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!