The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit – this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The heavens and the earth alike speak of God, and the great natural world is but another Bible, which clasps and binds the written one; for nature and grace are one—grace the heart of the flower, and nature its surrounding petals.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
In all my life I have never heard a mother call out to her child as she goes off to school, “Take a lot of risks today, darling”. She is more likely to convey to her child, “Be careful, darling”. This “Be careful” carries with it a double message: “The world is really dangerous out there” … and … “you won’t be able to handle it”.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to change the world so that they can be happy. This hasn’t ever worked, because it approaches the problem backward. What The Work gives us is a way to change the projector—mind—rather than the projected. It’s like when there’s a piece of lint on a projector’s lens. We think there’s a flaw on the screen, and we try to change this person and that person, whomever the flaw appears on next. But it’s futile to try to change the projected images. Once we realize where the lint is, we can clear the lens itself. This is the end of suffering, and the beginning of a little joy in paradise.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The world is in your hands, now use it.
—Phil Collins (b.1951) British Singer, Drummer, Songwriter
The world has narrowed to a neighborhood before it has broadened to a brotherhood.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
It is ridiculous ever to forget that you and your business are each implanted in the society of the moment…. We cannot ignore the world of our time. We had better understand it.
—J. Irwin Miller (1909–2004) American Industrialist, Philanthropist
The world is too must: with us; late and soon, getting and spending we lay waste our powers. Little we see in nature that is ours.
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Poet
I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be; and if we observe, we shall find, that all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.
—Eden Phillpotts (1862–1960) English Author, Poet, Dramatist
Among true and real friends, all is common; and were ignorance and envy and superstition banished from the world, all mankind would be friend.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
I hope that real love and truth are stronger in the end than any evil or misfortune in the world.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
When you’re operating on uninvestigated theories of what’s going on and you aren’t even aware of it, you’re in what I call “the dream”. Often the dream becomes troubling; sometimes it even turns into a nightmare. At times like these, you may want to test the truth of your theories by doing The Work on them. The Work always leaves you with less of your uncomfortable story. Who would you be without it? How much of your world is made up of unexamined stories? You’ll never know until you inquire.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
This may not be the best of all possible worlds, but to say that it is the worst is mere petulant nonsense.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
What should I have known or written had I been a quiet, mercantile politician or a lord in waiting? A man must travel, and turmoil, or there is no existence.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
For in itself a thought, a slumbering thought, is capable of years, and curdles a long life into one hour.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The task for us now, if we are to survive, is to build the earth.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
How novel and original must be each new mans view of the universe – for though the world is so old – and so many books have been written – each object appears wholly undescribed to our experience – each field of thought wholly unexplored – the whole world is an America – a New World.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The only true method of action in this world is to be in it, but not of it.
—Sophie Swetchine (1782–1857) Russian Mystic, Writer
People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The world does not need tourists who ride by in a bus clucking their tongues. The world as it is needs those who will love it enough to change it, with what they have, where they are.
—Robert Fulghum (b.1937) American Unitarian Universalist Author, Essayist, Clergyman
The Work reveals that what you think shouldn’t have happened should have happened. It should happened because it did, and no thinking in the world can change it. This doesn’t mean that you condone it or approve of it. It just means that you can see things without resistance and without the confusion of your inner struggle. No one wants their children to get sick, no one wants to be in a car accident; but when these things happen, how can it be helpful to mentally argue with them? We know better than to do that, yet we do it, because we don’t know how to stop.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The world is as you perceive it to be. For me, clarity is a word for beauty. It’s what I am. And when I’m clear, I see only beauty. Nothing else is possible.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated.
—Alphonse de Lamartine (1790–1869) French Poet, Politician, Historian
The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Is it possible that I am not alone in believing that in the dispute between Galileo and the Church, the Church was right and the center of man’s universe is the earth?
—Stephen Vizinczey (b.1933) Hungarian-born Canadian Novelist, Literary Critic, Author
Jesus said love one another. He didn’t say love the whole world.
—Mother Teresa (1910–97) Roman Catholic Missionary, Nun
The world is not comprehensible, but it is embraceable: through the embracing of one of its beings.
—Martin Buber (1878–1965) Austrian Jewish Theologian, Philosopher, Novelist
The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
He who imagines he can do without the world deceives himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do without him is still more mistaken.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
The sword is the axis of the world, and grandeur is indivisible.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The world remains ever the same.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
All the world’s ends, arrangements changes, disappointments, hopes, and fears, are without meaning, if not seen and estimated by eternity!
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
You do not reform a world by ignoring it.
—George H. W. Bush (1924–2018) American Republican Statesman, 41st President
The people of the world genuinely want peace. Some day the leaders of the world are going to have to give in and give, it to them.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
Remember, you can’t drain the ocean with a teaspoon.
—Ignaz Bernstein (1836–1909) Russian-Jewish Bibliophile
Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
God hath not taken all that pains in forming, framing, furnishing, and adorning this world, that they who were made by him to live in it, should despise it; it will be well enough if they do not love it so immoderately as to prefer it before him who made it.
—Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon (1609–74) English Statesman, Historian
Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts. His acts being seven ages.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.
—John Lennon (1940–80) British Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Activist
As far as I know, everyone feels fear as he or she moves forward through life. It is absolutely possible that there are some evolved souls in this world who never experience fear, but I have not met them.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
I am talking about the power within the self. This means power over your perceptions of the world, power over how you react to situations in your life, power to do what is necessary for your own self-growth, power to create joy and satisfaction in your life, power to act, and power to love.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
It takes all sorts of people to make a world.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
What you cannot see in the world is far more powerful than anything you can see.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
It doesn’t matter much what happens in this world, there’s going to be somebody who’ll tell you that he knew it would.
—Unknown
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author