Perfection is a relationship and not a set of rules by which to justify punishing ourselves, or others.

Guy Finley

We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread.    

They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. 

Dr. Victor Frankel, a holocaust survivor, in Man’s Search For Meaning

The art of living does not consist in preserving and clinging

to a particular mood of happiness,

but in allowing happiness to change its form

without being disappointed by the change;

for happiness, like a child, must be allowed to grow up. 

Charles Langbridge Morgan (1894-1958), English-Welsh Playwright, Novelist

Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.  Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

Enjoy life. This is not a dress rehearsal.

Inscription on a button  

All real living is meeting. 

Martin Buber (1878 – 1965), German Philosopher and Educator  

Life is a decision. Your attitude, your outlook is a decision moment to moment. 

Larry Crane, Teacher of the Release Technique    

Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Regina Brett, 90 years old, of The Plain Dealer, Cleveland , Ohio

Beauty is an imperative for the enhancement of life. Sustainable life systems emanate beauty.What is sustainable is climax and beauty. What is beautiful is the climax and sustainable.The Universe is a sanctuary.

Vir Singh, Indian Scholar

Those who dwell among the mysteries and beauties of the Earth are never alone or weary of life.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964), American Marine Biologist, Nature Writer

One thing to remember is to talk to the animals. If you do, they will talk back to you. But if you don't talk to the animals, they won't talk back to you, then you won't understand, and when you don't understand you will fear and when you fear you will destroy the animals, and if you destroy the animals, you will destroy yourself. 

Chief Dan George (1899-1981), Native Canadian Indian, Academy Award-Nominated Actor and Author.  

We see quite clearly that what happens to the nonhuman happens to the human. What happens to the outer world happens to the inner world.If the outer world is diminished in its grandeur then the emotional, imaginative, intellectual, and spiritual life of the human is diminished or extinguished.Without the soaring birds, the great forests, the sounds and coloration of the insects, the free-flowing streams, the flowering fields, the sight of the clouds by day and the stars at night, we become impoverished in all that makes us human.

Thomas Berry (1914- ), Priest, Cultural Historian, Earth Scholar  

God is not a singular Super Being, but the extraordinary process called Life. No path to God is more direct than any other path.

New Spirituality Principles  www.schoolofthenewspirituality.com 

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), US President

Let those around you live their own lives, but don't let them live yours. You have more greatness than you might think. 

Raun Kaufman, CEO of the Autism Treatment Center of America  

A happy life is not one filled with only sunshine, but one which uses both light and shadow to produce beauty.

Billy Graham (1918- ), Evangelical Christian  

The essentials of happiness is something to love, something to do and something to hope for.

William Blake (175-1827), English Poet, Painter  

It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. 

Moliere (1622-1673 ), French Playwright and Actor   

Bless those who challenge us to grow, to stretch, to move beyond the knowable, to come back home to our elemental and essential nature. Bless those who challenge us for they remind us of doors we have closed and doors we have yet to open.  

Navajo Saying   

To think is not your real nature. Your real nature is to be.The natural free state is the ultimate goal. That is to be without thinking.The essence of your self is only awareness and consciousness. When the ego dominates it, your consciousness functions as the reasoning, thinking or sensing faculty. When you are totally released, you identify with your beingness only. You are intuitive with no thinking.

Lester Levenson (1909-1993), American Physicist, Engineer, Founder of The Release Technique  

Hawaiian KaHuna Principles:

1. IKE - The world is what you think it is - "I am aware"

2. KALA - No limits - everything is one - "I am free"

3. MAKIA - Energy flows where attention goes - "I am focused"

4. MANAWA - Now is the moment of power - "I am here"

5. ALOHA- To love is to be happy - "I am happy"

6. MANA- All power comes from within - "I am confident"

7. PONO - Effectiveness is the measure of truth - "I am positive"

From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life. 

Arthur Ashe, American Tennis Player, Activist   

It's amazing what ordinary people can do if they set out without preconceived notions.

Charles F. Kettering, 1876-1958, American Engineer and Inventor  

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

Helen Keller (1880-1968), American Author, Activist and Lecturer, Born Deaf-blind    

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it! 

Dan Westfall, San Diego    

Discoveries are often made by not following instructions; by going off the main road; by trying the untried.

Frank Tyger  

Experience is one thing you can't get for nothing.   

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish Dramatist, Novelist, Poet    

The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.

Florence Scovel Shinn (1871-1940), American Author

There is nothing that life can deliver to your door that is not effortlessly handled in the same moment you remember this truth: nothing has the right to enter or remain in your heart or mind without your consent.

Guy Finley, Personal Growth and Spiritual Leader, Author

A native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt. He said 'I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.' The grandson asked him, 'Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?' The grandfather answered: 'The one I feed.'

Native American Story  

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. 

Buddha, The Enlightened One  

How to Have Fun Even When You’re Not Having Fun: Next time you’re not having fun – and not having fun not having fun – remind yourself that life is a comedy of situations and you’re just having an episode.

Even if you can’t recall a moment of fool-realization or haven’t committed a memorable random act of comedy doesn’t mean you aren’t qualified... to get your absurdification as a bona fide fool from the Swami... we’ll send you an attractive certificate -- including Swami’s Seal of Approval -- suitable for framing. 

You are pre-qualified. Anybody who would pay money for this certificate is already foolish. So you’ve earned it, you deserve it, so act now! Remember, any money spent on foolishness can’t be spent on anything serious, and as you already know seriousness is one of the major causes of truth decay on the planet.

Swami Beyondananda, Author, Humorist  

Your whole life is a teaching. Everything that you think, say and do instructs another.

Neale Donald Walsch, Author ofThe New Revelations  

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.  

George Washington Carver (1864-1943), American Educator, Scientist  

Life and mistakes are for learning. Next time you'll do better.

Milutin Maksimovich (1905-1989), Serbian Author & Engineer (Tiyana's Father) 

If we could see the miracle in a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

Buddha

To live at all is miracle enough.

Mervyn Peake (1911-1968), English Writer, Artist, Poet, Illustrator.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

Albert Einstein

...To know that we respect each other 

not for what we have become, 

but for becoming what we always were.

To display courage rather than to wish for it

To wear our souls rather than to bury them in a mantle of misery

To know kindred spirits rather than to hope for them

To feel the presence of something greater than ourselves 

rather than to pray for it...

Sara Becker

Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

Samuel Smiles (1812-1904), Scottish Author and Reformer

Some people see things as they are and say why.  I dream things that never were and say why not? 

Robert F. Kennedy (1925-1968), US Senator  

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

Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944 ), French Author, Aviator

In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.

Iroquois Confederacy Maxim

Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935), American Jurist  

If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come. 

Chinese Proverb   

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.

J.B. Priestly (1894-1984), English Author    

For more than a decade, we have had to spend enormous amounts of energy simply opposing the latest 'bad' thing. But we have more than a duty to oppose. Together, we have a duty to aspire. 

GetUp Team online

If you push a rose to bloom you destroy its beauty. So is it true when it comes to the flowering of all things in our life, including people, plans, and personal objectives, no matter how noble.

When we will be present to ourselves, quietly watchful of the relationship that is always unfolding in the Presence moment, then we have no more need to prepare for what life will bring to us than a newly opened rose needs ready itself for the warmth of the sun that comes to release its fragrance.

Looking to any person, place, possession, or power to answer our longing to be whole and free . . . is like searching the back of our bedroom closet in the hope of finding the entrance to King Solomon's mine.

Guy Finley, Life Transformation Leader, Author  

The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.  

Richard Bach (1936- ), American Writer  

Real compassion lies in our ability to remember that any angry, resentful person is usually just someone who can no longer bear the weary weight of his or her own carefully concealed despair.

Guy Finley, Life Transformation Leader    

Happiness is to take up the struggle in the midst of the raging storm and not to pluck the lute in the moonlight or recite poetry among the blossoms.

Ding Ling (1904-1986), Chinese Author  

Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within.

Helen Keller, Blind/Deaf Author, Speaker  

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. 

Margaret Storm Jameson(1891-1986), English Writer, Critic   

Happiness consists in activity. It is running steam, not a stagnant pool. 

Oliver Wendell Holmes, American Jurist  

It's not that it's difficult to let go. If your house is on fire, you don't ask yourself if you should get out of it immediately, do you? 

Guy Finley, Self-Transformation Teacher, Author of  The Secret of Letting Go

Good word is silver, silence is gold.

Your tongue is your horse.

Arabic Proverbs  

If we are strong, our strength will speak for itself. If we are weak, words will be no help.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), US President 

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

Marc Twain, (1835-1910), American Author 

I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.

Khalil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese Poet

Within us dwells a higher order of being capable of meeting life-changing moments in much the same way as do leaves on a tree greet a shift in the direction of the wind.

Guy Finley, Personal Growth and Development Leader, Author