"YOGI" BERRA

The game isn’t over till it’s over.

GEORGE ELIOT

The first condition of human goodness is something to love. The second is something to reverence.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates, and men decay.

Att. to many sources

Life is not meant to be easy.

JOSEPH CONRAD

Facing it, always facing it - that's the way to get through. Face it.

TAO TE CHING

Clay is moulded into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that makes it useful

The Talmud

Who is wise? One who learns from all.

ANON

Knowledge is like a garden. If it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself.

BILL COSBY

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

ANON

Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold, but so does a hard-boiled egg.

LIN YUTANG

“I have done my best." That is about all the philosophy of living one needs.

BOUTRO BOUTROS-GHALI

Ever since my youth I have been inspired whenever I contemplate the Nile, the river-god my ancestors worshipped. The Nile flows on indifferent to mere events. It carries a message from the heart of Africa, our common home. It brings life to all who live near its banks. It contributes its water to the Mediterranean and the great civilizations which surround its shores. And ultimately it flows and merges with all the world’s oceans which link every continent and all people of our planet. To me, it is a constant reminder of our common humanity.

WOODY ALLEN

If you don't fail now and again, it's a sign you're playing it safe.

DENG MING-DAO

The good in you is like the water in a well. The more you draw from it, the more fresh water will seep in. If you do not draw from it, the water will only become stagnant.

BUDDHA

Hatreds do not ever cease in this world by hating, but by love; this is an eternal truth - overcome anger by love, overcome evil by good, overcome the miser by giving, overcome the liar by truth.

MARCUS AURELIUS

If there is a God, follow him. And if there isn’t, be godlike.

Gaelic Saying

Peace is the well from which the stream of joy runs.

St TERESA of AVILA

Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you may win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who really want help may attack you if you help them.
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you may get hurt.
Give the world your best anyway.

BILL COSBY

"Don't worry about senility," my grandfather used to say. "When it hits you, you won't know it."

ANON

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.

BUDDHA

You will not be punished for your anger. You will be punished by your anger.

P'ANG YUN

When the mind is at peace, the world too is at peace.

ANON

In order to see the rainbow, you must first endure some rain.

DAVID GRAYSON

Looking back, I have this to regret, that too often when I loved, I did not say so.

MARTIN LUTHER KING

Hatred paralyzes life - love releases it. Hatred confuses life - love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life - love illuminates it.

Gaelic Saying

Do not judge by appearances - a rich heart may be under a poor coat.

JOHN BURROUGHS

Time does not become sacred to us
Until we have lived it.

JONATHAN SWIFT

Take as many half minutes as you can get, but never talk more than half a minute without pausing and giving others an opportunity to strike in. One of the best rules in conversation is, never to say a thing which any of the company can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.

JANIS JOPLIN

Don't compromise yourself - you're all you've got.

MAHATMA GANDHI

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way
of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants,
and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in
the end they always fall. Think of it - always.

MARY PETTIBONE POOLE

He who laughs, lasts.

Taoist Saying

No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

VOLTAIRE

In the midst of all the doubts which we have discussed for four thousand years in four thousand ways, the safest course is to do nothing against one's conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear of death.

CONFUCIUS

If one’s mind is elsewhere, one will look but not see, listen but not hear.

ROBERT E. LEE

You must be careful how you walk, and where you go, for there are those following you who will set their feet where yours are set.

RALPH SOCKMAN

Nothing is so strong as gentleness ; nothing is so gentle as true strength.

Medieval Occitan Proverb

Time lost can never be regained

MARK TWAIN

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

SENECA

We should every night call ourselves to an account - what infirmity have I mastered today? what passions opposed? what temptations resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of themselves if they are brought every day to the shrift.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost - that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

JOHN WESLEY

Do all the good you can,
In all the ways you can,
In all the places you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can.

ANON

Since all of your troubles exist only in your mind, the only place you can solve them is in your mind.

JIMMY DEAN

I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination

WOODY ALLEN

To love is to suffer.
To avoid suffering one must not love.
But then one suffers from not loving.
Therefore to love is to suffer, not to love is to suffer.
To suffer is to suffer.
To be happy is to love.
To be happy then is to suffer.
But suffering makes one unhappy.
Therefore, to be unhappy one must love, or love to suffer, or suffer from too much happiness.
I hope you're getting this down.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

He who wants to do good knocks at the gate; he who loves finds the gate open.

THICH NHAT HANH

All methods, in the search for truth, should be looked on as a means, rather than as ends in themselves or as absolute truth.

Chinese Proverb

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones

ANON

Remember, your successes make you clever.
Only your failures make you wise.

WILLIAM BLAKE

The truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent

The Dhammapada

Our minds shape our lives.
We become what we think.

ZHANG JIGANG

As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart,
A thousand hands will naturally come to your aid.
As long as you are kind and there is love in your heart,
You will reach out with a thousand hands to help others.

HELEN KELLER

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Tell yourself each morning - today I shall meet an envious man, an ungrateful one and a bully, and if I had their life I could easily become one too.

Japanese Proverb

Fall seven times. Stand up eight.

PASCAL

All of Man's problems stem from his inability to sit quietly with himself.

ASHLEY COOPER

SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Truth, if it becomes a weapon against persons.
Beauty, if it becomes vanity.
Love, if it becomes possessive.
Loyalty, if it becomes blind, careless trust.
Tolerance, if it becomes indifference.
Self-confidence, if it becomes arrogance.
Faith, if it becomes self-righteous.

Ethiopian Saying

The fool speaks, the wise man listens.

ANON

There isn’t enough darkness in the world to quench the light of one small candle.

ROBERT HEINLEIN

Always listen to the experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it.

MARCEL PROUST

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

JOHN C. MAXWELL

The 10 Commandments of Human Relations
1. Speak to people.
2. Smile at people.
3. Call people by name.
4. Be friendly and helpful.
5. Be cordial.
6. Have a genuine interest in people.
7. Be generous with praise.
8. Be considerate of the feelings of others.
9. Be thoughtful of the opinions of others.
10. Be alert to give service.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

NADINE STAIR

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

ANON

Don’t torment yourself about tomorrow.
There’s no tomorrow.
It’s all here and now.

ST.AUGUSTINE

Audi partem alterum (Hear the other side)

MARCUS AURELIUS

Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.

THICH NHAT HANH

Everything we do is an act of poetry or painting, if we do it with Mindfulness.

EDWARD R. MURROW

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

W.H.AUDEN

In moments of joy, all of us wish we possessed a tail we could wag.

HYMAN RICKOVER

Great minds discuss ideas,
Average minds discuss events,
Small minds discuss people.

Ethiopian Proverb

Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors.

ANON

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure its worth watching.

DALAI LAMA

I believe there is an important distinction to be made between religion and spirituality. Religion I take to be concerned with belief in the claims to salvation of one faith tradition or another - an aspect of which is acceptance of some form of meta-physical or philosophical reality, including perhaps an idea of heaven or hell. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual, prayers and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit - such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony, which bring happiness to both self and others.

DAVE BARRY

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

Nicaraguan Proverb

Eyes that see don’t grow old

GILBERT ARLAND

When an archer misses the mark, he turns and looks for the fault within himself. Failure to hit the bull’s-eye is never the fault of the target. To improve your aim, improve yourself.

AMANDA McBROOM

It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes a chance.
It's the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give,
And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.

URSULA LE GUIN

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

ANON

Five rules to be happy -
1. Free your heart from hatred
2. Free your mind from worries
3. Live simply
4. Give more
5. Expect less

ALBERT CAMUS

Autumn is a second spring
When every leaf is a flower

LAO TZU

Those who know, do not speak.
Those who speak, do not know.

CICERO

The Six Mistakes of Man
1. The delusion that personal gain is made by crushing others.
2. The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
3. Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
4. Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
5. Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and studying.
6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.

LENNON/McCARTNEY

All you need is love

KAHLIL GIBRAN

And think not you can guide the course of love. For love, if it finds
you worthy, shall guide your course.

MARK TWAIN

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

H.JACKSON BROWN Jr.

People take different roads seeking fulfilment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.

Indian Proverb

Everyone is a house with four rooms - a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual.
Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go in to every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.

AGATHA CHRISTIE

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER

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

ALBERT CAMUS

Don't walk in front of me - I may not follow. Don't walk behind me - I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend.

WALLY AMOS

Don’t waste your time worrying. Worry is not preparation. Analyze the situation and focus on solutions. There is always an answer.

Nigerian Proverb

If you have one finger pointing at somebody, you have three pointing towards yourself.

BUDDHA

Happiness never decreases by being shared.

EPICTETUS

Conduct thyself in life as at a banquet. If a plate is offered thee, extend thy hand and take it moderately. If it is to be withdrawn, do not detain it. If it come to thy side, make not thy desire loudly known, but wait patiently until it be offered thee.

INGRID BERGMAN

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous.

LAO TZU

The wise man does not lay up treasure - his riches are within. The more he gives to others, the more he has of his own.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth, that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.

BARCLAY KNAPP

Now is the time to act - you can sort out the details later.

ALEXANDER POPE

Be sure yourself and your own reach to know,
How far your genius, taste, and learning go.
Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
And mark that point where sense and dullness meet.

DEEPAK CHOPRA

The less you open your heart to others,
the more your heart suffers.

KALIDASA

Look to this day.
For it is life, the very life of life.
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness
And tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day.
Such is the salutation of the dawn.

ANON

The meaning of life is to give life meaning.

JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU

People who know little are usually great talkers while men who know much say little.

SYDNEY J. HARRIS

The three hardest tasks in the world are neither physical feats nor intellectual achievement, but moral acts:
To return love for hate,
To include the excluded, and
To say, "I was wrong."

THOMAS MANN

Hold fast the time. Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute. Unregarded it slips away like a lizard, smooth slippery faithless. Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

HORACE

Dare to be wise - begin! He who postpones the hour of living rightly is like the rustic who waits for the river to run out before he crosses.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
(The Merchant of Venice)

Anon

May you have just enough clouds in your life to be left with a beautiful sunset.

Some thoughts on Old Age

Old age is when actions creak louder than words - Anon
Advanced old age is when you sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going. - Anon
You know you’re getting old when the candles cost more than the cake - Bob Hope

W.E.HICKSON

Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don't succeed,
Try, try again;
Then your courage should appear,
For, if you will persevere,
You will conquer, never fear;
Try, try again.

STEPHEN GRELLETT

I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show any human being, let me do it now. Let me not deter or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

ECCLESIASTICUS

Trust also your own judgment, for it is your most reliable counsellor. A man's mind has sometimes a way of telling him more than seven watchmen posted on a high tower.

BUDDHA

Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.

JACKSON BROWN

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins - not through strength but by perseverance.

Dr SEUSS

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.

ASHLEY SMITH

Life is full of beauty.
Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain and feel the wind.
Live your life to the fullest potential and fight for your dreams.

HENRY HASKINS

The man who is too old to learn
Was probably always too old to learn.

BUDDHA

My teaching is not a philosophy. It is the result of direct experience - it is a means of practice, not something to hold on to or worship.
It is like a raft used to cross a river - only a fool would carry the raft around after he had already reached the other shore of liberation.

Chinese Proverb

Enjoy yourself - it’s later than you think

WILLIAM CONGREVE

Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
Tomorrow’s sun to thee may never rise

DALAI LAMA

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

WILLIAM LOUDEN

To be sure of good health - eat lightly, breathe deeply, live moderately, cultivate cheerfulness, and maintain an interest in life.

CHUANG TZU

As rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, let your heart be untroubled by judgments and let your kindness rain on all.

JOHN LENNON

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.

ANON

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.

HENRY VAN DYKE

Time is
Too slow for those who wait
Too swift for those who fear
Too long for those who grieve
Too short for those who rejoice
But for those who love
Time is eternity

(Lines read at the funeral of Princess Diana)

from Monty Python "The Meaning of Life"

The meaning of life is nothing very special. Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.

HELEN KELLER

When one door of happiness closes, another opens. But often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

Read every day something no one else is reading. Think every day something no one else is thinking. Do every day something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

Arabic Saying

Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble.

ANNE FRANK

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

FRIDTJOF NANSEN

The difficult is what takes a little time.
The impossible is what takes a little longer.

MARK TWAIN

Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter.

NAGARJUNA

Contentment is the greatest form of wealth.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again.
Wisely improve the present. It is thine.
Go forth to meet the future without fear and with a manly heart.

ANON

Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to the understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.

SIVANANDA

Love expects no reward. Love knows no fear. Love Divine
gives - does not demand. Love thinks no evil; imputes no
motive. To Love is to share and serve.

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?

RICHARD BRAUNSTEIN

It is possible to give without loving, but it is impossible to love without giving.

SOPHOCLES

Look and you will find it-what is unsought will go undetected.

BUDDHA

Do not believe anything
because it is said by an authority,
or if it is said to come from angels,
or from Gods,
or from an inspired source.
Believe it only if you have explored it
in your own heart
and mind and body
and found it to be true.
Work out your own path,
through diligence.

ROBERT LOUIS STEPHENSON

No man is useless while he has a friend.

ANNE DILLARD

How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.

ANON

The person who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch of a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

LAMA SURYA DAS

Breathe, relax and smile.
Outdoors or indoors,
Enjoy the joy of natural meditation.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of.

CONFUCIUS

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Remember this - very little is needed to make a happy life.

ANON

Live for today,
Live for tomorrow,
Think of your hopes
And not of your sorrow.

TAO TE CHING

I hold and protect three treasures; benevolence, frugality and never trying to be Number One.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

This above all - to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not be false to any man.

Fisher/Goodwin/Shay

Keep on smiling,
For when you're smiling,
The whole world smiles with you.

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.

GOETHE

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

AGATHA CHRISTIE

Curious things, habits - people themselves never know they have them.

BUDDHA

Forego everything that you have thought up to now meaningful, significant.
Sacrifice everything for this ultimate, because this is the only thing that will make you contented, that will make you fulfilled, that will bring spring to your being -
And you will blossom into a thousand and one flowers.

M.C. RICHARD

A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other.

Japanese proverb

Fall seven times -
stand up eight.

ANON

To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.

KITARO NISHIDA

If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child, I think there probably can be no greater happiness than this.

CONFUCIUS

By three methods we may learn wisdom. First, by reflection, which is noblest. Second, by imitation, which is easiest. Third by experience, which is the bitterest.

Zen Saying

I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet.

LEO BUSCAGLIA

Relish love in your old age! Aged love is like aged wine; it becomes more satisfying, more refreshing, more valuable, more appreciated and more intoxicating!

Dr SAMUEL JOHNSON

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
The act of dying is not of importance - it lasts so short a time.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few
drops on yourself.

MOTHER TERESA

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

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.

CONFUCIUS

It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.

ANON

As I lay down my thoughts, peace slips in.
Sitting quietly, nature comes to greet me.
Breathing consciously, tension falls away, worries creep over the edge of awareness.
But I gently push them over the side.
They swim off, unnecessary, unharmed,
For now - Peace.

DOLLY PARTON

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

CHANG PEI-CHENG

Lift up your clear bright thoughts to illuminate your destiny.
Lift up your spiritual conceptions to transcend your life.
Lift up your joyous heart to wash away the dusts of anxiety.

BEN SWEETLAND

We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.

JOHN WESLEY

Do all the good you can
By all the means you can
In all the ways you can
In all the places you can
At all the times you can
To all the people you can
As long as ever you can

FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS

Everyone ought to worship God according to his own inclinations, and not be constrained by force.

From www.interluderetreat.com

Breathe in calmness.
Exhale your tension.
Smile gently to yourself.
Tell yourself, “This is time for calm, for peace.”
Let go of your stress, and invite your body to relax.
Feel yourself move into a state of calm awareness.
Stay there awhile…………….

GEORGE W. CHILDS

Do not keep the alabaster box of your friendship
sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives
with sweetness. Speak approving, cheering words
while their ears can hear them, and while their hearts
can be thrilled and made happier. The kind of things you
mean to say when they are gone, say before they go.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

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.

Chinese Proverb

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

BUDDHA

My teaching is not a philosophy.
It is the result of direct experience. It is a means of practice, not something to hold on to, or worship. It is like a raft used to cross a river - only a fool would carry the raft around after he had reached the other shore.

EDITH WHARTON

If only we stopped trying to be happy, we could have a pretty good time.

ANON

The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work.

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so
regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.

HELEN KELLER

Turn your face to the sunshine and all shadows fall behind.

CONFUCIUS

Love thy neighbour as thyself. Do not do to others what thou wouldst not wish be done to thyself. Forgive injuries. Forgive thy enemy, be reconciled to him, give him assistance, invoke God in his behalf.

H.L. MENCKEN

We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.

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.

MOTHER TERESA

Life is a promise - fulfil it.

from the Tao Te Ching

There is no greater sin than desire,
no greater curse than discontent,
no greater misfortune than wanting something for yourself.
Therefore he who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.

JOSEPH STOREY

Have confidence that, if you have done a little thing well, you can do a
bigger thing well too.

An Irish Blessing

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine on your window-pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow the rain.
May the hand of a friend be always near you.
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

ROBERT. G. INGERSOLL

Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.

P'ANG YUN

The past is already past -
- don't try to regain it.
The present does not stay -
- don't try to touch it.
The future has not come -
- don't think about it.

ANON

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.

BENJAMIN DISRAELI

Youth is a blunder
Manhood a struggle
Old Age a regret.

CARL SCHURZ

Ideals are like stars.
You will not succeed in touching them with your hands, but, like the seafaring man on the ocean desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them reach your destination.

Cherokee Saying

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

The DALAI LAMA

What is religion?
As far as I am concerned, any deed done with good motivation is a religious act.
On the other hand, a gathering of people in a temple or church who do not have good motivation are not performing a religious act when they pray together.

FRANCIS GRAY

Look well to this day.
Yesterday is but a dream and tomorrow is only a vision. But today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well therefore to this day.

Salvador de Madariaga

Considering how bad men are, it is wonderful how well they behave.

Ven.K.Sri. DHAMMANANDA

Happy is he who has lofty and noble aspirations.
Happy is he who enriches the lives of others.
Happy is he who allows others to live in peace.
Happy is he who makes this world a better place to live in.
Happy is he whose work, chores and daily tasks are labours of love.
Happy is he who loves love.

PIET HEIN

He that lets the small things bind him
Leaves the great undone behind him.

North American Indian Saying

Inside me dwell ten thousand stars,
One for each of my ancestors.
The elk, the raven, the moose, the man, the flower, the coyote, the lion, the fish,
Ten thousand different stars am I,
But only one spirit connecting all.

BUDDHA

Happiness never decreases by being shared.

ANON

Blessed are those that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.

ROBERT LYND

Most beings are quite likeable if you do not see too much of them.

DALE CARNEGIE

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.

From the Dhammapada

Hold not a sin of little worth, thinking "This is little to me."
The falling drops of water will in time fill a water-jar.
Even so the foolish man becomes full of evil, although he gather it little by little.

Hold not a deed of little worth, thinking "This is little to me."
The falling drops of water will in time fill a water-jar.
Even so the wise man becomes full of good, although he gather it little by little.

DENG MING-DAO

You may be capable of great things, but life consists of small things.

MARY KAY ASH

Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as the mind lets you. What you believe, you can achieve.

GANDHI

We must not, like the frog in the well who imagines that the universe ends with the wall surrounding his well, think that our religion alone represents the whole truth and all others are false.

CHARLES SCHULTZ

Don’t worry about the world coming to an end.
It’s already tomorrow in Australia.

ANON

Do not pretend you know.
Start the day fresh and new.
The only thing you know is that you do not know.

THE DALAI LAMA

My religion is very simple -
My religion is kindness.

CROWFOOT

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 1830-1890 Chief of Blackfoot First Nation, Canada)

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

ANON

Every day is a good day.

LAMA SURYA DAS

Truth is everywhere. It knows no religious, cultural, temporal or ethnic bounds.
Truth is the perfect circle. Its centre is everywhere; its circumference stretches into infinite space.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

BUDDHA

Do not pursue the past - the past no longer is.
Do not lose yourself in the future - the future has not yet come.
Looking deeply at life as it is in the very here and bow, the practitioner dwells in stability and freedom.

ANON

If you are waiting for someone to come along and save you from yourself, you have a long wait.

TENNYSON

If I could understand a flower, root and all, I would have understood the whole existence.

LAO TSU

The journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

A Gaelic blessing

Deep peace of the running wave to you,
Deep peace of the flowing air to you,
Deep peace of the shining stars to you,
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

CONFUCIUS

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising everytime we fall.

MATTHEW ARNOLD

It is hard for a pure and thoughtful man to live in a state of rapture at the spectacle afforded him by his fellow-creatures.

GEORGE SAND

Try to keep your soul young and quivering right up to old age, and to imagine right up to the brink of death that life is only beginning.
I think that is the only way to keep adding to one's talent, and one's inner happiness.

ANON

What is Zen?
Zen is nothing else but living life as it is.

LANGSTON HUGHES

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow

GEORGE MOORE

There is always a right way and a wrong way,
and the wrong way always seems the more reasonable.

ANON

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

LU YU

The clouds above us join and separate,
The breeze in the courtyard leaves and returns;
Life is like that, so why not relax?
Who can stop us from celebrating?

TAOIST SAYING

Those who know do not speak;
those who speak do not know.

DOUG McLEOD

I still say a church steeple with a lightning rod on top shows a lack of confidence.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him, than one truth which he does not wish should be told.

DALAI LAMA

I look on religion as medicine. For different complaints, doctors will prescribe different remedies. Therefore, because not everyone’s spiritual 'illness' is the same, different spiritual medicines are required.

ANON

Stop struggling for perfection, and recognise the perfection you already are.

H.L. MENCKEN

Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

One lives and learns, doesn’t one? That is certainly one of the more prevalent delusions.

LAURENS van der POST

Human beings are perhaps never more frightening than when they are convinced beyond doubt that they are right

JOHN MAGLIOLA

A small child looked at a star and began to weep.
And the star said "Child, why do you weep?"
The child said "You are so far away; I will never be able to touch you."
And the star answered "Child, if I were not already in your heart, you would not be able to see me now."

RUMI

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons.
Knocking on a door, it opens -
I've been knocking from the inside.

ANON

The only way to have a friend is to be one.
The only way to get a friend is to be one.

A Zen Prayer

Breathing in, I cherish the life I have been given.
Breathing out, I cherish the life of others.
I breathe in, cherishing of the self.
I breathe out, cherishing of others.

HOMER SIMPSON

Three little sentences will get you through life -
1. Cover for me
2. Good idea, boss
3. It was like that when I got here

NISARGADATTA

Wisdom tells me I'm Nothing.
Love tells me I'm Everything.
Between the two my life flows.

CHARLES LAMB

The greatest pleasure in life is to do good by stealth
and be found out by accident

ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU

When the white missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.

DESHAN

All the profound doctrines are but a speck of dust in a vast void.
All the great affairs of the world are but a drop of water cast into a bottomless chasm

WILLIAM BLAKE

It is right it should be so,
Man was made for Joy and Woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the World we safely go.
Joy and Woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the Soul Divine

JAMES OPPENHEIM

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance.
The wise man grows it under his feet.

LUIS MARDEN

One lifetime isn't enough.
Just when you start to learn -
it's time to go.

THE DALAI LAMA

I believe deeply that we must find, all of us together, a new spirituality.
This new concept ought to be elaborated alongside the religions in such a way that all people of good will could adhere to it.

Native American chant

All the earth is sacred
Every step we take
All the air is sacred
Every breath we take

JOHN LENNON

Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.

ANTHONY POWELL

One of the worst things in life is not how nasty the nasty people are. You know that already. It is how nasty the nice people can be.

from the Tao Te Ching

There is no greater sin than desire,
no greater curse than discontent,
no greater misfortune than wanting something for oneself.
Therefore he who knows that enough is enough
will always have enough.

Chinese saying

If you want to be happy for a short time - get drunk; happy for a long time - fall in love; happy for ever - take up gardening.

BUDDHA

Forego everything that you have thought up to now meaningful, significant.
Sacrifice everything for this ultimate, because this is the only thing that will make you contented, that will make you fulfilled, that will bring spring to your being -
And you will blossom into a thousand and one flowers.

ANON

Life is not measured by the breath we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

H.L. MENCKEN

Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy.

ANON

With every breath I take today, I vow to be awake,
And every step I take, I vow to take with a grateful heart -
So I may see with eyes of love into the hearts of all I meet,
To ease their burden when I can,
And touch them with a smile of peace.

PAUL HAREY

In times like these, it is helpful to remember that there have always been times like these.

OVID

Let others praise ancient times. I am glad I was born in these.

BASHO

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise men.
Seek what they sought.

THICH NHAT HANH

Aware of the suffering created by fanaticism and intolerance, I am determined not to be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory or ideology, even Buddhist ones.
Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help me learn to look deeply and to develop my understanding and compassion.
They are not doctrines to fight, kill or die for.

ANON

It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

BUDDHA

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die -
So let us all be thankful.

Italian Proverb

After the game, the King and the Pawn go in the same box.

WILLIAM COWPER

Absence of occupation is not rest.
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed.

DHAMMAPADA

Few among men are they who cross to the further shore.
The other folk only run up and down the bank on this side.

ANON

If you would be happy all your life,
plant a garden

GK CHESTERTON

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down.
Without the rain, there would be no rainbow

thoughts about heaven..........

The kingdom of heaven is within you - Jesus Christ

He who knows himself knows heaven - Mohammed

So doth heaven abide within thee, why search without. - Vedas

MAX KAUFFMAN

My son has taken up meditation. At least it’s better than sitting and doing nothing.

FRANZ KAFKA

You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked - it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

what they said about death..........

I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens. - Spike Milligan

Life is a great surprise; I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.
- Vladimir Nabokov

I have a feeling that there is an afterlife but no one will know where it’s being held.
- Woody Allen

THE DALAI LAMA

May I become at all times -

a protector for those without protection,
a guide for those who have lost their way,
a ship for those with oceans to cross,
a bridge for those with rivers to cross,
a sanctuary for those in danger,
a lamp for those without light,
a place of refuge for those who lack shelter, and
a servant to all in need.

ANTONIO MACHADO

Traveller, there is no path. Paths are made by walking

Growing old - 65 to 80

I’m sixty-five and I guess that puts me in with the geriatrics, but if there were fifteen months in every year, I’d only be forty-eight.
- James Thurber

Seventy is wormwood,
Seventy is gall.
It’s better to be seventy than not alive at all.
- Phyllis McGinley

My diseases are asthma and dropsy and, what is less curable, seventy-five.
- Samuel Johnson

I don’t feel eighty. In fact I don’t feel anything till noon. Then it’s time for my nap.
- Bob Hope

SRI RAMAKRISHNA

Dwell, O mind, within yourself.
Enter no other’s home.
If you but seek there, you will find all you are searching for.
God, the true Philosopher’s Stone, who answers every prayer, lies hidden deep within your heart, the richest gem of all.
How many pearls and precious stones are scattered all about the outer court that lies before the chamber of your heart !

BUDDHA

No matter how many holy words you read, no matter how many holy words you speak, what good are they if you don’t act on them?

The tongue is like a sharp knife - it kills without drawing blood.

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

from www.poetry-chaikhana.com

Each day should be approached with amazement, wonder, gratitude.
After all, what have you done to earn the inconceivable gift of life?

Some thoughts on old age

If I’d known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself
(Leon Eldred)

Old age is like waiting in the departure lounge of life. Fortunately we are in England and the train is bound to be late (Milton Shulman)

Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative. (Maurice Chevalier)

The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly and lie about your age. (Lucille Ball)

JEAN KERR

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs, it is possible you haven’t grasped the gravity of the situation.

OSCAR WILDE

Don’t say you agree with me. Whenever people agree with me, I always feel I must be wrong.

I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.

ANON

Be content with what you have.
Rejoice in the way things are.
When you realise there is nothing lacking -
The World belongs to You !

ANNE FRANK

I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart.

GEORGE ELIOT

It's never too late to be what you might have been.

LAO TSU

Live a simple life, be free, be yourself and be close to nature.
Do these things and you will be wise and happy.

BUDDHA

Believe nothing because a wise man said it.

Believe nothing because it is generally held true.

Believe nothing because it is written.

Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.

Believe nothing because someone else believes it.

But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

MARK TWAIN

Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you the opportunity to commit more.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said.

I have too much respect for the truth to drag it out on every trifling occasion.

MAHATMA GANDHI

Seven Blunders of the World -

1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Commerce without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principle

ANON

He who asks is a fool for five minutes,
But he who doesn’t ask remains a fool for ever.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will avoid 100 days of sorrow.

Man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it.

Do not torment yourself about tomorrow.
There’s no tomorrow.
It’s all here and now.

THE DALAI LAMA

This is my simple religion -
There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is - kindness.

Don’t try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist. Use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are.

In the practice of tolerance, one’s enemy is the best teacher.

A Quaker Proverb

Speak only when your words improve upon the silence.

e.e.cummings

Nothing can surpass the mystery of stillness.

DAVID GERRARD

No beliefs are true.
A belief system is something you have faith in, regardless of the evidence.
That’s why all belief systems are equally valid. They’re equally invalid.
Therefore they’re all deserving of equal respect, little or none.
Which is why simple human courtesy outweighs the value of any belief system.
Even if a belief system is accurate to the way the universe works, it’s still a belief system. That’s the trap.

ANON

Fear knocked at the door.
Faith answered, and lo -
No-one was there.

THICH NHAT HANH

Breathe ! You are alive !!!

Everything we do is an act of poetry or painting, if we do it with Mindfulness.

To meditate does not mean to fight with a problem. To meditate means to observe. Your smile proves it. It proves that you are being gentle with yourself, that the sun of awareness is shining in you, that you have control of your situation. You are yourself, and you have acquired some peace.

ANON

Work like you don’t need the money,
Love like you’ve never been hurt,
Dance like no one is watching.

MARY OLIVER

When it’s over, I want to say -
All my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms.
When it’s over, I don’t want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened, or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

JONATHAN SWIFT

We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to
Make us love one another.

ANON

The principal objection to old age is that there’s no future in it.

WILLIAM BLAKE

If the doors of our perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is - infinite.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

TAO TE CHING

Embrace simplicity,
Put others first,
Desire little.

DENG MING-DAO

You may be capable of great things, but life consists of small things.

from www.dailyenlightenment.com

If you find Truth in any religion, philosophy, science or whatever, accept that Truth without any prejudice.
Truth is after all universal, though in bits and pieces at times, disguised, hidden, not unlike traces of gold mixed with pure minerals.
Use your Wisdom to distil.

ANON

Today is the absolute day, the only day in the eternity of time.
Every day is fresh and new, just as one’s life is new every day.

HAKUIN

Not knowing how near the Truth is, people seek it far away.
What a pity!
They are like one who in the midst of water cries out in thirst so imploringly.

ANON

Every day must come to you as -
a new hope,
a new promise,
a new aspiration,
a new energy,
a new thrill, and
a new delight.

HORACE

Learn to be wise, strain out the wine and prune lavish hopes to the quick. While we converse, envious time will have vanished. Harvest today, placing the least credence on what is to come.

REINHOLD NIEBUHR

May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

PIET HEIN

Love while you’ve got love to give.
Live while you’ve got life to live.

PIET HEIN

The soul may be a mere pretence,
The mind makes very little sense.
So let us value the appeal
Of that which we can taste and feel.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

MARIE CURIE

Nothing in life is to be feared - it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

GOETHE

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.

SHAMBHALA

We have everything we need in us already. It only needs to be brought out.

SIDDHA

You exist - you always will exist. You are the eternal spark of life only temporarily in this mortal frame. The body will die, but you never will die.

SIDDHA

Who are you?

You are the spark of God, the life particle, the eternal spirit soul. Understanding this truth is the beginning of self-realisation.