Quotes and Quick Inspiration

Volume Eight

From Tom Spencer's Soul of the Garden

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Gardening is an active participation in the deepest mysteries of the universe.

- Thomas Berry

It is the law of Spirit that we must be that which we would draw to us.

If we would draw to us love, we must be love, be loving and kind;

if we would have peace and harmony in our environment, we must establish it within ourselves.

- Charles Fillmore

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go;

it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.

-Alice Mackenzie Swaim

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

- Zen saying

When men lack a sense of awe, there will be diaster.

- Lao-Tzu

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle.

But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth.

Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize:

a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes.

All is a miracle.

- Thich Nhat Hanh
 

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.
It is the source of all true art and science.

- Albert Einstein

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.

- Henry Miller

My Child,
You may read or discuss scripture
As much as you like.

But until you forget everything,
You will never live in your heart.

-Ashtavakra Gita 16:1

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside

that holds whatever we want.

- Lao Tzu

Life is long if it is full.

- Seneca

Old age, to the unlearned, is winter; to the learned, it’s harvest time.

-Yiddish saying

The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it.

-William James

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Tolerance and patience should not be read as signs of weakness.

They are signs of strength.

- The Dalai Lama

The purpose of our lives is to give birth

to the best which is within us.

- Marianne Williamson

One of the secrets of a long and fruitful life is to forgive everybody,

everything, every night before you go to bed.

-Bernard M. Baruch

The best portion of a good man’s life:

his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.

-William Wordsworth

Once in a century a man may be ruined or made insufferable by praise.

But surely once in a minute something generous dies for want of it.

-John Masefield

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

-John Ruskin

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

A  good traveler has no fixed plans

and is not intent upon arriving.

- Lao Tzu

Just as there is more than one road up every great mountain,

and yet all roads meet at th top,

so in the Spiritual Quest there are several roads,

all of which lead in due seaon to the One Great End.

- Emmet Fox

Knowing yourself as That
In which the worlds rise and fall
Like waves in the ocean,
Why do you run about so wretchedly?

-Ashtavakra Gita 3:3

The quieter you become,

the more you hear.

- Ram Dass

There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks.

Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.

- Linda Hogan

Our hearts are restless, O God, and

they cannot rest until they rest in you.

- St. Augustine of Hippo

This is the work of those who are skilled and peaceful, who seek the good:

May they be able and upright, straightforward, of gentle speech and not proud.
May they be content and easily supported, unburdened, with their senses calmed.
May they be wise, not arrogant and without desire for the possessions of others.
May they do nothing mean or that the wise would reprove.

May all things be happy.
May they live in safety and joy.

-Metta Suta

May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous,
May you grow up to be true,
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you.
May you always be courageous,
Stand upright and be strong,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

May your hands always be busy,
May your feet always be swift,
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift.
May your heart always be joyful,
May your song always be sung,
May you stay forever young,
Forever young, forever young,
May you stay forever young.

- Bob Dylan

Be who you are

and say what you feel

because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind.

-Dr. Seuss

If you yourself are at peace, then there is at least some peace in the world.

-Thomas Merton

The nature of God is a circle of which the center is everywhere

and the circumference is nowhere.

- Empedocles

How boundless and free is the sky of Awareness!
How bright the full moon of wisdom!
Truly, is anything missing now?
Nirvana is right here, before our eyes; this very place is the Lotus Land; this very body, the Buddha.

-Hakuin Zenji, “Song of Zazen”

With God nothing is empty of meaning,

nothing without symbolism.

- St. Irenaeus

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others

-Vincent Van Gogh

We can do no great things…only small things with great love.

-Mother Teresa

I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.

-Arthur Rubenstein

You know the rule: If you are falling, dive.

- Joseph Campell

To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

- Mohandas K. Gandhi

He who wants a rose must respect the thorn.

-Persian proverb

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.

-Vietnamese saying