Week 2018-21

[#thought, #belief]
"What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are." (Anthony Robbins, "Awaken the Giant Within")

[#identity, #quest]
"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, 'This is the real me,' and when you have found that attitude, follow it." (William James, "The Principles of Psychology")

[#limits, #imagination]
"To realize one's limitations marks the awakening of intellectual integrity, without which imagination, integrity and assiduity are barren." (Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin)

[#thought, #happiness]
"All that we are is made up of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speak or act with a pure thought, happiness will follow him, like a shadow that never leaves him." (Dhammapada)

[#human nature, #extremes]
"People want to hear about the extremes of human nature. They want things that are larger than their own lives, and more romantic, and not necessarily of their own experiences." (Richard Thompson)

[#truth, #meaning]
"Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning." (Anais Nin)

[#quest, #introspection]
“The nature of creation is that you have to go inside and dig out. The very nature of creation is not a performing glory on the outside, it’s a painful, difficult search within.” (Louise Nevelson)

[#emotions, #problem_solving]
"Emotions are far harder things to understand than algebra and geometry, yet we spend hours in elucidating mathematics and expect such a problem as that of human relationships to solve itself." (Frances G Wickes)

[#life, #perseverance]
"Life is not easy for any of us, but what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted in something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." (Marie Curie)

[#time, #potential]
"The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities." (Stephen Hawking)

Week 2017-42

"It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?" (Henry David Thoreau)

"I’ve learned through a series of trials and errors that the median space is actually what's missing in our daily walk." (Carlos Wallace)

"There is no such thing as a miracle which violates natural law. There are only occurrences which violate our limited knowledge of natural law." (Saint Augustine)

"The world is a projection of your mind. Good mind, good world. Bad mind, bad world. No mind, no world." (Swami Parthasarathy)

"There is always a well-known solution to every human problem - neat, plausible, and wrong." (H. L. Mencken)

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality." (Pablo Picasso)

"The future is nothing but a present to organize. You do not have to forecast it, but to allow it." ( Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable." (Mary Oliver)

"Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast on nature." (Jacob Bronowski, Universities Quarterly, 1956)

"The hours when we are absorbed by beauty are the only hours when we really live [...] .These are the only hours that absorb the soul and fill it with beauty. This is real life, and all else is illusion, or mere endurance." ( Richard Jefferies )

Week 2017-37

[#imagination, #human nature]
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is." (Francis Bacon)

[#life, #duality]
"There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself." (Herman Melville)

[#beliefs, #confidence]
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained." (Marie Curie)

[#values, #strength]
"The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course." (Michelangelo)

[#spirituality, #simplicity]
"To realise the constancy and steadiness in your life is to realise the deep nature of the universe. This realisation is not dependent on any transitory internal or external condition, rather it is an expression of one’s own immutable spiritual nature. The only way to attain the Universal Way is to maintain the integral virtues of the constancy, steadiness and simplicity in one’s daily life." (Lao Tzu)

[#knowledge, #values]
"Knowledge is the highest good, truth the supreme value, all the rest is secondary and subordinate." (Aldous Huxley)

[#truth, #goals]
"Approximate truth is the only truth attainable, but at least one must strive for that, and not wade off into arbitrary falsehood." (George Eliot)

[#simplicity, #values]
"The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity." (Ludwig Wittgenstein

[#facts, #wisdom]
"Facts are ventriloquists' dummies. Sitting on a wise man's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere they say nothing or talk nonsense..." (Aldous Huxley)

[#journeys, #spirituality]
"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things." (René Descartes)

[#journeys, #truth]
"Keep the company of those who seek the truth - run from those who have found it." (VÁCLAV HAVEL)

Week 2017-27

"Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else." (Shunryū Suzuki)

"Think simple as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles." (Frank L. Wright)

"Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly." (Edward Albee)

"Fear is a distraction from ‘what is', from the present actual moment, preventing us from existing, from being what we are." (Vanda Scaravelli)

"Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"The power of imagination makes us infinite." (John Muir)

"Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things." (Virgil)

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." (Lao Tzu)

"The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves" (Roald Dahl)

"The real dirt is not outside, but inside, in our hearts. We can wash all stains with water. The only one we can’t remove is the grudge and the bad intentions sticking to our hearts." (Shams Tabrizi)

Week 2017-26

"People who inspire others are those who see invisible bridges at the end of dead-end streets" (Charles Swindoll)

"As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow of reality and not reality itself." (Shunryu Suzuki-roshi)

"The limits of my language means the limits of my world." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

"We can control our lives by controlling our perceptions." (Bruce H. Lipton)

"Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. And between the two my life flows." (Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"Only great minds are capable of estimating the magnitude of little things." (Rayon)

"The wit we long for spoils the wit we have." (Jean-Baptiste-Louis Gresset)

"A miracle does not happen in contradiction to nature, but in contradiction to that which is known to us of nature." (St Augustine)

"To be empty means to be empty of ego, not in the sense that one functions as a vegetable or a wild animal, but in the sense that one ceases to gauge the events, the persons and the things of one's environment in terms of 'I' or 'me' or 'mine'". (Hsu Yun)

"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open." (Shakti Gawain)

Week 2017-18

"To be satisfied with a little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, increaseth his cares; but a contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not." (Akhenaton)

"The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." (Herbert Agar)

"An act of imagination is an act of self-acceptance." (Richard Hugo, "Triggering Town")

"We are on a journey to keep an appointment with whatever we are." (Gene Roddenberry)

"Belief can convert the mundane into the miraculous." (Charles F Glassman)

"Every man is the sum total of his reactions to experience. As your experiences differ and multiply, you become a different man, and hence your perspective changes. This goes on and on. Every reaction is a learning process; every significant experience alters your perspective." ( Hunter S. Thompson )

"Staring at the light of another blinds the view of our own." (Charles F Glassman)

"Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides." (André Malraux)

"I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves." (Louise L. Hay)

Week 2017-17

"Using someone else’s ruler to measure your self-worth will always leave you short." (Charles F Glassman)

"Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free.   
Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.  
This is the ultimate." (Chuang Tzu)

"When meditation is mastered,  
the mind is unwavering,  
like the flame of a lamp in a windless place." (Bhagavad Gita)

"What cannot be known is more revealing than what can." (John D. Barrow, "Impossibility", 1998)

"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people." (Carl Jung)

"All great things have their origin in that which is small." (Lao Tzu)

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor. (Henry David Thoreau)

"Exploring your imagination is the first step to understanding your heart." (Anon)

"Every man is guilty of all the good he didn't do." (Voltaire)

"It seldom happens that a man changes his life through his habitual reasoning. No matter how fully he may sense the new plans and aims revealed to him by reason, he continues to plod along in old paths until his life becomes frustrating and unbearable—he finally makes the change only when his usual life can no longer be tolerated." (Leo Tolstoy)

Week 2017-07

"Remember that happiness is a way of travel – not a destination." (Roy M. Goodman)

"If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits." (Don Ward)

"Be quiet in your mind, quiet in your senses, and also quiet in your body. Then, when all these are quiet, don't do anything. In that state truth will reveal itself to you." (Kabir)

"Do not try to satisfy your vanity by teaching a great many things. Awaken people's curiosity. It is enough to open minds; do not overload them. Put there just a spark. If there is some good inflammable stuff, it will catch fire." (Anatole France)

"Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable." (Theodore N. Vail)

"Stand up to your obstacles; do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have." (Zen saying)

"If you want to succeed in this world you don't have to be much cleverer than other people, you just have to be one day earlier." (Leó Szilárd)

"Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it." (Zen saying)

"Look for knowledge not in books but in things themselves." (William Gilbert)

"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe." (Anatole France)

Week 2017-04

"Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations." (Leo Buscaglia)

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, it's unlikely that you will step up and take responsibility for making it so." (Noam Chomsky)

"Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty." (Frank Herbert, "Dune Chronicles: Chapterhouse")

"It is not wisdom but ignorance that teaches men presumption. Genius may sometimes be arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as knowledge." (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)

"The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." (Samuel Johnson)

"All the knowledge that we mortals can acquire is not knowledge positive, but knowledge comparative, and subject to the errors and passions of humanity." (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)

"Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values." (Dalai Lama)

"The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody's word about them." (Henry Bolingbroke)

"Keeping an open mind is a virtue, but not so open that your brains fall out." (James Oberg)

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings." (Anaïs Nin)

Week 2017-01

"One does not set out in search of new lands without being willing to be alone on an empty sea." (André Gide)

"Human beings know a lot of things, some of which are true, and apply them. When we like the results, we call it wisdom."(Herbert Simon)

"Suffering is a challenge; when you suffer you are challenged, when there is a problem you are challenged. When you encounter the problem, only then do you grow. More insecurity, more growth; more security, less growth. If everything is secure around you, you are already in your grave, you are no longer alive. Life exists in danger, life always exists in the possibility of going astray. But one who goes astray can come back, one who fails can succeed." (Osho)

"If you optimize everything, you will always be unhappy." (Donald Knuth)

"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well." (Gandhi)

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

"We need to learn to set our course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship." (Omar Bradley)

"Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge." (Alfred N Whitehead)

"It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test." (Elbert Hubbard)

"This is the awe-inspiring universe of magic: There are no atoms, only waves and motions all around. Here, you discard all belief in barriers to understanding. You put aside understanding itself. This universe cannot be seen, cannot be heard, cannot be detected in any way by fixed perceptions. It is the ultimate void where no preordained screens occur upon which forms may be projected. You have only one awareness here - the screen of the magi: Imagination! Here, you learn what it is to be human. You are a creator of order, of beautiful shapes and systems, an organizer of chaos." (Frank Herbert, “Heretics of Dune”, 1984)

Week 2016-48

"Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom" (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

"To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science." (Albert Einstein)

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." (James Oppenheim)

"Discoveries are often made by not following instructions, by going off the main road, by trying the untried." (Frank Tyger)

"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane." (Kurt Vonnegut, “Breakfast of Champions,” 1973)

"We can cope with anything if we have the tools and can draw on our inner power. But there is no sun without rain; no joy without spiritual awareness; and no growth without the knowledge that help is always available and we can deal with life’s difficulties." (Joy Ward)

"Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value." (Jim Rohn)

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." (Maya Angelou)

"When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves." (William Arthur Ward)

"No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage." (Epictetus)

"Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day." (Indian saying)

Week 2016-41

"Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us." (Pema Chodron)

"You are the universe, expressing itself as a human for a little while." (Eckhart Tolle)

"True mindfulness is the awareness that everything you encounter is a vigorous expression of the same living universe as you." (Brad Warner)

"When a man's knowledge is not in order, the more of it he has the greater will be his confusion." (Herbert Spencer)

"Before you assume, learn the facts. Before you judge, understand why. Before you hurt someone, feel. Before you leave, commit to staying." (José Sánchez)

"Grudges are a waste of perfect happiness. Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, and let go of what you can’t change." (José Sánchez)

"The real meditation is how you live your life." (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

"Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning." (C S Lewis)

"It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed." (Thomas Moore)

"Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end." (Scott Adams)