Week 2023-47: Ole Hallesby - Collected Quotes

 "A humble and contrite heart knows that it can merit nothing before God, and that all that is necessary is to be reconciled to one's helplessness and let our holy and almighty God care for us, just as an infant surrenders himself to his mother's care." (Ole Hallesby)

"As impossible as it is for us to take a breath in the morning large enough to last us until noon, so impossible is it to pray in the morning in such a way as to last us until noon. Let your prayers ascend to Him constantly, audibly or silently, as circumstances throughout the day permit." (Ole Hallesby)

"As white snow flakes fall quietly and thickly on a winter day, answers to prayer will settle down upon you at every step you take, even to your dying day. The story of your life will be the story of prayer and answers to prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"Be sure to remember that nothing in your daily life is so insignificant and so inconsequential that the Lord will not help you by answering your prayer" (Ole Hallesby)

"Begin to realize more and more that prayer is the most important thing you do. You can use your time to no better advantage than to pray whenever you have an opportunity to do so, either alone or with others; while at work, while at rest, or while walking down the street. Anywhere!" (Ole Hallesby)

"By prayer we couple the powers of heaven to our helplessness, the powers which can capture strongholds and make the impossible possible." (Ole Hallesby)

"Do not forget that prayer is ordained for the purpose of glorifying the name of God. Therefore, whether you pray for big things or for little things, say to God, "If it will glorify Thy name, then grant my prayer and help me."" (Ole Hallesby)

"God alone fully understands what each one of us needs; we make mistakes continually and pray for things which would be harmful to us if we received them. Afterwards we see our mistakes and realize that God is good and wise in not giving us these things, even though we plead ever so earnestly for them." (Ole Hallesby)

"Helplessness becomes prayer the moment that you go to Jesus and speak candidly and confidently with him about your needs. This is to believe." (Ole Hallesby)

"Helplessness is unquestionably the first and the surest indication of a praying heart. [...] Prayer and helplessness are inseparable. Only he who is helpless can truly pray." (Ole Hallesby)

"If God does not give you something you ask for, wait on Him. He will speak with you tenderly and sympathetically about the matter until you yourself understand that He cannot grant your prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"If we pray for anything according to the will of God, we already have what we pray for the moment we ask it. We do not know exactly when it will arrive; but we have learned to know God through the Spirit of God, and have learned to leave this in His hands, and to live just as happily whether the answer arrives immediately or later." (Ole Hallesby)

"If we will make use of prayer to call down upon ourselves and others those things which will glorify the name of God, then we shall see the strongest and boldest promises of the Bible about prayer fulfilled. Then we shall see such answers to prayer as we had never thought were possible." (Ole Hallesby)

"It is God's will not only to hear our prayer, but to give us the best and the richest answer which He, the almighty and omniscient God, can devise. He will send us the answer when it will benefit us and His cause the most." (Ole Hallesby)

"It is necessary for us to withdraw at regular intervals and enable our souls to attain that quietude and inward composure which are essential if we would hear the voice of God." (Ole Hallesby)

"It is not only blessed to give thanks; it is also of vital importance to our prayer life in general. If we have noted the Lord's answers to our prayers and thanked Him for what we have received of Him, then it becomes easier for us, and we get more courage, to pray for more." (Ole Hallesby)

"It is only when we pray for something according to the will of God that we have the promise of being heard and answered." (Ole Hallesby)

"It is the will of our heavenly Father that we should come to Him freely and confidently and make known our desires to Him, just as we would have our children come freely and of their own accord and speak to us about the things they would like to have." (Ole Hallesby)

"Jesus is moved to happiness every time He sees that you appreciate what He has done for you. Grip His pierced hand and say to Him, "I thank Thee, Savior, because Thou hast died for me." Thank Him likewise for all the other blessings He has showered upon you from day to day. It brings joy to Jesus." (Ole Hallesby)

"Listen, my friend! Your helplessness is your best prayer. It calls from your heart to the heart of God with greater effect than all your uttered pleas. He hears it from the very moment that you are seized with helplessness, and He becomes actively engaged at once in hearing and answering the prayer of your helplessness." (Ole Hallesby)

"My helpless friend, your helplessness is the most powerful plea which rises up to the tender father-heart of God. You think that everything is closed to you because you cannot pray. My friend, your helplessness is the very essence of prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"My praying friend, continue to make known your desires to God in all things.... Let Him decide whether you are to receive what you ask for or not." (Ole Hallesby)

"Nothing is so blessed as quiet, unbroken communication with our Lord. The sense of the Lord's nearness, which then fills our souls, is greater than any other peace, joy, inner satisfaction, or security which we have known." (Ole Hallesby)

"Our groanings, which cannot be uttered, rise to Him and tell Him better than words how dependent we are upon Him." (Ole Hallesby)

"Our prayer life will become restful when it really dawns upon us that we have done all we are supposed to do when we have spoken to Him about it. From the moment we have left it with Him, it is His responsibility." (Ole Hallesby)

"Pray a little each day in a childlike way for the Spirit of prayer. If you feel that you know, as yet, very little concerning the deep things of prayer and what prayer really is, then pray for the Spirit of prayer. There is nothing He would rather do than unveil to you the grace of prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"Pray for whatsoever you will. In the name of Jesus you have permission, not only to stand in the presence of God, but also to pray for everything you need." (Ole Hallesby)

"Prayer brings a good spirit in our homes. For God hears prayer. Heaven itself would come down to our homes. And even though we who constitute the home all have our imperfections and our failings, our home would, through God's answer to prayer, become a little paradise." (Ole Hallesby)

"Prayer can assume very different forms, from quiet, blessed contemplation of God, in which eye meets eye in restful meditation, to deep sighs or sudden exclamations of wonder, joy, gratitude or adoration." (Ole Hallesby)

"Prayer is a condition of mind, an attitude of heart, which God recognizes as prayer whether it manifests itself in quiet thinking, in sighing or in audible words." (Ole Hallesby)

"Prayer is a fine, delicate instrument. To use it right is a great art, a holy art. There is perhaps no greater art than the art of prayer. Yet the least gifted, the uneducated and the poor can cultivate the holy art of prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"Prayer is something deeper than words. It is present in the soul before it has been formulated in words. And it abides in the soul after the last words of prayer have passed over our lips." (Ole Hallesby)

"See to it, night and day, that you pray for your children. Then you will leave them a great legacy of answers to prayer, which will follow them all the days of their life. Then you may calmly and with a good conscience depart from them, even though you may not leave them a great deal of material wealth." (Ole Hallesby)

"The more helpless you are, the better you are fitted to pray, and the more answers to prayer you will experience." (Ole Hallesby)

"The quiet hour of prayer is one of the most favorable opportunities He has in which to speak to us seriously. In quietude and solitude before the face of God our souls can hear better than at any other time." (Ole Hallesby)

"The shower of answers to your prayers will continue to your dying hour. Nor will it cease then. When you pass out from beneath the shower, your dear ones will step into it. Every prayer and every sigh which you have uttered for them and their future welfare will, in God's time, descend upon them as a gentle rain of answers to prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"There come times when I have nothing more to tell God. If I were to continue to pray in words, I would have to repeat what I have already said. At such times it is wonderful to say to God, "May I be in Thy presence, Lord? I have nothing more to say to Thee, but I do love to be in Thy presence."" (Ole Hallesby)

"To pray is nothing more involved than to open the door, giving Jesus access to our needs and permitting Him to exercise His own power in dealing with them." (Ole Hallesby)

"To pray is to open the door unto Jesus and admit Him into your distress. Your helplessness is the very thing which opens wide the door unto Him and gives Him access to all your needs." (Ole Hallesby)

"We need to learn to know Him so well that we feel safe when we have left our difficulties with Him. To know Jesus in that way is a prerequisite of all true prayer." (Ole Hallesby)

"We should not be afraid, when praying to God, to give expression to a definite desire, even though we are in doubt at the time we are praying whether it is really the right thing to pray for or not." (Ole Hallesby)

"We should say to God as we mingle with our dear ones each day, "God, give them each Thy blessing. They need it, because they live with me, and I am very selfish and unwilling to sacrifice very much for them, although I do love them."" (Ole Hallesby)

"When it becomes clear to us that prayer is a part of our daily program of work, it will also become clear to us that we must arrange our daily program in such a way that there is time also for this work, just as we set aside time for other necessary things, such as eating and dressing." (Ole Hallesby)

"When prayer is a struggle, do not worry about the prayers that you cannot pray. You yourself are a prayer to God at that moment. All that is within you cries out to Him. And He hears all the pleas that your suffering soul and body are making to Him with groanings which cannot be uttered." (Ole Hallesby)

"When we go to our meeting with God, we should go like a patient to his doctor, first to be thoroughly examined and afterwards to be treated for our ailment. Then something will happen when you pray." (Ole Hallesby)

"When we in prayer seek only the glorification of the name of God, then we are in complete harmony with the spirit of prayer. Then our hearts are at rest both while we pray and after we have prayed. Then we can wait for the Lord." (Ole Hallesby)

"When we succeed in truly thanking God, we feel good at heart. The reason is that we have been created to give glory to God, now and forever-more. And every time we do so, we feel that we are in harmony with His plans and purposes for our lives. Then we are truly in our element. That is why it is so blessed." (Ole Hallesby)

"When you enter your secret chamber, take plenty of time before you begin to speak. Let quietude wield its influence upon you. Let the fact that you are alone assert itself. Give your soul time to get released from the many outward things. Give God time to play the prelude to prayer for the benefit of your distracted soul." (Ole Hallesby)

Week 2023-46: Zig Ziglar - Collected Quotes

"A goal properly set is halfway reached." (Zig Ziglar)

"Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember, the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you." " (Zig Ziglar)

"Doubt, fear and worry will only slow you down. Focus on doing your best and celebrate every step of the way." (Zig Ziglar)

"Hope is the power that gives a person the confidence to step out and try." (Zig Ziglar)

"If you can dream it, then you can achieve it. You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want." (Zig Ziglar)

"If you have enough push, you don't have to worry about the pull." (Zig Ziglar)

"It's not what you've got, it's what you use that makes a difference." (Zig Ziglar)

"Let your dreams be bigger than your fears and your actions louder than your words." (Zig Ziglar)

"Look back in forgiveness, forward in hope, down in compassion and up in gratitude." (Zig Ziglar)

"Motivation needs to be a part of your own life for you to be effective in conveying it to others." (Zig Ziglar)"

"Other people can stop you temporarily. You're the only one who can stop you permanently." (Zig Ziglar)

"Some people find fault like there's a reward for it." (Zig Ziglar)

"The choice to have a great attitude is something nobody or no circumstance can take from you." (Zig Ziglar)

"The more you express gratitude for what you have, the more things you'll have to express gratitude for."(Zig Ziglar)

"We don't meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason." (Zig Ziglar)

"What you GET by achieving your goals is not near as important as what you BECOME by achieving your goals." (Zig Ziglar)

"When you do the right things in the right way you have nothing to lose because you have nothing to fear." (Zig Ziglar)

"When you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear." " (Zig Ziglar)

"When you touch someone's heart they will never be quite the same again. Part of you will live in their life always." (Zig Ziglar)

"Where you start is not nearly as important as where you finish." (Zig Ziglar)

"You are not alone, and this is not the end of your story." (Zig Ziglar)

"You are the only one who can use your ability. It's an awesome responsibility." (Zig Ziglar)

"You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change what you are and where you are by changing what goes into your mind." (Zig Ziglar)

"You can start where you are with what you've got and go to wherever it is you want to go." (Zig Ziglar)

"You never know when a moment and a few sincere words will have an impact on a life." (Zig Ziglar)

"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win." (Zig Ziglar)

Week 2023-45: B Alan Wallace - Collected Quotes

"It is best not to silence the mind with a crushing blow of our will." (B Alan Wallace, "Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life", 1993)

"The point of Buddhist meditation is not to stop thinking, for [...] cultivation of insight clearly requires intelligent use of thought and discrimination. What needs to be stopped is conceptualisation that is compulsive, mechanical and unintelligent, that is, activity that is always fatiguing, usually pointless, and at times seriously harmful." (B Alan Wallace, Tibetan Buddhism from the Ground Up: A Practical Approach for Modern Life", 1993)

"An indispensable ingredient for spiritual maturation is the cultivation of fortitude: strength, forbearance, and patience." (B Alan Wallace, "The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating A Boundless Heart", 1999)

"The mind that reaches out to other people, to the environment, to provide what it seems to lack itself, is a mind that is ignorant of its own resources for peace and happiness." (B Alan Wallace, "The Four Immeasurables: Cultivating A Boundless Heart", 1999)

"Life is a flash of lightning in the dark of night. It is a brief time of tremendous potential." (B Alan Wallace, "Buddhism with an Attitude: The Tibetan Seven-Point Mind Training", 2001)

"Again and again, counteract the agitation and turbulence of the mind by relaxing more deeply, not by contracting the body or mind." (B Alan Wallace, "The Attention Revolution, Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind", 2006)

"The demarcation between science and metaphysics is determined by the limits of experiential inquiry, not Nature or God." (B Alan Wallace, "The Attention Revolution, Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind", 2006)

"When attention is impaired, it detracts from everything we do, and when it is well focused, it enhances everything we do." (B Alan Wallace, "The Attention Revolution, Unlocking the Power of the Focused Mind", 2006)

"Mindfulness was experienced as not holding onto the past, the future, or 'nowness:' but relaxing into the immediacy of whatever was happening." (B Alan Wallace, "Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity", 2009)

"One of the most persistent of all delusions is the conviction that the source of our dissatisfaction lies outside ourselves." (B Alan Wallace, "Mind in the Balance: Meditation in Science, Buddhism, and Christianity", 2009)

"It takes no deep insight to see that the source of both our well-being and our maladies lies within our own hearts and minds. To change our experience of life we must inevitably change our hearts and minds, or rather our heart/minds." (B Alan Wallace)

"Samsara is not out there, but rather in the way that we experience our environment. To target it precisely, samsara is in the quality of our minds. Our minds are not functioning in accord with reality, and therein lies the problem." (B Alan Wallace)

"Settling your mind in its natural state entails releasing all grasping, grasping onto the future, and the past, grasping onto cogitations about the present. Letting your awareness rest in its own place, naturally luminous and still." (B Alan Wallace)

Week 2024-14: Nitobe Inazö - Collected Quotes

"A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit. In the heat of battle he remains cool; in the midst of catastrophes he keeps level his mind. Earthquakes do not shake him, he laughs at storms. We admire him as truly great, who, in the menacing presence of danger or death, retains his self-possession; who, for instance, can compose a poem under impending peril or hum a strain in the face of death. Such indulgence betraying no tremor in the writing or in the voice, is taken as an infallible index of a large nature - of what we call a capacious mind (Yoyū), which, far from being pressed or crowded, has always room for something more." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Beneath the instinct to fight there lurks a diviner instinct to love." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Bushido as an independent code of ethics may vanish, but its power will not perish from the earth; its schools of martial prowess or civic honor may be demolished, but its light and its glory will long survive their ruins. Like its symbolic flower, after it is blown to the four winds, it will still bless mankind with the perfume with which it will enrich life." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"It is a brave act of valor to contemn death, but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"It is not the weapon that wins, it is the spirit of the wearer." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Knowledge becomes really such only when it is assimilated in the mind of the learner and shows in his character." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Rectitude is the power of deciding upon a certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering - to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Self-control, which was universally required of samurai. The discipline of fortitude on the one hand, inculcating endurance without a groan, and the teaching of politeness on the other, requiring us not to mar the pleasure or serenity of another by manifestations of our own sorrow or pain, combined to engender a stoical turn of mind, and eventually to confirm it into a national trait of apparent stoicism." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Spiritual service, be it of priest or teacher, was not to be repaid in gold or silver, not because it was valueless but because it was invaluable." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"That calmness of mind, that serenity of temper, that composure and quietness of demeanor, which are the first essentials of Cha-no-yu, are without doubt the first conditions of right thinking and right feeling. The scrupulous cleanliness of the little room, shut off from sight and sound of the madding crowd, is in itself conducive to direct one’s thoughts from the world." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"[...] the feeling of distress is the root of benevolence, therefore a benevolent man is ever mindful of those who are suffering and in distress." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"The sens of honor which cannot bear being looked down upon as an inferior power, - that was the strongest of motives." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

"Tranquility is courage in repose. It is a statical manifestation of valor, as daring deeds are a dynamical. A truly brave man is ever serene; he is never taken by surprise; nothing ruffles the equanimity of his spirit." (Nitobe Inazö, "Bushidö: The Soul of Japan", 1900)

Week 2023-44: Paracelsus [Theophrastus von Hohenheim] - Collected Quotes

"All is interrelated. Heaven and earth, air and water. All are but one thing; not four, not two and not three, but one. Where they are not together, there is only an incomplete piece." (Paracelsus)

"Dreams must be heeded and accepted. For a great many of them come true." (Paracelsus)

"He who wants to govern must have insight into the hearts of men and act accordingly." (Paracelsus)

"In us there is the Light of Nature, and that Light is God." (Paracelsus)

"It is said that a wise man rules over the stars, but this does not mean that he rules over the influences which come from the stars in the sky. It means that he rules over the powers which exist in his own constitution." (Paracelsus)

"Magic has power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly." (Paracelsus)

"The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind." (Paracelsus)

"The art of medicine has its roots in the heart. If your heart is false, then also the doctor in you is false. If it is fair, then also the doctor is fair." (Paracelsus)

"The book of Nature is that which the physician must read; and to do so he must walk over the leaves." (Paracelsus)

"The dreams which reveal the supernatural are promises and messages that God sends us directly: they are nothing but His angels, His ministering spirits, who usually appear to us when we are in a great predicament." (Paracelsus)

"Time is a brisk wind, for each hour it brings something new [...] but who can understand and measure its sharp breath, its mystery and its design?" (Paracelsus)

"We do not know it because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself." (Paracelsus)

"When a man undertakes to create something, he establishes a new heaven, as it were, and from it the work that he desires to create flows into him [...] For such is the immensity of man that he is greater than heaven and earth." (Paracelsus)