QUOTES

QUOTES

 

This is a post that will be updated regularly with both humorous and insightful quotes that we love. Enjoy and use as you will just make sure to credit the author. If you happen to know who said some of the "unknowns" please send me a note. Thanks!

 

 

APPRECIATION

 

"The deepest longing in the human breast is the desire for appreciation." William James

 

 

BEAUTY/FASHION

 

"Fashion is about the celebration of creativity. There are those who design, there are those who photograph, those who write, and those who adore .... collectively they draw our attention and our hearts and we delight in the colours, fabrics and styles. Whether we choose to emulate, to rearrange, or to buck the system completely we are making a statement about who we are or long to be. Playing dress-up as a little girl never ends ... it just deepens and enriches over the years and if we miss the opportunity to embrace this part of ourselves, this beautiful intricate woman-ness that we all engage in ... we miss out completely. Women are absolutely, and utterly breathtaking ... in all their forms and guises ... and such is fashion. " Aria E. Appleford

 

"You Don't Have to Be Pretty. You don't owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don't owe it to your mother, you don't owe it to your children, you don't owe it to civilization in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked "female". I'm not saying that you SHOULDN'T be pretty if you want to. (You don't owe UN-prettiness to feminism, in other words.) Pretty is pleasant, and fun, and satisfying, and makes people smile, often even at you. But in the hierarchy of importance, pretty stands several rungs down from happy, is way below healthy, and if done as a penance, or an obligation, can be so far away from independent that you may have to squint really hard to see it in the haze. But what does you-don't-have-to-be-pretty mean in practical, everyday terms? It means that you don't have to apologize for wearing things that are held to be "unflattering" or "unfashionable" -- especially if, in fact, they make you happy on some level deeper than just being pretty does. So what if your favorite color isn't a "good" color on you? So what if you are "too fat" (by some arbitrary measure) for a sleeveless top? If you are clean, are covered enough to avoid a citation for public indecency, and have bandaged any open wounds, you can wear any color or style you please, if it makes you happy." Fran Lebowitz

 

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart." Helen Keller

 

"Anything in any way beautiful derives its beauty from itself and asks nothing beyond itself. Praise is no part of it, for nothing is made worse or better by praise."   Marcus Aurelius

 

 

BEING YOURSELF

 

"Now I pray for the courage to live in a world undefined. I pray for the courage to find my way, to grow and understand. I pray for the integrity to know who I am and to understand my connection to the world around me and my Father in Heaven. I pray for the courage to be able to stand alone, undefined and misunderstood by perhaps everyone but myself and God." Aria E. Appleford

 

"When others hold us in their hearts as limited, or guilty …. When they paint us with a brush of judgment that holds us fast in an emotional prison … we have to find the courage to break free ….no matter who they are and what they have meant in our life. To stay is to agree that you are who they say and to surrender forever who you really are." Aria E. Appleford

 

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” Ayn Rand

 

“It doesn’t matter how one was brought up. What determines the way one does anything is personal power.” Carlos Castaneda

 

"Promise Yourself

 

To be so strong that nothing

can disturb your peace of mind.

To talk health, happiness, and prosperity

to every person you meet.

 

To make all your friends feel

that there is something in them

To look at the sunny side of everything

and make your optimism come true.

 

To think only the best, to work only for the best,

and to expect only the best.

To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others

as you are about your own.

 

To forget the mistakes of the past

and press on to the greater achievements of the future.

To wear a cheerful countenance at all times

and give every living creature you meet a smile.

 

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself

that you have no time to criticize others.

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,

and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

 

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,

not in loud words but great deeds.

To live in faith that the whole world is on your side

so long as you are true to the best that is in you. "

Christian D. Larson

 

"I will not die an unlived life.

I will not live in fear

of falling or catching fire.

I choose to inhabit my days,

to allow my living to open me,

to make me less afraid,

more accessible,

to loosen my heart

until it becomes a wing,

a torch, a promise.

I choose to risk my significance;

to live so that which came to me as seed

goes to the next as blossom

and that which came to me as blossom,

goes on as fruit.

fully alive" Dawna Markova

 

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." George Bernard Shaw

 

"There are two ways of looking at your life: either as a business or as an adventure. As a business, you try to evaluate and master everything. As an adventure, you follow the path of your heart, a path that goes beyond reason." Hervé Lepêtre

 

"Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends, fads and popular opinions." Jack Kerouac

 

“First, be authentic. Be true to yourself. Give everyone else permission to be themselves.” Osho

 

“I teach selfishness. I want you to be, first, your own flowering. Yes, it will appear as selfishness; I have no objection to that appearance; it is okay with me. But is the rose selfish when it blossoms? Is the lotus selfish when it blossoms? Is the sun selfish when it shines? Why should you be worried about selfishness?” Osho

 

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde

 

"Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs. "  Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

"Here's to the crazy ones.

The misfits.

The rebels.

The troublemakers.

The round pegs in the square holes.

The ones who see things differently.

They're not fond of rules.

And they have no respect for the status quo.

You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,

disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.

About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Because they change things.

They invent. They imagine. They heal.

They explore. They create. They inspire.

They push the human race forward.

Maybe they have to be crazy.

How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?

Or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written?

Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?

We make tools for these kinds of people.

While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.

Because the people who are crazy enough to think

they can change the world, are the ones who do." Steve Jobs

 

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition." Steve Jobs

 

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

"Comfort is found among those who agree with you; growth among those who don't." Unknown

 

 

BELIEFS

 

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” Buddha

 

 

CHANGE

 

“Change is never easy, you fight to hold on, and you fight to let go.” The Wonder Years

 

 

CHARACTER

 

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” Bob Marley

 

" Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."  John Wooden

 

"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

COMPASSION/KINDNESS

 

"When we pass up the opportunity to love others, to show compassion when others struggle, something deep within us breaks and we lose a little bit of our own capacity to be loved. What we take from others, we forfeit within ourselves. It is not them who will suffer because we have hardened our hearts … we will be the ones that weep when the night is dark." Aria E. Appleford

 

"WORDS are powerful. Even in their absence ….

 

The things that needed to be said but never were.

The things we could have said but didn't.

The truth we did not speak.

The apologies we never made.

The love that we withheld.

The witness we never gave.

 

Let your words speak. Let them be tools of healing and not weapons of destruction." Aria E. Appleford

 

"When you reach for the stars don't forget who you are. Its okay to live your life out loud and to go for the brass ring but don't scar people in your reach." Aria E. Appleford

 

"It's a little embarrassing to have spent one's entire life pondering the human situation and find oneself in the end with nothing more profound to say than try to be a little nicer."Aldous Huxley

 

“It is because I think so much of warm and sensitive hearts, that I would spare them from being wounded.” Charles Dickens

 

“We’ve been opening ourselves to the grief, to the knowing of what’s taking place, the loss of species, the destruction of the natural world, the unimaginable levels of social injustice and economic injustice that deprive so many human beings of basic opportunities. And as we open to the pain of that, there’s a possibility of embracing that pain and that grief in a way that it becomes a strength, a power to respond. There is the possibility that the energy that has been bound in the repression of it can now flow through us and energize us, make us clearer, more alive, more passionate, committed, courageous, determined people.” John Robbins

 

"Life is the first gift, love is the second, and understanding the third." Marge Piercy

 

"There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echos." Milan Kundera

 

“Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it again with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” Og Mandino

 

“Don’t flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

 

CONNECTIONS TO OTHERS

 

"As the same fire assumes different shapes when it consumes objects differing in shape, so does the one self take the shape of every creature in whom he is present. "  Marcus Aurelius

 

 

CREATIVITY

 

"It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power." Alan Cohen

 

"Creative ideas reside in people's minds but are trapped by fear or rejection. Create a judgment-free environment and you'll unleash a torrent of creativity." Alex Osborn

 

"When I take on a new problem, I'm not interested in how it's been done before. I only want to know, of all the constraints people tend to assume, which ones are actually fundamental and which ones are just habit?" Jeff Bonwick

 

"Creativity is essentially a lonely art. An even lonelier struggle. To some a blessing. To others a curse. It is in reality the ability to reach inside yourself and drag forth from your very soul an idea." Louis Dorfsman

 

"The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is the difference between living fully and just existing." Michael E. Gerber

 

"If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that remains is a compromise." Robert Fritz

 

 

DEATH

 

"They do not die for us, they stay in all the little things we do and follow us into our days.  The universe may require they surrender their bodies but they still live where they always were, tucked inside our hearts ... entwined within our souls ... "   Aria E. Appleford

 

 

DISCIPLINE

 

"Discipline is just choosing between what you want now and what you want most."  Unknown Author

 

 

DISCOVERY

 

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge." Daniel J. Boorstin

 

 

EDUCATION

 

" I hear: I forget / I see: I remember / I do: I understand" Chinese Proverb

 

" I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education." Wilson Mizner

 

 

ENLIGHTENMENT

 

"The road to enlightenment is paved with authenticity, not imitation." Alan Cohen

 

 

ETHICS

 

"Ethics cannot be based upon our obligations toward [people], but they are complete and natural only when we feel this Reverence for Life and the desire to have compassion for and to help all creatures insofar as it is in our power. I think that this ethic will become more and more recognized because of its great naturalness and because it is the foundation of a true humanism toward which we must strive if our culture is to become truly ethical. " Albert Schweitzer

 

 

FAILURE

 

" I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." Bill Cosby

 

"Half the fear of failure is of the judgment of false friends we feel compelled to impress but don't even like."   Unknown

 

 

FORGIVENESS

 

“Every breath is an opportunity to receive and let go. I receive love and I let go of pain.” Brenda MacIntyre

 

"There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue ." Edmund Burke

 

"Forgive, but do not wonder how you must act. Forgive, but do not try to convince another to forgive. Forgive, but do not hold yourself superior that you have done so. Simply forgive. Wrap your forgiveness around you like a cloak of light, a spiritual barrier that protects your happiness and your peace, but closes no one out." Hugh Prather

 

 

FEAR

 

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." Bertrand Russell

 

"You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. " Eleanor Roosevelt

 

"I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.

Only I will remain."

Frank Herbert

 

"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. We ask ourselves 'who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God, Your play small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't fee insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do ...And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." Nelson Mandela

 

 

FRIENDS

 

"Sometimes it takes a real friend to not give you the answer you seek, to understand you will not listen to them anyway. Sometimes it is more important to step out of your way and to allow you to head down your own path…. to love you anyway and to never ever say …"I told you so …" Aria E. Appleford

 

"The best friends, the people who love us most, are not those who tell us everything we want to hear or who cover our unkindness and lies.  The people who are willing to tell you the hard truth, to push you beyond what you think you can do, to call you on it when you make a mistake ... Are usually the people who really have your best interest at heart."  Aria E. Appleford

 

"A man should chose a friend who is better than himself. There are plenty of acquaintances in life but very few real friends." Chinese Proverb

 

“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. 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 curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.” Henri J.N. Nouwen

 

"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 curing, not healing, and face us with the reality of our powerlessness. That is a friend who cares."   Henri Nouwen

 

 

 

GENIUS

 

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." Wolfgang Mozart

 

 

GOALS

 

"Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desire can be won. It exists. It is real. It is possible. It is yours." Ayn Rand

 

"We are always getting ready to live, but never living."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

HAPPINESS

 

"Happiness in a dress, a car, a house .... Lasts until the next dress, car or house comes along.  These things can be taken from us in an instant.  The only things that are worth consuming our lives with, that last forever and no-one can take from us, are the things that feed the soul." Aria E. Appleford

 

"You can never get enough of what you don’t really need."  Eric Hoffer

 

 

HEALING

 

“You have to give to the world the thing that you want the most, in order to fix the broken parts inside you.” Eve Ensler

 

 

HUMOUR

 

"I think comparisons are inevitable, the trick is to make sure you are comparing apples to apples and not to bombe Alaska.  That is why I never compare myself to the smarter, the thinner, the more successful or the more beautiful.  I spend hours on Facebook, in Walmart, and at local Asylums gathering people to compare myself to.  It is all about winning.  I am a winner."  Aria E. Appleford

 

 

HURTS

 

“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” Bob Marley

 

 

IMAGINATION

 

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein

 

 

INTEGRITY

 

"When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion."  Abraham Lincoln

 

" It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them."  Alfred Adler

 

"You can pretend to be a good person and surround yourself with other pretenders who will allow your deception and tell you what you want to hear an at the end of your life you will have no more than the person who cheats on a test ... Or you can wake up and realize that doing the right thing can be a lonely path with few supporters but the experience will feed your soul." Aria E. Appleford

 

"The courage to say "this is right for me. I am at peace," even when everyone else around you is accusing you of everything. To have the courage to say no to the lie that is being told, especially when the lie is being told about you, even when others stand with their greater support, their "evidence" and the whole world on their side, is courage of the soul." Aria E. Appleford

 

“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”  Aristotle

 

“Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of the truth.” Gandhi

 

"We cannot tell what may happen to us in the strange medley of life. But we can decide

what happens in us -- how we can take it, what we do with it -- and that is what really counts in the end. How to take the raw stuff of life and make it a thing of worth and beauty -- that is the test of living."  Joseph Fort Newton.

 

"People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people mau accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway. If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway. The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway." Mother Theresa

 

"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah. "  Richard Bach

 

"The man who cannot believe in himself cannot believe in anything else. The basis of all integrity and character is whatever faith we have in our own integrity." Roy L Smith

 

"Integrity is telling myself the truth. And honesty is telling the truth to other people." Spencer Johnson

 

 

INTELLIGENCE

 

"We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers. Intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against being dead wrong." Carl Sagan

 

 

INTENTION

 

"I focus my energy on my true intentions. I will not be distracted by noise, chatter, or setbacks. Patience, commitment, grace, and purpose will guide me." Louise Hay

 

 

INTUITION

 

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant." Albert Einstein

 

 

JUDGEMENT

 

"A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at her." David Brinkley

 

"Throughout history we have tried to make each other and ourselves into something we aren't. When this fails we use threat, punishment, and manipulation. Inquire, challenge yes, but can we allow ourselves to 'be' what we find to be. This will show us the truth in allowing others. Transformation happens in the silence when the fight ends." Lynn Everett Purfield

 

 

LEADERSHIP

 

"Great masters merit emulation, not worship." Alan Cohen

 

“To offer the leadership and vision our times require as individuals, professionals, change agents in any domain, and even as spiritual leaders, wisdom dictates we move beyond unconscious polarization – not just intellectually, but in the very words we speak and the actions we take.”  Ragini Elizabeth Michaels  

 

 

 

LETTING GO

 

"To let go isn't to forgot, not to think about, or ignore. It doesn't leave feelings of anger, jealousy, or regret. Letting go isn't about winning or losing. It's not about pride and it's not about how you appear, and it's not obsessing or dwelling on the past. Letting go isn't blocking memories or thinking sad thoughts, and doesn't leave emptiness, hurt, or sadness. It's not about giving in or giving up. Letting go isn't about loss and it's not about defeat. To let go is to cherish the memories, but to overcome and move on. It is having an open mind confidence in the future. Letting go is learning and experiencing and growing. To let go is to be thankful for the experiences that made you laugh, made you cry, and made you grow. It's about all that you have, all that you had, and all that you will soon gain. Letting go is having the courage to accept change, and the strength to keep moving. Letting go is growing up. It is realizing that the heart can sometimes be the most potent remedy. To let go is to open a door, and to clear a path and set yourself free."  Unknown

 

 

LIFE DIRECTION

 

"Before you embark on any path ask the question, does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it and then you must choose another path. The trouble is that nobody asks the question. And when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart the path is ready to kill him." Carlos Castaneda

 

 

LIFE EXPERIENCE

 

“But the man who comes back through the ‘door in the wall’ will never be quite the same as the man who went out. He will be wiser but less cocksure, happier but less self-satisfied, humbler in acknowledging his ignorance yet better equipped to understand the relationship of words to things, of systematic reasoning to the unfathomable Mystery which he tries, forever vainly, to comprehend.” Aldous Huxley

 

 

LOVE

 

"Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused. " Alan Cohen

 

 "A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “universe,” a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few people near us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. "  Albert Einstein

 

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” Albert Schweitzer

 

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” Anais Nin

 

"It is love that has held me in all my broken-ness and promised me it would all be worth it.  It is love that has mended my heart and my soul and stayed with me long through the night when everyone else has gone.  I have never known anything else.  Love was born with me.  It held me tight and kept me safe and I never learned how to let go.  When I doubt myself the most it is love that whispers to me that I am beautiful and powerful and reminds me I have wings for a reason.  I hope that I have lived a life that has honoured my longest and dearest friend."    Aria E. Appleford

 

"Later that day I got to thinking about relationships. There are those that open you up to something new and exotic, those that are old and familiar, those that bring up lots of questions, those that bring you somewhere unexpected, those that bring you far from where you started, and those that bring you back. But the most exciting, challenging and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous." Carrie Bradshaw

 

"Love isn't a state of perfect caring.  It is an active noun, like struggle.  To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now."   Fred Rogers.

 

“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.” Marianne Williamson

 

"Another way that you love your enemy is this:

 

When the opportunity presents itself for you to defeat your enemy,

that is the time which you must not do it.

There will come a time, in many instances,

when the person who hates you most,

the person who has misused you most,

the person who has gossiped about you most,

the person who has spread false rumors about you most,

there will come a time when

you will have an opportunity to defeat that person.

It might be in terms of a recommendation for a job;

it might be in terms of helping that person

to make some move in life.

That's the time you must do it.

That is the meaning of love.

 

In the final analysis,

love is not this sentimental something that we talk about.

It's not merely an emotional something.

Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men.

It is the refusal to defeat any individual.

When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power,

you seek only to defeat evil systems.

Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love,

but you seek to defeat the system.

loving your enemies " Martin Luther King jr. - 1957

 

"Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired." Mother Teresa

 

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.

If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”

Mother Teresa

 

"In our deepest moments of struggle, frustration, fear, and confusion, we are being called upon to reach in and touch our hearts. Then, we will know what to do, what to say, how to be. What is right is always in our deepest heart of hearts. It is from the deepest part of our hearts that we are capable of reaching out and touching another human being. It is, after all, one heart touching another heart." Roberta Sage Hamilton

 

"A person's world is only as big as their heart. "  Tanya A. Moore

 

"If people can be educated to see the lowly side of their own natures, it may be hoped that they will also learn to understand and to love their fellow men better. A little less hypocrisy and a little more tolerance towards oneself can only have good results in respect for our neighbor; for we are all too prone to transfer to our fellows the injustice and violence we inflict upon our own natures."

Two Essays on Analytical Psychology: New Paths in Psychology, 1912

 

“Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”  Wayne Dyer

 

 

LOVE (ROMANTIC)

 

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you." A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

 

“I loved her simply because I found her irresistible. Once for all; I knew to my sorrow, often and often, if not always, that I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be. Once for all; I love her none the less because I knew it, and it had no more influence in restraining me, than if I had devoutly believed her to be human perfection.” Charles Dickens

 

“You have been the last dream of my soul.” Charles Dickens

 

“Love her, love her, love her! If she favours you, love her. If she wounds you, love her. If she tears your heart to pieces – and as it gets older and stronger, it will tear deeper – love her, love her, love her!” Charles Dickens

 

"And when I met you my heart sighed. The sigh radiated from the hole in my chest, from that place that had never seen light, from that place that had taken all of my joy and given me only loneliness. “There you are,” it said, “you don’t know how long I have been waiting for you" Kevin Lee Newton

 

 

MEN AND WOMEN

 

"My wife suggested a book for me to read to enhance our relationship. It's titled, "Women are from Venus, Men are Wrong." Unknown

 

 

MEMORIES

 

“There either is or is not, that’s the way things are. The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes it’s red. But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day. I’m not going to tell you the story the way it happened. I’m going to tell it the way I remember it.” Charles Dickens

 

 

MISTAKES

 

"Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment." Barry LePatner

 

 "If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake." Frank Wilczek

 

 

MOTHERHOOD

 

“When you were small and just a touch away, I covered you with blankets against the cold night air. But now that you are tall and out of reach, I fold my hands and cover you with prayer. " Dona Maddux Cooper

 

"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." Honore de Balzac

 

"The moment a child is born, the mother is also born. She never existed before. The woman existed, but the mother, never. A mother is something absolutely new." Rajneesh

 

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.” Washington Irving

 

 

MOVING FORWARD

 

"Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress." Alfred A. Montapert

 

 

MUSIC

 

"Sometimes I cannot contain my soul and when and it explodes out of my mouth and music happens ... "   Aria E. Appleford

 

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

 

 

NEGATIVITY

 

"Everything looks impossible for the people who never try anything." Jean-Louis Etienne

 

"No matter how much progress you make there will always be the people who insist that whatever you’re trying to do is impossible. Or they may incessantly suggest that the idea or dream as a whole is utterly ridiculous because nobody really cares. When you come across these people, don’t try to reason with them. Instead, forget that they exist. They will only waste your time and energy." Unknown

 

"Pay no attention to critics. No one ever erected a statue to a critic" Werner Ehrhart

 

 

NEVER GIVE UP

 

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

OPEN MINDED

 

"It takes more courage to alter an opinion than to stick with it." Unknown

 

 

OWNING YOUR OWN MIND

 

“Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.” Albert Einstein

 

"Great spirits have always encountered violent oppression from mediocre minds." Albert Einstein

 

"Few are those who can see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts." Albert Einstein

 

"Do not believe anything because it is said by an authority, or if it is said to come from angels, or from Gods, or from an inspired source.  Believe it only if you have explored it in your own heart and mind and body and found it to be true.  Work out your own path, through diligence." Gautama Buddha

 

 

PAIN

 

“Look into your own heart, discover what it is that gives you pain and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.” Karen Armstrong

 

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." Marcus Aurelius

 

 

PARENTING

 

"I owe my children nothing. I have nursed them, fed them, housed them and clothed them. I have offered them the best of who I am and what I know. They have had my joy, my sweat, my tears. I have bled for them. I have offered up my mistakes so that they might do differently. My life has been and remains an open door. The invitation extended, has never been withdrawn. They come and go as they please. If they are disappointed in how it all turned out, they need to look to themselves. It was not my place to insist they come for tea." Aria E. Appleford

 

"Some mother's teach with their words. Some mother's teach with their example. And there are mother's who teach with their lives. Not every mother is a Hallmark cut out. Most of us are flawed, and broken and don't seem to shine much anymore BUT we lived our lives as best we could, learned from our mistakes and never stopped loving our "babies." We speak of what we know because we know first hand the pain of heading down that path. We are real people, we have feelings, we cry, we laugh, we fail and we succeed. We want our children to be real people and to have all the happiness they possibly can. There are very few people that go the distance with you in your life … friends come and go, siblings and cousins and other extended family drift away, they move, you lose touch …even lovers and spouses come and go these days. The one constant is your mother (and father). Your mother will love you till the day she dies. She will not walk away when you are angry or do something stupid. She will not find someone else to take your place. What a shame when we lose the opportunity to know or care about that person in our lives." Aria E. Appleford

 

"Of all the gifts I could give my children, only two mattered most.  Discernment and the ability to love unconditionally .   One protects them and  the other connects them.  Without those two abilities they are naked to the world."  Aria E. Appleford 

 

 

PASSION

 

"Some people stand on who they were and what they did twenty years ago... fifty years ago... but that speaks of a fire that fuelled your yesterday. It only tells me what you were capable of when you started out. I am more interested in what you are doing now, what you will do… Show me the fire that fuels you today." Aria E. Appleford

 

"We work in the dark. We do what we can – we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion , and our passion is our task." James Henry

 

 

PEACE

 

"I am guilty of war when I proudly exercise my intelligence to the disadvantage of my fellow man.

I am guilty of war when I distort other's opinions, which differ from my own.

I am guilty of war when I show disregard for the rights and properties of others.

I am guilty of war when I covet what another has honestly acquired.

I am guilty of war when I seek to maintain my superiority of position by depriving others of their opportunity of advancement.

I am guilty of war if I imagine my kin and myself to be a privileged people.

I am guilty of war if I believe a heritage entitles me to monopolize resources of nature.

I am guilty of war when I believe other people must think and live as I do.

I am guilty of war when I make success in life solely dependent upon power, fame, and riches.

I am guilty of war when I think the minds of people should be regulated by force, rather than by reason.

I am guilty of war when I believe the God I conceive is the one others must accept.

I am guilty of war when I think that a land of a man's birth must necessarily be the place of his livelihood.

The true articles of peace cannot be legislated but are drawn up in the personal aspirations and conduct of the millions of little people. When all men will frankly perceive their common dependence, an understanding will emerge that will transcend the barriers of time and space, creed and race." Rosicrucian order - creed of peace - Ralph M. Lewis - 1944

 

 

POSITIVE OUTLOOK

 

"We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. the amount of work is the same."  Carlos Castenada

 

"Life in itself is an empty canvas; it becomes whatsoever you paint on it. You can paint misery, you can paint bliss. This freedom is your glory." Osho

 

 

REGRETS

 

"So many things I was going to do … wanted to say … but didn't. Time has a way of taking us prisoners and carrying us down the river, forgetting what we intended to do but people pass, like time and moments lost are lost. There is no promise of tomorrow … only today. Don't leave unsaid or undone that which your heart has spoken of today." Aria E. Appleford

 

 

REVENGE

 

"The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury."  Marcus Aurelius

 

 

SELF ESTEEM

 

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." Christopher Robin to Pooh

 

 

SILENCE

 

"Sometimes its better to be silent than to tell others what you feel Because it will only hurt you when you know they can hear you but they can’t understand you." Unknown

 

 

SORROW

 

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.” Charles Dickens

 

"Sorrow makes us all children again - destroys all differences of intellect. The wisest know nothing." Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

“Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.” Charles Dickens

 

"Silence is medication for sorrow." Unknown

 

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are messengers of overwhelming grief…and unspeakable love." Washington Irving

 

 

SPIRITUALITY

 

"I looked without. And the world taught me. I leaned to compete, how to accumulate things and earn the praises of men. I learned of science and medicine and art. I learned of history, of both terrible and great men and their achievements, and still I could not fashion wings.

 

I looked within. And God taught me. I learned of love, tolerance and compassion. I learned to understand my dark and to celebrate my light. I learned truth. I faced my fears and I found peace. I found my wings and flew." Aria E. Appleford

 

"Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here. The spiritual journey is the relinquishment, or unlearning, of fear and the acceptance of love back into our hearts." Marianne Williamson

 

 

SUCCESS

 

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

"The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself."  Wallace Wattles

 

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

 

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."  Woody Allen

 

 

SUFFERING

 

"The deepest cuts that tear our heart and soul open us to our own healing." Aria E. Appleford

 

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. " Elizabeth Kubler Ross

 

 

SURRENDER

 

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”Marilyn Monroe

 

“The Tao Te Ching says, When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need. Have you ever struggled to find work or love, only to find them after you have given up? This is the paradox of letting go. Let go, in order to achieve. Letting go is God’s law.” Mary Manin Morrissey

 

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

"Giving up doesn’t always mean you’re weak, sometimes it means you are strong enough and smart enough to let go." Unknown

 

 

TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS

 

"We would never consider walking up to a wild animal as if we were friends. We take care to avoid invading their space or engaging with them in any way because we recognize the damage that could be done to our bodies, even if it appears to be going well. And yet, we subject our spiritual and emotional well beings to people who savage us in brutal and damaging ways that rival any wild animal known to man … and we do it in the name of friendship, loyalty, responsibility, duty, compassion. Just as a broken and battered body can no longer lift another body from its pain, a broken and wounded soul cannot hold another's heart." Aria E. Appleford

 

 

TRIALS

 

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are."   Bernice Johnson Reagon

 

“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”

Chinese proverb

 

"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.” Epictetus

 

“Out of difficulties grow miracles.” Jean De La Bruyere

 

"To try is to risk failure. But risk must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, live, and love." Leo Buscaglia

 

"The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers." M. Scott Peck

 

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”

Nelson Mandela

 

“I have learned that failure is really God’s way of saying, ‘Excuse me, you’re moving in the wrong direction.’” Oprah Winfrey

 

“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” Robert Schuller

 

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” Seneca

 

"The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem." Theodore Rubin

 

“I have not failed 10,000 times. I found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison

 

 

TRUTH

 

"To truly find God, truth needs to be found independently from the opinions of others.

The truth has tobe found in our hearts." A.H. Almaas

 

"The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men. It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the evil spirit of man. Human beings do not know the truth. They do not understand the natural harmony and order of nature and the universe; therefore, they do not understand themselves." Albert Einstein

 

"Even if you are in a minority of one, the truth is still the truth." Gandhi

 

 

VISUALIZATION

 

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside awakes." Carl Gustav Jung

 

"We hear opinions not facts, we see perspective not truth.  Truth exists whether we see or hear it.  It is not changed by what we say about it.  Truth can only be accepted or left and we are either stronger or not.  It is a choice we make in what we take to our hearts, how we set our compass to guide our path."  Unknown

 

 

WOMEN

 

"A strong woman understands the importance of creating space for personal well-being, spiritual nourishment, and regeneration in order to maintain her authenticity, especially when the universe whacks her with its two-by-four and hands her days when it takes a great deal of courage just to show up. " Laura Folse

 

 

WORK

 

"We don't get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? So this is what we've chosen to do with our life. We could be sitting in a monastery somewhere in Japan. We could be out sailing. Some of the team could be playing golf. They could be running other companies. And we've all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it. And we think it is." Steve Jobs

 

 

WORRY

 

"There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem." Harold Stephens