from the Bodhidharma

When mortals are alive, they worry about death.
When they're full, they worry about hunger.
Theirs is the Great Uncertainty.
But sages don't consider the past.
And they don't worry about the future.
Nor do they cling to the present.
And from moment to moment they follow the Way.

THE DALAI LAMA

Sometimes one creates a dynamic impression by saying something,
and sometimes one creates as significant an impression by remaining silent.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.

FRANZ SCHUBERT

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

WALT DISNEY

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

PRENTICE MULFORD

Goodwill to others helps build you up. It is good for your body, it makes your blood purer, your muscles stronger, and your whole form more symmetrical in shape. It is the real elixir of life.

AMANDA McBROOM

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

RABINDRANATH TAGORE

My eyes have seen too much, but they are not weary.
My ears have heard much, but they thirst for more.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

The secret of happiness is this - let your interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to the things and persons that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.

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.

LAO TSU

Knowing others is wisdom,
Knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force,
Mastering the self needs strength.

St. AUGUSTINE

Audi partem alterum. (Hear the other side)

THOMAS MANN

Hold fast the time! Guard it, watch over it, every hour, every minute!

STEWART UDALL

Plans to protect air and water, wilderness and wildlife are in fact plans to protect man.

ELBERT HUBBARD

There is no failure except in no longer trying.

ANON

At twenty we worry about what others think of us.
At forty we don’t care what others think of us.
At sixty we discover they haven’t been thinking about us at all.

STACIA TAUSCHER

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.

BUDDHA

The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past,
nor to worry about the future, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Things don’t change, we do.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it - will do anything but live for it.

H.L. MENCKEN

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.

LAO TSU

Surrrender yourself humbly,
Then you can be trusted to care for all things.
Love this world as yourself,
Then you can truly care for all things.

ERMA BOMBECK

Don't confuse fame with success. Madonna is one - Helen Keller is the other.

SITTING BULL

Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.

JAMES J. WALSH

People who laugh actually live longer than those who don’t laugh. Few persons realize that health varies according to the amount of laughter.

The DALAI LAMA

All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness. The important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.

JESUS of NAZARETH

You have heard that it hath been said - thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which spitefully use you and persecute you.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Old minds are like old horses. You must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order

SAMUEL JOHNSON

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.

INDIRA GHANDI

You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.

PLATO

Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness and life to everything.

Old Japanese Proverb

Fall down seven times, stand up eight.

BUDDHA

Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp. Hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.

TIM HAMES

There are times when a man has to choose between apples and oranges.
He cannot keep ordering fruit salad.

MARTIN LUTHER

Faith, like light, should always be simple and unbending, while love, like warmth, should beam forth on every side and bend to every necessity of our brethren.

LAO-TSU

The best of people are like water. Water benefits all things and does not compete with them. It dwells in the lowly places that all disdain.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Many people die at twenty-five and aren’t buried till they are seventy-five.

ANON

You cannot plough a field by turning it over in your mind.

Hindu Proverb

The most amazing thing is that we live as if we are going to live forever.

CHADE MENG

When I started to learn, I thought I was smart.
The more I learned, the smarter I thought I was.
Then, one day, I realized that the more I learn,
the more I know, the more I know that I do not know.
I stopped thinking that I was smart.
In fact, I began to realize that I was a fool.
The more I learned, the more foolish I realized I was.
One day, I realized how complete my foolishness was.
On that day, I felt liberated.

JOHN BURROUGHS

I go to nature to be soothed and healed and to have my senses put in order.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Bear in mind that the wonderful things you learn in your schools are the work of many generations. All this is put in your hands as your inheritance in order that you may receive it, honour it, add to it, and one day faithfully hand it on to your children.

H. H. Sri SWAMI SIVANANDA

Serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realize.
Be good, do good, be kind, be compassionate.

CHUANG TSU

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without,
for much knowledge is a curse.

VOLTAIRE

The only problem with common sense is that it is not very common.

BOB COSBY

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

GARY BARNES

You don't grow old and stop dancing. You stop dancing and grow old.

'ABDU' L-BAHA

To be a Baha’i simply means to love all the world, to love humanity and try to serve it, to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood.

BUDDHA

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.

ANON

The secret of getting ahead is getting started.

Ancient Hawaiian Saying

May the earth continue to live.
May the heavens above continue to live.
May the rains continue to dampen the land,
Then the flowers shall bloom,
And we people shall live again.

MOSHI DYAN

If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.

LAO TZU

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL

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

ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

SAMUEL BUTLER

Life is like playing the violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on.

JIMI HENDRIX

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

MARTIN LUTHER KING Jr.

Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.

LAO-TZU

Kindness in words creates confidence, kindness in thinking creates profoundness, kindness in giving creates love.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O, no! it is an ever fixed-mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken.

BUDDHA

When a man has pity on all living creatures, only then is he noble.

FRANCES BACON

The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes the wrong one. Nay, it is obvious that the more active and swift the latter is, the further he will go astray.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Do every act of your life as if were your last.

ELBERT HUBBARD

If you can’t answer a man’s argument, all is not lost. You can still call him vile names.

ANAIS NIN

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

THICH NHAT HANH

Aware of the suffering caused by the destruction of life, I am committed to cultivate compassion, and learning ways to protect the lives of people, animals, plants and minerals.
I am determined not to kill, not to let others kill, and not to support any act of killing in the world, in my thinking, and in my way of life.

RON ATCHISON

And this is your assignment for today. Look for the magic everywhere you go - it's everywhere. Make some magic - it's fun. And for extra credit, throw a lightning bolt across the sky just because you can.
(from www.inspirationpeak.com)

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

Everything has been figured out, except how to live.

PUBLILIUS SYRUS

From the errors of others, a wise man corrects his own.

TENNYSON

There is more faith in an honest doubt, believe me, than in half the creeds.

CHUANG-TZU

I cannot tell if what the world considers happiness is happiness or not. All I know is that when I consider the way they go about attaining it, I see them carried away headlong, grim and obsessed, in the general onrush of the human herd, unable to stop themselves or to change their direction. All the while they claim to be just on the point of attaining happiness.

BILL COSBY

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

W.C. FIELDS

Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.

BUDDHA

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.

RAM DASS

Amid the whirlwind of each chaotic moment there is a quiet peaceful centre. Awaken this centre and you’ll discover peace of mind, abundant joy, unlimited satisfaction and freedom from anxiety.

DAVID RUSSELL

The hardest thing in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.

JESUS

He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.

LAMA ZOPA RINPOCHE

Living your life for others, cherishing them with loving kindness and compassion is the door to happiness, the door to enlightenment.

Duc de la ROCHEFOUCAULD

It’s easier to be wise for others than for ourselves.

KOFI ANNAN

If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it.

OSHO

This is what enlightenment is all about - a deep understanding that there is no problem. Then, with no problem to solve, what will you do? Immediately you start living. You will eat, you will sleep, you will love, you will work, you will have a chit-chat, you will sing, you will dance - what else is there to do?

JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?

HENRY JAMES

Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.

The Dhammapada

All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart.
Speak or act with a pure mind
And happiness will follow you
As your shadow, unshakable.

from the Sutta Nipata

Learn this from the waters -
Loud gush the streamlets, but great rivers flow silently.

SENECA

It better befits a man to laugh at life than to lament it.

WILLIAM JAMES

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

Chinese Proverb

The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.

LEONARD H. ROBBINS

How a minority,
Reaching majority,
Seizing authority,
Hates a minority.

BUDDHA

Let no sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou hast thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone, which I ought to have done? Begin thus from the first act, and proceed, and, in conclusion, at the ill which thou hast done, be troubled, and rejoice for the good.

HELEN KELLER

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding.
I want the understanding which bringeth peace.

WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING

To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury and refinement rather than fashion, to be worthy - not respectable, to be wealthy - not rich, to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly, to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages with open heart, to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, hurry never - in a word, to let the spiritual unbidden and unconscious grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.

ROBERT HERRICK

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
Old time is still a-flying
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.

G.K. CHESTERTON

The word “good” has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of 500 yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man.

MAHATMA GHANDI

I consider myself a Hindu, Christian, Moslem, Jew, Buddhist and Confucian.

CHIKAN ZENJI

The shadow of the bamboo sweeps the stair
All night long.
Yet not a mote of dust is stirred.
The moonbeams penetrate
To the bottom of the pool,
Yet in the water not a trace is left.

ARTHUR C. CLARK

A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objections to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in the second edition to correct some faults of the first.

LAO-TZU

Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.