Great Throughts Treasury

"Let to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose... There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden, or even your bathtub."

"If we can, at least occasionally, sever the chains that bind us to our material world and turn inward, we are rewarded by an expansion of our consciousness and a corresponding insight into the realities beyond this three-dimensional world. We will then become aware of our true spiritual potential, of what has been called the “divine spark” that dwells in every one of us."

"The purpose of human life is to achieve our own spiritual evolution, to get rid of negativity, to establish harmony among our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual quadrants, to learn to live in harmony within the family, community, nation, the whole world and all living things, treating all of mankind as brothers and sisters - thus making it finally possible to have peace on earth."

"(A dying person) – The hardest part is that everyone sees me in the past tense. No matter what is going on with my body, I will still be a whole person."

"A grateful person is a powerful person, for gratitude generates power. All abundance is based on being grateful for what we have."

"[It is those who have not really lived - who have left issues unsettled, dreams unfulfilled, hopes shattered, and who have let the real things in life (loving and being loved by others, contributing in a positive way to the other people’s happiness and welfare, finding out what things are really you) pass them by - who are most reluctant to die."

"Anger held internally changes our impressions of the past and distorts our view of current reality. All of this anger becomes unfinished business not merely with others, but with ourselves."

"Are we only able to see who we actually are at life’s beginnings and endings? Do only extreme circumstances reveal ordinary truths? Are we otherwise blind to our genuine selves? This is the key lesson of life: to find our authentic selves, and to see the authenticity in others."

"As long as we cling to our agendas and our illusions, we do not truly love. Let them be who they are… We are never really successful in directing love, anyway."

"All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions come from fear."

"Confrontation with expectation is manipulation. We must share, we must speak our truth, but not simply to get the reaction we want."

"Consciously or not, we are all on a quest for answers, trying to learn the lessons of life. We grapple with fear and guilt. We search for meaning, love, and power. We try to understand fear, loss, and time. We seek to discover who we are and how we can become truly happy… Not all of these lessons are enjoyable to learn, but everyone finds that they enrich the texture of life."

"Deep inside all of us, we know there is someone we were meant to be."

"Forgiveness is not a once-in-a-lifetime task, it is ongoing. It is our spiritual maintenance plan. Forgiveness helps to keep us at peace and in touch with our love. Our only task is to try to open our hearts again."

"Guilt binds us to the darkest part of ourselves… Shame and guilt are deeply connected… Guilt and time are closely connected, too. Since guilt always comes from the past, it keeps the past alive… Only when you release your guilt do you truly release your past to create a new future."

"Happiness depends not on what happens, but on how we handle what happens. Our happiness is determined by how we interpret, perceive, and integrate what happens into our state of mind. And how we perceive things is determined by our commitment… Happiness comes from experiencing moments of happiness… Making comparisons is probably the shortest route to unhappiness. We can never be happy if we compare ourselves to others."

"I held life with a clenched fist, but now I realized that I could hold it in my open hand."

"In facing loss… Love is the only thing we can possess, keep with us, and take with us."

"It is amazing how much more we live by what we should do that what we want to do."

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose."

"Life also occurs between the big moments. Much of what we need to learn is found in the small moments of life."

"Love… is the only truly real and lasting experience in life. It is the opposite of fear, the essence of relationships, the core of creativity, the grace of power, an intricate part of who we are. It is the source of happiness, the energy that connects us and that lives within us… It is elusive... We are afraid that we will never have it, that if we find it, we will lose it or take it for granted, fearing it will not last."

"Life hands us lessons, universal truths teaching us the basics about love, fear, time, power, loss, happiness, relationships, (guilt, anger, forgiveness, surrender, patience, play, loss) and authenticity. We are not unhappy today because of the complexities of life. We are unhappy because we miss its underlying simplicities."

"One of the greatest obstacles to giving unconditional love is our fear that the love may not be returned… When you feel unloved, it is not because you are not receiving love; it is because you are withholding love."

"One of the few places we do find unconditional love is from our children when they are very young. They don’t care about our day, our money, or our accomplishments. They just love us."

"Our minds, our hearts, and our souls have been fully coded for happiness; all the wiring is built-in. Everyone is capable of finding happiness. All he or she has to do is look for it in the right places… In reality, happy people are the least self-absorbed and self-centered among us… True happiness is not the result of an event, it does not depend on circumstance. You, not what’s going on around you, determine your happiness."

"None of us really knows why events happen in our lives. The problem is that we think we should know; but living requires humility, for life is a mystery. All will be revealed in its own time."

"Perhaps the only certainty about loss is that time heals all… You will heal, you will return to wholeness… We long for wholeness."

"Playing is our inner joy, outwardly expressed. It can be laughing, singing, dancing, swimming, hiking, cooking, running, playing a game, or anything else we have fun doing. Playing makes all aspects of life more meaningful and enjoyable."

"Our power comes from knowing that everything is all right and everyone is unfolding exactly as they are supposed to."

"Relationships offer us the biggest opportunities for learning lessons in life, for discovering who we are, what we fear, where our power comes from, and the meaning of true love."

"Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings."

"Sadly, most of the love we experience in this life is very conditional."

"The key to patience is knowing that everything is going to be fine, developing the faith that there is a plan… The first step to becoming more patient is giving up the need to fix or change things."

"The mind wants to believe that changing our circumstances will bring us peace. The mind thinks we’ve got to do something. But the reality is that we can relax in the circumstances as they are now, knowing that deep patience will bring deep peace and healing."

"There is no part of you that is indefinable and changeless, that does not get lost or change with age, disease, or circumstances."

"There is no such thing as an insignificant or accidental relationship."

"You are what you are, not your disease, not what you do. Life is about being, not doing… But not until we discover who we truly are can we begin to celebrate our uniqueness."

"We eventually lose everything we have, yet what ultimately matters can never be lost. Our houses, cars, jobs, and money, our youth and even our loved ones, are just on loan to us… If life is a school, loss is a major part of the curriculum… Our reality here is not permanent; neither is our ownership of anything. Everything is temporary. Trying to find permanence is impossible, and we ultimately learn that there is no safety in trying to “keep” everything. And there is no safety in trying to prevent loss… Loss is often an initiation into adulthood… Loss is a right of passage."

"You create your own destiny."

"For those who seek to understand it, death is a highly creative force. The highest spiritual values of life can originate from the thought and study of death. "

"I believe that we are solely responsible for our choices, and we have to accept the consequences of every deed, word, and thought throughout our lifetime."

"It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive - to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are."

"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had. "

"There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from."

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen"

"We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear. "

"There is within each one of us a potential for goodness beyond our imagining; for giving which seeks no reward; for listening without judgment; for loving unconditionally"

"The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours"