#895 Enhancing life

Synchronicity…means a ‘meaningful coincidence’ of outer and inner events that are not themselves causally connected. The emphasis lies on the word ‘meaningful’. ~ Marie Louise vonFranz

Synchronicity hints at the unified world behind the illusory veil of the material universe. ~ Roger S. Jones

Synchronicity is choreographed by a great, pervasive intelligence that lies at the heart of nature, and is manifest in each of us through what we call the soul. ~ Deepak Chopra

Chance is perhaps the pseudonym of God when he does not wish to sign his work. ~ Anatole France

These events serve to nurture, support, protect and enhance human life and spiritual growth. ~ Scott Peck

Tags: quotes about synchronicity, meaning, life

- When have you experienced synchronicity?
- How was it meaningful?
- How can you become more sensitive to its presence?

#894 Not cease from exploration

We are asleep with compasses in our hands.  ~ W. S. Merwin

You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint paradise, then in you go.  ~ Nikos Kazantzakis

The first step ...shall be to lose the way.  ~ Galway Kennell

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.  ~ Yogi Berra

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.  ~ T. S. Eliot

Tags: quotes about the journey, life

- What guides you?
- How adventurous are you?
- What explorations and discoveries await you?

#893 Built from love or fear

There is a time when we must firmly choose the course which we will follow or the endless drift of events will make the decision for us.  ~ Herbert Prochnow

The glory of human nature lies in our seeming capacity to exercise conscious control of our own destiny.  ~ Winston Churchill

The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.  ~ John Dewey

We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.  ~ Lord Byron

We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.  ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Tags: quotes about choice, life

- What course/path have you chosen to follow?
- How strong are you in facing the future?
- How much love can you cultivate as you continue to make choices?

#892 The final achievement

We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.  ~ Anna C. Brackett

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.  ~ Hans Hofman

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.  ~ Frederic Chopin

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.  ~ William Morris

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.  ~ Socrates

Tags: quotes about simplicity, life

- In what sense has your lifestyle contributed to greater anxiety?
- In what areas could you simplify your life?
- How could you enjoy life more with less?

#891 A rare commodity

Ability is a wonderful thing, but its value is greatly enhanced by dependability.  Ability implies repeatability and accountability.   ~ Robert Heinlein

Natural abilities are like natural plants, they need pruning by study and studies to give forth directions...bounded by experience.  ~ Francis Bacon

Love what you do.  Get good at it.  Competence is a rare commodity in this day and age.  ~ Jon Stewart

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it.  ~ Malcolm Forbes

I can; therefore I am.  ~ Simone Weil

Tags: quotes about ability, achievement, success, life

- How dependable and accountable are you when exercising your abilities and talents?
- What efforts have you taken to improve your skills?
- How can you leverage your abilities?

#890 Make room

Acceptance of one’s life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle.  On the contrary it means accepting it as it comes… To accept is to say yes to life in its entirety.   ~Paul Tournier

Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.   ~Denis Waitley

For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.   ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years when they could just say, So what. That’s one of my favorite things to say. So what.   ~Andy Warhol

Time is a dressmaker specializing in alterations.   ~Faith Baldwin

The moment that judgement stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.   ~Eckhart Tolle

Tags: quotes about acceptance, life

- To what extent can you say yes to life in its entirety?
- Instead of being miserable, what can you say 'so what' to?
- Where can you leave more room for love, joy, and peace?

#889 The most important part

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. ~ J. B.Priestly

You raze the old to raise the new. ~ Justina Headley

Start wherever you are and start small. ~ Rita Baily

The beginning is the most important part of the work. ~ Plato

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. -Theodore Roosevelt

Tags: quotes about new beginnings, beginning, begin


- What delights, magic may await your new day?
- What about the past do you wish to leave behind?
- What can you start today in a small way?

#888 Refresh your mind

Make your own Bible.  Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.  ~ Letitia Elizabeth Landson

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise to balance it.  ~ George Santayana

Most people are other people.  Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passion a quotation.  ~ Oscar Wilde

Like your body your mind also gets tired; so refresh it by wise sayings.  ~ Hazrat Ali

Tags: quotes about quotations, quotes, life

- What are several sayings you would include in your 'Bible?'
- What light has been shed on your life by wise people?
- What readings have refreshed you?

#887 The secret of the stars

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. ~ Ronald Reagan

Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. ~ e. e. cummings

Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit. ~ Abbie Hoffman

I always try to balance the light with the heavy - a few tears of human spirit in with the sequins and the fringes. ~ Bette Midler

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. ~Helen Keller

Tags: quotes about the human spirit, life





-What constraints have existed for you which may have diminished your aspirations?
- How much do you believe in yourself?
- How can you cultivate more self assurance and more sensitivity for the human spirit?

#886 Words as with sunbeams

Like stones, words are laborious and unforgiving, and the fitting of them together, like the fitting of stones, demands great patience and strength of purpose and particular skill.  ~ Edmund Morrison

Words are recalcitrant as circus animals, and the unskilled trainer can crack his whip at them in vain.  ~ Gerald Brenan

It is with words as with sunbeams.  They more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.  ~ Robert Southey

Language is to the mind more than light is to the eye.  ~ William Gibson

Tags: quotes about words, language

-How patient and focused are you in the art of writing?
-How much do you enjoy reading good writing?
-How can you cultivate the enjoyment of words and language?

#885 No shortcuts

Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty. ~ Bertold Brecht

The first and best victory is to conquer self.   ~ Plato

You can never conquer the mountain. You can only conquer yourself.  ~ Jim Wittaker
 
We are what we repeatedly do, excellence then is not an act, but a habit.   ~ Aristotle

There are no short cuts to any place worth going.  ~ Beverly Sills
 
Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power.  ~ Lao Tsu

Tags: quotes about discipline, freedom, life 

- How disciplined are you?
- What do the writers mean by conquering and mastering yourself?
- Where lie your destinations worthy of your focused discipline?

#884 Leads you to the threshold

To all teachers, parents, grandparents, coaches...
 
In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught. ~Baba Dioum

Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher.   ~ William Wordsworth

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.   ~Henry Adams

What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches.  ~Karl Menninger

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.  ~Khalil Gibran

Tags: quotes about teaching, nature, life, learning 

- What teachers (including parents, grandparents, others...) have taught you a sensitivity to life?
- What teachers have helped unlock your potential?
- How can you be an inspiring teacher to someone in your circle? 

#883 To a higher level

Today we are beginning to notice that the new media are not just mechanical gimmicks for creating worlds of illusion, but new languages with new and unique powers of expression.  ~ Marshall McLuhan

Trying to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.  ~ Ben Hecht
 
Reporters thrive on the world's misfortune. For this reason they often take an indecent pleasure in events that dismay the rest of humanity.  ~ Russell Baker

Harmony seldom makes a headline.   ~ Silas Bent

All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.  ~ William Bernbach 

Tags: quotes about the news, mass media 

- What new languages and powers of expression have the mass media engendered?
- How distorted is the view of the world and life through the perspectives of the mass media?
- When have you experienced positive, uplifting perspectives as presented by the mass media?

#882 Our real journey

It may be when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.  ~Wendell Berry

What is important is to spread confusion, not eliminate it.  ~ Salvador Dali

If you're not confused, you're not paying attention.  ~ Tom Peters

How dreadful...to be caught up in a game and have no idea of the rules.  ~ Caroline Stervermer

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.  ~ Henri Nouwen

Tags: quotes about confusion, life, the journey

- When have you felt bewildered by life?
- Why might some confusion be beneficial?
-  How open are you to be a caring friend?

#881 The ultimate sophistication

Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life.  ~ Victor Hugo
 
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.  ~ Gore Vidal

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

To understand a literary style, consider what it omits.  ~ Mason Cooley
 
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.  ~Leonardo da Vinci

Tags: quotes about simplicity, style, life 

- How focused are you in matters of style, thought, and decisions?
- How does your style define who you are?
- On what principles do you stand like a rock?

#880 Live in a way

Man is born free, yet he is everywhere in chains. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.  ~ Nelson Mandela

Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.  ~ Karl Marx

Happy is the man who has broken the chains which hurt the mind, and has given up worrying once and for all.  ~ Ovid

It is often safer to be in chains than to be free.  ~ Franz Kafka

Tags: quotes about freedom, chains, life

- What chains may bind one's freedoms?
- How can you live in a way which respects and enhances the freedom of others?
- What steps can you take to lessen the worries?

#879 The burden which is well borne

It is easy to tell the toiler
How best he can carry his pack
But no one can rate a burden's weight
Until it has been on his back.  ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Now you know how badly someone wanted you, Charley. Children forget that sometimes. They think of themselves as a burden instead of a wish granted.  ~ Mitch Albom

Tell 'em to God. Don' go burdenin' other people with your sins. That ain't decent.  ~ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.  ~ Martin Luther King

The burden which is well borne becomes light.  ~ Ovid

Tags: quotes about burden, life 

- What burdens have you felt heavy upon your back?
- How have you borne them?
- How have you made your load lighter?

#878 Your soul is alive

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

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about. ~ Rumi

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Cicero

Don't Gain The World & Lose Your Soul, Wisdom Is Better Than Silver Or Gold. ~ Bob Marley

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears. ~ Edgar Allan Poe

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. ~Eleanora Duse

Tags: quotes about the soul, life 

- When have you felt more comfort in silence than in words?
- Where have you experienced beauty to touch the soul?
- How can you cultivate your soul?

#877 Step up and take responsibility

A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.  ~ Winston S. Churchill

You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down.  ~ Charles Chaplin

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.  ~ Marcus Aurelius

Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles.  Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.  ~ Helen Keller

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.   ~Noam Chomsky

Tags: quotes about optimism, opportunity, life 

-What opportunities may lie in several of your difficulties?
- How much do you dwell on beauty and strive for it?
- What can you do to contribute toward a better future for yourself and others?

#876 Expect nothing

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.  ~ Leo Tolstoy

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.  ~ Plato

I love to talk about nothing; it's the only thing I know anything about.  ~ Oscar Wilde

Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.  ~Alice Walker

I know only that it is time for me to be something when I am nothing.  ~ Patrick Branwell Bronte

Tags: quotes about nothing, life

- How much do you know?
- How much do you anticipate the future?
- What 'something' do you stand for?

#875 Fruitful contradictions and paradoxes

Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.  ~ Albert Einstein

We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.  ~ H. G. Wells

I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.  ~ Mother Teresa

The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace.  ~ Marcel Proust

We live on the brink of disaster because we do not know how to let life alone. We do not respect the living and fruitful contradictions and paradoxes of which true life is full.   ~Thomas Merton

Tags: quotes about paradoxes, life 

- How would you feel if there was no future?
- How would it change your daily life?
- What about life could you leave alone so that your life could be enhanced?

#874 Crossing over fences

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at it destination full of hope.  ~ Maya Angelou

It doesn't matter which side of the fence you get off on sometimes.  What matters most is getting off.  You cannot make progress without making decisions.  ~ Jim Rohn

Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow.  ~ Norman Vincent Peale

The only fence around the world is a thorough knowledge of it.  ~ John Locke

Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.  ~ Robert Frost

Everyone pushes a falling fence.  ~ Chinese proverb

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass where ever you may be.   ~Robert Fulghum

Tags: quotes about fences, life 

- What fences exist in your life?
- What fences do you wish could be removed?
- What tending could you begin on the other side of the fence?

#873 In winter enjoy

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.  ~ Albert Camus

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.  ~ Edith Sitwell

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.  ~ Lewis Carroll

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.  ~ John Steinbeck

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.  ~ Victor Hugo

In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.  ~ William Blake

Tags: quotes about winter, life, seasons

- What feelings, thoughts often dominate your winters?
- How can winters be a source of joy?
- What steps can you take to enhance the cold and challenging aspects of life?

#872 Do it for yourself

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.  ~ Ernest Hemingway 

Never be haughty to the humble.  Never be humble to the haughty.  ~ Jefferson Davis

A true genius admits that he/she knows nothing.  ~ Albert Einstein

True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.  ~ C. S. Lewis

The soul is healed by being with children.  ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A great leader needs to love and respect people, and he needs to be comfortable with himself and with the world. He also needs to be able to forgive himself and others. In other words, a leader needs grace.  ~ Leo Hindery Jr.

Tags: quotes about humility, life, 

- How much do you know?
- How much do you think of yourself?
- How much grace can you show?

#871 Do it for yourself

If people are taught how to think and not always what to think, a false concept will be guarded against.  ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.  ~ Voltaire

Stop thinking and end your problems.  ~ Lao Tzu

Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits...  ~ A. A. Milne

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.  ~ Carl Sagan

Believing is easier than thinking.  Hence so many more believers than thinkers.  ~ Bruce Calvert

Thinking is like loving and dying.  Each of us must do it for himself.  ~ Josiah Royce

- What are the essential skills involved in thinking?
- Recollect several people who taught you how to think.
- To what extent is society indoctrinated/brainwashed rather than encouraged to think for themselves?

#870 Do what is necessary

In philosophy an individual is becoming himself.  ~ Bernard Lonergan

Adversity's sweet milk, philosophy.  ~ William Shakespeare

One's task is not to turn the world upside down, but to do what is necessary at the given place and with a due consideration of reality.  ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Be a philosopher but, amid all you philosophy be still a man.  ~ David Hume

- What is your philosophy of life?
- How is your understanding of life helping to enhance your days?
- How has your understanding helping to enrich those around you?

#869 All things flow

The butterfly counts not months but moments,
And has time enough.  ~ Rabindranath Tagore

To excel the past we must not allow ourselves to lose contact with it; on the contrary, we must feel it under our feet because we raised ourselves upon it.  ~ Jose Ortega y Gasset

Let time that makes you homely, make you sage.  ~ Thomas Parnell

All things flow, nothing abides.  ~ Heraclitus

One of these days is none of these days.  ~ English proverb

- Months or moments...which counts more for you?
- What valuable foundations do you appreciate from your past?
- How ready are you to move forward?