#983 The best of our nature

Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are.  ~ Amy Bloom

Man's life would be wretched and confined if it were to miss the candid intimacy developed by mutual trust and esteem.  ~ Edwin Dummer

Our most intimate friend is not the one to whom we show the worst, but the best of our nature.  ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

His voice was as intimate as the rustle of sheets.   ~ Dorothy Parker

Be polite to all, but intimate with few.   ~ Thomas Jefferson

Communication leads to community, that is, understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.  ~ Rollo May

Quotes about intimacy, life

- To whom do you appear as you are?
- Who are your dearest friends and acquaintances?
- Where have you experienced a vibrant community?

#982 That's all that matters

Laughter has no foreign accent.  ~ Paul B. Lowney

There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.  ~ Erma Bombeck

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.  ~ Victor Borge

Tell the truth. Sing with passion. Work with laughter. Love with heart. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end.  ~ Kris Kristofferson

We look before and after,
And pine for what is not;
Our sincerest laughter
With some pain is fraught;
Our sweetest songs are those that tell
Of saddest thought.  ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Quotes about laughter, life

- When have you experienced laughter which crossed many boundaries?
- How complete is Kristofferson's list about the things which matter?
-What is bittersweet about laughter?

#981 A bizarre sensation

It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.  ~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Man is a make-believe animal: he is never so truly himself as when he is acting a part.  ~ William Hazlitt

Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?  ~ Dame Edith Sitwell

Appearances are often deceiving.  ~ Aesop

A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.  ~ Maya Angelou

Quotes about pretense, life

- To what extent do you live behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions?
- To what extent do you take on fictional parts?
- How sincere are your relationships?

#980 Believe in yourself

Just keep coming home to yourself. You are the one you’ve been waiting for.  ~ Byron Katie

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.  ~ Norman Vincent Peale

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.  ~ Harvey Fierstein

It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come.  ~ Dalai Lama

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.  ~ Tecumseh

Quotes about yourself, life

- How much have you discovered about yourself?
- How much do you believe in yourself?
- How much do you generate a good heart and gratefulness?

#979 Your better days

Imagine that yes is the only living thing.  ~ e. e. cummings

Forever is composed of nows.  ~ Emily Dickinson

The future is no place to place your better days.  ~ Dave Matthews

We steal if we touch tomorrow.  It is God's.  ~ Henry Ward Beecher

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Quotes about living, life

-To what about life should you say, "Yes!"?
-What can you do to make the most of today?
-How can you best anticipate tomorrow?

#978 What sets us apart

Existence is a party. You join after its started and you leave before its finished.  ~ Elsa Maxwell

It is while you are patiently toiling at the little tasks of life that the meaning and shape of the great whole of life dawn on you.  ~ Phillips Brooks

I believe that we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom.  ~ Rosa Parks

Wonder is what sets us apart from other life forms. No other species wonders about the meaning of existence or the complexity of the universe or themselves.  ~ Herbert W. Boyer

When one has great gifts, what answer to the meaning of existence should one require beyond the right to exercise them?  ~ W. H. Auden

Quotes about existence, life

- What are your thoughts about the party which is life?
- What conclusions have you reached about life as you patiently go about your tasks?
- What do you wonder about life?
- What gifts have you been given to share with the world?

#977 An integrated wholeness

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring. ~ Oscar Wilde

Wisdom is your perspective on life, your sense of balance, your understanding of how the various parts and principles apply and relate to each other. It embraces judgment, discernment, comprehension. It is a gestalt or oneness, an integrated wholeness.  ~ Stephen R. Covey

There are some people who have the quality of richness and joy in them and they communicate it to everything they touch. It is first of all a physical quality; then it is a quality of the spirit. ~ Thomas Wolfe

The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into luster. ~ D.H. Lawrence

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie

Quotes about wholeness, life

- How much love do you have in your heart?
- How much wisdom as defined by Covey?
- How much gratitude?