A fox looked at his shadow at sunrise and said, “I will have a camel for lunch today.” And all morning he went about looking for camels. But at noon he saw his shadow again-and he said, “A mouse will do.
You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care, nor your nights without a want and a grief, but rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.
If you sing of beauty though alone in the heart of the desert you will have an audience.
How beautiful to find a heart that loves you, without asking you for anything, but to be okay.
The things which the child loves remain in the domain of the heart until old age. The most beautiful thing in life is that our souls remain hovering over the places where we once enjoyed ourselves. I am one of those who remembers those places regardless of distance or time.
For the criminal who is weak and poor the narrow cell of death awaits; but honor and glory await the rich who conceal their crimes behind their gold and silver and inherited glory.
Life is not only merriment,It is desire and determination.
Knowledge and understanding are life's faithful companions who will never prove untrue to you. For knowledge is your crown, and understanding your staff; and when they are with you, you can possess no greater treasures.
The truly just is he who feels half guilty of your misdeeds.
Yesterday is ever jealous of...tomorrow.
For the sight of the angry weather saddens my soul and the sight of the town, sitting like a bereaved mother beneath layers of ice, oppresses my heart.
Inspiration is in seeing a part of the whole with the part of the whole in you.
Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.
One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.
If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.
Life without Liberty is like a body without spirit. Liberty without thought is like a disturbed spirit.
The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom.
Let passion fill your sails, but let reason be your rudder.
If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.
Solitude has soft, silky hands, but with strong fingers it grasps the heart and makes it ache with sorrow.
People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face. But you are life and you are the veil. Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
Persecution cannot harm him who stands by Truth. Did not Socrates fall proudly a victim in body? Was not Paul stoned for the sake of the Truth? It is our inner selves that hurt us when we disobey it, and it kills us when we betray it.
The giving and receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness, for even as he loves the arrow that flies, so he loves also the bow that is stable.
All things in this vast universe exist in you, with you, and for you.
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or cleverness juggling.
Words are timeless. You should utter them or write them with a knowledge of their timelessness.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
Seek ye counsel of the aged for their eyes have looked on the faces of the years and their ears have hardened to the voices of Life. Even if their counsel is displeasing to you, pay heed to them.
Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
Life is the mistress to be wooed.
Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do.
The lights of stars that were extinguished ages ago still reaches us. So it is with great men who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities.
Each thing that exists remains forever, and that very existence of existence is proof of its eternity. But without that realization, which is the knowledge of perfect being, man would never know whether there was existence or non-existence. If eternal existence is altered, then it must become more beautiful; and if it disappears, it must return with more sublime image; and if it sleeps, it must dream of a better awakening, for it is ever greater upon its rebirth.
Like sheaves of corn it gathers you unto itself. It threshes you to make you naked. It sifts you to free you from your husks. It grinds you to whiteness. It kneads you until you are pliant. And then it assigns you to its sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast. All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's Heart.
You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heath of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light. If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life. For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one. For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
Strange that we all defend our wrongs with more vigor than we do our rights.
When you see a man led to prison say in your heart, "Mayhap he is escaping from a narrower prison." And when you see a man drunken say in your heart, "Mayhap he sought escape from something still more unbeautiful.
My brothers, seek counsel of one another, for therein lies the way out of error and futile repentance. The wisdom of the many is your shield against tyranny. For when we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies.
Thus with my lips have I denounced you, while my heart, bleeding within me, called you tender names.
Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.
The true wealth of a nation lies not in it's gold or silver but in it's learning, wisdom and in the uprightness of its sons.
Your house shall be not an anchor but a mast It shall not be a glistening film that covers a wound, but an eyelid that guards the eye.
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?
Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it so that the other half may reach you.
For the first time the sun kissed my own naked face and my soul was inflamed with love for the sun, and I wanted my masks no more. And as if in a trance I cried, "Blessed, blessed are the thieves who stole my masks." Thus I became a madman.
A word I want to see written on my grave: I am alive like you, and I am standing beside you. Close your eyes and look around, you will see me in front of you.
I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and I saw that service is joy.
When we oppose the hidden conscience, it does us hurt. When we betray it, it judges us.
Marriage is like a golden ring in a chain, whose beginning is a glance and whose ending is eternity.
For Reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and Passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
All things in this creation exist within you and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things.
For a love to grow through the test of everyday living, one must respect that zone of privacy where one retires to relate to the inside instead of the outside.
Nature reaches out to us with welcoming arms, and bids us enjoy her beauty; but we dread her silence and rush into the crowded cities, there to huddle like sheep fleeing from a ferocious wolf.
The subtlest beauties in our life are unseen and unheard.
To be able to look back upon ones life in satisfaction, is to live twice.
Many of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But you have already borne the pain. What you have not done is feel all you are beyond that pain.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
