Life - Quotes

Lean forward into your life ... catch the best bits and the finest wind. Just tip your feathers in flight a wee bit and see how dramatically that small lean can change your life. - Mary Anne Radmacher

Life consists in molting our illusions. We form creeds today only to throw them away tomorrow. The eagle molts a feather because he is growing a better one. - Elbert Hubbard

Life doesn’t have a neat beginning and a tidy end; life is always going on. You should begin in the middle and end in the middle, and it should be all there. - V. S. Naipaul

Knowledge about life is one thing; effective occupation of a place in life, with its dynamic currents passing through your being, is another. - Willliam James

Life at the greatest is but a forward child, that must be humor'd and coax'd a little till it falls asleep, and then all the care is over. - Oliver Goldsmith

Life, too much of it, and not enough. The fear that it will end some day, and the fear that tomorrow will be the same as yesterday. - John Updike

It’s over before you know it. It all goes by so fast. Yeah, the bad nights take forever, and the good nights don't ever seem to last. - Tom Petty

Let us all so live as we shall wish we had lived when we come to die; for that only is well, that ends well. - Benjamin Whichcote

Life itself is your teacher, and you are in a state of constant learning. - Bruce Lee

Life isn't about getting and having, it's about giving and being. - Kevin Kruse

In the book of life, the answers aren't in the back. - Charles M. Schulz

It’s your life – but only if you make it so. - Eleanor Roosevelt

More on Life Here, and the book The Mystery of Life - a collection of quotes on and pertaining to life.

Quote Worthy

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. - Plato

Willpower is not some mythical force that we either have or don't have. Willpower is our decision to use higher-mind thinking instead of lazing around in the clutches of our primal mind. - A. B. Curtiss

Lost – yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever. - Horace Mann

In order to be free, we must learn how to let go. Release the hurt. Release the fear. Refuse to entertain the old pain. - Mary Manin Morrissey

Do not rely completely on any other human being, however dear. We meet all life’s greatest tests alone. - Agnes McPhail

Only those who look with the eyes of children can lose themselves in the object of their wonder. - Eberhard Arnold

Sometimes, someone says something really small and it just fits right into this empty place in your heart. - Unknown

We are too inattentive or too much occupied with ourselves to understand each other. - Luc de Clapiers

Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish. - Quintilian

Purity in the heart is like medicine in the body, it expels disease. - Ich Dien

When nothing is sure, everything is possible. - Margaret Drabble

You cannot put the same shoe on every foot. - Publilius Syrus

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy

Suffering - Quotes

Misfortunes leave wounds which bleed drop by drop even in sleep; thus little by little they train man by force and dispose him to wisdom in spite of himself. Man must learn to think of himself as a limited and dependent being; and only suffering teaches him this. - Simone Weil

All the suffering that humanity ever knew can be traced to the one fact that no man in the history of the Galaxy ... could really understand one another. Every human being lived behind an impenetrable wall of choking mist within which no other but he existed. - Isaac Asimov

As in labour, the more one doth exercise, the more one is enabled to do, strength growing upon work; so with the use of suffering, men's minds get the habit of suffering, and all fears and terrors are not to them but as a summons to battle, whereof they know beforehand they shall come off victorious. - Sir Philip Sidney

It is not permanence that makes us suffer. What makes us suffer is wanting things to be permanent, when they are not. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Many people suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer any more. Mindfulness helps you come home to the present. Life is available only in the present. - Thich Nhat Hanh

Our suffering comes from our attachment to people and things, our repeated attempts to find something lasting where there is nothing lasting to be found. - Philip Martin

The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering. - Ben Okri

The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive. - John Green

Without pain, there would be no suffering, without suffering we would never learn from our mistakes. To make it right, pain and suffering is the key to all windows, without it, there is no way of life. - Angelina Jolie

If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion. - Eckhart Tolle

Technology - Quotes

All attempts to adapt our ethical code to our situation in the technological age have failed. - Max Born

All of our exalted technological progress, civilization for that matter, is comparable to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal. - Albert Einstein

All of the biggest technological inventions created by man – the airplane, the automobile, the computer – says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness. - Mark Kennedy

All this modern technology just makes people try to do everything at once. - Bill Watterson

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

Anything that is theoretically possible will be achieved in practice, no matter what the technical difficulties are, if it is desired greatly enough. - Arthur C. Clarke

Before you become too entranced with gorgeous gadgets and mesmerizing video displays, let me remind you that information is not knowledge, knowledge is not wisdom, and wisdom is not foresight. Each grows out of the other, and we need them all. - Arthur C. Clarke

Can you avoid knowledge? You cannot! Can you avoid technology? You cannot! Things are going to go ahead in spite of ethics, in spite of your personal beliefs, in spite of everything. - Jose M. R. Delgado

Flight from and hatred of technology is self-defeating. The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha – which is to demean oneself. - Robert M. Pirsig

History demonstrates that the advancement of technology is not a steady upward curve. There are flat periods, upwards spurts, and even reversals. - Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

I just invent, then wait until man comes around to needing what I’ve invented. - R. Buckminster Fuller

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. - Albert Einstein

New technology is the true friend of full employment; the indispensable ally of progress; and the surest guarantee of prosperity. - Margaret Thatcher

Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road. - Stewart Brand

Our entire much-praised technological progress, and civilization generally, could be compared to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal. - Albert Einstein

Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards also escalate. - Alvin Toffler

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. - Aldous Huxley

Technology feeds on itself. Technology makes more technology possible. - Alvin Toffler

Technology gives us power, but it does not and cannot tell us how to use that power. Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn’t help us know what to say. - Jonathan Sacks

Technology is an inherent democratizer. Because of the evolution of hardware and software, you’re able to scale up almost anything. It means that in our lifetime everyone may have tools of equal power. - Sergey Brin

Technology is anything that wasn’t around when you were born. - Alan Kay

Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. - Bill Gates

Technology is the engine; the humanities are the steering wheel and the brakes. The humanities don't create nearly as much force for getting things done as technology does, but technology is just plain lousy at directing its energy or managing itself. - James Alan Garnder

Technology should have freed mankind from the burdens of life. Instead, it created new ones. - Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency. - Bill Gates

The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential. - Steve Ballmer

There will always be humans, lots of them, who provide the data that makes the networked realization of any technology better and cheaper. - Jaron Lanier

We are stuck with technology when what we really want is just stuff that works. - Douglas Adams

Food for Thought

I think of the trees and how simply they let go, let fall the riches of a season, how without grief (it seems) they can let go and go deep into their roots for renewal and sleep.... Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long, not even pain, psychic pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go. - May Sarton

Being rude is easy. It does not take any effort and is a sign of weakness and insecurity. Kindness shows great self-discipline and strong self-esteem. Being kind is not always easy when dealing with rude people. Kindness is a sign of a person who has done a lot of personal work and has come to a great self-understanding and wisdom. Choose to be kind over being right, and you’ll be right every time because kindness is a sign of strength. - Unknown

Many people cannot allow themselves the time to sit and do nothing but breathe. They consider it to be uneconomical or a luxury. People say “time is money.” But time is much more than money. Time is life. The simple practice of sitting quietly on a regular basis can be profoundly healing. Stopping and sitting is a good way to focus on mindful breathing and nothing else. - Thich Nhat Hanh

More Food for Thought Here and the book Food for Thought

 

Happiness - Quotes

The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised. - Norman Vincent Peale

We all know by theory that there is no permanent happiness in this life: But the weight of the precept is not felt in the same manner as when it is confirmed to us by a heavy calamity. - Samuel Richardson

Happiness consumes itself like a flame. It cannot burn for ever, it must go out, and the presentiment of its end destroys it at its very peak. - August Strindberg

Happiness is natural, happiness is a birthright, happiness is free, happiness is a choice, happiness is within, and happiness is being. - Robert Holden

If you search the world for happiness, you may find it in the end, for the world is round and will lead you back to your door. - Robert Brault

Happiness is inward, and not outward; and so, it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are. - Henry Van Dyke

Happiness does not depend upon surroundings, but upon disposition. - Charles Edward Jerningham

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. - Margaret Lee Runbeck

You cannot always have happiness, but you can always give happiness. - Unknown

Happiness is just how you feel when you don't feel miserable. - John Lennon

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness. - Lady Blessington

More on Happiness Here
The book The Pursuit of Happiness

Quote Worthy

It is ever thus that the things which we do wrong – although they may seem little at the time, and though from the hardness of our hearts we pass them lightly by – come back to us with bitterness. - Bram Stoker

We spend so much time creating a façade of what we want to project to the world, we almost forget what we ourselves are truly about in the process. - Jason R. Thrift

Above all, the only thing you have to heal is the present thought. Get that right and the whole picture will change into one of harmony and joy. - Eckhart Tolle

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted. - Bertrand Russell

When you have the power to screw people over and you don't – well, that's when you get to show who you really are. - Joseph Finder

Everyone in society should be a role model, not only for their own self-respect, but for respect from others. - Barry Bonds

At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice. - Gore Vidal

If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth. - E. O. Wilson

Putting off an easy thing makes it hard. Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible. - George Horace Lorimer

Sometimes, the person you’d take a bullet for ends up being the one behind the gun. - Unknown

Wise men learn by others' harms; fools by their own. - Benjamin Franklin

You are a leaf that doesn’t know that it is part of a tree. - Unknown

More Quotes Here - And the book Quote Worthy

 

Reading - Quotes

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting. - Walter Mosley

Education has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. - G. M. Trevelyan

He that loves reading has everything within his reach. - William Godwin

I think you can tell when you meet someone whether they read novels. There’s some hollowness if they don’t. - Philip Hensher

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write. - Stephen King

In our daily lives, where we’re bombarded by the fake and the trivial, reading serves as a way to stop, shut out the noise of the world, and try to grab hold of something real, no matter how small. - Maureen Corrigan

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. - Ezra Pound

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. - Frederick Douglass

Read. Read all the time. Read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life. - David McCullough

Reading ... the best state possible in which to keep absolute loneliness at bay. - William Styron

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. - John Locke

Reading makes a full Man, Meditation a profound Man, Discourse a clear Man. - Benjamin Franklin

Reading supplies bread for imagination to feed on and bones for it to chew on. - Alex Osborn

Stories you read when you’re the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you’ll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit. - Neil Gaiman

The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. - Malcom X

The first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone. - Jonathan Franzen

The man who has not the habit of reading is imprisoned in his immediate world. - Lin YuTang

The more imagination the reader has ... the more he will do for himself. He will, at a mere hint from the author, flood wretched material with suggestion and never guess that he is himself chiefly making what he enjoys. - C. S. Lewis

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. - Dr. Seuss

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. - Victor Hugo

What is reading but silent conversation. - Walter Savage Landor

Proverbs / Maxims / Idioms ...

The person who gets stuck on petty happiness, will not attain great happiness. - Tibetan Proverb

The hardest person to awaken is the person already awake. - Tagalog Proverb

The lion believes that everyone shares his state of mind. - Mexican Proverb

The higher the monkey climbs, the more he shows his tail. - John Wycliffe

What good is running when you're on the wrong road. - German Proverb

The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world. - William Ross Wallace

The person afraid of bad luck will never know good. - Russian Proverb

The only thing that's certain is that nothing is for certain. - Joe Dubois

The frog enjoys itself in water but not in hot water. - African Proverb

The crab that walks too far, falls into the pot. - Haitian Proverb

Sorrow doesn't kill, reckless joy does. - West African Proverb

The honey is sweet but the bee has a sting. - Benjamin Franklin

The leopard does not change his spots. - William Shakespeare

Sorrow is to the soul, as worm is to wood. - Turkish Proverb

Tap even a stone bridge before crossing it. - Korean Proverb

The blind person is not afraid of ghosts. - Burmese Proverb

The fall of a leaf is a whisper to the living. - Danish Proverb

The bad ploughman quarrels with his ox. - Korean Proverb

What cannot be cured must be endured. - Edmund Spenser

The person sins, then blames Satan for it. - Afghan Proverb

The master of the people is their servant. - Yemeni Proverb

The second word makes the quarrel. - Japanese Proverb

Spending is quick; earning is slow. - Russian Proverb

The house of the loud talker, leaks. - African proverb

The mind is willing, but the flesh is weak. - Bible

Love - Quotes

Love is the willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you. - Wagne Dyer

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach. - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sensuality often hastens the growth of love so much that the roots remain weak and are easily torn up. - Friedrich Nietzschie

In the arithmetic of love, one plus one equals everything, and two minus one equals nothing. - Mignon McLaughlin

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart. - Washington Irving

Love is the only thing that we can carry with us when we go, and it makes the end so easy. - Louisa May Alcott

Love life seems to be that factor which requires the largest quantity of magical tinkering. - Isaac Asimov

Love makes a few weeks so rich that all the rest of our lives seems poor in comparison. - Christian Nestell

Love is when the other person's happiness is more important than your own. - H. Jackson Brown

The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost. - G. K. Chesterton

Love is not enough. But, it is the rock on which all else stands. - Nora Roberts

Love is shown in your deeds, not in your words. - Jerome Cummings

More on Love Here, and the book The Light of Love