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Inspirational Quotes compiled by Annemarie Colbin
The following are quotes that have impacted me, inspired me, and many times shown me the path to follow. I share them with the hope that they will touch you as much as they have touched me.
INSPIRATIONAL
It’s fine to have your head in the clouds, as long as your feet are planted firmly in the ground. (Old Argentine saying)
The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor yet riches to the men of understanding - but time and chance happen to all. (Ecclesiastes)
Behind the whole of life there is a kind of nostalgia such that that which is still latent should become fulfilled as a reality. (Murshid)
Everything must be made as simple as possible - but not simpler. (Einstein - First Rule of Communication)
To know is to be ignorant; not to know is the beginning of wisdom. (Krishnamurti)
The Order of the Universe is always self-realization, instead of being helped or helping. The direction or compass we must study together. But we cannot control. We can give a compass only, which can be used in the darkness. (Michio Kushi)
Identity seeks stability, but action seeks change. (Seth Speaks - Jane Roberts)
Knowledge not lived is sin.
We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore. (Andre Gide)
Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. (Matthew 18:29)
Do your work, and you shall reinforce yourself. (Emerson)
That which does not take us down, makes us stronger. (Nietzsche)
Trust your own process, and watch for signs of spring. (The Book of Runes)
A beam in darkness -- let it grow. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)
At the root of our being there is nothingness, liberty, and the need to constantly create ourselves in a succession of choices. (Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd)
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. (Mark Twain)
TEACHING
Only fools volunteer their lips to an unwilling ear. The sage waits for his wisdom to be invited. (I Ching)
Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect is real. But it does mean that the self you think is real is what you teach. (A Course In Miracles)
If a magic thought arouses anger, you have condemned yourself, asked for depression, pain, fear, and disaster. But it is not this that you would teach, because it is not this that you would learn. . . No one can be angry at a fact. It is always an interpretation that gives rise to negative emotions, regardless of their seeming justification by what appears as facts. If anger comes from an interpretation and not a fact, it is never justified. Anger recognizes a reality that is not there. (ACIM)
You teach what you want to learn. (ACIM)
Knowledge increases as it is shared. (ACIM)
Psyche and soma, mind and body -- mirrors. Mind, by intending, operates on matter, method not known. Matter disappears into a glimmer of subatomic ghosts. . . . If final answers are not forthcoming, we can take more interest in our own experiences and ideas. Our questions can be reframed in terms of esthetics and practicality. Not "Is it true?" but "does it fit?" Not "What is real?" But "Does it work?" (Marilyn Ferguson)
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn. (Ben Franklin)
ANTI-ARROGANCE
As it happened to the fool, so it happeneth even to me, and why was I then more wise? (Ecclesiastes 2:5)
Man is a dumb and thoughtless fool;
when it’s hot he wants it cool;
when it’s cool he wants it hot --
always wanting what is not!
There is such a thing as being scientifically ignorant through an excess of science. One may know too much that isn’t so. (Herbert Sheldon)
It’s a fool who cannot conceal his wisdom. (Benjamin Franklin)
Think twice before you get into any kind of trips, spiritual or otherwise. Cynicism is prescribed. Question all the time. Question your inspiration. Question your teacher twice. Question the teachings twice. (Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche)
There is always something ponderous and one-sided about the learning of the self-taught.
If a man is free of vanity, he is able to conceal his abilities and keep them from attracting attention too soon; thus he can mature undisturbed. (The I Ching, p. 14)
If you would attempt to substitute one aspect of love for another, you have placed less value on one and more on the other. You have not only separated them, but you have also judged against both. Yet you have judged against yourself first, or you would never have imagined that you needed your brothers as they were not. Unless you had seen yourself as without love, you could not have judged them so like you in lack. (ACIM, p. 291)
"I’ve come to the conclusion that there is nothing good that doesn’t have bad consequences, and nothing bad that doesn’t have good consequences." (Pete Seeger, quoted in the NY Times, 7/22/01)
Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up and continue as if nothing had happened. (Winston Churchill)
Purposeful behavior itself is often counterproductive. In seeking immediate goals, men generate unending secondary consequences in the natural and cosmic system of which they are a part, a system which is more complex and subtle than their intentions. ‘Conscious purpose, which aims toward the achievement of specific goals, does not usually take into account the circular structure of cause and effect which characterizes the universe, and this cognitive failure leads to disruption.’ (Richard Grossinger, Planet Medicine, quoting Rapaport)
There is no end to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.
FOOD
There is no definitive evidence that food composition described solely in terms of all known nutrients would be an accurate measure of total food value. (Dietary Goals for the United States, 1978 - p. 21)
For every one that useth milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. (Hebrews 5:13)
Not that which goes into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. (St Matthew 15:11)
HEALTH AND HEALING
In seeking positively his own health, (an individual) is encumbered by an awareness of self which is liable to act as a guarantee of the continuance of his malady. Health is the incidental product arising from the process of self-annihilation. In this, as in other spheres, he who loses his live will save it, and he who saves his life will lose it. (Arthur Guirdham, A Theory of Disease.)
Healing is the result of using the body solely for communication. Since this is natural, it heals by making whole, which is also natural. . . . Health is nothing more than united purpose. If the body is brought under the purpose of the mind, it becomes whole because the mind’s purpose is one. . . Apart from the mind, the body has no purpose at all. (ACIM, p. 142-3)
SPIRITUAL
There is no form of littleness that can ever content you. You are free to try as many as you wish, but all you will be doing is delaying your homecoming. For you will be content only in magnitude, which is your home. (A Course in Miracles)
When one becomes ready for the next spiritual step, the path is made clear. (When the student is ready, the teacher appears.)
I take the wings of the morning,
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea - (Psalms 139:9)
I tell you truly, you are one with the Earth Mother; she is in you, and you in her. Of her were you born, in her do you live, and to her shall you return again. Keep, therefore, her laws, for none can live long, neither be happy, but he who honors his Earthly Mother and follows her laws. (Essene Gospel of Peace)
When a man has learned within his heart what fear and trembling mean, he is safe-guarded against any terror produced by outside influences. Let the thunder roll and spread terror a hundred miles around -- he remains composed an reverent in spirit. . . . This is the spirit that must animate leaders and rulers of men -- a profound inner seriousness from which all outer terrors glance off harmlessly. (The I Ching, #51)
I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. (Psalms 81)
The Universe will reward you for taking risks on its behalf. (Bringers of the Dawn)
For God hath not give us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
© Annemarie Colbin, Ph.D. |
