There are two ways

There are two ways of spreading light ...
To be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.

~ Edith Wharton

People are like

People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed
only if there is a light from within.

~ Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

Your own words

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
Your words are the greatest power you have.
The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.

~ Sonia Croquette

Never interrupt

Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake.

~Napolean Bonaparte

I've learned

"I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it."

~ Unknown

Life shrinks

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

~ Anais Nin

Be like water

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves."

~ Bruce Lee

Remove those

Remove those 'I want you to like me' stickers from your forehead
and, instead, place them where they truly will do the most good -
on your mirror!

~ Susan Jeffers

Just don't give up

Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do.
Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.

~ Ella Fitzgerald

Look at everything

Look at everything as though you were
seeing it either for the first or last time.
Then your time on earth will be filled with glory.

~ Betty Smith

I'm not afraid

I'm not afraid of storms,
for I'm learning to sail my ship.

~ Louisa May Alcott

Cut not

Cut not the wings of your dreams,
for they are the heartbeat and the freedom of your soul.

~ Flavia

Once they've got you

"Once they've got you violent,
then they know how to handle you."

- John Lennon

The world

"The world is run by insane people for insane objectives."

- John Lennon

When we speak

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed.
But when we are silent, we are still afraid.
So it is better to speak.

~ Audre Lorde

The most common

The most common way people give up their power
is by thinking they don't have any.

~ Alice Walker

You take

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens?
A terrible thing: no one to blame.

~ Erica Jong

If you look

If you look at what you have in life,
You'll always have more.
If you look at what you don't have in life,
You'll never have enough.

~ Oprah Winfrey

A woman is

A woman is the full circle.
Within her is the power to create, nurture and transform.

~ Diane Mariechild

The truth

"The truth will set you free.
But first, it will piss you off."

~ Gloria Steinem

The breath

"The breath of the flute player:
does it belong to the flute?"

– Rumi

It's not

It's not what you call me,
but what I answer to.

~ African proverb

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

The best index

The best index to a person's character is
a) how he treats people who can't do him any good and
b) how he treats people who can't fight back.

~ Abigail Van Buren

So many gods

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind,
Is all this sad world needs.

~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Woman

Woman must not accept; she must challenge.
She must not be awed by that which has been built up around her;
she must reverence that woman in her which struggles for expression.

~ Margaret Sanger

Just keep coming home

“Just keep coming home to yourself.
You are the one you’ve been waiting for.”

~ Byron Katie

You move

"You move totally away from reality when you believe that there is a legitimate reason to to suffer."

— Byron Katie

A census taker

" A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Have you seen

"Have you seen blood in the moonlight? It appears quite black."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Fly

"Fly, fly, fly, Clarice. Fly, fly, fly."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

I have no plans

"I've no plans to call on you, Clarice. The world is more interesting with you in it."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

And be grateful

"And be grateful. Our scars have the power to remind us that the past was real."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Rudeness

"Rudeness is an epidemic."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

You want the scent?

"You want the scent?
Smell yourself!"

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Save yourself

"Save yourself, kill them all!"

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

You will not persuade me

"You will not persuade me with appeals to my intellectual vanity."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

People will say

"People will say we're in love."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

I hate

"I hate rude people."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Given the chance

"Given the chance, you would deny me my life, wouldn't you?"

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

All good

"All good things to those who wait."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

He is

"He is rather twisted, you know."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

I imagine

"I imagine your little brother must smell almost as bad as you do by now."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

People don't

"People don't always tell you what they are thinking. They just see to it that you don't advance in life."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Okey-dokey

"Okey-dokey. Here we go."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Bowels

"Bowels in or bowels out?"

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

Remarkable boy

"Remarkable boy. I do admire your courage. I think I'll eat your heart."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

On a similar note

"On a similar note I must confess to you, I'm giving very serious thought... to eating your wife."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

As your mother tells you

"As your mother tells you, and my mother certainly told me, it is important, she always used to say, always to try new things."

~Hannibal Lecter, Silence of the Lambs

If you seek

If you seek to aid everyone that suffers in the galaxy, you will only weaken yourself … and weaken them. It is the internal struggles, when fought and won on their own, that yield the strongest rewards… If you care for others, then dispense with pity and sacrifice and recognize the value in letting them fight their own battles."

―Darth Traya, Star Wars

The Subject Tonight is Love

The subject tonight is Love
And for tomorrow night as well,
As a matter of fact
I know of no better topic
For us to discuss
Until we all
Die!

~Hafiz

I still think

"I still think All You Need is Love,
but I don't think that just saying it is gonna do it."

- John Lennon

The Truth

The Truth will set you free, but first it will knock the wind out of you.

~Unknown

Only as a warrior

“Only as a warrior can one survive the path of knowledge,” don Juan said. “Because the art of a warrior is to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man.”

- Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan

I send you

I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.

~Mt. 10:16

Willing is not enough

Willing is not enough;
we must do.
Knowing is not enough;
we must apply.

~Bruce Lee

Rise like Lions

'Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number -
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you -
Ye are many - they are few.'

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

He who learns

He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despair, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

~Agamemnon, Aeschylus

Life is easier

"Life is easier than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable." ~
~Kathleen Norris

To accept opinions

"To accept opinions is to gain the good solid feeling of being correct without having to think."

- C. Wright Mills

Here is the test

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't."

~ Richard Bach

The name of the game

“The name of the game is taking care of yourself, because you're going to live long enough to wish you had.”

-Grace Mirabella

El Tornillo

El Tornillo walks the streets of Melo. People in town think he's crazy. He carries a mirror in his hand and he looks at himself with furrowed brow. He doesn't take his eyes off the mirror. "What are you doing, Tornillo?" "I'm here" he says "keeping watch on the enemy."

~Eduardo Galeano

I can't dislike you

I can't dislike you, but I will say this to you: you haven't got long before you are all going to kill yourselves, because you are all crazy. And you can project it back at me, but I am only what lives inside each and every one of you.

~Charles Manson

I can't judge

I can't judge any of you. I have no malice against you and no ribbons for you. But I think that it is high time that you all start looking at yourselves, and judging the lie that you live in.

~Charles Manson

At this point

At this point, I'm laying on the floor begging God that if he just makes this work, I'll be good forever.

~PC World

Begging is

Begging is much more difficult than it looks. Contrary to popular belief, it’s a high art form that takes years of dedicated practice to master.

~Sol Luckman

I adopted

I adopted a begging posture that suggested genteel poverty combined with a certain affable nonchalance. People found this irresistible. They lavished money on me. Within days I exceeded ten dollars an hour. I began to save money and even, following Blue’s lead, tithed to the less fortunate. I became less pessimistic, thought less about how cruel the streets can be. I actually considered begging a legitimate career possibility.

~Sol Luckman

If you define

If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave man, I guess I'm a coward.

~Jack Handy

It takes money

It takes money to make money, even begging. Humans are herd animals. If a stranger’s bleeding to death beside the road, most people won’t stop to offer a Band-Aid. But get the ball rolling with a couple Good Samaritans, and before you know it you’ve got more eager philanthropists than you know what to do with.

~Sol Luckman

I cannot

I cannot dig;
to beg I am ashamed.

~Luke 16:3

I adopted

'I adopted the old Navajo Indian trick of screaming and begging.'
Wisecracking in the face of adversity.

~Bob Hope

Remain hungry

Remain hungry but do not start begging.

~Turkish Proverb

I do not ask

I do not ask you much:
I beg cold comfort.

~William Shakespeare

I would willingly

I would willingly stand at street corners, hat in hand, begging passers-by to drop their unused minutes into it.

~Bernard Berenson

You are far away

You are far away from some, and You are close to others. Without You, there is not even a place to stand begging. See this yourself and verify it in your mind.

~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Borrowing

Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.

~Doris Lessing

O Nanak

O Nanak, it is absurd to ask to be spared from pain by begging for comfort.

~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

It is better

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

~Delores Ibarruri

I think I mentioned

I think I mentioned to Bob [Geldof] I could make love for eight hours. What I didn't say was that this included four hours of begging and then dinner and a movie.

~Sting

He who will not

He who will not apply himself to business, eventually discovers that he means to get his bread by cheating, stealing, or begging, or else is wholly void of reason.

~Ischomachus

Take pity on me

Take pity on me, O my Lord, Merciful to the meek. I am a beggar, begging for the dust of the feet of the Holy. Servant Nanak begs for this gift, let me meditate on the Lord, forever and ever.

~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

Better

Better a living beggar than a buried emperor.

~Jean de la Fontaine

Grant me the treasure

Grant me the treasure of sublime poverty: permit the distinctive sign of our order to be that it does not possess anything of its own beneath the sun, for the glory of your name, and that it have no other patrimony than begging.

~St. Francis of Assisi

As for begging

As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg.

~Oscar Wilde

Never

Never stand begging for what you have the power to earn.

~Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

The path

The path of begging will always result in our being treated as an underdog and we have been treated as such for too long.

~Cde Mugabe

I'm used to

I'm used to fixing stuff. I'm not used to begging for money. It chokes me.

~Jan Caldwell

Set a beggar

Set a beggar on horseback, and he will ride a gallop.

~Henry Burton

All religions

All religions have honored the beggar. For he proves that in a matter at the same time as prosaic and holy, banal and regenerative as the giving of alms, intellect and morality, consistency and principles are miserably inadequate...

~Walter Benjamin

God ordains

God ordains that beggars should beg for greatness, as for all else, when greatness shines out of them, and they don't know it.

~Georges Bernanos

Beggars

Beggars should be entirely abolished! Truly, it is annoying to give to them and annoying not to give to them.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

If begging

If begging should unfortunately be thy lot,
knock at the large gates only.

~Arabian Proverb

I don't know

I don't know who you are,
but when this night's over you'll be begging for mercy!

~Monney,from Killer Klowns From Outer Space

Beggar that I am

Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks.

~William Shakespeare

When a warrior

“When a warrior learns to stop the internal dialogue, everything becomes possible; the most far-fetched schemes become attainable.””

~Carlos Castaneda

It is better

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.

~Seneca

All parts

All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer.

~IBM maintenance manual, 1925