LORD TENNYSON

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true

ANON

A New Year’s resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other.

ANON

Many people look forward to the new year for a new start on old habits.

THICH NHAT HANH

From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax, and to be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, and enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on earth.

ROBERT LYND

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.

HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.

BURTON HILLIS

The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree - the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.

OREN ARNOLD

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.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

NORMAN COUSINS

There ain’t much fun in medicine, but there’s a whole lot of medicine in fun.

MILTON GARLAND

Don't worry about anything. Worrying never solved anything. All it does is distort your mind.

THE DALAI LAMA

Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.

EDWARD R. MURROW

Difficulty is an excuse history never accepts.

Today's post is the one thousandth on this blog

To mark the occasion I’m publishing again my special favourite -

“You will find meaning in life only if you create it. It is not lying there somewhere behind the bushes, so you can go and you search a little bit and find it. It is not there like a rock that you will find. It is a poetry to be composed, it is a song to be sung, it is a dance to be danced.” (written by the Indian mystic OSHO 1931-1990)

from FragrantHeart.com

The best time of my life is right now.

St FRANCIS of ASSISI

Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

BAIZHANG

Cling to nothing; crave for nothing

MARCUS AURELIUS

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind, for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

African Proverb

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

WOODROW WILSON

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Let us take men as they are, not as they ought to be.

GILDA RADNER

Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.

BUDDHA

There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth - not going all the way and not starting.

ANON

Only those who do nothing make no mistakes.

AUGUSTUS HARE

Half the failures of this world arise from pulling in one's horse as he is leaping.

DALE CARNEGIE

One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon, instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.

From the Dhammapada

Better than a thousand
Hollow words
Is one word that brings peace.

[according to tradition, the 423 verses that make up the Dhammapada were spoken by the Buddha on different occasions]

BARBARA DE ANGELIS

Love is a force more formidable than any other.  It is invisible, it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment and offer you more joy than any material possession could.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one often comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't.

DIOGENES

It was a favourite expression of Theophrastus that time was the most valuable thing that a man could spend.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.

ANON

Sow a thought and you reap an action.
Sow an act and you reap a habit.
Sow a habit and you reap a character.
Sow a character and you reap a destiny.

[attributed to many sources]

SOCRATES

Let him that would move the world first move himself.

JIM RYUN

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.

JAMES EARL JONES

One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.

Buddhist Saying

Do not speak, unless it improves on silence.

St TERESA of AVILA

The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
 

EDWARD R. MURROW

To be persuasive, we must be believable.
To be believable, we must be credible.
To be credible, we must be truthful.
   

Gaelic Saying

Cha bhi fios aire math an tobair gus an tràigh e.
(The value of the well is not known until it goes dry.)

JAMES ALLEN

The greatest achievements were at first and for a time dreams. The oak sleeps in the acorn.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within.

Swedish Proverb

Fear less, hope more.
Whine less, breathe more.
Talk less, say more.
Hate less, love more,
And all good things are yours.

BOB HOPE

I have seen what a laugh can do.  It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful.

DAVID O. McKAY

Find a purpose in life so big it will challenge every capacity to be at your best. 

HEDA BEJAR

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

PLATO

At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.

EUGENE O’NEILL

I have had my dance with Folly, nor do I shirk the blame,
I have sipped the so-called Wine of Life and paid the price of shame,
But I know that I shall find surcease, the rest my spirit craves,
Where the rainbows play in the flying spray,
'Mid the keen salt kiss of the waves.

BUDDHA

Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike. Each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

African Proverb

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

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear,
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.

CONFUCIUS

Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses.

The DALAI LAMA

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.

GOETHE

Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole world is clouded.

ANON

When the game is over, the king and the pawn go back into the same box.

HERMAN MELVILLE

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibres connect us with others; and along those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

MAHATMA GANDHI

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

EMILY DICKENSON

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

BUDDHA

Hatred does not cease through hatred at any time. Hatred ceases through love. This is an unalterable law.

W. S. GILBERT

Life’s a pudding full of plums,
Care’s a canker that benumbs.
Wherefore waste our elocution
On impossible solution?
Life’s a pleasant institution.
Let us take it as it comes.

ECCLESIASTICUS

Have regard for your name, since it will remain for you longer than a great store of gold.

Chinese Proverb

We count our miseries carefully, and accept our blessings without much thought.

ALFRED MONTAPERT

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.

A.P. HERBERT

People must not do things for fun.
We are not here for fun.
There is no reference to fun in any Act of Parliament.

A.P.Herbert 1890-1971, English humorist, playwright, novelist and Member of Parliament

JOHN WOODEN

Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.

DIOGENES

Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.

JOSEPH ADDISON

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure but, scattered along life's pathway the good they do is inconceivable.

EDDIE CANTOR

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast.You also miss the sense of where you are going and why.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

A man does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

BUDDHA

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth and faithfulness the best relationship.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

How do geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we know when it’s time to move on? Just like the migrant birds, surely with us there is a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us when to go forth into the unknown

[ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS 1926-2004 Swiss-born psychiatrist and author of “On Death and Dying”, moved to USA in 1958]

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Reputation is only a candle of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.

ANON

My grandpa notes the world's worn cogs
And says we're going to the dogs.
His grandpa in his house of logs
Said things were going to the dogs.
His grandpa in the Flemish bogs
Said things were going to the dogs.
His grandpa in his hairy togs
Said things were going to the dogs.
But this is what I wish to state.
The dogs have had a long, long wait.

MATSUO BASHO

Seek not the paths of the ancients.
Seek that which the ancients sought.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door, or I'll make a door.

ROBERT C. EDWARDS

Never exaggerate your faults. Your friends will attend to that.

ANON

It has been found that in the worst of human degradation and suffering beauty can be found simply by changing one’s focus.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Every calling is great when greatly pursued.

MARK TWAIN

It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it's the parts that I do understand.

Arab Proverb

Insults should be written in the sand, and praises carved in stone.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

It's easier to go down a hill than up it but the view is much better at the top.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

DIOGENES

He has the most who is most content with the least.

BUDDHA

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.

Gaelic Saying

Tha an lasair nad anam aig meadhan do bhith
Nas làidir 's nas motha na riaghaltas no rìgh.
(The spark in your soul at the centre of your being
Is larger and stronger than any government or king)

PAUL MEYER

Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon - must inevitably come to pass.

ARISTOTLE

One must learn by doing the thing, for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.

GEORGE ELIOT

Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.

Chinese Proverb

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.

attrib. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

A day in your life without a laugh is a day in your life lost

KATHERINE MANSEFIELD

I have made it a rule of my life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy. You can't build on it. It's only good for wallowing in.

LAO-TZU

Manifest plainness,
Embrace simplicity,
Reduce selfishness,
Have few desires.

CICERO

If you aspire to the highest place, it is no disgrace to stop at the second, or even the third, place.

MAHATMA GANDHI

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.

JANE AUSTEN

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

AESOP

It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

A man in a passion rides a mad horse

Gaelic Saying

An làmb a bheir, ‘s i a gheibh.
The hand that gives is the hand that gets.

ECCLESIASTES

The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious, but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.

LAO-TZU

He who knows other men is learned.
He who knows himself is enlightened.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

DANIEL H. BURNHAM

Make no little plans - they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans - aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence. 

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.

CONFUCIUS

Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.

ANON

Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.

GOETHE

Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. 

Chinese Proverb

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will avoid one hundred days of sorrow.

HELEN KELLER

Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

WILLIAM BLAKE

Cruelty has a human heart,
And Jealousy a human face,
Terror the human form divine,
And secrecy the human dress.

BUDDHA

Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten.

An Apache Blessing

May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being, may you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

SPIKE MILLIGAN

Money can't buy friends, but you can get a better class of enemy.

TERENCE*

There is nothing so easy but that it becomes difficult when you do it with reluctance.

*Terence 195-159 BC, Roman dramatist

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

He that thinks himself the happiest man really is so, but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.

WILLIAM CONGREVE

I am always of the opinion with the learned, if they speak first.

DESCARTES

Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.

ANON

More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin.

HENRY FORD

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

The DALAI LAMA

It is under the greatest adversity that there exists the greatest potential for doing good, both for oneself and others.

ANON

Instead of giving myself reasons why I can't, I give myself reasons why I can.

NORA ROBERTS

If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place.

T.S. ELIOT

If you haven't the strength to impose your own terms upon life, you must accept the terms it offers you.

GOETHE

Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.

BLAISE PASCAL

Most of the evils of life arise from man’s inability to sit still in a room.

MOTHER TERESA

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

Gaelic Saying

Cha tèid nì sam bith san dòrn dùinte.
Nothing can get into a closed fist.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Love sought is good, but given unsought is better.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. If you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

MUSO KOKUSHI

It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Love is flower like. Friendship is like a sheltering tree.

ANON

Who never wept knows laughter but a jest,
Who never failed no victory has sought,
Who never suffered never lived his best,
Who never doubted, never really thought.

BUDDHA

To meditate is to listen
with a receptive heart.

JOSEPH ADDISON

Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for.

Zen Saying

Only when you can be extremely pliable and soft can you be extremely hard and strong.

JOSEPH DISPENZA

Every time we leave home and go to another place, we open up the possibility of having something wonderful happen to us. When we move out of the familiar here and now, we set in motion a series of events which, taken together, bring about changes in the very depths of our being.

SIDNEY LOVETT

Every now and again take a good look at something not made with hands - a mountain, a star, the turn of a stream. There will come to you wisdom and patience and solace and, above all, the assurance that you are not alone in the world.

DALAI LAMA

When we feel love and kindness towards others, it helps us develop inner happiness and peace.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.

JEROME KERN

Look for the silver lining
When e'er a cloud appears in the blue.
Remember somewhere the sun is shining,
And so the right thing to do,
Is make it shine for you.

A heart, full of joy and gladness,
Will always banish sadness and strife.
So always look for the silver lining,
And try to find the sunny side of life.

(a popular song in the 1930s)

ARISTOTLE

In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous.

MATSUO BASHO

Who mourns makes grief his master.
Who drinks makes pleasure his master.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Finish each day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in,
forget them as soon as you can.
Tomorrow is a new day,
begin it well and serenely
and with too high a spirit
to be encumbered with your old nonsense.

BABA RAM DASS

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

FRANCOIS de la ROCHEFOUCAULD

When we are unable to find tranquillity within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

I never think about the future. It comes soon enough.

ELBERT HUBBARD

Don’t take life too seriously - you’ll never get out of it alive.

ANON

If you want something very badly, let it go free.
If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever.
If it doesn’t, it was never yours to start with.

LAO-TSU

See the small and develop clear vision.
Practice yielding and develop strength.
Use the outer light to return to the inner light and save yourself from harm.

Gaelic Saying

Is fheàrr teine beag a gharas na teine mòr a loisgeas.
The little fire that warms is better than the big fire that burns.

ALBERT CAMUS

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?

BUDDHA

This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace.
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways,
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skilful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, So do our minutes hasten to their end, Each changing place with that which goes before In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

JEROME K. JEROME

I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours.

ANNE HERBERT

Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.

Italian Rhyme

Chi va piano
Va lontano
E va sano.
He who travels slowly goes far and goes safely.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

MOLIERE

I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.

EPICTETUS

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of lack of education.
To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun.
To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

ANON

FOR HIM
We men have many faults,
Poor women have but two.
There’s nothing good they say,
There’s nothing good they do.
.
FOR HER
Women’s faults are many,
Men have only two.
Everything they say
And everything they do.

ANDRE GIDE

Believe those who are seeking the truth.
Doubt those who find it.

THICH NHAT HANH

People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?

GEORGE ELIOT

Any coward can fight a battle when he’s sure of winning. But give me the man who has pluck to fight when he’s sure of losing. There are many victories worse than defeat.

THOMAS A KEMPIS

We would have much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the sayings and doings of others.

Gaelic Saying

Chan ann leis a’chiad bhuille thuiteas a’chraobh.
(It is not with the first stroke that the tree falls.)

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Saving is a very fine thing, especially when your parents have done it for you.

BUDDHA

There is nothing more dreadful than the habit of doubt. Doubt separates people. It is a poison that disintegrates friendships and breaks up pleasant relations. It is a thorn that irritates and hurts. It is a sword that kills.

ALFRED Lord TENNYSON

Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

Life must be lived forwards, but it can only be understood backwards.

LAO- TZU

For knowledge add a little every day
For wisdom erase a little every day

ANON

Life owes me nothing.
One clear morn
Is boon enough
For being born;
And be it ninety years or ten,
No need for me to question when,
While life is mine,
I’ll find it good
And greet each hour
With gratitude.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Wink at small faults. Remember, thou hast great ones.

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner. In the dinner the sweets come last.

CZESLAW MILOSZ

I would prefer to be able to say, “I am satiated,
What is given to taste in this life, I have tasted.“
But I am like someone in a window who draws aside a curtain
To look at a feast he does not comprehend.
[Czeslaw Milosz 1911-2004, Polish-American poet and writer, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1980]

GOETHE

To think is easy.
To act is hard.
But the hardest thing in the world
is to act in accordance with your thinking.

German Rhyme

Morgen, morgen nur nicht heute
Sagan alle faule Leute.
Tomorrow, tomorrow but not today
All the lazy people say.

MOLIERE

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.

Once upon a time............

A student asked Buddha, "Are you the Messiah?"
"No" was the answer.
“Are you a healer?"
"No". "Are you a teacher?" "No”.
"Then what are you?" "I am awake", Buddha replied.

BENJAMIN MAYS

The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach.

CONFUCIUS

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

ELMER G. LETTERMAN

A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him.

Latin Proverb

He who sins when drunk will have to atone for it when sober.

St PAUL

Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

JAMES THURBER

There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.

OSHO

Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand - just relax. If you relax, it comes. If you relax, it is there. If you relax, you start vibrating with it.

LILY TOMLIN

For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.

CHARLES READE

Never a day passes over the earth, but men and women of no note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer noble sorrows.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust and hostility to evaporate.

THICH NHAT HANH

Through your love for each other, through learning the art of making one person happy,
you learn to express your love for the whole of humanity and all beings.
Please help us develop the curriculum for the Institute for the Happiness of One Person.
Don't wait until we open the school.
You can begin practicing right away.

GANDHI

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

HELEN KELLER

Avoiding danger is no safer
in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure,
or nothing.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

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

SAMUEL JOHNSON

If your determination is fixed,
I do not counsel you to despair.
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
Great works are performed not by strength,
but by perseverance.

OVID

Take rest - a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.

Gaelic Saying

Bidh an t-ubhal as fheàrr air a’mheangan as àirde. (The best apple is on the highest bough.)

LAO-TZU

He who obtains has little. He who scatters has much.

ANON

Young men who have wives, O then,
Young men who have wives, O then,
Be kind to the first for the next may be worse,
And you'll long for the first one again.

[from a trad. song "I Married a Wife"]

KAHLIL GIBRAN

The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest and then becomes a host, and then a master.

HILLEL the Elder

If not now, when?

CARY GRANT

My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can.

Latin Proverb

Neither shall the wave, which has passed on, ever be recalled; nor can the hour, which has once fled by, return again.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively. He must put himself in the place of another and of many others. The pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.

BUDDHA

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care, for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

JAMES THURBER

Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.

ALFRED ADLER

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

LORD CHESTERFIELD

Know the true value of time. Snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

AESOP

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.

TOM BARRETT

Hiking the high cliffs,
my friends clamber over rough
stone up to the high peak.
I, spotting an unused trail,
choose a different path.
I've heard there are many paths to the summit,
and I trust this is one of those.
But this is the lonely way.
This is the slippery trail
on the cold side of the mountain.
I am alone, except for the few footprints
in the kneedeep snow.
No one to guide me but unknown strangers
who have trekked this way before.
I begin to wonder,
Have I been a fool?
Will I lose my way?
Is this a true path or some
way to where I should not go?
Climbing higher, the trail is scarce.
Thorny bushes slow the pace.
But I sense I'm closer to my goal.
I reach the peak before my friends,
but see them coming not far below.
And up ahead, another ridge,
a higher peak,
a mountain glowing in the sun.

[Re-produced here from www.interluderetreat.com
by kind permission of the poet]

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

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

BARBARA DE ANGELIS

No one is in control of your happiness but you. Therefore you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.

OSHO

This is the Zen approach - nothing is there to be done. There is nothing to do. One has just to be. Have a rest and be ordinary and be natural.

Sufi Saying

There are two rules on the spiritual path - begin and continue.

DOUGLAS PAGELS

Sometimes it’s important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it’s essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which colour to slide down on the rainbow.

ANON

"Silent" is an anagram of "listen".

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

Don’t fight darkness. Bring the light and darkness will disappear.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

I have learned,
that if one advances confidently
in the direction of one’s dreams,
and endeavours to live the life one has imagined,
one will meet with a success
unexpected in common hours.

DESMOND TUTU

Without memory, there is no healing.
Without forgiveness, there is no future.

LAO-TZU

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

J. M. BARRIE

Dreams do come true, if you only wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.

ANTHONY De MELLO

Said the river to the seeker, “Does one really have to fret about enlightenment? No matter which way I turn, I’m homeward bound.”

VINCE LOMBARDI

The spirit, the will to win,
and the will to excel are the things that endure.
These qualities are so much more important
than the events that occur.

CHARLES CHAPLIN

Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.

HUANCHU DAOREN

Calm in quietude is not real calm. When you can be calm in the midst of activity, this is the true state of nature. Happiness in comfort is not real happiness. When you can be happy in the midst of hardship, then you see the true potential of the mind.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself

(from HENRY VIII)

Gaelic Saying

Cha d’dhùin doras nach d’fhosgail doras.
No door ever closed, but another opened.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Nothing is so contagious as enthusiasm.

WALTER LINN

It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.

BUDDHA

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else. You are the one who gets burned.

CHIEF SITTING BULL

Every seed is awakened and so is all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being. We therefore yield to our animal neighbours the same right as ourselves to inhabit this land.

[Sitting Bull, born between 1831 and 1837, died 1890, chief of the Dakota Sioux]

PROUST

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.

W. H. AUDEN

We are all here on earth to help others. What on earth the others are here for I don't know.

Japanese Saying

Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

One does not have to be an angel in order to be saint.

HSI-TANG

Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision.

GALILEO

You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him find it within himself.

KATHERINE MANSEFIELD

I must say I hate money, but it’s the lack of it I hate most.

The DALAI LAMA

I have three treasures which I guard and keep - the first compassion, the second economy, the third humility.
From compassion comes courage, from economy comes the means to be generous, from humility comes responsible leadership.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

The best portion of a good man’s life -
his little, nameless, unremembered acts
of kindness and love.

MOTHER TERESA

All that we need to know and all the wisdom of the cosmos we will find in our own hearts.

LAO TZU

Knowing others is intelligence, knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

FRED ASTAIRE

Old age is like everything else - to make a success of it, you need to start young.

Native American Saying

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

CHARLES DICKENS

Whatever I have tried to do in life,
I have tried with all my heart to do it well.
Whatever I have devoted myself to,
I have devoted myself completely.
In great aims and in small
I have always been thoroughly in earnest.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Learning and wisdom are superfluities, merely surface glitter, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power.

[Swami Vivekananda 1863-1902, Indian philosopher, lecturer and writer who brought Eastern ideas to the West]

GOETHE

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.

[Goethe 1749-1832, German philosopher, author, poet and dramatist]

LUCILLE BALL

One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.

[Lucille Ball 1911-1989, American comedienne and actress, star of the long-running "I Love Lucy"]

WARREN BUFFETT

Someone is sitting in the shade today, because someone planted a tree a long time ago.

[Warren Buffett 1930- , American business man and philanthropist, possibly the richest man in the world]

SPINOZA

Peace is not the absence of war. It is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence and justice.

[Baruch Spinoza 1632-1677, Dutch philosopher]

CHARLOTTE GRAY

Human beings who leave behind them no great achievements, but only a sequence of small kindnesses, have not had wasted lives.

Swedish Saying

You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.

BUDDHA

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

SHEL SILVERSTEIN

Listen to the mustn'ts, child.
Listen to the don'ts.
Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts.
Listen to the never haves,
Then listen close to me,
Anything can happen, child, anything can be.

[Shel Silverstein 1930-1999, American songwriter, composer, musician, poet, cartoonist, author. He wrote the words and music of "A Boy Named Sue" which was a hit for Johnny Cash.]

ANTOINE de SAINT EXUPERY

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.

[Antoine de Saint Exupery 1900-1944, French aviator and writer. His most famous work was the children's classic "The Little Prince" which he also illustrated.]

MARY OLIVER

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination,
Calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exacting -
Over and over, announcing your place
In the family of things.

THOMAS ALVA EDISON

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

LAO-TZU

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about other people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.

ANDREW CARNEGIE

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.

THE DALAI LAMA

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others, and if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

JOHN A. SHEDD

A ship on harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are made for.

YISRAEL BEN ELIEZAR

Think first before you blame someone for making a mistake. If you had done this, what excuse would you find for yourself to justify yourself? Then give the other person the benefit of your excuse. This is the ultimate in love.

JENNIFER EDWARDS

The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done, we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change.
So that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger, but in wisdom, understanding and love.

ZENRIN KUSHU

Sitting quietly, doing nothing,
Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

DAVID BOHM

The great strength of science is that it is rooted in actual experience. The great weakness of contemporary science is that it admits only certain types of experience as legitimate.

Old Gypsy Saying

Gypsy gold does not chink or glitter,
It gleams in the sun and neighs.

W. H. AUDEN

Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can - all of them can make me laugh.

MOTHER TERESA

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

Confucian Saying

If thy strength will serve, go forward in the ranks. If not, stand still.

PIET HEIN

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind, and you're hampered by not having any, The best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, is simply by spinning a penny. No, not so that chance shall decide the affair while you're passively standing there moping, But the moment the penny is up in the air, you suddenly know what you're hoping.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

I have often thought what a melancholy world this would be without children, and what an inhuman world without the aged.

Native American Saying

A bowl belongs to whoever needs it.

BERNARD EDMONDS

To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind.
To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will.
To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed.

BUDDHA

If you find a good companion, who is following the same spiritual path, travel together, overcoming obstacles as they arise.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Only two things are infinite - the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

DAVID CARRADINE

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.

Gaelic Saying

Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened.

ALEXANDER POPE

A man should never be ashamed to own that he is wrong, which is but saying in other words that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

LAO TZU

To know yet to think that one does not know is best.
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

ARISTOTLE

Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.

MARILYN FRENCH

Men stumble over pebbles, never over mountains.

The Dalai Lama

Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.

THOMAS COLE

I cannot but express my sorrow that the beauty of such landscapes are quickly passing away, the ravages of the axe are daily increasing, the most noble scenes are made desolate, and oftentimes with a wantonness and barbarism scarcely credible in a civilized nation. The wayside is becoming shadeless, desecrated by what is called improvement.
(from an essay on American Scenery 1835)

CATO the Elder

After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument then why I have one.

Indian Saying

No one's head aches when one is comforting another

DUKE ELLINGTON

Grey skies are just clouds passing over.

BUDDHA

All conditioned things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence.

(these are said to be Buddha's last words)

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Fear not for the future, weep not for the past.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The real and lasting victories are those of peace and not of war.

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.

HELEN KELLER

Many persons have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

LAO TZU

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about other people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work - then step back. The only path to serenity.

St FRANCIS of ASSISI

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

JOHN MILTON

Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely according to my conscience, above all liberties.

HERMANN HESSE

Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.

WILLIAM ARTHUR

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticise me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I may not forget you.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

Learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.

BUDDHA

Through zeal knowledge is gained. Through lack of zeal knowledge is lost. Let a man who knows this double path of gain and loss, thus place himself that knowledge may grow.

Gaelic Saying

Do not light a fire that you cannot yourself put out.

CONFUCIUS

Without that innate sense of human worth, a man cannot long endure adversity, nor can he long enjoy prosperity.

ALEXANDER POPE

Teach me to feel another's woe, To hide the faults I see, That mercy I to others show, That mercy show to me.

St FRANCIS of ASSISI

Start by doing what's necessary. Then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

WILLIAM BLAKE

A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.

ALAN WATTS

There is, of course, no satisfactory way of arguing the merits of any one of the great world religions against the others. In all such debates the judge and the advocate are the same person, for a man judges his own religion the best simply because the standard he uses is that of his own religious upbringing.

CHARLES DICKENS

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

SENECA

While the fates permit, live happily. Life speeds on with hurried step, and with winged days the wheel of the headlong year is turned.

MAEZUMI

Have good trust in yourself, not in the one that you think you should be, but in the one that you are.

ANON

In order to create peace, you cannot think peace. You must be peace.

BUDDHA

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.

THOMAS CARLYLE

Let me have my own way exactly in everything, and a sunnier and pleasanter creature does not exist.

LAO TZU

We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.

JOHN RUSKIN

Does a bird need to theorize about building it's nest, or boast of it when built? All good work is essentially done that way - without hesitation, without difficulty, without boasting.

MARTIN LUTHER KING

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

The DALAI LAMA

We are all here on this planet, as it were, as tourists. None of us can live here forever. The longest we might live is a hundred years. So while we are here we should try to have a good heart and to make something positive and useful of our lives. Whether we live just a few years or a whole century, it would be truly regrettable and sad if we were to spend that time aggravating the problems that afflict other people, animals, and the environment. The most important thing is to be a good human being.

HENRY FORD

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.

CHARLES M. SCHULTZ

My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right?

CHARLES DICKENS

A loving heart is the truest wisdom.

from the Tao Te Ching

Those who know do not talk.
Those who talk do not know.
Keep your mouth closed.
Guard your senses.
Temper your sharpness.
Simplify your problems.
Mask your brightness.
Be at one with the dust of the earth.
This is primal union.
He who has achieved this state
Is unconcerned with friends and enemies,
With good and harm, with honor and disgrace.
This, therefore, is the highest state of man.

HELEN KELLER

We would never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.

GEORGE SAVILE

Most men’s anger about religion is as if two men should quarrel for a lady they neither of them care for.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Energy and persistence conquers all things.

DUC de la ROCHEFOUCAULD

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

BUDDHA

My doctrine makes no distinction between high and low, or between rich and poor. It is like the sky. It has room for all, and like the rain it washes all alike.

ANON

The strength of a man isn't seen in the width of his shoulders.
It's in the width of his arms that encircle you.
The strength of a man isn't in the deep tone of his voice.
It's in the gentle words he whispers.
The strength of a man isn't how many buddies he has.
It's how good of buddies he is with his children.
The strength of a man isn't in how respected he is at work.
It's in how respected he is at home.
The strength of a man isn't in how hard he hits.
It's in how tender he touches.
The strength in a man isn't in the hair on his chest.
It's in his heart that lies within his chest.
The strength of a man isn't how many women he's loved.
It's if can he be true to one woman.
The strength of a man isn't in the weight he can lift.
It's in the burdens he can carry.

SOPHOCLES

One word frees us all of the weight and pain of life - that word is love.

ERIC HOFFER

It’s easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbour.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Traditional Navajo Prayer

As I walk, as I walk
The universe is walking with me,
In beauty it walks before me,
In beauty it walks behind me,
In beauty it walks below me,
In beauty it walks above me,
Beauty is on every side.
As I walk, I walk with Beauty.

THE DALAI LAMA

We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without human affection.

EVEL KNIEVEL

A man can fall many times in his life, but he is not a failure until he refuses to get up.

HELEN KELLER

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

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

SHUNRYU SUZUKI

The most important thing is to find out
what is the most important thing.

An Indian Poem

This day is a special day, it is yours.
Yesterday slipped away, it cannot be filled anymore with meaning.
About tomorrow nothing is known.
But this day, today, is yours, make use of it.
Today you can make someone happy.
Today you can help another.
This day is a special day, it is yours.