At the age of six

At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since.

~Salvador Dali

Remain open

Remain open. There is something bigger than you know going on here.

~Iyanla VanZant

Out beyond

Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.

~Rumi

At your most daring

At your most daring moments you believe that what is going on is the ultimate human work--the shaping of a soul. The power of life comes from within; go there; pray; meditate. Reach for those luminous places in yourself.

~Jean Shinoda Bolen

When I dare

When I dare to be powerful -
to use my strength in the service of my vision,
then it becomes less and less important
whether I am afraid.

~Audre Lorde

Your vision

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.

~Carl Jung

It was a great mistake

It was a great mistake my being born a man. I would have been much more successful as a sea-gull or a fish. As it is, I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want, is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must always be a little in love with death.

- Edmund, from Eugene O'Neill Play,
"Long Day's Journey Into Night."

Anything is one of a million

Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: "Does this path have a heart?

~Carlos Castaneda

Look

Look, I don't want to wax philosophic, but I will say that if you're alive you've got to flap your arms and legs, you've got to jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you're not alive.

~Mel Brooks

If

If you're going through hell, keep going.

~Winston Churchill

Courage is

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.

~Mark Twain

It usually

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu
speech.

~Mark Twain

Shallow men

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances – it was somebody's name,
or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Instead of

Instead of telling God how big your mountians are, try telling the mountains how big your God is.

~Alvadean Marcho

Dreams pass

Dreams pass into the reality of action, from the action stems the dream again; and this interdependence produces the highest form of living.

~Anais Nin

Dreams

Dreams deferred come true every day. Delay doesn't mean denial.

~Sarah Ban Breathnach

Only the heart

Only the heart knows how to find what is precious.

~Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Half

Half this game is ninety percent mental.

~Yogi Berra

You can

You can observe a lot by watching.

~Yogi Berra

I usually

I usually take a two hour nap from one to four.

~Yogi Berra

Never

Never answer an anonymous letter.

~Yogi Berra

A nice definition

A nice definition of an awakened person: a person who no longer marches to the drums of society, a person who dances to the tune of the music that springs up from within.

~Anthony De Mello

One must still

One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

There is

There is only one journey. Going inside yourself.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

Obstacles

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal,

~Henry Ford

Tragedy is when

Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

~Mel Brooks

Moderation?

Moderation? It's mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It's the devil's dilemma. It's neither doing nor not doing. It's the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It's for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die. Moderation...is lukewarm tea, the devil's own brew.

~Dan Millman

A boy can learn

A boy can learn a lot from a dog: obedience, loyalty, and the importance of turning around three times before lying down.

~Robert Benchley

I like pigs

I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

~Sir Winston Churchill

Everything begins

Everything begins with loving kindness towards oneself, which in turn becomes loving kindness to others.

~Pema Chödrön

Many more quotes, and quotes with pictures can be found at my new website, Way Cool Quotes.

If you don't

If you don't do what you love you are not going to be good at it. And if you are not good at it you are not going to make any money doing it.

~Donald Trump

Life

Life involves risks; you can't score a touchdown when you're still in the huddle.

~Unknown

God writes

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.

~Martin Luther

Hold

Hold a true friend with both hands.

~Nigerian Proverb

Constant attention

Constant attentention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.

~Dag Hammarskjold

I will persist

I will persist until I succeed.

I was not delivered into this world in defeat, nor does failure course in my veins. I am not a sheep waiting to be prodded by my shepherd. I am a lion and I refuse to talk, to walk, to sleep with the sheep.

The slaughterhouse of failure is not my destingy.

I will persist until I suceed.

~Og Mandino

Brother

Brother stand the pain; Escape the poison of your impulses. The sky will bow to your beauty, if you do. Learn to light the candle. Rise with the sun. Turn away from the cave of your sleeping. That way a thorn expands to a rose. A particular glows with the universal.

~Rumi

If you are

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

~Marcus Aurelius

His disciples

His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" "It will not come by watching for it. It will not be said, 'Look, here!' or 'Look, there!' Rather, the Father's kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people don't see it."

~Jesus from the Gospel of Thomas

The dread

The dread and resistance which every natural human being experiences when it comes to delving too deeply into himself is, at bottom, the fear of the journey to Hades.

~C.G. Jung

A man

A man may be born, but in order to be born he must first die, and in order to die he must first awake.

~George Gurdjieff

Personally

Personally, I believe very much in values of savagery. I mean: instinct, passion, mood, violence, madness.

~Jean Dubuffet

A warrior

A warrior thinks of death when things become unclear. The idea of death is the only thing that tempers our spirit.

~Carlos Castaneda

Patience

Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness.

~Thomas Henry Huxley

Our greatest weakness

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

~Thomas A. Edison

Each friend

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

~Anais Nin

Please know

Please know I am quite aware of the hazards. I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.

~Amelia Earhart

Do not wait

Do not wait; the time will never be "just right." Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

~Napoleon Hill

Although the way

Although the way of God is before all people, the fool cannot find it.

~The Husia

This is my simple religion

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

Every man

Every man is an impossibility until he is born, every thing is impossible until we see it a success.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

No pessimist

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

~Helen Keller

When people start to meditate

When people start to meditate or to work with any kind of spiritual discipline, they often think that somehow they're going to improve, which is a sort of subtle aggression against who they really are.

It's a bit like saying, “If I jog, I'll be a much better person.” “If I could only get a nicer house, I'd be a better person.” If I could meditate and calm down, I'd be a better person.”…

... I am so sorry to do this to you, but this post has been moved to my new website, Meditation, and can be found in its entirety here: When people start to meditate

A bit of advice

A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: "As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It’s not as wide as you think."

~Joseph Campbell

Go confidently

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined.

~Henry David Thoreau

The Lord

The Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved.

~Psalm 104:5

What we hear

What we hear from a source we accept as authoritative is given far more weight than the same statements if heard from what is to us at the time a less credible source. What we see, hear, or experience with intensity has added weight. And what we hear repetitively from authoritative sources has even more weight.

~Maxwell Malts

Human beings

Human beings always act, feel, and perform in accordance with what they imagine to be true about themselves and their environment.

~Maxwell Malts

The greatest gift

The greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen by them, heard by them, to be understood and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand and to touch another person. When this is done I feel contact has been made.

~Virginia Sati

Do I

Do I contradict myself? Very well then. I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.

~Walt Whitman

The trick is

The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

~Carlos Castaneda

A foolish consistency

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall...

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Any fact

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. The way you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it. You are overcome by the fact because you think you are.

~Norman Vincent Peale

This is

This is my life, and that which is my life, I must do.

~Kahlil Gibran

Experience

Experience is not what happens to you; it is what you do with what happens to you.

~Aldous Huxley

The quieter

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

~Ram Dass

There is no

There is no spirituality without herosim. If I could too soon be released from the furnace of suffering, and admitted into the Temple of Bliss, my character would lack the necessary admixture of steel, which is the product of endurance, and also the means of climbing the heights that tower above me.

~Sri Gyanamata

We cause

We cause our own suffering, building it up bit by bit in our minds.

~Sri Gyanamata

Every positive change

Every positive change - every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness - involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception.

~Dan Millman

If you ask me

If you ask me what I have come to do in this world, I who am an artist, I will reply: I am here to live my life out loud.

~Emile Zola

Japanese proverb

There is a Japanese proverb that literally goes 'Raise the sail with your stronger hand,' meaning you must go after the opportunities that arise in life that you are best equipped to do.



~Soichiro Honda

Things don't change

Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all.

~Carols Casteneda

The only thing

The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration.

~Frida Kahlo

Forget

Forget the answers, stick with the questions.

~Richard W Chilson