Quotes

Adventure is worthwhile in itself.
Amelia Earhart

We must not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

The period of greatest gain in knowledge and experience is the most difficult period in one’s life.
Dalai Lama

Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.
Brian Tracy

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
Eden Phillpotts

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
Rumi

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.
Remember if you need a helping hand you will find one at the end of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and one for helping others.
“Beauty Tips” by Audrey Hepburn

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.
Dalai Lama

Life is Swell in my floating home,
the ocean’s big and I wanna roam.
There are waves to ride and fish to see,
I wonder if they’ll be friends with me?
Ryan Levinson

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.
Mark Twain

If we do indeed seek to bring peace to the world, we can do it by first bringing peace to ourselves. A person cannot give what they do not have.
Thomas D. Willhite

Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Done with indoor complaints, libraries, querulous criticisms,
Strong and content I travel the open road.
From “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Thomas Jefferson

There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.
Mother Teresa

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
Mother Teresa

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

The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Gandhi

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate, to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things, knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. We are our brothers and sisters.
Maya Angelou

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.
Joseph Fort Newton

We cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without brightening our own.
Ben Sweetland

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

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

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.
Ambrose Redmoon

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.
Stephen R. Covey

The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
William James

You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.
Sri Ram

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.
Albert Einstein.

The harder I work, the luckier I get.
Gary Player

The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

The wise man must remember that while he is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future.
Herbert Spencer

What you are is what you have been. What you’ll be is what you do now.
Buddha

At first dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.
Christopher Reeve

Don’t let the past steal your present.
Cherralea Morgen

In the beginning you will fall into the gaps in between thoughts – after practicing for years, you become the gap.
J.Kleykamp (Regarding meditation)

Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.
Jim Rohn

My life is my message.
Gandhi

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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

Adopt the patience of nature, her secret is patience.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.
Ansel Adams

Allons! the road is before us!
It is safe – I have tried it – my own feet have tried it well – be not detain’d!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d!
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the
court, and the judge expound the law.
Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourselp? Will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?
From “Song of the Open Road” by Walt Whitman

God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.
John Muir

Like riding a bike for the first time, sometimes you just have to go for it. If you keep looking forwards and maintain your momentum, it will probably go well. But if you start to doubt yourself and look back, you are more likely to suffer a major wobble followed by a crash.
Roz Savage

Surrendering to life offers some wonderful realizations. We learn we’re capable of being in this dance, of working with whatever happens. We learn to trust ourselves and then others and, gradually, we learn that life itself can be trusted.
Margaret Wheatley

The trick is growing up without growing old.
Casey Stengel

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.
Alice Walker

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. This is a helpful pointer for our everyday presence-practice. Can you catch yourself angrily defending your point of view or attacking the other person’s? There’s the ego.
Buddha

For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather, every sky has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.
George Gissing

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Alan Kay

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.
Rachel Carson

How I wish that somewhere there was an island for those who are wise and of good will.
Albert Einstein

The trouble with life in the fast lane is that you get to the other end in an awful hurry.
John Jensen

Life is like a game of cards. That hand that is dealt you is determinism; the way you play it is free will.
Jawaharlal Nehru

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
Martin Luther King

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

The more you care about the powerless, the more power you have. The more you serve those with no influence, the more influence God gives you. The more you humble yourself, the more you’re honored by others.
Rick Warren

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.
Anita Roddick

With unfailing kindness, your life always presents what you need to learn. Whether you stay at home or work in an office or whatever, the next teacher is going to pop right up.
Charlotte Joko Beck

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

A human being is part of a whole called by us “the universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
Albert Einstein

Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.
Ghandi

In joy and sorrow all are equal, Thus be the guardian of all, as of yourself.
Shantideva

Let the flower of compassion blossom in the rich soil of maître, and water it with the good water of equanimity in the cool, refreshing shade of joy.
Longchenpa

To make things as easy as possible to understand, we can summarize the four boundless qualities in a single phrase “a kind heart”. Just train yourself to have a kind heart always and in all situations.
Patrul Rinpoche

Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.
Booker T. Washington

We are all children of the Great Spirit, we all belong to Mother Earth. Our planet is in great trouble and if we keep carrying old grudges and do not work together, we will all die.
Chief Seattle

In the garden of gentle sanity, may you be bombarded by the coconuts of wakefulness.
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The everyday practice is to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions, and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations or blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralizes into oneself.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

The circumference of life cannot be rightly drawn until the center is set. If you are going through hell, keep going. Refuse to accept any limiting conditions. Affirm and believe in health, strength, and success no matter what the circumstances. Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Ride your emotions as the ship rides the waves; don’t get upset among them. Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it. Cherish the close relationships in your life. They are a mirror to show you who you are. Do not fear failure. Successful people use failure as a way to learn and a way to practice. Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry. Very little can be accomplished under the specter of fear. Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.
Charlie Brown

As my grandfather always said, ‘Let ‘er out till she luffs!’
Sarah Menzies

The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, humankind will have discovered fire.
Teilhard de Chardin

You know what the first rule of sailing is? …Love. You can learn all the math in the ‘verse, but you take a boat to the sea you don’t love, she’ll shake you off just as sure as the turning of the worlds. Love keeps her going when she oughta fall down, tells you she’s hurting ‘fore she keens. Makes her a home.
Cpt. Mal Reynolds, Serenity

The person who constantly studies without doing spiritual practice is like the fool who attempts to live in the blueprint of a house.
Amma

Be like the honeybee who gathers only nectar wherever it goes. Seek the goodness that is found in everyone.
Amma

There is one voyage, the first, the last, the only one.
Thomas Wolfe

The journey is my home.
Muriel Rukeyser

They change their climate, not their soul, who rush across the sea.
Horace

A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.
Tim Cahill

Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
Miriam Beard

Look to the skies! They are ever changing.
Anonymous

Security is a kind of death.
Tennessee Williams

You may never get rid of the butterflies, but you can teach them how to fly in formation…..
Anonymous

Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.
Vaclav Havel

We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand – and melting like a snowflake.
Marie B. Ray

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting over and over, announcing your place in the family of things.
Mary Oliver, from the poem Wild Geese

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light…
Wendell Berry

I have found no better way than to value and savor the sacredness of daily living, to rely on repetition, the humdrum rhythm which heals and steadies.
Gunilla Norris

Beautiful as a dandelion-blossom golden in the green grass, this life can be.
Edna St. Vincent Millay

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart….try to love the questions themselves.
Rainer Maria Rilke

The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.
Thaddeus Golas

As we cultivate peace and happiness in ourselves, we also nourish peace and happiness in those we love.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Living is not this tawdry, mediocre, disciplined thing which we call our existence. Living is something entirely different; it is abundantly rich, timelessly changing, and as long as we don’t understand that eternal movement, our lives are bound to have very little meaning.
Thich Nhat Hanh

As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can’t see how it is.
Ram Dass

Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.
Gandhi

Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!
Ram Dass

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

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.
Dalai Lama

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Prous

When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself.
Wayne Dyer

We are not isolated islands, we are connected links in a chain. Each kind word, each smiling face, each good action, benefits our neighbor, nation, world. Let us pray and meditate together and we shall reach the shore of peace, spreading the sweet holy fragrance of love and vibrations of unity and harmony. Tuning our minds to the supreme consciousness, let us open our hearts and chant the words, “May everyone everywhere be happy.”
Amma

In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.
Mother Teresa

I gave them support and friendship. They gave me so much more. They taught me how to survive with grace and fortitude. Count your blessings in the small momentary victories that bring you to another day. Next week is in the lap of the Gods.
Mary Ann Fitzgerald

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.
Eleanor Roosevelt

And a summit and flower there is the feeling they have for each other,
And they are to branch boundlessly out of that lesson until it becomes omnific,
And until one and all shall delight us, and we them.
Walt Whitman

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously
give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.
Nelson Mandela 1994 inauguration speech

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.
Corrie ten Boom

Life’s a cinch by the inch, only hard by the yard.
A Proverb on my Grandma’s refrigerator

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
Herman Melville

There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself.
Herman Melville

Is there some principal of nature which states that we never know the quality of what we have until it is gone?
Herman Melville

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
Dr. Seuss

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.
Henry David Thoreau

If one advances confidently in the direction of one’s dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.
Henry David Thoreau

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not to worship what is known, but to question it.
Jacob Chanowski

Inspiration is not garnered from the litanies of what may befall us; it resides in humanity’s willingness to restore, redress, reform, rebuild, recover, reimagine, and reconsider.
Paul Hawken

When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
Margaret Drabble

In wilderness is the preservation of the world.
H. D. Thoreau

May today there be peace within.
May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others.
May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
St. Teresa’s Prayer

The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
Carl Rogers

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than those you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from safe harbor. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning to sail my ship.
Louisa May Alcott

If you are facing the right direction all you have to do is keep walking.
Buddhist Proverb

Action expresses priorities.
Gandhi

Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.
Jose Ortega Gasset

The more you know, the less you need.
Aboriginal Proverb

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.
Ernest Hemingway

It is easy to make plans in this world; even a cat can do it; and when one is out in those remote oceans it is noticeable that a cat’s plans and a man’s are worth about the same. There is much the same shrinkage in both, in the matter of values.
Mark Twain

It is easier to stay out than get out…
Mark Twain

Hunger is the handmaid of genius.
Mark Twain

We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it—and stop there, lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove lid again—and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one any more.
Mark Twain

Dream your dreams with open eyes and make them come true.
T. E. Lawrence

When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
John Muir

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;  Forgive them anyway.  If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.  If  you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway.  If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.  What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.  If  you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway.  The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.  Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.  You see, in the  final analysis it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway.
Mother Teresa