What I call “doing the dishes” is the practice of loving the task in front of you. Your inner voice guides you all day long to do simple things such as brush your teeth, drive to work, call your friend, or do the dishes. Even though it’s just another story, it’s a very short story, and when you follow the direction of the voice, the story ends. We are really alive when we live as simply as that—open, waiting, trusting, and loving to do what appears in front of us now…What we need to do unfolds before us, always—doing the dishes, paying the bills, picking up the children’s socks, brushing our teeth. We never receive more than we can handle, and there is always just one thing to do. Whether you have ten dollars or ten million dollars, life never gets more difficult than that.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
A wealthy man will always have followers.
—African Proverb
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and just be my friend.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die.
—Paul Simon (b.1942) American Singer, Songwriter
This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Where the woman goes the devil follows.
—French Proverb
You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Philosopher, Essayist
If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Author, Mythologist
Just imagine you’re four years old, and someone makes the following proposal: If you’ll wait until after he runs an errand, you can have two marshmallows for a treat. If you can’t wait until then, you can have only one—but you can have it right now. It is a challenge sure to try the soul of any four-year-old, a microcosm of the eternal battle between impulse and restraint, id and ego, desire and self-control, gratification and delay… There is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse. It is the root of all emotional self-control, since all emotions, by their very nature, led to one or another impulse to act.
—Daniel Goleman (b.1946) American Psychologist, Author, Science Journalist
Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
—Shakti Gawain (1948–2018) American Author, Speaker, Consultant
Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
—Chinese Proverb
When I am with others, they are my teachers. I can select their good points and follow them, and select their bad points and avoid them.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
In life, those that are great are those that dare to follow their dreams through the good times and the bad times.
—Unknown
Follow effective action with quiet reflection.
From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.
—Peter Drucker (1909–2005) Austrian-born Management Consultant
Following straight lines shortens distances, and also life.
—Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Poet
If one sheep puts its head through the gap the rest will follow.
—Irish Proverb
We all have the ability…we just don’t all have the courage to follow our dreams and to follow the signs.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
The purpose of our lives is to add value to the people of this generation and those that follow.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
Example has more followers than reason.—We unconsciously imitate what pleases us, and approximate to the characters we most admire.—A generous habit of thought and action carries with it an incalculable influence.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
You cannot attain mastery by patterning yourself after another or by following custom or tradition. Sheep do that. Masters and leaders never do.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter
Follow the saint no further than his doorstep.
—Egyptian Proverb
Jane Fonda, who divided her life into three acts, decided after her sixtieth birthday that she was now facing the final act, and came to the following conclusion: “I thought to myself, well if that’s the case and if what I’m scared of isn’t death, but getting to the end with regrets, then I’ve got to figure out what would be the things that I would regret when I got to the last act if I hadn’t done them or achieved them by then. And they were: having an intimate relationship and having made a difference”.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
If you follow a fool, you’re a fool yourself.
—Jamaican Proverb
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
—Ted Turner (b.1938) American Businessperson, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
Follow the advice of the one who makes you cry, not from the one who makes you laugh.
—Arabic Proverb
Everything that is, desires to be. As we act, we unfold our being. Enjoyment naturally follows, for a thing desired always brings delight.
—Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian Poet, Philosopher
Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, “This is the real me,” and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Success follows doing what you want to do. There is no other way to be successful.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as your heart dictates.
—Jane Frances de Chantal (1572–1641) French Catholic Saint, Nun
Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called ‘Ego’.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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