Look closely. Know yourself. Question your genius. Do nothing without God, whether He teaches you by making you great or greatly plaguing you. This is the philosopher’s way; to be flogged like an ass and to love those who beat him, to be the father and brother of all humility.
Epictetus
Happiness comes from understanding one basic principle. Some things are within our control and some things are not. Our opinions, ambitions, desires, and aversions are in our control. We can change the contents of our inner character. Our body, wealth, fame, and social status are not in our control. They are external to us and not our concern.
Epictetus
We always revolve about the One, but we do not always pay attention to it. Like a chorus singing harmoniously around its conductor becomes discordant when it turns away from him, but sings beautifully when turned inward and fully attentive – we similarly revolve around the Oneness of God, but do not always look to him. Yet when we do, we find our home and resting place. Around him we dance the true dance; God inspired and no longer dissonant.
Plotinus
The Pagan philosophers teach that by cultivating goodness we can purify ourselves of our selfishness. This breaks the chains that bind us to our illusionary ego-self, freeing us to experience our true divine nature. Central to the Pagan path is accepting whatever life brings us as our divinely decreed fate; surrendering the illusion of personal power and recognising ourselves as ‘puppets of God’. This is not passive resignation, but actively engaging with the things as they are by being a willing vehicle of God’s unfolding purpose in the universe.
Tim Freke
You are a soul carrying about a corpse.
Epictetus
Man as he is has ceased to be the All. But when he ceases to be a separate individual, he raises himself again and permeates the universe.
Plotinus
To simply love God in thought with singleness of heart, and to follow the Goodness of his will – this is philosophy, unsullied by intrusive cravings for pointless opinions.
Hermes Trismegistus
Is it possible to live abundantly with nothing, no home, a beggar without a country? Look, God has sent you someone to show you by his example that is possible. I have no home, country, wife, or children, but only earth and heaven and a simple blanket. But I am happy. I am not anxious. I am free. Look friends, how I have nothing and need nothing. See, I am a homeless, landless exile; and yet I live more free from troubles than all the rich and powerful.
Epictetus
Why will you not admit that the universe is a conscious intelligence since conscious intelligences are born from it
Cicero
Every thing contains a portions of all things, but Consciousness is infinite, free, alone, and mixed with nothing else. Consciousness is pure and sublime. It has knowledge of everything. It controls all life, great and small. It governs the spinning wheel of separateness that divides things off one from the other. It knows all that is, and things that are not, and things that have been, and things that shall be. Consciousness arranges all things as they are, including the rotating stars, the sun, the moon, the air, and the ether.
Anaxagoras
There are two sides to this tale. On the one hand the many unite to become the Oneness, and on the other hand the Oneness divides to become the many. Things continually shift between being united by love and and divided by strife.
Empedocles
Brahman creates the game of life by breaking Himself into parts that undergo transformation and extinction. Yet while he takes on all the roles required by the game, He also always remains free of the game and intact as Brahman.
Abhinava Gupta
One cannot see God as long as one feels ‘I am the doer’. Fully awakened souls are beyond virtue and vice. They realize that it is God who does everything.
Ramakrishna
Whatever decision we think we are making is actually being made for us, because the decision is the end result of a thought and we have no control over the arising of the thought.
Ramesh Balsekar
A man’s character is his fate.
-Heraclitus
That which speech does not illumine, but Which illumines speech:
know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here.
That which cannot be thought by mind, but by Which, they say, mind is able to think:
know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here.
That which is not seen by the eye, but by Which the eye is able to see:
know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here.
That which cannot be heard by the ear, but by Which the ear is able to hear:
know that alone to be Brahman, not this which people worship here.
That which none breathes with the breath, but by Which breath is in–breathed:
know that alone to be the Brahman, not this which people worship here.
Kena Updanishad
The real opportunity for success lies within the person and not in the job.
-Zig Ziglar
Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it.
-Joe Clark
You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
-Abraham Lincoln
A life is not important except in the impact that it has on other lives.
-Jackie Robinson
Those who joyfully leave everything in God’s hands will eventually see God’s hand in everything.
-Shammi Sukh, Today Tears Tomorrow Cheers
Every moment is a fresh beginning.
-T.S. Eliot
If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.
In the landscape of spring, there is neither better nor worse. The flowering branches grow naturally, some long, some short.
Knock on the sky and listen to the sound.
The ten thousand questions are one question. If you cut through the one question, then the ten thousand questions disappear.
The ways to the One are as many as the lives of men.
Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely.
To do a certain kind of thing, you have to be a certain kind of person.
To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.
When the pupil is ready to learn, a teacher will appear.
At first, I saw mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. Then, I saw mountains were not mountains and rivers were not rivers. Finally, I see mountains again as mountains, and rivers again as rivers.
If the problem has a solution, worrying is pointless, in the end the problem will be solved. If the problem has no solution, there is no reason to worry, because it can’t be solved.
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
Before enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water. After enlightenment, chopping wood and carrying water.
1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
3. You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
9. You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
10. And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.
-William J. H. Boetcker
Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.
-Yoda
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
-Anne Frank
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
-Carl Sagan
I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.
-Og Mandino (Ten Scrolls)
Light lets you act and Darkness lets you rest.
You can go as far as your mind lets you.
-Mary Kay Ash
Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.
-Rosa Parks
Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.
—Ed Cunningham
I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod. My shadow does that much better.
—Plutarch
No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.
-Alice Walker
Success is only meaningful and enjoyable if it feels like your own.
-Michelle Obama
Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.
-William James
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.
-Harriet Tubman
Don’t surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut you more deep. Let it ferment and season you as few humans and even divine ingredients can. Something missing in my heart tonight has made my eyes so soft, my voice so tender, my need for God absolutely clear.
―Hafiz
Better a broken promise than none at all.
-Mark Twain
There are two ways of exerting one’s strength: one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
-Booker T. Washington
The time is always right to do what is right.
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Leap, and the net will appear.
-John Burroughs
A man can fail many times, but he isn’t a failure until he begins to blame somebody else.
-John Burroughs
It is better to burn out than to fade away.
-Neil Young / Rust never sleeps / 1979
-Kurt Cobain / Suicide note / 1994
The true knowledge of the self is not a knowledge. It is not something that you find by searching, by looking everywhere. It is not to be found in space and time. Knowledge is but a memory, a pattern of thought, a mental habit. All these are motivated by pleasure and pain. It is because you are goaded by pleasure and pain that you are in search of knowledge. Being oneself is completely beyond all motivation. You cannot be yourself for some reason. You are yourself and no reason is needed.
-Nisargadatta Maharaj
Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your gold and good health have vanished.
-Og Mandino
Only put off until tomorrow what you’re willing to die having left undone.
-Pablo Picasso
If you do not enjoy what you are doing, you will never be good at it.
-Luke Parker
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