Quotes

Thomas Merton: “Life is this simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything–in people and in things and in nature and in events . . . we cannot be without Him. It’s impossible. The only thing is, we don’t see it.”

Thich Nhat Hanh: “The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth, dwelling deeply in the present moment and feeling truly alive.”

Albert Einstein: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.”

Thich Nhat Hanh: “In April we cannot see sunflowers in France, so we say sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun, heat, rain, and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist.”

Howard Zinn: “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

H. Jackson Browne: “Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it, piece by piece–by thought, choice, courage and determination.”

Li-Young Lee:

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Victor Hugo:

“Be like the bird
that, pausing in her flight
awhile on boughs too slight,
feels them give way
beneath her and yet sings
knowing that she hath wings.”

Rabindranath Tagore: “The same stream of life that runs through the world runs through my veins night and day in rhythmic measure. It is the same life that shouts in joy through the dust of the earth into numberless waves of flowers.”

Elbert Hubbard:

“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day. Wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

Anonymous Cowboy Wisdom:

“Forgive your enemies. It messes with their heads.”

Albert Einstein

“The world we have created is a product of our thinking.
It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

George Washington Carver

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.

Desmond Tutu:

We were made to enjoy music, to enjoy beautiful sunsets, to enjoy looking at the billows of the sea and to be thrilled with a rose that is bedecked with dew… Human beings are actually created for the transcendent, for the sublime, for the beautiful, for the truthful… and all of us are given the task of trying to make this world a little more hospitable to these beautiful things.

Grantland Rice (American Sportswriter):
Depend upon yourself. Make your judgment trustworthy by trusting it. You can develop good judgment as you do the muscles of your body – by judicious, daily exercise. To be known as a man of sound judgment will be much in your favor. ”

Mary Jean Iron:

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return.

L. M. Montgomery:

. . . tomorrow is a new day, with no mistakes in it yet!” (Anne, in Anne of Green Gables)

Albert Einstein:

There does, in fact, appear to be a plan.

William Shakespeare:

I love thee, I love but thee
With a love that shall not die
Till the sun grows cold
And the stars grow old.

James Joyce

” . . . and yes I said yes I will yes.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A child is a curly dimpled lunatic.”

Anonymous

“The wheel’s still spinning, but the hamster’s dead.”

Lord Byron

“But words are things, and a small drop of ink, falling like dew upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.”

Mary Ellen Chase

“Christmas, children, is not a date. It’s a state of mind.”

G.K. Chesterton

“The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul.”

Author Unknown

“So stop waiting until you finish school, until you go back to school, until you lose ten pounds, until you gain ten pounds, until you have kids, until your kids leave the house, until you start work, until you retire, until you get married, until you get divorced, until Friday night, until Sunday morning, until you get a new car or home, until your car or home is paid off, until spring, until summer, until fall, until winter, until you are off welfare, until the first or fifteenth, until your song comes on, until you’ve had a drink, until you’ve sobered up, until you die, until you are born again to decide that there is no better time than right now to be happy…”

A little story that was being sent around recently:

Malachi 3:3 says: ‘He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.’

This verse puzzled some women
in a Bible study and they
wondered what this statement
meant about the character and
nature of God.

One of the women offered to
find out the process of refining
silver and get back to the group
at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an
appointment to watch him at
work. She didn’t mention
anything about the reason for
her interest beyond her curiosity
about the process of refining
Silver.

As she watched the silversmith,
he held a piece of silver over
the fire and let it heat up. He
explained that in refining silver,
one needed to hold the silver in
the middle of the fire where
the flames were hottest as to
burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot;
then she thought again about
the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’
She asked the silversmith if it
was true that he had to sit there
in front of the fire the whole
time.

The man answered that yes, he
not only had to sit there holding
the silver, but he had to keep
his eyes on the silver the entire
time it was in the fire. If the silver
was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a
moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know
when the silver is fully refined?’He smiled at her and answered,
‘Oh, that’s easy — when I see
my image in it.’

If today you are feeling the heat
of the fire , remember that God
has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.
This very moment, someone needs to know that God is
watching over them.

And, whatever they’re going
through, they’ll be a better
person in the end.

Osho (Indian Spiritual Teacher)

Don’t move the way fear makes you move.
Move the way love makes you move.
Move the way joy makes you move.

Rabindranath Tagore

And joy is everywhere;
It is in the Earth’s green covering of grass;
In the blue serenity of the Sky;
In the reckless exuberance of Spring;
In the severe abstinence of grey Winter;
In the Living flesh that animates our bodily frame;
In the perfect poise of the Human figure, noble and upright;
In Living;
In the exercise of all our powers;
In the acquisition of Knowledge;
In fighting evils…

Joy is there
Everywhere.

Eleonora Duse (Italian Actress)

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive…

Mary Ann Radmacher

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practice wellness.
Play with abandon.
L a u g h.
Choose with no regret.
Continue to Learn.
Appreciate your friends.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.

Thornton Wilder

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

J.K. Rowling

“If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”

Willa Cather

“Where there is great love, there are always miracles.”

Denis Waitley

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.”