“Hearing is one thing—listening is altogether different; they are worlds apart. Hearing is a physical phenomenon; you hear because you have ears. Listening is a spiritual phenomenon. You listen when you have attention, when your inner being joins with your ears.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 232)
Motivational Quotes
“When you and I put our ass where our heart wants to be, the universe responds. We change. We see ourselves differently. But others, sometimes those we are not aware of (and whom we have no idea are aware of us), see us differently too. They may come to our aid in ways we could never have predicted and by some word or act of kindness change everything.”
Steven Pressfield, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be (Page 41)
“Station your physical body in the spot where your dream-work will and must happen. Want to write? Sit down at the keyboard. Wanna paint? Step up before the easel. Dance? Get your butt into the rehearsal studio. Dumb and obvious as it sounds, tremendous power lies in this simple physical action.”
Steven Pressfield, Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be (Page 11)
“To me, smoking might be the most attractive activity a woman (or anyone for that matter) can do. Yet, the irony in this attraction is that if I were to fall in love with a woman who smoked, I’d want them to stop the disgusting habit immediately. Perhaps there is a metaphor in there for love. Where people fuck up tragically in love is that they fall in love with someone and then immediately attempt to make them someone else.”
Cole Schafer
“Growth is not as smooth as people think. It is painful… and the greatest pain comes when you have to go against your likes and dislikes. But who is this that goes on saying, ‘This I like and this I don’t like?’ This is your old mind, not you. If it is allowed, there is no way to change. The mind will tell you to stay in the old rut, because it likes that. So one has to come out of it. The old has to die for the new to be born. The old has to go for the new to come. If you go on clinging to the old, there is no space for the new to come in.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 229)
“I know that sometimes, persistence is not a virtue. I would trade my other abilities to be an exceptional songwriter. I gave it a serious enough try to know that I don’t have the knack, for years, and I’m not interested in being publicly mediocre at the performing arts. My life is incalculably better for having let the dream go. The world will be happiest with a certain range of behaviors from you—life will be easier if you find a place in that range where you’re content. David Whyte calls this the conversational nature of reality, and he is correct about the importance of this concept.”
Sasha Chapin
“But you do not see, nor do you hear, and it is well.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 87)
The veil that clouds your eyes shall be lifted by the hands that wove it,
And the clay that fills your ears shall be pierced by those fingers that kneaded it. And you shall see.
And you shall hear.
Yet you shall not deplore having known blindness, nor regret having been deaf.
For in that day you shall know the hidden purposes in all things,
And you shall bless darkness as you would bless light.”
“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 82)
This is but half the truth. You are also as strong as your strongest link.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of ocean by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”
“Meditation is not a seasonal flower that blooms after weeks. It is a very big tree. It needs time to spread its roots.”
Osho, Everyday Osho (Page 227)
“And now you ask in your heart, ‘How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?’
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 69)
Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower,
But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee.
For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,
And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,
And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.”
“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 64)
For what is prayer but the expansion of yourself into the living ether? And if it is for your comfort to pour your darkness into space, it is also for your delight to pour forth the dawning of your heart.”
“Excellence is mundane. Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence. When a swimmer learns a proper flip turn in the freestyle races, she will swim the race a bit faster; then a streamlined push off from the wall, with the arms squeezed together over the head, and a little faster; then how to place the hands in the water so no air is cupped in them; then how to lift them over the water; then how to lift weights to properly build strength, and how to eat the right foods, and to wear the best suits for racing, and on and on. Each of those tasks seems small in itself, but each allows the athlete to swim a bit faster. And having learned and consistently practiced all of them together, and many more besides, the swimmer may compete in the Olympic Games… the little things really do count.”
Daniel Chambliss
“When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 56)
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
“No man can reveal to you aught but that which already lies half asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 53)
The teacher who walks in the shadow of the temple, among his followers, gives not of his wisdom but rather of his faith and his lovingness.
If he is indeed wise he does not bid you enter the house of his wisdom, but rather leads you to the threshold of your own mind.”
“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 47)
If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;
And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.”
“You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (Page 43)
But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.”
“Having a fluid sense of identity, where you allow yourself to change, leads to a happier life because you are moving with the natural flow of change as opposed to against it. You exist because of change. When you think about who you are at the ultimate level, you are essentially the coming together of physical and mental phenomena at incredibly fast speeds, from the cellular down to the subatomic, everything about you is in motion. This should inspire you to allow your preferences, likes, and dislikes to evolve over time. Don’t be attached to the old you, let the new you emerge.”
Yung Pueblo
“Those who hurt have been hurt. Hurt is passed down from one person to another, like this, pain spreads through the web of humanity. People who learn to heal themselves are points in the web of humanity where hurt is decreased and where it is less likely for new hurt to spread to another person. Having a mindset where you do your best to not harm those who cross your path makes the world a more peaceful place.”
Yung Pueblo
“When we do something nice for someone, a ‘thank you’ and a smile is nice to receive. And, in many parts of human culture, it’s a bit expected. But when something goes wrong, if we drop a plate or miss a turn or make someone late, it’s particularly delightful and memorable if we are greeted warmly instead of stomped on. The moments when it’s the most difficult to be kind are the moments where it matters the most.”
Seth Godin