You are built not to shrink down to less but to blossom into more.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
All growth is a leap in the dark, a spontaneous, unpremeditated act without benefit of experience.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
No mirror ever became iron again; No bread ever became wheat; No ripened grape ever became sour fruit. Mature yourself and be secure from a change for the worse. Become the light.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
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
As irrigators lead water where they want, as archers make their arrows straight, as carpenters carve wood, the wise shape their minds.
—Buddhist Teaching
If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we are not really living. Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.
—Gail Sheehy (1936–2020) American Writer, Journalist
I hope you will go out and let stories happen to you, and that you will work them, water them with your blood and tears and you laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom.
—Clarissa Pinkola Estes (b.1945) American Author, Poet, Psychoanalyst
Upon the creatures we have made, we are, ourselves, at last, dependent.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
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
Every blade of grass has its Angel that bends over it and whispers, Grow, Grow”.”
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945) American Novelist
The key to growth is the introduction of higher dimensions of consciousness into our awareness.
—Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan (1916–2004) British Sufi Mystic, Psychologist, Religious Leader
When superior people hear of the Way, they carry it out with diligence. When middling people hear of the Way, it sometimes seems to be there, sometimes not. When lesser people hear of the Way, they ridicule it greatly. If they didn’t laugh at it, it wouldn’t be the Way.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
A tree trunk the size of a man grows from a blade as thin as a hair. A tower nine stories high is built from a small heap of earth.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Author, Speaker, Pastor
The need of expansion is as genuine an instinct in man as the need in a plant for the light, or the need in man himself for going upright. The love of liberty is simply the instinct in man for expansion.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
A feeling of continuous growth is a wonderful source of motivation and self-confidence.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
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
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness.
—Jean Vanier (1928–2019) French-Canadian Philosopher, Theologian, Humanitarian
This discipline and rough treatment are a furnace to extract the silver from the dross. This testing purifies the gold by boiling the scum away.
—Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207–73) Persian Muslim Mystic
The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.
—Rollo May (1909–94) American Philosopher
However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it constitutes the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.
—Samuel Smiles (1812–1904) British Author, Reformer
All men’s gains are the fruit of venturing.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
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
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