Happiness is not given to us, nor is misery imposed. At every moment we are at a crossroads and must choose the direction we will take. --Matthieu Ricard (in Conversation with the 'World's Happiest Man')

There is no small act of kindness. Every compassionate act makes large the world. --Mary Anne Radmacher (in Caught in Political Divide, Church Runs Kindness Campaign)

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. --William James (in Eight Questions That Can Help You Survive Election Stress)

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. --Lewis B. Smedes (in Forgiving the Unforgivable)

A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. --Winston Churchill (in Conversation with Paul Van Slambrouck: Reflections on Journalism)

Words are windows, or they're walls, They sentence us, or set us free. When I speak and when I hear, Let the love light shine through me. --Ruth Bebermeyer (in How To Turn Down The Tension in a Conversation)

The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship, or family, or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light. --Maria Popova (in What Does Love Mean? How 4-8 Year-Old Kids Describe Love)

Life is the dancer and you are the dance. --Eckhart Tolle (in The Giant Study Showing How Dancing Affects the Brain)

Maybe there is no such thing as time; there are only moments, each with its own story. --Robin Wall Kimmerer (in Why Children Perceive Time Slower Than Adults)

A birdsong can even, for a moment, make the whole world into a sky within us, because we feel that the bird does not distinguish between its heart and the world's. --Rainer Maria Rilke (in When Nature Co-Authors a Song)

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. --Leo Buscaglia (in Four Stories of Mercy)

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship. --Brené Brown (in I See You)

Slowing down is accompanied by space for noticing. --Krista Tippett (in Why This Grocery Store Embraces a Slower Checkout)

The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food. --Dean Ornish (in Building Connections Beat by Beat)

There is something quite magical in watching a family of elephants, gorillas or giant forest hogs emerge from the forest edge and bask in sunlight and social opportunities before slipping back into the cool shade of the forest interior. --Vicki Fishlock (in The Hidden Playgrounds of Elephants and Gorillas)

Are languages then just a collection of words, syntax, and semantics? I’d like to sometimes see them as seeds and sometimes as fields – alive as the minds, tongues, throats, bodies, and air they pass through; germinating, growing roots, bearing fruit, evolving like beings. --M. Yuvan (in Can Social Media Keep Indigenous Languages Alive?)

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace. --May Sarton (in From Vacant Lots To Edible Green Spaces -- and Community)

There's a song that wants to sing itself through us. We’ve just got to be available. --Joanna Macy (in Rachelle Jeanty: Finding Spirit in Pain)

Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. --Nathaniel Hawthorne (in How to Stop Overthinking Your Happiness)

To see things in the seed, that is genius. --Lao Tzu (in A Sparrow's Song To Lift Up the Sky)

Gratitude is the memory of the heart. --Jean-Baptiste Massieu (in 15 Year-old's Letter to the Yard Across the Street)

We have to cross the boundary between knowing and not knowing many times before we achieve understanding. --David Hawkins (in Dr. Frederick Sontag: A Time of Searching)

Listening well is the most eloquent sign of caring. --Deborah Tannen (in How to Embrace Your Political Enemy)

Be impeccable with your word. --Don Miguel Ruiz (in Responsibility of Rocking the Boat)

In times such as these, it is no failure to fall short of realizing all that we might dream -- the failure is to fall short of dreaming all that we might realize. --Dee Hock (in Finishing First: What It Really Means to Win)

Become the kind of person whom nobody fears. --Arun Bhatt (in Arun-dada: I Just Love Thy Silently)

Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you'd have preferred to talk. --Doug Larson (in What Makes Someone Wise? A Global Study Explores.)

Traveler, there is no path. The path is made by walking. --Antonio Machado (in The Londoners Walking Their Way to Better Mental Health)

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. --Edgar Degas (in How ‘Pollinator Pathmaker’ Can Help Us See Like a Bee)

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it. --Kurt Vonnegut (in Crafting Gives Greater Life Satisfaction, Survey Finds)

At the deepest level, the creative process and the healing process arise from a single source. --Rachel Naomi Remen (in The Art of Healing: How Creativity is Changing NHS Mental Health)

According to Plato, two people, by challenging and responding to each other, can come closer to the truth than either one could by himself… It is something which neither of them knew before, and which neither would have been capable of knowing by himself. --Ervin Laszlo (in Five Ways to Tap Into Other People’s Wisdom)

… if we wait for the perfect time, the perfect person, the perfected self, we’ll stay frozen in an idea of love. But if we fearlessly engage with the life spread out before us, we will be rewarded with a heart that can hold it all — happiness and messiness, clarity and confusion, love and loss. --Pema Chodron (in Iris Murdoch: How to See More Clearly and Love More Purely)

Personality begins where comparison leaves off. Be unique. Be memorable. Be confident. Be proud. --Shannon L. Alder (in How Does Your Personality Affect Your Happiness?)

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. --Maya Angelou (in Ice Cream Aunties Bring Joy and Healing)

Is not impermanence the very fragrance of our day. --Rainer Maria Rilke (in Circles in the Sand)

Art is the concrete representation of our most subtle feelings --Agnes Martin (in Spiral Dance – A Conversation with Mary King)

The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole. --Carl Jung (in Conversation with Bebe Barrett: Seen and Unseen)

I think people are inherently kind: let’s empower people and give them the opportunity to do something good, something that makes a difference. --Alison Bunce (in So No One Dies Alone)

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. --Jane Howard (in Do Friends Lengthen Life?)

When you understand giving, when you understand receiving, you understand that it is all self-organizing. You just have to dance, and in some moments you’re asked to give and in some moments you are asked to receive, but your ultimate prerogative is to just dance. --Nipun Mehta (in The Benefits of Volunteering)

I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples. --Mother Teresa (in The Surgeon Who Accepts Community Service as Payment)

Kindness is free, so sprinkle that stuff everywhere. --Wavy Gravy (in Conversation with Michelle Esrick: Making “Saint Misbehavin’)

We belong to each other. We are sister and brother. Born to love one another. --Garth Brooks (in Do You Find Belonging in Groups or Communities?)

When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you. --Susan Sarandon (in Four Days, Three Nights)

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. --Edith Wharton (in A New Strategy to Cope with Emotional Stress)

Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond. --Robin Wall Kimmerer (in Saying Goodbye to the Tree that Changed my Life)

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (in The Growing Movement to Embrace Aging)

In an age of speed, I began to think, nothing could be more invigorating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still. --Pico Iyer (in How Being Distracted May Lead You to Overindulge)

By discovering nature, you discover yourself. --Maxime Lagacé (in A Look at the Rise of Nature Prescriptions)