In the spiritual world there are no time divisions such as the past, present and future; for they have contracted themselves into a single moment of the present where life quivers in its true sense. The past and the future are both rolled up in this present moment of illumination, and this present moment is not something standing still with all its contents, for it ceaselessly moves on.
—D. T. Suzuki (1870–1966) Japanese Buddhist Philosopher
Physical strength is measured by what we can carry; spiritual by what we can bear.
—Unknown
The smallest flower is a thought, a life answering to some feature of the Great Whole, of whom they have a persistent intuition.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything. That is all.
—Kalu Rinpoche (1905–89) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Scholar, Teacher
You may not believe in evolution, and that is all right. How we humans came to be the way we are is far less important than how we should act now to get out of the mess we have made for ourselves. How should the mind that can contemplate God relate to our fellow beings, the other life-forms of the world? What is our human responsibility? And what, ultimately, is our human destiny?
—Jane Goodall (b.1934) British Primatologist, Conservationist
Pure Spirit, one hundred degrees proof—that’s a drink that only the most hardened contemplation-guzzlers indulge in. Bodhisattvas dilute their Nirvana with equal parts of love and work.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
People see his pleasure-ground; him no one sees at all.
—The Upanishads Sacred Books of Hinduism
O Krishna, the stillness of divine union which you describe is beyond my comprehension. How can the mind, which is so restless, attain lasting peace? Krishna, the mind is restless, turbulent, powerful, violent; trying to control it is like trying to tame the wind.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
No ghost was every seen by two pair of eyes.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Let the spirit of adventure set the tone.
—Unknown
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 (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
You cannot believe in honor until you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright: you are the window through which you must see the world.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
He that loseth wealth, loseth much; he that loseth friends, loseth more; but he that loseth his spirit loseth all.
—Spanish Proverb
When the belly is empty, the body becomes spirit; and when it is full, the spirit becomes body.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (c.1213–91) Persian Poet
The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.
—Common Proverb
You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.
—James A. Garfield (1831–81) American Head of State, Lawyer, Educator
The spiritual is the parent of the practical.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
There is no easy formula for determining right and wrong livelihood, but it is essential to keep the question alive. To return the sense of dignity and honor to manhood, we have to stop pretending that we can make a living at something that is trivial or destructive and still have sense of legitimate self-worth. A society in which vocation and job are separated for most people gradually creates an economy that is often devoid of spirit, one that frequently fills our pocketbooks at the cost of emptying our souls.
—Sam Keen
You cannot travel on the path until you become the path itself.
—Buddhist Teaching
What I am trying to do is to unmuddle the metaphysical.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
There are some people who have the quality of richness and joy in them and they communicate it to everything they touch. It is first of all a physical quality; then it is a quality of the spirit.
—Thomas Wolfe (1900–38) American Novelist
But those rare souls whose spirit gets magically into the hearts of men, leave behind them something more real and warmly personal than bodily presence, an ineffable and eternal thing. It is everlasting life touching us as something more than a vague, recondite concept. The sound of a great name dies like an echo; the splendor of fame fades into nothing; but the grace of a fine spirit pervades the places through which it has passed, like the haunting loveliness of mignonette.
—James Thurber
Every spirit makes its house, but as afterwards the house confines the spirit, you had better build well.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof.
—Ashley Montagu (1905–1999) British-American Anthropologist
There are no mundane things outside of Buddhism, and there is no Buddhism outside of mundane things.
—Buddhist Teaching
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters from God dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God’s name. And I leave them where they are, for I know that wherever I go, others will punctually come for ever and ever.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Nothing is more repulsive than a furtively prurient spirituality; it is just as unsavory as gross sensuality.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
Sages speak of the immutable Tree of Life, with its tape root above and its branches below.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Be free all worthy spirits, and stretch yourselves, for greatness and for height.
—George Chapman (c.1560–1634) English Poet, Playwright