Being Quotes

“I'm not a developer; I am.”

“[In developing your potential] ... I don't develop; I am”

“All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.”

“Amid a world of noisy, shallow actors it is noble to stand aside and say, 'I will simply be.”

“Maybe I’d like to be defined by what I am.”

“I want to be a good human being. I'm doing my best, and I'm working at it.”

“You are the sum total of everything you've seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot- it's all right there.”

“When you know you are of worth, you don't have to raise your voice, you don't have to become rude, you don't have to become vulgar; you just are. And you are like the sky is, as the air is, the same way water is wet. It doesn't have to protest.”

“The art of life, of a poet's life, is, not having anything to do, to do something.”

“Remember: if you can cease all restless activity, your integral nature will appear.”

“. . . the integral being is attached to nothing and can relate to everyone with an unstructured attitude. Because of this, her very existence benefits all things.”

“And there you are on the shore, fitful and thoughtful, trying to attach them to an idea — some news of your own life. But the lilies are slippery and wild—they are devoid of meaning, they are simply doing, from the deepest spurs of their being, what they are impelled to do every summer. And so, dear sorrow, are you.”

“Being is the great explainer.”

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”

“Before you can do something, you must first be something.”

“Other people are joyous, like on the feast of the ox, like on the way up to the terrace in the spring. I alone am inert, giving no sign, like a newborn baby who has not learned to smile.”

“The one who is filled by virtue is like a newborn baby.”

“It used to be about trying to do something. Now it's about trying to be someone.”

“Be truly whole, and all things will return to you.”

“Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.”

“It is absolutely impossible for a subject to see or have insight into something while leaving itself out of the picture, so impossible that knowing and being are the most opposite of all spheres.”

“There is no need to run outside for better seeing... Rather abide at the center of your being; For the more you leave it the less you learn. Search your heart and see... The way to do is to be.”

“If ever I did a man any goodof course it was something exceptional and insignificant compared with the good or evil which I am constantly doing by being what I am.”

“The Way to do is to be.”

“Can you gather your vital breath and yet be tender like a newborn baby?”