#919 Will it be here?

It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling.  ~ Robert M. Pirsig

Will it be here that we shall find a place which will not elude us, or which if it remains does not exert on us a culpable attraction? Or must we, leaning over the deck and watching the shores glide by, move forever onward?  ~ Andre Gide

(Quotes about searching, truth, life)

- Where have you searched for the truth?
- When might you have ignored it?
- What truth might be very near?

#918 They call it peace

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity...  ~ John Muir

“Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed ... We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in.  ~ Wallace Stengner

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.  ~ Jimmy Carter

And this is what happened, and this is why the caribou and the wolf are one; for the caribou feeds the wolf, but it is the wolf that keeps the caribou strong.  ~ Farley Mowat

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.  ~ Tacitus

Quotes about wilderness, nature, life

- When have you been moved by the wilderness?
- What loss of nature have you lamented?
- What does nature communicate?

#917 My fragile immortality

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.  ~ Maya Angelou

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.  ~ W. Somerset Maugham

Where does your security lie? Is God your refuge, your hiding place, your stronghold, your shepherd, your counselor, your friend, your redeemer, your saviour, your guide? If He is, you don't need to search any further for security.  ~ Elisabeth Elliot

From my spirit's gray defeat,
From my pulse's flagging beat,
From my hopes that turned to sand
Sifting through my close-clenched hand,
From my own fault's slavery,
If I can sing, I still am free.

For with my singing I can make
A refuge for my spirit's sake,
A house of shining words, to be
My fragile immortality.  ~ Sara Teasdale

Quotes about refuge, life

- How much is music a refuge for you?
- How much is reading?
- Where does your security lie?

#916 To make allowances

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. ~ Augusten Burroughs

I like flaws. I think they make things interesting. ~ Sarah Dressen

A perfect character might be attended with the inconvenience of being envied and hated; and that a benevolent man should allow a few faults in himself, to keep his friends in countenance. ~ Benjamin Franklin

I don't want a perfect character, I want a character who has, as strange as it sounds, some humanity, some flaws, some needs. ~ Nicholas Cage

Only a kind person is able to judge another justly
and to make allowances for his weaknesses.
A kind eye, while recognizing defects,
sees beyond them.  ~Lawrence G. Lovasik

Tags: quotes about flaws, weaknesses, life

- What are your flaws?
- What are some interesting flaws in several of your acquaintances?
- How do flaws in yourself, and in others, enhance life?

#915 Take to the oars

Adversity is the first path to truth.  ~ Lord Byron

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.  ~ Henry Ford

Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have.  ~ Dale Carnegie

But ne'er the rose without the thorn.  ~ Robert Herrick

If the wind will not serve, take to the oars.  ~ Latin proverb

Tags: quotes about hardship, adversity, life

-What adversity have you experienced?
- What did you learn?
- Where could you apply some resolve and hard rowing? 

#914 To set our hearts right

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall.  ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Hearts Live By Being Wounded.  ~ Oscar Wilde

The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.  ~ Benjamin Franklin

To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life; we must first set our hearts right.
~Confucius

Tags: quotes about the heart, life

- What rain has fallen in your life?
- What wounds have you experienced?
- What steps can you take to enrich your heart?

#913 Do your own growing

I don't consider myself to be a major talent, so the only solace I can take is to hope I'm growing. ~ Paul Simon

Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing. ~ William Butler Yeats

A man growing old becomes a child again.  ~ Sophocles

The trick is growing up without growing old.  ~ Casey Stengel

You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.  ~ Abraham Lincoln

Tags: quotes about growing, life


- What person do you know who is growing?
- When have you experienced growth?
- Where lies your next 'growth spurt?'