Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin. --Grace Hansen (in Friends Until the End)

When our fears have been serialized, our creativity censured, our ideas "marketplaced," our rights sold, our intelligence sloganized, our strength downsized, our privacy auctioned; when the theatricality, the entertainment value, the marketing of life is complete, we will find ourselves living not in a nation but in a consortium of industries, and wholly unintelligible to ourselves except for what we see as through a screen darkly. --Toni Morrison (in Untitled)

Life is a mystery to be lived, not a problem to be solved. --Bumper Sticker :) (in Untitled)

It happened just because you feel that little tap on your heart to stop and do something. I think about all the other times in my life I felt that tap, and I kept walking past it. --Debi Farris (in Untitled)

What is time? The shadow on the dial, the striking of the clock, the running of the sand, day and night, summer and winter, months, years, centuries - these are but arbitrary and outward signs, the measure of time, not time itself. Time is the life of the soul. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (in Untitled)

It's amazing, addictive. The first view of the Earth is magical. It is a very overpowering realization that the Earth is so small. It affected me. I could not get over the notion that in such a small planet, with such a small ribbon of life, so much goes on. It is as if the whole place is sacred. You get the feeling that I need to work extraordinarily hard along with other human beings to respect that. --Kalpana Chawla (in Untitled)

Before, I always lived in anticipation . . . that it was all a preparation for something else, something "greater," more "genuine." But that feeling has dropped away from me completely. I live here and now, this minute, this day, to the full, and the life is worth living. --Etty Hillesum (in Untitled)

An elderly Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life... He said to them, "A fight is going on inside me, it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil---he is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, competition, superiority, and ego. The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too." They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed." --Author Unknown (in Untitled)

Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration. --D. H. Lawrence (in Untitled)

As human beings, our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has—or ever will have—something inside that is unique to all time. It's our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness and to provide ways of developing its expression. --Mister Rogers (in Untitled)

People worry too much. Life is good, just the way it is. --George Dawson, age 102 (in Untitled)

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, 'thank you,' that would suffice. --Meister Eckhart (in Untitled)

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. --Unknown (in Untitled)

I walk until given shelter, fast until given food. I don't ask - it's given without asking. Aren't people good! There is a spark of good in everybody, no matter how deeply it may be buried, it is there. It's waiting to govern your life gloriously. --Peace Pilgrim (in Untitled)

The spiritual life does not remove us from the world, but leads us deeper into it. --Henri J.M. Nouwen (in Untitled)

To know that you are the timeless reality is all I care to see, and this is our only meeting place. Our journey is to awaken the greatest capacity, to ignite an understanding that combines life's highest ideals with pure practicality. My work is to support and fortify a deepening of spirit, to enhance a sense of trust in one's own authority, love, acceptance, and ultimately enlightenement. This work is ever changing, you are the one that defines it. It is you that call yourself and answer yourself in me. You may wonder why you don't answer yourself directly; the answer is the same: you do. We are one. --Shantimayi (in Untitled)

You are not just a meaningless fragment in an alien universe, briefly suspended between life and death, allowed a few short-lived pleasures followed by pain and ultimate annihilation. Underneath your outer form, you are connected with something so vast, soi mmeasurable and sacred, that it cannot be spoken of -- yet you can know it for yourself. --Eckhart Tolle (in Untitled)

Choose a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life. --Confucius (in Untitled)

"Why not" is a slogan for an interesting life. --Mason Cooley (in Untitled)

Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us and the whole world will live as one. --John Lennon (in Untitled)

Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? --T. S. Eliot (in Untitled)

Meditation is to be aware of what is going on-in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in the world. Each day 40,000 children die of hunger. The superpowers now have more than 50,000 nuclear warheads, enough to destroy our planet many times. Yet the sunrise is beautiful, and the rose that bloomed this morning along the wall is a miracle. Life is both dreadful and wonderful. To practice meditation is to be in touch with both aspects. Please do not think we must be solemn in order to meditate. In fact, to meditate well, we have to smile a lot. --Thich Nhat Hanh (in Untitled)

To approach the stranger is to invite the unexpected, release a new force, let the genie out of the bottle. It is to start a new train of events that is beyond your control. You will change your mind, but you are not free. You made a decision; you set in motion forces in your life and in the lives of others. --T. S. Eliot (in Untitled)

Happiness is not found at the end of the road, it is experienced along the way. So take not for granted each moment of your life and you will find a reason to be happy each day. Don't worry so much about tomorrow that you forget to live today. --Anonymous (in Untitled)

One has to work in the world; naturally, carry on your worldly affairs, but understand that that which has come about by itself - that is, this body, mind and consciousness - has appeared in spite of the fact that nobody has asked for it. The life force and the mind are operating, but the mind will tempt you to believe that it is "you". Therefore, understand always that you are the timeless, spaceless witness. And even if the mind tells you that you are the one who is acting, don't believe the mind. Always keep your identity separate from that which is doing the working, thinking and talking. That which has happened - that is, the apparatus which is functioning - has come upon your original essence, but you are not that apparatus. --Nisargadatta Maharaj (in Untitled)

If you have the courage to touch life for the first time, you will never know what hit you. Everything man has thought, felt and experienced is gone, and nothing is put in its place. --U.G. Krishnamurti (in Courage to Touch Life)

In judging our progress as individuals we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education ... But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being: honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, purity, generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve your fellow men - qualities within the reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life. Never forget that a saint is a sinner that keeps on trying. --Nelson Mandela (in Untitled)

Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit. --Kahlil Gibran (in Gorillas of Saharan Africa)

This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment. First to let go of life. Finally, to take a step without feet. --Rumi (in Untitled)

There comes a time in a man's life when to get where he has to go -- if there are no doors or windows he walks through a wall. --Bernard Malamud (in Untitled)

It's no longer possible for anyone to remain unaware of the global transformation we are experiencing. Global consciousness is undergoing a total revolution - a reharmonization of our priorities as a species. Our individual keynotes are forming a new chord. At the center of this shift is the development of the skill of listening. Not just listening as in hearing sounds, but also inner listening - awareness of emotions, feelings, thoughts, and all the events of the inner life of each of us individually and all of us together. --David Gordon (in Untitled)

A student approached his spiritual teacher, bowed in respect and asked: "What is the secret of life?" The teacher replied, "Good judgement." The student bowed again and asked, "How do you get good judgement?" The teacher said, "Experience." The student bowed one more time and queried, "And how does one get experience?" The teacher replied, "Bad judgement!" --Teaching from Vajra tradition (in Untitled)

I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit. --Dawna Markova (in Untitled)

If we had keen vision and feeling for all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence. --George Eliot (in Blind Leading the Blind)

I have been through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened. --Mark Twain (in Untitled)

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. Security is a superstition. It does not exist in nature --Helen Keller (in Untitled)

I'm a pilgrim of life, so from that point of view, I'm on a pilgrimage every day. Once one lives as a pilgrim, one lives lightly on the earth, with both detachment and engagement. It's all a pilgrimage. --Satish Kumar (in Pilgrim of Life)

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life. --Immanuel Kant (in Monks' Brains During Meditation)

Every forbidden topic imaginable has been covered on television, except for one. The last taboo on television is television itself and how it is profoundly biased toward high consumption ways of life that the earth cannot sustain. --Duane Elgin (in Untitled)

A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labor of others, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am receiving. --Albert Einstein (in A Mechanic's Ministry)

With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor. --Thoreau (in The Average Freshman)

Let your love flow outward through the universe, To its height, its depth, its broad extent, A limitless love, without hatred or enmity. Then as you stand or walk, Sit or lie down, As long as you are awake, Strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth. --Sutta Nipata (in A Limitless Love)

Let us live a giving life. It is my awareness of what accompanies the giving act (the recognition of my reservations about giving, or my resentment, my anxiety when I serve another or hold my angry tongue) that slowly transforms me. It is the experience of my unkindness that can enable me to be truly kind, giving. --Charlotte Joko Beck (in A Giving Life)

There's no time machine. I can't change it. That was God's plan for my life, and I'm going to go with it. --Bethany Hamilton, after losing her arm (in Riding The Waves)

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. --Melody Beattie (in Gratitude)

There must be more to life than having everything! --Maurice Sendak (in Addicted to Luxury)

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. --Vernon Howard (in Simplified Shopping)

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake up and live! --Bob Marley (in Refusing an Award)

But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it's better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you're fighting for. --Paulo Coelho (in End of Polio)

Life itself is hazardous. There are sharp rocks everywhere. What changes from years of practice is coming to know something you didn't know before: that there are no sharp rocks -- the road is covered with diamonds. --Charlotte Joko Beck (in Vegan For Sustainability?)