I appreciate the insight that quotes evoke and provoke. I also appreciate the opportunity to exercise my brain by reading about the people, philosophies and ideas I care about. I hope you’ll find similar inspiration in these beautiful, timeless, and sometimes provocative quotes.
— Mark Lamm
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Body ✻ Mind ✻ Spirit
Health is the proper relationship between microcosm, which is man, and the macrocosm, which is the universe. Disease is a disruption of this relationship.
~ Dr. Yeshe Donden, physician to the Dalai Lama
The rhythm of the body the melody of the mind and the harmony of the soul create the symphony of life.
~ B.K.S. Iyengar
Health is an announcement of agreement between your body, mind and spirit. Honor your body, keep it in good shape. When you are not healthy, look to see which parts of you disagree. Your body will demonstrate the truth to you. Notice what it is showing you, listen to what it is saying.
~ Neale Donald Walsch
Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
~ Kahlil Gibran
Play is one of the highest spiritual forms of being. When we’re in that state, we get lost in ourselves, which allows the mind to receive the message of the spirit.
~ Ellie Katz
When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless and intelligence cannot be applied.
~ Herophilus
The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.
~ Leo Buscaglia
The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.
~ Buddha
Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be revelation.
~ Eileen Caddy
When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the circle of creation is completed inside us, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight.
~ Michael Bridge
To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
~ Henri Bergson
Your spirit is mingled with mine as wine is mixed with water; whatever touches you touches me. In all the stations of the soul you are I.
~ Diwan al-Hallaj
Your mind, emotions and body are instruments and the way you align and tune them determines how well you play life.
~ Yogi Bhajan
Everything you’ll ever need to know is within you; the secrets of the universe are imprinted on the cells of your body.
~ Dan Millman
Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.
~ Lao Tzu
I care not where my body may take me as long as my soul is embarked on a meaningful journey.
~ Dante
Creativity
If you take any activity, any art, any discipline, any skill — take it and push it as far as it will go, push it beyond where it has ever been before, push it to the wildest edges of edges, then you force it into the realm of magic.
~ Tom Robbins
Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; for it becomes your destiny.
~ Upanishads
Words chanted, spoken and written are powerful incantations. They have the ability to heal as well as inflame, to unite as well as separate, to bring love as well as engender hatred.
~ Mark Lamm
The words “I am…” are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to. The thing you’re claiming has a way or reaching back and claiming you.
~ A. L. Kitselman
Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.
~ Erich Fromm
Thoughts are creative whether they be beautiful or ugly, bold or timid, functional or dysfunctional.
~ Mark Lamm
The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he is always doing both.
~ L. P. Jacks
Playology is about waking up our senses, infusing our organs of seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting – and the higher cognitive senses as well, with the spirit of play. Play ignites creativity and spontaneity. Playing together leads to trust and cooperation.
~ Ellie Katz and, another great TEDTalk on the power of PLAY!
Critical Thinking
I have found power in the mysteries of thought.
~ Euripides
Keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. Court it. It is only by examining and reexamining your opinions and ideas that you can progress.
~ Dale Carnegie
To understand is to perceive patterns.
~ Isaiah Berlin
Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and thinking what no one else has thought.
~ Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
Science would be ruined if (like sports) it were to put competition above everything else, and if it were to clarify the rules of competition by withdrawing entirely into narrowly defined specialties. The rare scholars who are nomads-by-choice are essential to the intellectual welfare of the settled disciplines.
~ Benoît Mandelbrot watch him on TedTalks speaking on his life’s work — fractals.
Since you alone are responsible for your thoughts, only you can change them. You will want to change them when you realize that each thought creates according to its own nature. Remember that the law works at all times and that you are always demonstrating according to the kind of thoughts you habitually entertain. Therefore, start now to think only those thoughts that will bring you health and happiness.
~ Paramahansa Yogananda
I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me.
~ Herman Hesse
What is now proven was once only imagined.
~ William Blake
Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.
~ Man Ray
Out of an intuitive experience of the world comes a continuous flow of novel distinctions. Purely rational understanding, on the other hand, serves to confirm old mindsets, rigid categories. Artists, who live in the same world as the rest of us, steer clear of these mindsets to make us see things anew.
~ Ellen J. Langer
In the universe there is an immeasurable, indescribable force which shamans call intent, and absolutely everything that exists in the entire cosmos is attached to intent by a connecting link.
~ Carlos Castaneda
Diversity
My theory is that everyone at one time or another has been at the fringe of society in some way: an outcast in high school, a stranger in a foreign country, the best at something, the worst at something, the one who’s different. Being an outsider is the one thing we all have in common.
~ Alice Hoffman
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Let’s assume that each person has an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different – to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possesses.
~ John Fischer
Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common. Celebrate it every day.
~ Anonymous
I believe that you’re great, that there’s something magnificent about you. Regardless of what has happened to you in your life, regardless of how young or how old you think you might be, the moment you begin to think properly, this something that is within you, this power within you that’s greater than the world, it will begin to emerge. It will take over your life. It will feed you, it will clothe you, it will guide you, protect you, direct you, sustain your very existence. If you let it! Now that is what I know, for sure.
~ Michael Beckwith
Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.
~ Rudyard Kipling
Goals
We need to set goals for ourselves. Start today…if you don’t have any goals, make your first goal getting some goals. You probably won’t start living happily ever after, but you may start living happily, purposefully, and with gratitude…Goals are gratitude in action. They give us the opportunity to build on what we already have. While achieving goals can be a lengthy process, we can learn to be grateful for each stage in the process of setting and meeting goals.
~ Melody Beattie
You need to make a commitment, and once you make it, then life will give you some answers.
~ Les Brown
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
~ John Wesley
The path from dreams to success does exist. May you have the vision to find it, the courage to get on to it, and the perseverance to follow it. Wishing you a great journey.
~ Kalpana Chawla
When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.
~ Greg Anderson
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
~ Joseph Campbell
What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.
~ Zig Ziglar
Man improves himself as he follows his path; if he stands still, waiting to improve before he makes a decision, he’ll never move.
~ Paulo Coelho
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.
~ Colin Powell
Leadership
Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
~ William James
The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.
~ Jim Rohn
Mentoring brings us together – across generation, class, and often race – in a manner that forces us to acknowledge our interdependence, to appreciate, in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words, that ‘we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny.’ In this way, mentoring enables us to participate in the essential but unfinished drama of reinventing community, while reaffirming that there is an important role for each of us in it.”
~ Marc Freedman
If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then you are an excellent leader.
~ Dolly Parton
Relationships
Relationship is the mirror in which we see ourselves as we are. All life is a movement in relationship. There is no living thing on earth which is not related to something or other.
~ J. Krishnamurti
The purpose of relationship is not to have another who might complete you, but to have another with whom you might share your completeness.
~ Neale Donald Walsch
Smile at each other, smile at your wife, smile at your husband, smile at your children, smile at each other – it doesn’t matter who it is – and that will help you to grow up in greater love for each other.
~ Mother Theresa
With a basic understanding of all humans as brothers and sisters, we can appreciate the usefulness of different systems and ideologies that can accommodate different individuals and groups with different cultural heritages, having different dispositions and tastes. Each person has the right to choose whatever is most suitable, on the basis of a deep understanding of all others as brothers and sisters.
~ HH Dalai Lama
Interdependence is a fundamental law of nature. Even tiny insects survive by mutual cooperation based on innate recognition of their interconnectedness. It is because our own human existence is so dependent on the help of others that our need for love lies at the very foundation of our existence. Therefore we need a genuine sense of responsibility and a sincere concern for the welfare of others.
~ HH Dalai Lama
Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.
~ Seneca
I love people. I love my family, my children…but inside myself is a place I live all alone and that’s where you renew your springs that never dry up.
~ Pearl S. Buck
I have no sense of nationalism, only a cosmic consciousness of belonging to the human family.
~ Rosika Schwimmer
‘Ubunto’ is the essence of being human. A person is a person through other persons. You can’t be human in isolation. You are human only in relationships.
~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Tragic vs Life Enhancing
The disease of projection so complicates relationships between individuals, national, religious, and ethnic groups. Empathy disintegrates, the survival brain throws up barricades and concocts tales to justify personal and collective anger or sorrow. We project old experiences as expected outcomes, even though the situation may now be very different. In this way we tragically assure that tomorrow will look exactly like yesterday.
~ Jean Houston
We begin life with the world presenting itself to us as it is. Someone – our parents, teachers, analysts – hypnotizes us to see the world and construe it in the right way. These others label the world, attach names and give voices to the beings and events in it, so that thereafter, we cannot read the world in any other language or hear it saying other things to us. The task is to break the hypnotic spell, so that we become undeaf, unblind and multilingual, thereby letting the world speak to us in new voices and write all its possible meanings in the new book of our existence. Be careful in your choice of hypnotists.
~ Sidney Jourard
Your paradigm is so intrinsic to your mental process that you are hardly aware of its existence, until you try to communicate with someone with a different paradigm.
~ Donella Meadows
We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.
~ Anais Nin
Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.
~ Lao Tzu
Wisdom
In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.
~ Ansel Adams
Only in love are unity and duality not in conflict.
~ Rabindranath Tagore
Never forget that you are one of a kind. Never forget that if there weren’t any need for you in all your uniqueness to be on this earth, you wouldn’t be here in the first place. And never forget, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges and problems seem to be, that one person can make a difference in the world. In fact, it is always because of one person that all the changes that matter in the world come about. So be that one person.
~ Richard Buckminster Fuller
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
~ Viktor E. Frankl
The most responsive human? The individual whose internal awareness and external response allows for leaps instead of sequential steps to adapt to an ever changing environment — natural or technological.
~ Mark Lamm
There is a transcendent awareness, a Big Mind, a Big Heart, present and readily accessible to each and every one of us. When we realize it, we see it is the source of true peace, happiness, satisfaction, courage and joy.
~ Dennis Genpo Merzel
Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.
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Pema Chodron
It is only by grounding our awareness in the living sensation of our bodies that the “I Am,” our real presence, can awaken.
~ Gurdjieff
There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from.
~ Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
I’m interested in learning that’s motivated by reverence for life, that’s motivated by a desire to learn skills, to learn new things that help us to better contribute to our own well-being and the well-being of others.
~ Marshall Rosenberg
Peace is not won by those who fiercely guard their differences, but by those who with open minds and hearts seek out connections.
~ Katherine Paterson
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
~ Charles Darwin
Science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life.
~ Immanuel Kant
When you are inspired by some great purpose, your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you discover yourself to be a far greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
~ Patañjali
Each one of us has all the wisdom and knowledge we ever need right within us. It is available to us through our intuitive mind, which is our connection with universal intelligence.
~ Shakti Gawain
Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field; I’ll meet you there.
~ Rumi
The highest form of wisdom is kindness.
~ The Talmud
