Quotes of Wisdom

“Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated.
You can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps.”
Chinese saying

“He is great who can do what he wishes;
he is wise who wishes to do what he can.”
Anon

“A single conversation across the table with a wise man
is worth a month’s study of books.”
Chinese Proverb

“Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”
Demosthenes

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
Lao Tzu

"The more you do of what you’ve done,
the more you’ll have of what you’ve got.”
Anon

“The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his soul?”
Mark 8:36

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

“When you seek happiness for yourself it will always elude you.
When you seek happiness for others you will find it yourself.”
Ancient wisdom

“A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives you roses.”
Chinese proverb

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Anon

“There comes a time when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful
than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anon

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a mystery to be lived, so live it.”
Anon

“Nothing is so strong as gentleness;
nothing so gentle as real strength.”
Indigenous American Proverb

“Evolution is the law of life,
Number is the law of the Universe,
Unity is the law of GOD.”
Pythagoras

“Man cannot discover new oceans
until he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”
Anon

“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find;
knock and it shall be opened unto you.
For everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
Mathew 7:7,8

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
Kahlil Gibran

“Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her.
But once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide
how to play the cards in order to win the game.”
Voltaire

“All the world is a stage, and all the men and women, merely players;
they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”
Shakespeare

“Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.”
Kahlil Gibran

“What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday,
and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow:
Our life is the creation of our mind.”
The Buddha

“Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness.”
Lao-tse

“Work is love made visible.”
Kahlil Gibran

“Every end is a new beginning.”
Unknown

“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”
Benjamin Disraeli

“ The difference between failure and success is doing a thing nearly right
and doing a thing exactly right.”
Edward Simmons

“One man has enthusiasm for 30 minutes, another for 30 days,
but it is the man who has it for 30 years who makes a success of his life.”
Edward B Butler - American Scientist

“One of life’s most painful moments comes when we most admit that
we didn’t do our homework, that we are not prepared.”
Merlin Olson - Sports Broadcaster

“If you don’t invest very much, then defeat doesn’t hurt very much and winning is not very exciting.”
Dick Vermeil - NFL Coach

“I am a big believer in the ‘mirror test’.
All that matters is if you can look in the mirror and honestly tell the person you see there,
that you’ve done your best.”
John McKay - NFL Coach

“A total commitment is paramount to reaching the ultimate performance.”
Tom Flores - NFL Coach

“The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.”
Tommy Lasorda – Major League Manager

“Ingenuity, plus courage, plus work, equals miracles.”
Bob Richards - Olympic Pole-Vaulter

“Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
General George S Patton

“The worst bankrupt in the world is the person who has lost his enthusiasm.”
H W Arnold

“The only good luck many great men ever had was being born
with the ability and determination to overcome bad luck.”
Channing Pollock

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort,
intelligent direction and skilful execution;
it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.”
Willa A Foster

“Defeat should never be a source of discouragement,
but rather a fresh stimulus.”
Robert South

“Success is the certain knowledge that you have become yourself,
the person you were meant to be from all time.
That should be reward enough.”
Dr George Sheehan

“Man’s mind once stretched by a new idea,
never regains its original dimensions.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go"
William Feather

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition.
Small people always do that, but the really great people make you feel
that you too, can become great.”
Mark Twain

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something.
I will not refuse to do something I can do.”
Helen Keller

“There are 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

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Albert Einstein

“History points to the fact that it’s not the Hitler’s of the world that ultimately prevail,
it’s the little people.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“What an illusion to think you can change the world without having first changed yourself.”
Carl Jung

“Do it I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now!
There are only so many tomorrow’s.”
Michael Landon

“Self pity is the flip side of the resentment coin.”
Anon

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
Anon

“Managers help people to see themselves as they are.
Leaders help people to see themselves better than they are.”
Anon

“Be willing to have it so; acceptance of what has happened is the first step
to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.”
William James

“Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside wakes.”
C.G. Jung

“You must begin to trust yourself.
If you do not then you will forever be looking to others to prove your own merit to you,
and you will never be satisfied. You will always be asking others what to do,
and at the same time resenting those from who you seek such aid.”
Jane Roberts

“A human being is a single being. Unique and unrepeatable.”
John Paul II

“We are members of a vast cosmic orchestra, in which each living instrument is essential
to the complimentary and harmonious playing of the whole.”
J. Allen Boone

“The people we are in relationship with are always a mirror, reflecting our own beliefs,
and simultaneously we are mirrors, reflecting their beliefs.
So, relationship is one of the most powerful tools for growth….
If we look honestly at our relationships,
we can see so much about how we have created them.”
Shakti Gawain

“For those who believe no proof is necessary.
For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.”
John & Lyn St. Clair Thomas

“The more you depend on forces outside yourself, the more you are dominated by them.”
Harold Sherman

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Albert Einstein

“A soul without a high aim is like a ship without a rudder.”
Eileen Caddy

“Regrets can hold you back and can prevent the most wonderful things taking place in your lives.”
Eileen Caddy

“Like attracts like.
Whatever the conscious mind thinks and believes the subconscious identically creates.”
Brian Adams

“We are injured and hurt emotionally
– not so much by other people or what they say or don’t say
– but by our own attitude and our own response.”
Maxwell Maltz

“Some men dream of worthy Accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them.”
Anon

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Ben Franklin

“People forget how fast you did a job – but they remember how well you did it.”
Anon

“A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
Walter Gagehot

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”
John Wooden – College Basketball Coach

“Real leaders are ordinary people with extraordinary determination.”
Anon

“Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them.”
Colton

“Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple.”
C W Ceran

“All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions
But precious few of them ever translate those into action.”
Anon

“Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes of your goals.”
Anon

“Things may come to those who wait,
but only those things left by those who hustle.”
Abraham Lincoln

“The man who believes he can do something is probably right,
and so is the man who believes he can’t.”
Anon

“The difference between a successful person and others
is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.”
Vincent T Lombardi

“He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak.
Strong convictions precede great actions.”
Vincent Lombardi

“Progress always involves risk.
You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”
Frederick B Wilcox

“Wealth is when small efforts produce big results.
Poverty is when big efforts produce small results.”
George David M.D.

“There’s no such thing as a self-made man.
I’ve had much help and have found that if you are willing to work,
many people are willing to help you.”
O Wayne Rollins

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone
who will never be able to repay you.”
John Woden

“ The best portions of a good man’s life
are his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
William Wordsworth

“We make a living by what we get, we live by what we give.”
Winston Churchill

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others--- it is the only thing.”
Albert Schweitzer

“A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half-empty;
an optimist sees the same glass as half-full.
But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.”
G Donald Gale

“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know:
the only ones among you who will be really happy are those
who have sought and found how to serve.”
Albert Schweitzer

“When a lot of people do a little, it’s a lot.
When a lot of people do nothing----- it’s nothing.”
Harvey Diamond

“You will give yourself peace of mind if you do every act as if it were your last.”
Marcus Aurelius

“In a world where death is the hunter; my friend, there is no time for regrets or doubts.
There is only time for decisions.”
Carlos Castaneda

“Put your heart, mind, intellect and soul even to your smallest acts.
This is the secret to success.”
Swami Swanada

“Communication is the ability to affect other people with words.”
Anon

“The best advice I ever came across on the subject of concentration is:
Wherever you are, be there.”
Anon

“Average people look for ways of getting away with it;
successful people look for ways of getting on with it.”
Anon

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
Helen Keller

“Be like a very small joyous child living gloriously in the ever present Now
without a single worry or concern about even the next moment of time.”
Eileen Caddy

“The most powerful thing you can do to change the world,
is to change your own beliefs about the nature of life, people and reality,
to something more positive
…. And begin to act accordingly.”
Shakti Gawain

“The only way to deal with the future is to function efficiently in the Now.”
Gita Bellin

“If you know you want it, Have it.”
Gita Bellin

“Success is a journey not a destination – half the fun is getting there.”
Gita Bellin

“You are never asked to do more than you are able
without being given the strength and ability to do it.”
Eileen Caddy

“You will have wonderful surges forward.
Then there must be a time of consolidating before the next forward surge.
Accept this as part of the process and never become downhearted.”
Eileen Caddy

“Realise that you cannot help a soul unless that soul really wants help
and is ready to be helped.
I tell you to send that soul nothing but Love and more Love.
Be still and wait,
but be there when that soul turns for help.”
Eileen Caddy

“Self-knowledge and self-improvement are very difficult for most people.
It usually needs great courage and a long struggle.”
Abraham Maslow

“Be outrageous !
People who achieve mastery have the ability to be outrageous.”
Gita Bellin

“It is good to have an end to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
Ursula Le Guin

“You find true joy and happiness in life when you give,
give and go on giving and never count the cost.”
Eileen Caddy

“Everything I do and say with anyone makes a difference.”
Gita Bellin

“Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.”
St Francis De Sales

“Many of life’s failures are men who did not realise
how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Anon

“Do not follow where the path may lead.
Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Anon

“Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why’?
I dream of things that never were and say ‘Why not’?"
George Bernard Shaw

“Failure is not the worst thing in the world. The very worst is not to try.”
Anon

“Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible.”
Anon

“The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in their perseverance
under the prompting of a brave, determined spirit.”
Mark Twain

“ Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.”
Marilyn Ferguson

“ Human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”
William James

“ Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”
Franklin Roosevelt

“ The small things in everyday life are no less sacred than the great issues of human existence.”
Thomas Moore

“ The only thing needed for evil men to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Oliver Wendall Holmes

“ The purpose of life is to matter—
to count, to stand for something, to have it make some difference that we lived at all.”
Leo Rosten

“ Just as a drop of water causes ripples in a pond,
so a thought dropped into the pool of consciousness
can cause ever-expanding ripples in the universal human mind.”
Jean Richards

“ The greatest of all human potential’s is the potential of each one of us
to empower and acknowledge the other.”
Jean Houston

“ If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”
Jack Kornfield

“ It’s not about lack of action.
It’s about having action come from a quiet place inside.”
Ram Dass

“ Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and the gravity
we shall harness the energies of love.
Then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
Teilhard de Chardin

“ If it is delightful to fall in love with one person,
just imagine what it is like to fall in love with everyone.”
Eknath Easwaran

“ The ultimate aim of the quest must be the wisdom and the power to help others.”
Joseph Campbell

“ The happiness of life is made up of the little charities of a kiss or smile,
a kind look, a heartfelt compliment.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“ A man never discloses his own character so clearly as when he describes another’s.”
Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

“ Use what talent you possess.
The woods would be very silent if no bird sang except those that sang the very best.”
Henry Van Dyke

“Sometimes we turn to ‘GOD’ when our foundations are shaking,
only to find out it is GOD who is shaking them.”
Anon

“How many Holy words you read, however many you speak,
what good will they do unless you act them out.”
The Dhammapada

“Success is a journey not a destination—half the fun is getting there.”
Gita Bellin

“There is but one cause of human failure
and that is man’s lack of FAITH in his true self.”
William James

“When one realises one is asleep, at that moment one is already half awake.”
P.D.Ouspensky

“A loving person lives in a loving world.
A hostile person lives in a hostile world.
Everyone you meet is your mirror.”
Ken Keys

“We must all suffer from one of two pains:
the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.”
Anon

“Learn how to turn frustration into fascination.
You will learn more being fascinated by life than you will being frustrated by it.”
Anon

“Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.”
Anon

“If we are all droplets of water, GOD is the Ocean.
We are ‘HIM’.
‘HE’ is us.”
Anon

“Don’t try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go.
See God opening millions of flowers every day without forcing the buds.”
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“Everyone and everything around you is your teacher.”
Ken Keyes Jr

“Expect your every need to be met, expect the answer to every problem,
expect abundance on every level, expect to grow spiritually.”
Eileen Caddy

“The fastest way to freedom is to feel your feelings.”
Gita Bellin

“Disillusionment with yourself must precede Enlightenment.”
Vernon Howard

“ I know I’m not seeing things as they are,
I’m seeing things as I am.”
Laurel Lee

“The most effective way to achieve right relations with any living thing
is to look for the best in it, and then help that best into the fullest expression.”
J. Allen Boone

“Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others,
but by simply accepting them as they are.
True acceptance is always without demands and expectations.”
Gerald G. Jampolsky

“Be realistic: Plan for a miracle.”
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

“Never be afraid to tread the path alone.
Know which is your path and follow it wherever it may lead you;
do not feel you have to follow in someone else’s footsteps.”
Eileen Caddy

“A thing is complete when you can let it be.”
Gita Bellin

“Cease trying to work everything out with your minds, it will get you nowhere.
Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be a Revelation.”
Eileen Caddy

“Forgiveness recognises what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred.”
A course in miracles

“Success depends on where intention is.”
Gita Bellin

“Be afraid of nothing – you have within you all wisdom, all power, all strength, all understanding.”
Eileen Caddy

“There is but one cause of human failure and that is man’s lack of faith in his true self.”
William James

“The past is dead, the future is imaginary, happiness can only be in the Eternal Now Moment.”
Ken Keyes, Jr

“Not judging is another way of letting go of fear and experiencing Love.
When we learn not to judge others – and totally accept them, and not want to change them
– we can simultaneously learn to accept ourselves.”
Gerald G. Jampolsky

“Truth does not change although your perception of it may vary or alter drastically.”
John & Lyn St. Clair Thomas

“You must understand the whole of life, not just a part of it.
That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies,
that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems,
and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.”
Krishnamurti

“It is important from time to time to slow down, to go away by yourself,
and simply Be.”
Eileen Caddy

“The tragedy of a man’s life is what dies inside of him while he lives.”
Henry David Thoreau

“ People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.”
Goldsmith

“ When you hire people who are smarter than you are,
you prove you are smarter than they are.”
R H Grant

“ Yesterday is a cancelled cheque: tomorrow is a promissory note:
today is the only cash you have so spend it wisely.”
Kay Lyons

“ The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes,
but in liking what one does.”
James M Barrie

“ Luck is a word used to describe the success of people you don’t like.”
Charles Jarvis

“ My life seems like one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle.”
Jack Paar

“ Don’t let the opinions of the average man sway you.
Dream, and he thinks you’re crazy.
Succeed, and he thinks you’re lucky.
Acquire wealth, and he thinks you’re greedy.
Pay no attention. He simply doesn’t understand.”
Robert G Allen

“ If you think you are too small to be effective,
you have never been in bed with a mosquito.”
Bette Reese

“Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery, but today is a gift,
and that’s why we call it the present.”
Anon

“ Millions of persons long for immortality,
who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy afternoon.”
Anon

“The worst days of those who enjoy what they do are better
than the best days of those who don’t.”
Anon

“We generally change ourselves for one of two reasons:
inspiration or desperation.”
St. Francis

“Of a certainty, the man who can see all creatures in himself,
himself in all creatures, knows no sorrow.”
Eesha Upanishad

“Every secret is told, Every crime is punished, Every virtue is rewarded,
Every wrong redressed, in silence and certainty.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out.”
Rabindranath Tagore

TRADITIONAL QUOTES