Life Celebration Quotes
Crafted with the reader in mind, this collection is clearly divided by themes:
Abraham Lincoln
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.
Agatha Christie
I know there's a proverb which that says 'To err is human,' but a human error is nothing to what a computer can do if it tries.
Alan Watts
Enlightenment or awakening is not the creation of a new state of affairs but the recognition of what already is.
Wonder is not a disease. Wonder, and its expression in poetry and the arts, are among the most important things which seem to distinguish men from other animals, and intelligent and sensitive people from morons.
Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.
This is the real secret of life - to be completely engaged with what you are doing… and instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
If a man seeks the Buddha, that man loses the Buddha.
Albert Einstein
It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.”
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
When they call you crazy, remember that great ideas don’t come from average minds.
I rarely think in words at all.
I didn't arrive at my understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe through my rational mind.
When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.
The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day.
Albert Camus
You make the mistake of thinking you have to choose, that you have to do what you want, that there are conditions for happiness. What matters - all that matters, really, is the will to happiness, a kind of enormous, ever-present consciousness.
The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.
Aristotle
No great genius ever existed without some touch of
madness.
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Bertrand Russell
Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don’t know.
Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.
Buddha
Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen.
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.
A man is not called wise because he talks and talks again; but if he is peaceful, loving and fearless then he is in truth called wise.
Carl Jung
Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.
Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life.
Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see.
Charles Bukowski
The masses are always wrong - Wisdom is doing everything the crowd does not do. All you do is reverse the totality of their learning and you have the heaven they’re looking for.
Confucius
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
I hear – I forget. I see – I remember. I do – I understand.
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.
Dalai Lama
Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.
Eckhart Tolle
Those who have not found their true wealth, which is radiant joy of being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth.
The beginning of freedom is the realization that you are not “the thinker.” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realize that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You also realize that all the things that truly matter – beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace – arise from beyond the mind. You begin to awaken.
Friedrich Nietzsche
The errors of great men are more fruitful than the truths of little men.
I used logic and reasoning to disprove logic and reasoning.
Hermann Hesse
Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Here is my secret: I don’t mind what happens.
To become so aware is difficult, but if you begin to write it down all your thoughts and feelings, reactions and actions, you will begin to be aware of the state of your being. Of course you have no time to write down or jot down with interest every day, then you will see that your unconscious is making note while your attention is being given to other matters, so that when you have time to write down again, your actions and reactions remember.
No Master, no teacher, no guru, no system, no self-
discipline will ever lift for you the veil which conceals wisdom.
The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest for of intelligence.
The world is the projection of yourself. The world cannot be transformed until you are.
The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don’t come to an achievement, you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.
Wisdom is something that has to be discovered by each one, and it is not the result of knowledge. Knowledge and wisdom do not go together. Wisdom comes when there is the maturity of self-knowing. Without knowing oneself, order is not possible, and therefore there is no virtue.
Philosophy means the love of wisdom, the love of truth, the love of truth in daily life, not an abstraction of truth, not the speculative ideas of philosophers and their theories and their clever spinning out of words. Philosophy means the love of truth in daily life.
Wisdom is not found in books, nor in repetition, nor in rituals. Wisdom is found through right thinking and right thinking cannot possibly exist without self-knowledge.
The highest form of human intelligence is to observe yourself without judgement.
You don’t need philosophies and doctrines to be gentle and kind.
Listening is not merely hearing; listening is an art. All this is a part of self-knowing; and if one has really listened and gone into oneself profoundly, it is a purification.
Joseph Campbell
My belief is that nobody experiences the ultimate rapture, because it’s beyond the pairs of opposites, so if anyone did, there’d be nobody there anyhow. Jung is amusing on this point. “If you go beyond subject and object,” he wonders, “Who is there to have the experience?” I think to give oneself a ground for anything other than monastic living, all one has to do is realize that such a thing is implied; that is to say, a mystery that is beyond subject and object and all pairs of opposites is the mystery on the ground of which we ride.
Lao Tzu
The Master sees things as they are, without trying to control them.
She lets them go their own way, and resides at the center of the circle.
I have just the things to teach. Simplicity. Patience. Compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
The wise man is one who knows what he does not know.
If one desires to receive one must first give. This is called profound understanding.
Leo Tolstoy
We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.
Leonardo da Vinci
Wisdom is the daughter of experience.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
Mahatma Gandhi
Speak only if it improves upon the silence.
Why not share this as a heartwarming gift?
Marcus Aurelius
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
Do not be wise in words. Be wise in deeds.
Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?”
And why should we feel anger at the world? As if it will notice!
Maya Angelou
Every storm runs out of rain.
Paul Gauguin
Don't over finish your work. There is value to done.
Richard Feynman
I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.
Rumi
You are searching the world for treasure, but the real treasure is in yourself.
Seneca
The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.
It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
Simone de Beauvoir
One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius.
Sir Isaac Newton
Genius is patience.
I believe the more I study science, the more I believe in God.
Socrates
Wisdom begins in wonder.
When you want wisdom and insight as badly as you want to breathe, it is then you shall have it.
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.
Understanding a question is half an answer.
I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others.
I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
Awareness of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.
Thich Nhat Hanh
We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.
In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.
We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we’re not doing anything, we’re wasting our time. But that’s not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And this is what the world needs the most. We all need to train ourselves in our way of being, and that is the ground for all action. Our quality of being determines our quality of doing.
For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.
Vincent van Gogh
Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.
I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.
I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.
Voltaire
The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
The most important decision you will ever make is to be in a good mood.
Judge a man by his questions more than his answers.
Why not keep this resource at your fingertips?
Other Voices
For these sections without caricature the quote comes first, the cited person after. In case you are using text-to-speech be aware.
The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in his heart.
Benjamin Franklin
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.
Charles W. Eliot
The way we see the world shapes the way we treat it. If a mountain is a deity, not a pile of ore; if a river is one of the veins of the land, not potential irrigation water; if a forest is a sacred grove, not timber; if other species are biological kin, not resources; or if the planet is our mother, not an opportunity - then we will treat each other with greater respect. Thus is the challenge, to look at the world from a different perspective.
David Suzuki
Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear.
Hippocrates
Conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.
Louisa May Alcott
That whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must remain silent.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
It is said that wisdom lies not in seeing things, but in seeing through things.
Manly P. Hall
… sooner or later you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Morpheus
The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.
We all have the same God, we just serve him differently. Rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, oceans all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, and they all contain truth, expressed in different ways forms and times. It doesn't matter whether you're a Muslim, a Christian, or a Jew. When you believe in God, you should believe that all people are part of one family. If you love God, you can't love only some of his children.
Muhammad Ali
Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
A fool is known by his Speech; and a wise man by Silence.
Pythagoras
You are as young as your faith; as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence; as old as your fear; as young as your hope; as old as your despair.
Samuel Ullman
Intellect takes you to the door, but it doesn’t take you into the house.
Shams Tabrizi
Strictly speaking, there are no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.
Shinryu Suzuki
The sage battles his own ego. The fool battles everyone else's.
Sufi proverb
The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself.
Thales
The great end in life is not knowledge but action.
Thomas Henry Huxley
You cannot pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.
Unknown Author
You don’t have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.
Walter M. Miller Jr.
Inquire often, but judge rarely, and thou wilt not often be mistaken.
William Penn
The central problem is not that you think too highly of yourself nor is it that you think too lowly of yourself. Instead, it is that you think constantly of yourself.
Wu Hsin
Obstacles do not block the path… the obstacles are the path.
Zen Proverb
We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
Zhuangzi