Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.
When you're hard on yourself
The voice in your head is unkind. These lines are for setting it down for a minute.
185 quotes
The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
You are not your thoughts; you are the awareness behind them.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.
Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive.
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
He who is not satisfied with a little, is satisfied with nothing.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.
Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.
Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.
The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart.
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don't need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
The seed of suffering in you may be strong, but don't wait until you have no more suffering before allowing yourself to be happy.
The most fundamental aggression to ourselves is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.
Feelings like disappointment, embarrassment, irritation, resentment, anger, jealousy, and fear are actually very clear moments that teach us where it is that we're holding back.
The most difficult times for many of us are the ones we give ourselves.
Meditation practice isn't about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It's about befriending who we are already.
Start where you are.
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.
The game is not about becoming somebody, it's about becoming nobody.
Everything changes once we identify with being the awareness behind the thoughts.
The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.
In any moment we can begin again.
Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.
Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.
Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not.
There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that.
Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth.
When we believe what we think, when we take our thinking to be reality, we will suffer.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.
Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Elevate yourself through the power of your mind, and not degrade yourself, for the mind can be the friend and also the enemy of the self.
Abandon all varieties of dharmas and simply surrender unto Me alone. I shall liberate you from all sinful reactions; do not fear.
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image.
We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior.
What is to give light must endure burning.
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
The most terrifying thing is to accept oneself completely.
The neurotic is unable to tolerate not only his own weaknesses, but also his own strengths.
If you want to be proud of yourself, then do things in which you can take pride.
Self-hate is the most insidious and the most difficult to discover of all the factors that go into the making of a neurosis.
A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
There is but one cause of human failure. And that is man's lack of faith in his true self.
The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.
I must learn to love the fool in me—the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too much pleasure, takes too much pain.
A failure is not always a mistake; it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.
Do not call a man a failure until he has stopped trying.
If our thinking is faulty, our emotions and actions will be faulty as well.
A poor self-image is the magnifying glass that can transform a trivial mistake or an imperfection into an overwhelming symbol of personal defeat.
Perfectionism is the enemy of creativity and productivity.
Vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen when we have no control over the outcome.
You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.
Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.
Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It's the fear that we're not good enough.
What we don't need in the midst of struggle is shame for being human.
Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we're all in this together.
Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.
Unlike self-criticism, which asks if you're good enough, self-compassion asks what's good for you.
With self-compassion, we give ourselves the same kindness and care we'd give to a good friend.
What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.
There are three musts that hold us back: I must do well. You must treat me well. And the world must be easy.
You are doing the best you can, and you can do better.
Becoming is better than being.
Love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.
The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life.
Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.
I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.
The only source of knowledge is experience.
If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.
Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.
What I cannot create, I do not understand.
We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish.
It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious.
One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.
We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.
We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star.
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.
Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.
In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.
Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.
An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.
You are capable of more than you know.
Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.
Guilt: the gift that keeps on giving.
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.
Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.
Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die.
He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
Our life always expresses the result of our dominant thoughts.
It belongs to the imperfection of man that he often chooses what is worse because it is easier.
Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
Those who lack the courage will always find a philosophy to justify it.
If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.
Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute; the man who does not ask is a fool for life.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
Respect yourself and others will respect you.
By letting go it all gets done.
To lead people, walk beside them.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.
If you hear a voice within you say you cannot paint, then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.
I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.
It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.
You did in your twenties what you knew how to do, and when you knew better you did better.
Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice.
Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.
Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear, but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.
I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly never wholly overcome me.
Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.
To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity.
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.
Being an artist means, not reckoning and counting, but ripening like the tree which does not force its sap.
I rewrote the ending of A Farewell to Arms, the last page of it, thirty-nine times before I was satisfied.
The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shockproof, shit detector.
We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.
If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
To create one's world in any of the arts takes courage.
Creativity takes courage.
The best of artists hath no thought to show which the rough stone in its superfluous shell doth not include; to break the marble spell is all the hand that serves the brain can do.
The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
There is no must in art because art is free.
Simplicity is the final achievement.
Less artifice in art, please.
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.
If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.
The season of failure is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.
Environment is stronger than willpower.
True love is within yourself but one doesn't know how to wake up and discover it, as one's mind is so full of ungratefulness.
Even those who are considered the most immoral of all sinners can cross over this ocean of material existence by seating themselves in the boat of divine knowledge.
Those who dedicate their actions to God, abandoning all attachment, remain untouched by sin, just as a lotus leaf is untouched by water.
For those who have conquered the mind, it is their friend. For those who have failed to do so, the mind works like an enemy.
I am equally disposed to all living beings; I am neither inimical nor partial to anyone. But the devotees who worship Me with love reside in Me and I reside in them.
One should not abandon duties born of one's nature, even if one sees defects in them, O son of Kunti. Indeed, all endeavors are veiled by some evil, as fire is by smoke.