#Flexibility Quotes

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”

“As you head toward your goals, be prepared to make some slight adjustments to your course. You don't change your decision to go - you do change your direction to get there.”

“Be firm on principle but flexible on method.”

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.”

“I'd prefer to be right than consistent.”

“Flexibility, openness and softness are consorting with life. When you are rigid and you know the answer and don't listen to other people's point of view, you are consorting with death. Everything that is old and close to death is brittle and breaks apart including our thinking. So always stay flexible and soft and listen to others with caring. And truthfully, all of the verses hit me - especially when you think about them for days, and then write on them.”

“The Constitution was not made to fit us like a straitjacket. In its elasticity lies its chief greatness.”

“Intelligence is a fixed goal with variable means of achieving it.”

“Never stand so high upon a principle that you cannot lower it to suit the circumstances.”

“Occasionally, a man must rise above principles.”

“The more rules you have about how people have to be, how life has to be for you to be happy, the less happy you’re going to be.”

“I'll take the deal, whatever you want to do.”

“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.”

“I like the scientific spirit-the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine-it always keeps the way beyond open.”

“If you are truly flexible and go until... there is really very little you can't accomplish in your lifetime.”

“Disneyland is like a piece of clay: If there is something I don't like, I'm not stuck with it. I can reshape and revamp.”

“Nature avenges herself speedily on the hard pedantry that would chain her waves. She is no literalist. Every thing must be taken genially, and we must be at the top of our condition, to understand any thing rightly.”

“Surprises and reverses can serve as an incentive for great accomplishment. There are no rules here, we're just trying to accomplish something.”

“Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.”

“The system is that there is no system. That doesn't mean we don't have process. Apple is a very disciplined company, and we have great processes. But that's not what it's about. Process makes you more efficient.”

“Leaders shouldn?t attach moral significance to their ideas: Do that, and you can?t compromise.”

“Elephants have a hard time adapting. Cockroaches outlive everything.”

“You have to start somewhere. You can always erase reality later on.”

“Because of the routines we follow, we often forget that life is an ongoing adventure. . . Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art: to bring all our energies to each encounter, to remain flexible enough to notice and admit when what we expected to happen did not happen. We need to remember that we are created creative and can invent new scenarios as frequently as they are needed.”

“In this world, there is nothing softer or thinner than water. But to compel the hard and unyielding, it has no equal. That the weak overcomes the strong, that the hard gives way to the gentle - this everyone knows. Yet no one asks accordingly.”

“Attending fully and becoming supple, Can you be as a newborn babe?”

“He that humbles himself shall be preserved entire. He that bends shall be made straight. He that is empty shall be filled. He that is worn out shall be renewed. He who has little shall succeed. He who has much shall go astray.”

“The unyielding army will not win.”

“Whatever is flexible and living will tend to grow; whatever is rigid and blocked will wither and die.”

“Those who have hardened, have a covenant with Death. Those who remain gentle are conjoined with Life.”

“Thus an army without flexibility never wins a battle. A tree that is unbending is easily broken.”

“The rigid and big belong below. The soft and weak belong above.”

“The soft and weak can overcome the hard and strong.”

“Man, when living, is soft and tender; when dead, he is hard and tough. All animals and plants when living are tender and delicate; when dead they become withered and dry. Therefore it is said: the hard and tough are parts of death; the soft and tender are parts of life.”

“The hard and stiff are death's companions. The soft and weak are life's companions.”

“Nothing is weaker than water, Yet for overcoming what is hard and strong, Nothing surpasses it.”

“Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.”

“The softest of stuff in the world, penetrates quickly the hardest, insubstantial, it enters where there is no room.”

“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is.”

“The mature person perceives the fruitlessness of rigid, external methodologies; Remembering this, he keeps his attitude unstructured at all times and thus is always free to pursue the Integral Way. He studies the teachings of the masters. He dissolves all concepts of duality. He pours himself out in service to others.”

“What is strong and rigid is snapped and laid low. What is flexible and soft will always prevail.”

“A tree that is unbending, is easily broken.”

“A tree that cannot bend will crack in the wind. Thus by nature's own decree, the soft and gentle are triumphant.”

“Nothing is softer or more flexible than water, yet nothing can resist it.”

“Softness triumphs over hardness, feebleness over strength. What is more malleable is always superior over that which is immoveable. This is the principle of controlling things by going along with them, of mastery through adaptation.”

“Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth.”

“The mental flexibility of the wise man permits him to keep an open mind and enables him to readjust himself whenever it becomes necessary for a change.”

“Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it. The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid. Everyone knows this is true, but few can put it into practice. Therefore the Master remains serene in the midst of sorrow. Evil cannot enter his heart. Because he has given up helping, he is people's greatest help. True words seem paradoxical.”

“The softest things in the world overcome the hardest things in the world. Through this I know the advantage of taking no action.”

“In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.”