This is a compilation of thoughts and quotes that I have found or written recently, as well as many that I've collected throughout the years. Most thoughts are posted randomly, as I feel inspired. A listing of quotes can be found alphabetically (check the 2008 and 2009 archives listing), or by source.

Feel free to suggest additions!


“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” – Proverbs 23:7

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Quotes by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Antoine de Saint-ExupĂ©ry was an aristocrat French writer, poet and pioneering aviator who died after being lost in flight over the Mediterranean during World War II.  He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the U.S. National Book Award. He is best remembered for his novella The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince) and for his lyrical aviation writings, including Wind, Sand and Stars and Night Flight.

Some of his great quotes include the following:

A civilization is built on what is required of men, not on that which is provided for them.

A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.

Charity never humiliated him who profited from it, nor ever bound him by the chains of gratitude, since it was not to him but to God that the gift was made.

Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered: it is something molded.

For true love is inexhaustible; the more you give, the more you have. And if you go to draw at the true fountainhead, the more water you draw, the more abundant is its flow.

He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.

How could there be any question of acquiring or possessing, when the one thing needful for a man is to become - to be at last, and to die in the fullness of his being.

I have no right, by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.

I know but one freedom, and that is the freedom of the mind.

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.

It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

It is such a secret place, the land of tears.

Life has meaning only if one barters it day by day for something other than itself.

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.

Night, the beloved. Night, when words fade and things come alive. When the destructive analysis of day is done, and all that is truly important becomes whole and sound again. When man reassembles his fragmentary self and grows with the calm of a tree.

Of what worth are convictions that bring not suffering?

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

The notion of looking on at life has always been hateful to me. What am I if I am not a participant? In order to be, I must participate.

The one thing that matters is the effort.

The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something.

To be a man is, precisely, to be responsible.

True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new.

We say nothing essential about the cathedral when we speak of its stones. We say nothing essential about Man when we seek to define him by the qualities of men.

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

When you give yourself, you receive more than you give.

You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.



Monday, July 30, 2012

Challenges: How we respond

It's not the challenges we face, but how we respond to them that sculpts our character ... and our success

Man Barely Able to Stand on his Own - Amazing Movie:

Monday, July 2, 2012

"You'll See it If You Believe It": Transformation

Continued review and quotes from Wayne Dyer's book.  
See Part 1 at You'll See it When You Believe it

"The real you, the unique you, is 99 percent invisible, untouchable, unsmellable, and impervious to the physical senses, which know only form.  The largest chunk of who you really are is something beyond form.  It has been called your mind, or your feelings, or your thoughts, or your higher consciousness, but whatever it is, it certainly is not form.  All of your thought and your spiritual awareness are in this other formless dimension."

"...transformation... means the result or action of going beyond one's form."

"There are no limits to your ability to think.  You can imagine yourself doing anything.  You can have a perfect relationship with your mate in pure thought.  You can be anything, go anywhere, experience all that you want, in this dimension of thought, exclusive of form...you can experience a major portion of your life in this dimension of transcending your form.  At the same time you will be able to maintain your form and honor its requirements and lovingly understand its signals, while still knowing it is serving you, the real you."

"And be not conformed to this world: But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." - The Apostle Paul, Romans 12:2

"Your belief in your body's ability to heal itself will begin to reflect how you take care of the precious temple that houses you.  Fear of death will dissolve as you come closer to an awareness that thought, thinking, your essential self, never dies."

Some Signs and Symptoms of Inner Peace

A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on past experiences

An mistable ability to enjoy each moment

A loss of interest in judging other people

A loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others

A loss of interest in conflict

A loss of the ability to worry

Frequent, overwhelming episodes of appreciation

Contented feelings of connectedness with others and nature

Frequent attacks of smiling

An increased susceptibility to the love extended by others as well as the uncontrollable urge to extend it

"In effect you will begin to tap the enormous power of your mind.  You will peacefully meditate though others about you may be in a frenzy.  You will be the power of of a quiet mind, and you will choose to go there often.  You will discover things about yourself that you perhaps never considered before. You will be in that perfect intelligence that is within all form, in that miraculous inner space where everything that you can visualize is possible."

"...what is astonishing to me is that this tendency toward wholesome eating habits has flowed from a more loving approach to myself and to all life, not from a desire to enhance my physical attractiveness or strength or to achieve physical longevity."

"...what I am experiencing is a much deeper involvement with life, wherein I know precisely what I am about, and cannot be deterred from that path.  I am able to stay on my path, doing what I love and loving what I do...because I have transformed myself from a person who had absolute judgments which required fixed and rigid responses to a person who sees and knows that any human experience is an opportunity to reflect on where I am or am not."

See also I Can See Clearly Now