Quotes and Quick Inspiration

Volume Seven

From Tom Spencer's Soul of the Garden

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We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

- Ursula K. Le Guin.

If you gaze for long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
 

- Nietzsche.

If you think you are free,
You are free.

If you think you are bound,
You are bound.

For the saying is true:
You are what you think.

-Ashtavakra Gita 1:11

If you could understand a single grain of wheat, you would die of wonder.
 

- Martin Luther

With a free mind,
In no debt,
Enjoy what has been given to you.

-Therigatha, translated by Susan Murcott

Water which is too pure has no fish.
 

- Ts'ai Ken T'An.

The aim of life is to live and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
 

- Henry Miller.

Our life is frittered away by detail . . . Simplify, simplify.
 

- Thoreau.

I like the dreams for the future better than the history of the past.

- Thomas Jefferson
 

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and I could say, "I used everything that you gave me."

- Erma Bombeck

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

- Thomas A. Edison

When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light, for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food, and the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies with yourself.

- Tecumseh, Shawnee Chief

A monk asked, “The mountains, the rivers, and the great earth-from where did all of these things come forth?”

Tiantai said, “From where did this question come forth?"

-Zen’s Chinese Heritage
Copyright Wisdom Publications 2001. Reprinted from "Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations," edited by Josh Bartok

The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.

- Hadia Bejar

Before advancing against men weaker than yourself,
Ponder when you stood before those more powerful.

-Tirukkural 25:250

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.

- Winston Churchill

The sorrows of duty,
Like the heat of the sun,
Have scorched your heart.

But let stillness fall on you
With its sweet and cooling showers,
And you will find happiness.

-Ashtavakra Gita 18:3

I wish I could show you, when you are lonely or in darkness, the astonishing Light of your own Being.

- Hafiz

No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.

- William Blake

Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world; by devotion to selfless work one attains the supreme goal of life. Do your work with the welfare of others always in mind.

-Bhagavad Gita 3:19-20

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.

- Margaret Mead

The giant oak is an acorn that held its ground.

- Anonymous

Although we have been made to believe that if we let go we will end up with nothing, life itself reveals again and again the opposite: that letting go is the path to real freedom.

Just as when the waves lash at the shore, the rocks suffer no damage but are sculpted and eroded into beautiful shapes, so our characters can be molded and our rough edges worn smooth by changes. Through weathering changes, we can learn how to develop a gentle but unshakable composure. Our confidence in ourselves grows, and becomes so much greater that goodness and compassion begin naturally to radiate out from us and bring joy to others.

That goodness is what survives death, a fundamental goodness that is in each and every one of us. The whole of our life is a teaching of how to uncover that strong goodness, and a training toward realizing it.

- Sogyal Rinpoche
 

The very purpose of our life is happiness, the very motion of our lives is toward happiness.

-His Holiness the Dalai Lama

I am boundless space.
The world is a clay pot.

This is the truth.

There is nothing to accept,
Nothing to reject,
Nothing to dissolve.

-Ashtavakra Gita 6:1

The wise see the Lord of Love in the sun,
Rising in all its golden radiance
To give its warmth and light and life to all.

-Prashna Upanishad

To see things in the seed, that is genius.

- Lao-Tzu

There is in the worst of fortune the best of chances for a happy change.

- Euripides

Keep your fears to yourself, but share your inspiration with others.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

For every poet it is always morning in the world; history a forgotten, insomniac night. The fate of poetry is to fall in love with the world in spite of history.

- Derek Walcott

Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.

- Bono

Learn as if you were going to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow.

-Mahatma Gandhi

Everything comes to pass, nothing comes to stay.

-Matthew Flickstein, "Journey To The Center"