No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
When a man has fulfilled all four of these requisites—to be wide awake, to have fear, respect, and absolute assurance—there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his actions lose the blundering quality of the acts of a fool. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
If you play it safe in life, you’ve decided that you don’t want to grow anymore.
—Shirley Hufstedler (1925–2016) American Lawyer, Jurist
Life doesn’t do anything to you. It only reveals your spirit.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
The fatal metaphor of progress, which means leaving things behind us, has utterly obscured the real idea of growth, which means leaving things inside us.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.
—Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916–2004) British Sufi Mystic, Religious Leader, Psychologist
Look not mournfully into the Past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the Present. It is thine. Go forth to meet the shadowy Future, without fear, and with a manly heart.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Image is what people think we are; integrity is what we really are.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
I don’t say ‘Tis impossible for an impudent man not to rise in the world, but a moderate merit with a large share of impudence is more probable to be advanced than the greatest qualifications without it.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
We’re all fools…all the time. It’s just we’re a different kind each day. We think, I’m not a fool today. I’ve learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we’re not perfect and live accordingly.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
The minute a man ceases to grow, no matter what his years, that minute he begins to be old.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.
—Jean Vanier (1928–2019) French-Canadian Philosopher, Theologian, Humanitarian
The great epochs of our life come when we gain the courage to rechristen our evil as what is best in us.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Nothing is lost upon a person who is bent upon growth; nothing is wasted on one who is always preparing for his work and life by keeping eyes, mind, and heart open to nature, men, books, experience. Such a man finds ministries to his education on all sides; everything cooperates with his passion for growth.
—Hamilton Wright Mabie (1846–1916) American Essayist, Editor
Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves – to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today, to do our work with more force than ever before.
—Stewart B. Johnson
A total immersion in life offers the best classroom for learning to love.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
Don’t go through life, grow through life.
—Eric Butterworth (1916–2003) American Spirituality Writer
Growth is the only evidence of life.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
People with a culture of poverty suffer much less from repression than we of the middle class suffer and indeed, if I may make the suggestion with due qualification, they often have a hell of a lot more fun than we have.
—Brian Friel (1929–2015) Irish Dramatist, Short Story Writer
Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?
—Ray Kroc (1902–84) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
I’ve watched a lot of mid-career people, and Yogi Berra says you can observe a lot just by watching. I’ve concluded that most people enjoy learning and growing. And many are dearly troubled by the self-assessments of mid-career. Such self-assessments are no great problem at your age. You’re young and moving up. The drama of your own rise is enough. But when you reach middle age, when your energies aren’t what they used to be, then you’ll begin to wonder what it all added up to; you’ll begin to look for the figure in the carpet of your life. I have some simple advice for you when you begin that process. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Look ahead. Someone said that Life is the art of drawing without an eraser. And above all don’t imagine that the story is over. Life has a lot of chapters.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Government Official, Political leader
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen.
—Thomas Merton (1915–68) American Trappist Monk
He who is not busy being born is busy dying.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer-songwriter
Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, Grow, Grow”.”
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
—Chinese Proverb
Every phase of evolution commences by being in a state of unstable force and proceeds through organization to equilibrium. Equilibrium having been achieved, no further development is possible without once more oversetting the A journey of a thousand miles starts in front of your feet. Whosoever acts spoils it. Whosoever keeps loses it.
—Kabbalah Teaching Jewish Mystical, Theosophical Tradition
I am a woman in process. I’m just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
When we feel stuck, going nowhere–even starting to slip backward–we may actually be backing up to get a running start.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
Every positive change–every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness–involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception.
—Dan Millman (b.1946) American Children’s Books Writer, Sportsperson
Still round the corner there may wait,
A new road or a secret gate.
—J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973) British Scholar, Author
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for our own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
—Marie Curie (1867–1934) Polish-born French Physicist, Chemist
The whole point of being alive is to evolve into a complete person you were intended to be.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
The seed cannot know what is going to happen, the seed has never known the flower. And the seed cannot even believe that he has the potentiality to become a beautiful flower. Long is the journey, and it is always safer not to go on that journey because unknown is the path, nothing is guaranteed.
Nothing can be guaranteed. Thousand and one are the hazards of the journey, many are the pitfalls – and the seed is secure, hidden inside a hard core. But the seed tries, it makes an effort; it drops the hard shell which is its security, it starts moving. Immediately the fight starts: the struggle with the soil, with the stones, with the rocks. And the seed was very hard and the sprout will be very, very soft and dangers will be many.
There was no danger for the seed, the seed could have survived for millennia, but for the sprout many are the dangers. But the sprout starts towards the unknown, towards the sun, towards the source of light, not knowing where, not knowing why. Great is the cross to be carried, but a dream possesses the seed and the seed moves.
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
Then bless thy secret growth, nor catch At noise, but thrive unseen and dumb; Keep clean, be as fruit, earn life, and watch, Till the white-wing’d reapers come.
—Henry Vaughan (1621–95) Anglo-Welsh Metaphysical Poet
To sin is to be off the mark, that is, to inhibit development, contracting backward into regression rather than expanding forward into growth.
—Connie Zweig (b.1949) American Minister, Columnist, Psychotherapist
The depth of your mythology is the extent of your effectiveness.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
Life is growth-a challenge of environment. If we cannot meet our everyday surroundings with equanimity and pleasure and grow each day in some useful direction, then this splendid balance of cosmic forces which we call life is on the road toward misfortune, misery and destruction. Therefore, health is the most precious of all things.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
Rich people see opportunities. Poor people see obstacles. Rich people see potential growth. Poor people see potential loss. Rich people focus on rewards. Poor focus on the risks.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees.
—Douglas Malloch (1877–1938) American Poet, Short-story Writer
All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work. Work is not a curse; it is the prerogative of intelligence, the only means to manhood, and the measure of civilization.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
In the end, it is important to remember that we cannot become what we need to be, by remaining what we are.
—Max De Pree (1924–2017) American Businessman
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead (1901–78) American Anthropologist, Social Psychologist
The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
Every mind was made for growth, for knowledge, and its nature is sinned against when it is doomed to ignorance.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.
—Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) American Novelist, Human Rights Activist
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Climb mountains to see lowlands.
—Chinese Proverb
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before… to test your limits… to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who hope that their dreams will come true.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said today… Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
Some people are molded by their admirations, others by their hostilities.
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973) Irish Novelist, Short-story Writer
Close scrutiny will show that most “crisis situations” are opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author