“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
St. Francis of Assisi, via Sunbeams (Page 115)
“Instead of hating the people you think are war-makers, hate the appetites and the disorder in your own soul, which are the causes of war.”
Thomas Merton, via Sunbeams (Page 115)
“We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, via Sunbeams (Page 115)
“If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible—for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 176)
“The answer to helplessness is not so very complicated. A man can do something for peace without having to jump into politics. Each man has inside him a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a man to listen to his own goodness and act on it. Do we dare to be ourselves? This is the question that counts.”
Pablo Casals, via Sunbeams (Page 114)
“Eternity is not the hereafter. Eternity has nothing to do with time… This is it. If you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here’s the place to have the experience.”
Joseph Campbell, via Sunbeams (Page 114)
“A cover of darkness, separation, and confusion are necessary prerequisites for the eventual rebirth of a lost and wandering soul.”
Nor Hall, The Moon And The Goddess, via Sunbeams (Page 114)
“There is no vice which lacks a defense, none that at the outset isn’t modest and easily intervened—but after this the trouble spreads widely. If you allow it to get started you won’t be able to control when it stops. Every emotion is at first weak. Later it rouses itself and gathers strength as it moves along—it’s easier to slow it down than to supplant it.”
Seneca, Moral Letters, via The Daily Stoic (Page 175)
“When we think we’re separate, we lose power. Whenever I say ‘my,’ I have lost my power. Power is not my power; it is not enlarging oneself as a separate individual. It is only gainable as part of a larger whole. Then you communicate with the rest of yourself—which may be a tree. You, reciprocally, are moved by the universe. Whenever you shut down connectedness, you get depressed. Psychic awareness breaks in as a gift. It’s fearful to know we’re connected to everything in the universe, because then we’re responsible.”
Glenda Taylor, We Are The Web, via Sunbeams (Page 113)
“…Between grief and nothing I will take grief.”
William Faulkner, The Wild Palms, via Sunbeams (Page 113)
“Just as you take a shower or bath in the morning to get yesterday’s dirt off your body, you do your spiritual practice in the morning to get yesterday’s thinking off your mind and heart.”
Marianne Williamson, The Shadow Effect (Page 175)
“The shadow does not leave when it is attacked; it heals when it is forgiven. We do not take off our shadowy mask in the presence of someone who blames us, but rather in the presence of someone who says through words or behavior, ‘I know this is not who you are.’ We miraculously heal in the presence of someone who believes in our light even when we are lost in our darkness. And when we learn to see others in the light of their true being, whether they are showing us that light or not, then we have the power to work that miracle for them.”
Marianne Williamson, The Shadow Effect (Page 175)
“We heal when we feel forgiven. We heal in the presence of compassion. If you really want someone to change, the miracle lies in your ability to see how perfect they already are.”
Marianne Williamson, The Shadow Effect (Page 175)
“More damage is inflicted by people who think they have it all together than by people who have been humbled by the realization that they probably do not.”
Marianne Williamson, The Shadow Effect (Page 172)
“We like to say that we don’t get to choose our parents, that they were given by chance—yet we can truly choose whose children we’d like to be.”
Seneca, On The Brevity Of Life, via The Daily Stoic (Page 173)
“Just because you’ve begun down one path doesn’t mean you’re committed to it forever, especially if that path turns out to be flawed or impeded. At that same time, this is not an excuse to be flighty or incessantly noncommittal. It takes courage to decide to do things differently and to make a change, as well as discipline and awareness to know that the notion of ‘Oh, but this looks even better’ is a temptation that cannot be endlessly indulged either.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 172)
