The Work is the end of the world as we understand it to be, sweetheart. And it’s the opening to reality, as it really is, in all its beauty.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The universe, as far as we can observe it, is a wonderful and immense engine…. If we dramatize its life and conceive its spirit, we are filled with wonder, terror and amusement, so magnificent is the spirit.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
For one man is my world of all the men this wide world holds; O love, my world is you.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
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
In reality, there is no such thing as a “should” or a “shouldn’t”. These are only thoughts that we impose onto reality. The mind is like a carpenter’s level. When the bubble is off to one side—“It shouldn’t be raining”—we can know that the mind is caught in its thinking. When the bubble is right in the middle—“It’s raining”—we can know that the surface level and the mind is accepting reality as it is. Without the “should” and “shouldn’t,” we can see reality as it is, and this leaves us free to act efficiently, clearly, and sanely. Asking “What’s the reality of it?” can help bring the mind out of its story, back into the real world.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
The whole world is simply my story, projected back to me on the screen of my own perception. All of it.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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 task for us now, if we are to survive, is to build the earth.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
All the people like us are We, And everyone else is They. And They live over the sea, While We live over the way. But-would you believe it?-They look upon We As only a sort of They.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
I hear noise but see no grinding.
—Arabic Proverb
What senses do we lack that we cannot see or hear another world all around us?
—Frank Herbert (1920–86) American Science Fiction Writer
If the world were a logical place, men would ride side saddle.
—Rita Mae Brown (b.1944) American Writer, Feminist
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
God has made no one absolute. The rich depend on the poor, as well as the poor on the rich. The world is but a magnificent building; all the stones are gradually cemented together. No one subsists by himself.
—Owen Feltham (1602–1668) English Essayist
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
Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Trust not the world, for it never payeth what it promiseth.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
The world, as a rule, does not live on beaches and in country clubs.
—Indian Proverb
You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The world has to learn that the actual pleasure derived from material things is of rather low quality on the whole and less even in quantity than it looks to those who have not tried it.
—Unknown
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
When you deplore the conditions in the world, ask yourself, am I part of the problem or part of the solution?
—Unknown
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
It takes all sorts of people to make a world.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to have to paint it.
—Steven Wright (b.1955) American Comedian, Actor, Writer
The gratitude of the world is but the expectation of future favors; its happiness, a hard heart and good digestion.
—Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717–97) English Art Historian, Man of Letters, Politician
The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
What is meant by a “knowledge of the world” is simply an acquaintance with the infirmities of men.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
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