Leo Tolstoy

"The most dangerous temptation is the temptation to prepare to live, instead of living."

--Leo Tolstoy

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Immanuel Kant

"One of the best and purest joys is having a rest after labor."

--Immanuel Kant

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Anne Frank

"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature."

--Anne Frank

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Algernon Black

"Why not let people differ about their answers to the great mysteries of the Universe? Let each seek one's own way to the highest, to one's own sense of supreme loyalty in life, one's ideal of life. Let each philosophy, each world-view bring forth its truth and beauty to a larger perspective, that people may grow in vision, stature and dedication."

--Algernon Black
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Hubert Humphrey

"Oh, my friend, it is not what they take away from you that counts. It’s what you do with what you have left."

--Hubert Humphrey

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Dr. William Menninger

"The amount of satisfaction you get from life depends largely on your own ingenuity, self-sufficiency, and resourcefulness. People who wait around for life to supply their satisfaction usually find boredom instead."

--Dr. William Menninger

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Dalai Lama

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."

--Dalai Lama

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Horace Walpole

"The whole secret to life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well."

--Horace Walpole

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Howard Thurman

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

--Howard Thurman

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Hannah Arendt

"The task and potential greatness of mortals lie in their ability to produce things—works and deeds and words—which deserve to be at home in everlastingness."

--Hannah Arendt
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Sarif Abdullah

“'Success' doesn’t mean I’ve saved an endangered species or cleaned up a toxic waste dump or fed hungry children. Success means awakening in myself a Spirit that can help make a better life for others. Success means I have acted in the world as though I were a part of it, not apart from it. Success means becoming conscious of and faithful to my values and my soul."

--Sarif Abdullah

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Winston Churchill

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

--Winston Churchill

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Ted Rosenthal

"I don’t think people are afraid of death, what they are afraid of is the incompleteness of their life."

--Ted Rosenthal

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Booker T Washington

"I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles overcome while trying to succeed."

--Booker T Washington

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Robert Byrne

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."

--Robert Byrne

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Nelson Mandela

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us .... Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us."

--Nelson Mandela

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James A. Froude

"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one."

--James A. Froude

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Gordon Dahl

"We need worship, work and play to keep us whole. Left to ourselves, we get it all mixed up and end up worshipping our work, working at our play, and playing at our worship."

--Gordon Dahl

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Reflections on Life

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

--Anonymous

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Winston Churchill

"We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."

--Winston Churchill

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Reflections on Life

"You are younger today than you ever will be again. Make use of it for the sake of tomorrow."

--Anonymous

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Seneca

"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult."

--Seneca

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Mahatma Ghandi

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."

--Mahatma Ghandi

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Reflections on Life

"One can acquire everything in solitude –except character."

--Henri Stendhal

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Indifference

"The opposite of love is not hate,
it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness,
it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy,
it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death,
it's indifference."

--Elie Wiesel

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The road

"'The road,' wrote Cervantes, 'is always better than the inn.' Those who settle on fame or fortune, and having arrived, call it quits, miss the whole point of life. Realistically, there is no inn, no ultimate point of arrival. It is the road now and forever, finite man probing infinity, finding his way, endlessly. All that matters are the lessons learned along the way."

--Leonard E. Read

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Emily Dickenson

"To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else."

--Emily Dickenson

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Ayya Khema

"The greatest support we can have is mindfulness, which means being totally present in each moment. If the mind remains centered, it cannot make up stories about the injustice of the world or one's friends, or about one's desires or sorrows. Being mindful means being fully absorbed in the moment, leaving no room for anything else. We are filled with the momentary happening, whatever it is--standing or sitting or lying down, feeling pleasure or pain--and we maintain a nonjudgmental awareness, a 'just knowing.'"

--Ayya Khema

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M. Scott Peck

"One measure -- perhaps the best measure -- of a person's greatness is the capacity for suffering."

--M. Scott Peck

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Leo Tolstoy

"We do not have the right to be unhappy with our life. If it seems to us that we are not satisfied with life, we should see this as a reason to be unsatisfied with ourselves."

--Leo Tolstoy
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