & Jerry Lynch "Thinking Body, Dancing Mind", 1992.

Do what makes you happy.
   -Rob Bednark

Each day, the Victim in you will become weaker and the Victor will become stronger. Each day, you will feel a deeper connection to life, a life you feel in charge of rather than a life that has taken charge of you. This is the way you were meant to live because it makes you want to live -- empowerment makes you feel that you can create anything. And then one day you notice that you are not conscious of the Victim any longer. You have the strength to face anything that you need to face, whether it's the creation of a new life or the release of a life lived fully to the end.
   -Carolyn Myss, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, p. 116

Find those things that make you powerful. Make decisions that will bring power into your system.
   -Carolyn Myss, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, p. 116

The illness is not the issue... The issue is the loss of power that the illness generates in you.
   -Carolyn Myss, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, p. 115

Two of the most important questions for your life journey are "Where am I going?" and "Who will go with me?" And it is very important to ask them of yourself in that order.
   -Carolyn Myss, quoting Sam Keen, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, p. 97

Do you think about change more than you act to bring it about?
   -Carolyn Myss, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, p. 52

My teachings are a raft meant to help you cross over the river. Once you get to the other shore, set them down and go on with your life.
   -Carolyn Myss, quoting Buddha, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, p. 15

This temptation of the mind to reduce every wonder, every mystery, to a question, is basically fear-oriented. We are afraid, afraid of the tremendousness of life, of this incredible existence. We are afraid. Out of fear we create some small knowledge around ourselves as a protection, as an armor, as a defense. It is only cowards who reduce the tremendously valuable capacity of wondering to questions. The really brave, the courageous person, leaves it as it is.
   -Osho [http://www.osho.org]

The world needs leaders of vision instead of leaders on television.
   -Lech Walesa

We got loud guitars and big suspicions,
Great big guns and small ambitions,
And we still argue over who is God.
   -Sheryl Crow, Bill Bottrell, Todd Wolfe, RSBryan "hard to make a stand" [song]

I've wept for those who suffer long
But how I weep for those who've gone
Into rooms of grief and questioned wrong
But keep on killing
It's in the soul to feel such things
But weak to watch without speaking
   -Sheryl Crow "redemption day" [song]

Percolating through the noonday sun
With wings upon my shoes
I was jumping about in front of everyone
No dignity to lose
There was a rush of animation bubbling about inside my soul
There was a rin-tin-tabulation coming
It was so hard to control
And it makes me feel okay
Like a pig with a bucket full of truffles in a French cafe
Like Louis Armstrong playing trumpet on the judgement day
Like a flying boat captain with an amethyst lake below
Like a winner of a marathon rolling in a field of snow
Like a figure skating gigolo looking for a heart to steal
Like a simulated orgasm suddenly becoming real
Like a big yellow tractor going bowling through a field of hay
Like a genie on a table top surfing through the month of May
   -Al Stewart "Genie on a Table Top" [song] "Famous Last Words" [album] 1993

Pain is a guiding light that tells us where to focus our attention.
   -Carolyn Myss, "Why People Don't Heal and How They Can", 1997, pp. 43

Dear Lord, the gods have been good to me. As an offering, I present these milk and cookies. If you wish me to eat them instead, please give me no sign whatsoever... thy will be done.
   -Homer Simpson

I am I plus my surroundings,
and if I do not preserve my surroundings,
I do not preserve myself.
   -Jose Ortega Y Gasset

You have to stay in shape. My grandmother, she started walking five miles a day when she was 60. She's 97 today and we don't know where the hell she is.
   -Ellen DeGeneris

Author/editor: Rob Bednark

This page created: 1/31/97       Last updated: 21 Oct 2011 [Source: http://bednark.com/quotes.html]
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