An A to Z of fuel for your journey, broken down by author. Here you will find an abridged version of my personal quote book, collected through the years from thinkers who've moved me. I'm posting them in hopes that some of the ideas may be of service to you, as they have been to me.

A

“If you don’t make mistakes you don’t make anything.”

-Anon., South Korean bookmark

“Life isn’t about finding yourself.  Life is about creating yourself.”

-Anon.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing."

-unknown

"Every dumb thing I ever done in my life--it was a decision I made before that got me into it.  It was never the dumb thing, it was always some choice I made before it."

-All The Pretty Horses, film quote

“Faithlessness is not lack of faith, but faith in nothing.”

-A Course In Miracles

“’I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart, and I said: ‘Who art Thou?’ He said: ‘Thou.’”

-Mansur al-Hallaj

"When the angel of death comes, it is terrible.  When he has reached you, it is bliss."

-Arabian Nights

B

“I was making up a true story.”

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"Find out what you really want to do and do it.  Don't spend twenty years living your life by default when you can decide right now to go in the direction of your love. What do you really want?"

-Richard Bach, One

"Learning is finding out what you already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it.  Teaching is reminding others that they know it just as well as you.  Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you.  You are all learners, doers, teachers."

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"Your conscience is the measure of the honesty of your selfishness.  Listen to it carefully." -Richard Bach, Illusions

"Here's a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't." -Richard Bach, Illusions

"In order to live freely and happily, you must sacrifice boredom.  It is not always an easy sacrifice."

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy.  What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly."

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"Don't be dismayed at goodbyes.  A farewell is necessary before you can meet again." -Richard Bach, Illusions

"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life.   Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof."

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"You teach best what you most need to learn."

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"Argue for your limitations and sure enough, they're yours."

-Richard Bach, Illusions

"What if everybody everywhere is some aspect of who we are, and we're some aspect of them?  How will that change the way we live?"

-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

"Whatever enchants, also guides and protects.  Passionately obsessed by anything we love--sailboats, airplanes, ideas--an avalanche of magic flattens the way ahead."

-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

"Home is whatever we know and love.  Home is wherever we choose to be."

-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

"To be handed a lot of money is to be handed a glass sword blade-first.  Best handle it very carefully while you work out what it's for."

-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

"I had always wanted an adventurous life.  It took a long time to realize that I was the only one who was going to make an adventurous life happen to me.  So I did things I wanted to do and wrote about them, books, magazines and stories."

-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

"There's a magnet that's pulling us against the fence of this world's limits.  I have this strange feeling that we come from the other side of the fence."

-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever

“The more ideas you have, the more you shall be given.”

-Richard Bach, Curious Lives

“You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger… Let a man overcome anger by love.”

-Buddha

“No man can purify another man.”

-Buddha

“Pointing directly at your own heart, you find Buddha.”

-Bodhidharma

"All know the way.  Few actually walk it."

-Bodhidharma

“If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking.”

-Buddhist proverb

"You've got to dare to fail.  To make art, I think, you have to open up your rib cage and just pull it apart, because... instinct over intellect ... and actually being cool is, in a way, the enemy."

-Bono, 2001 interview with Charlie Rose

“Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter…”

-Bono

“Destiny is no matter of chance.  It is a matter of choice.  It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

-William Jennings Bryan

"Life is an ice cream.  Enjoy it before it melts."

-Black, Indian film

“Dear God, I ain’t what I want to be, And I ain’t what I’m gonna be, And I sure ain’t what I ought to be, But thank God, I ain’t what I used to be!”

-Gert Behanna

"A dream is more real than death or battle."

-Black Robe, film quote

C

"Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

-Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way

“It is the act of making art that heals the broken creative heart.”

-Julia Cameron, Walking In This World

“The reception of our work by ourselves as well as others is none of our business.  Our job is to do it.   We work and the work works through us.”

-Julia Cameron, Walking In This World

“I think that one of the benefits of doing something ‘at my age’ is that I have lived long enough not to think that ‘hard’ means wrong or even un-doable.  It may just mean hard … I think all beginners have high hopes and dash themselves against their own expectations and dreams like waves against a cliff until they get it … Water does wear away rock.  Practice will make, if not ‘perfect’, then ‘better’."  

-Julia Cameron, Walking In This World

"The secure way is really the insecure way."

-Joseph Campbell

"The religious life is ethical, it is not mystical.  That is gone and the society is disintegrating consequently.  It is.  The question is: will there ever be a recovery of the mythological mystical realization of the miracle of life of which our society is a manifestation, and all of us brothers and sisters in the spirit of this all-informing mythos?"

-Joseph Campbell, Sukhavati, documentary.

"Always when you are going through a long tunnel, anxiety comes along, and all you have to do to transform your hell into a paradise is to turn your fall into a voluntary act."

-Joseph Campbell

"The world is perfect.  It's a mess.  It has always been a mess.  We're not going to change it.  Our job is to straighten out our own lives."

-Joseph Campbell

"A bit of advice given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: 'As you go the way of life, you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.'"

-Joseph Campbell

“Work: it begins where you don’t like what you’re doing.  I heard a little formula way, way back: make your hobby your source of income, then there’s no such thing as work, and there’s no such thing as getting tired.  It’s been my own experience I did just what I wanted to do; it takes a little courage at first because who the hell wants you to be doing just what you want to do—they’ve all got a lot of plans for you.  But you can make it happen and then there’s no such thing as work.  People often say:  when do you take a holiday—well a holiday’s often just a bore because I’m not doing what I really want to do.”

-Joseph Campbell, Conversations with Michael Toms, The Pathless Path.  New Dimensions Radio, 1979

"It's the loss of the ability to take seriously the images of the imagination, and the wish always for the newspaper truth that weens people away from their sense of magic in their own lives."

-Joseph Campbell

"In a traditional society you're not allowed to follow the antithetical.  The primary is there like a cookie mold on you, but here comes this struggle.  Now if the family or society opposes this, then it becomes rather fierce, but a yielding, a gradual yielding to the learning of a young person of what his own footsteps can do for him, this is the proper way."

-Joseph Campbell

"If there's a way or path, it's someone else's way.  The guru has a path for you.  He knows where you are on it, he knows where he is on it, namely way ahead, and all you can do is get to be as great as he is along that way which he knows.  This is a continuation of the dependency situation of childhood.   Maturity consists in outgrowing that and becoming one’s own authority for one’s life.  And what seems so romantic in the West to [East Asian] people is this quest for the unknown; what is unknown is the fulfillment of your own unique life, the likes of which has never existed on the Earth.  And you're the only one can do it!  People can give you clues, you know, how to fall down and how to stand up but when to fall and when to stand and when you are falling and when you are standing this only you can know.  And to do it in the way of your own talents is the only way to do it."

-Joseph Campbell, Conversations with Michael Toms.  New Dimensions Radio

"The spiritual quest is always realized through relationships, and those are outward.  And what you're seeking is the relationship that opens up dimensions within yourself that are greater than those that you knew when you started."

-Joseph Campbell, Conversations with Michael Toms, New Dimensions Radio

"Apocalypse does not point to a fiery Armageddon, but to our ignorance and complacency coming to an end."

-Joseph Campbell

"If you follow your bliss, you will always have your bliss, money or not.  If you follow money, you may loose it, and you will have nothing."

-Joseph Campbell

"Follow your bliss and don't be afraid and doors will open where you never thought they'd be."

-Joseph Campbell

"The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life."

-Joseph Campbell

"It's all about finding that still point in your mind where commitment drops away."

-Joseph Campbell

"The only way to make the right decision is to know what the wrong decision is."

-Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

“The best warrior is the one who successfully transforms his enemy into a friend.”

-Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain

“Sometimes, invisible books, emerging from generosity shown to one’s fellow man, are as important as those that fill our libraries.”

-Paulo Coelho

"For those who travel, time does not exist, only space."

-Paulo Coelho, The Witch Of Portobello

"What does learning mean: accumulating knowledge or transforming your life?"

-Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

"What is the secret of life?  We call it 'grace' or 'blessing'.  Everyone struggles to be satisfied with what they have.  Apart from me.  Apart from you.  Apart from a few people who will, alas, have to make a small sacrifice in the name of something greater."

-Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

"Does he love me? ...You're asking the wrong question.  What you need to know is, are you in a position to give him the love he needs?  And whatever happens or doesn't happen will be equally gratifying.   Knowing that you are capable of love is enough.  If it isn't him, it will be someone else.  You've discovered a wellspring, simply allow it to flow and it will fill your world.  Don't try to keep a safe distance so as to see what happens.  Don't wait to be certain before you take a step.  What you give, you will receive, although it might sometimes come from the place you least expect. "

-Paulo Coelho, The Witch Of Portobello

"Life has given me so many moments of harsh reality that it does no harm to dream a little." -Paulo Coelho, The Witch Of Portobello

"That at a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us and our lives become controlled by fate.  That's the world's greatest lie."

-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"When you really want something, it is because that desire originated in the soul of the universe.  It's your mission on Earth."

-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"Everything in life is an omen.  There's a universal language, understood by everybody, but already forgotten."

-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"When you follow something with all your heart, that's the Soul of the World.  It's always a positive force."

-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"Love never keeps a man from pursuing his destiny.  If he abandons that pursuit, it's because it wasn't true love... the love that speaks the Language of the World."

-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

"His heart whispered, 'Be aware of the place where you are brought to tears.  That's where I am, and that's where your treasure is."

-Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it.”

-Confucius

"When people start focusing on what they want, what they don't want falls away."

-Jack Canfield

“I mean the fact that I imagine…. let's say, I imagine. It's not my imagination. Nature is imagining through a human nervous system, because a human nervous system is also an extraction of nature. So why do I think that my imagination, my fantasies are inherently my own? They are nature using my nervous system to take leaps of creativity. Just because I imagine in English with an Indian accent, I don't own my imagination, you know? And once we start to understand that everything is a pattern of behavior of nature, even human imagination, then I think we've come to a place of understanding intelligent design for what it really is.” -Deepak Chopra “Peace can only be created by those who are peaceful.”

-Deepak Chopra

“You won’t be alone.  You’ve started out, you’re walking on the road.  The people who haven’t started out yet are the ones who are alone.”

-Deepak Chopra, The Return of Merlin

“There’s nothing to fear in what is, only what we imagine or remember.”

-Deepak Chopra, The Return of Merlin

“I do not know whether I was a man dreaming I was a butterfly or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.”

-Chuang Tzu

“Nothing so spurs a man upon a journey as the cautions of this friends: ‘dangerous’, ‘impossible’, ‘when you get there nothing worth seeing’, and the like.  All show you plainly that the thing is worth the venture”

-R.B. Cunningham, 19th Century North African Explorer

"We feel afraid to look when actually, it's the not looking that makes us afraid.  The minute we look, we cease being afraid."

-Michael Crichton, Travels

"The only true expression of one's beliefs lies in action."

-Michael Crichton, Travels

"I don't think there is anything served by imagining a world of faceless villains.  There isn't any THEY.   They're only people like us."

-Michael Crichton, Travels

"The best way to think about men and women is to assume there are no differences between them."

-Michael Crichton, Travels

"Writing is how you make the experience your own, how you explore what it means to you, how you come to possess it, and ultimately release it."

-Michael Crichton, Travels

"You should always tell the truth, because if you tell the truth, you make it the other person's problem."

-Sean Connery

"I recognize the fact that I am part good and part bad."

-Johnny Cash

"I'm going to be me as I am, and you can beat me, jail me, or even kill me, but I am not going to be what you want me to be."

-Cry Freedom, film quote

D

“There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio: What is sacred?  Of what is the spirit made?   What is worth living for and what is worth dying for?  The answer for each is the same: only love.”

-Don Juan Demarco, film quote

“Switch from being busy to achieving results.”

-Peter Drucker

“When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

-Raoul Duke

“Life is too short to be little.”

-Benjamin Disraeli

"A song is like a dream, and you try to make it come true.  They're like strange countries that you have to enter.  You can write a song anywhere, in a railroad compartment, on a boat, on horseback--it helps to be moving.  Sometimes people who have the greatest talent for writing songs never write any because they are not moving."

-Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Vol. 1

"We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. Speak or act with an impure mind And trouble will follow you As the wheel follows the ox that draws the cart . . . Speak or act with a pure mind And happiness will follow you As your shadow, unshakable."

-Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts and is made up of our thoughts.”

-Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha

"Any success that I've had in my life has been in spite of my education rather than because of it."

-Wayne Dyer

"Don't die with your music still in you."

-Wayne Dyer

"Uni-verse.  One song."

-Wayne Dyer

"Give up your personal history."

-Wayne Dyer

"You can never remedy a bad relationship by condemning it."

-Wayne Dyer, The Power Of Intention

"Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change."

-Wayne Dyer

"Wisdom is avoiding all thoughts that weaken you."

-Wayne Dyer

"Whatever the question love is the answer."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"No one knows enough to be a pessimist."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"I'm grateful to all of those people who said no.  It's because of them that I did it all myself."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"If the world were so organized that everything had to be fair, no living creature could survive for a day.   The birds would be forbidden to eat worms, and everyone's self-interest would have to be served."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"There's no way to happiness.  Happiness is the way.  There's no way to prosperity.  Prosperity is the way."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"When you judge others, you don't define them.  You define yourself."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"You can never fail.  You just produce results."

-Wayne Dyer, Everyday Wisdom

"I don't believe in the sub-conscious mind as something that is controlling our lives, I think it's just a habitual mind ... and we can change habits one moment at a time.  It's not that difficult."

-Wayne Dyer, Inspiration Radio Show

"Everything that we are against weakens us, and everything that we are for, everything that we support, encourages us, or strengthens us, or makes us more powerful."

-Wayne Dyer, Inspiration Radio Show.

"It's not what you eat, it's what you believe about what you eat."

-Wayne Dyer, Inspiration Radio Show

“No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made.  Destiny is made known silently.”

-Agnes De Mille

E

“It’s never too late to be what you might have been.”

-George Eliot

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."

-T.S. Eliot

"Nothing happens until something moves."

-Albert Einstein

"You can't solve a problem with the same mind that created it."

-Albert Einstein

"For us believing physicists, the distinction between past, present and future is an illusion, even if a stubborn one."

-Albert Einstein

F

"I have a limited intelligence and I've used it in a particular direction."

-Richard P. Feynman, Nobel prize winning physicist

G

“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

“People become what they expect themselves to become.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

“In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."

-Mahatma Gandhi

“Human nature is so constituted that if we take absolutely no notice of anger or abuse, the person indulging in it will soon weary of it and stop.”

-Mahatma Gandhi

"There is more to life than simply increasing its speed."

-Mahatma Gandhi

“When you part from your friend, you grieve not; 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.”

-Kahlil Gibran

“And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”

-Kahlil Gibran

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” -Kahlil Gibran “I am waiting for the right moment.  The right moment is always as apparent as the sunrise.” -Barbara Gowdy, The White Bone

"You say it can't be done/ You'd rather die of fun/ Get out of the way/ For you, for me, for everyone/ Forever is tomorrow is today."

-David Gray, song lyric, Forever Is Tomorrow Is Today

"The technical term for a man who panics under fire is 'target'."

-Joseph R. Garber, Vertical Run

"If I'd learned anything from traveling it was that the way to get things done was to go ahead and do them.  Don't talk about going to Borneo.  Book a ticket, get a visa, pack a bag and it just happens."

-Alex Garland, The Beach

"I go to movies, I sleep in ... I became a fiction writer because I became such a good liar as to why I couldn't come to work."

-Barbara Gowdy, Lecture: Canadian Authours In Person, York University, Jan. 2000

H

“The most important thing is for each of us to have some freedom in our heart, some stability in our heart, some peace in our heart.  Only then will we be able to relieve the suffering around us.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

“I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free.”

-Thich Nhat Hanh

“While you sing, you don’t wonder whether or not singing is useful; you sing.  That is how you are to pray.”

-Herman Hesse,  Narcissus and Goldmund

"I have no parents.  I come from nowhere."

-Herman Hesse, in Narcissus and Goldmund

“One never reaches home … but where paths that have affinity for each other intersect, the whole world looks like home, for a time.”

-Hermann Hesse, Damian

“You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself.”

-Hermann Hesse, Damian

"The river knows everything.  You can learn everything from it." -Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha "Wisdom is not communicable.  The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds false."

-Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

"Constructive criticism is a scam run by people who want to beat you up.  And they want you to believe that they're doing it for your own good."

-Cheri Hubber, There's Nothing Wrong With You

I

J

“No one wants to die.  Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there.  And yet death is a destination we all share.  No one has ever escaped it.  And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life.”

-Steve Jobs

"The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

-Steve Jobs

"Don't let your dreams be dreams."

-Jack Johnson

“There was never any fear for me, no fear of failure.  If I miss a shot, so what?”

-Michael Jordan

"If I know a thing, then I know it.  I don't need to believe it."

-Carl Jung

"To us, the Buddha is Enlightened.  To the Buddha, there is no such thing... he just is... there is no Buddha."

-C. James

"Man does not define reality, reality defines man.  The reverse is also true.  That is the great paradox."

-C. James

"There is no time.  No past, no future.  There is only now.  Everything that happens occurs now, in the same instant, my whole life, all life."

-C. James

"Don't try to be yourself.  That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth.  There is no self."

-C. James, paraphrasing a line from The Matrix

"If you stare at anything long enough, you will find something beautiful."

-C. James

"Words render events in time still, make them malleable.  You can change them, go non-linearly if you want.  But always you are drawing in some form from your own experience."

-C. James

K

"Be in love with your life... write what you want bottomless from the bottom of the mind remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition Write in recollection and amusement of yourself."

-Jack Kerouac

“There is nothing nobler than to put up with a few inconveniences like snakes and dust for the sake of absolute freedom.”

-Jack Kerouac

"Bless the ride."

-Jack Kerouac

“The world is on fire--the eye is on fire, what it sees is on fire, the very seeing of the eye is on fire--this only means it will all end pure energy and not even that.  It will be blissful.  I promise.  I know because you know.”

-Jack Kerouac

“If you have not discovered something you are willing to die for, then you are not fit to live.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

“He whom I was going to look for, has come to meet me.  And he whom I called the Other, has become me.”

-Kabir

“No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”

-Helen Keller

“One must totally die to find out what love is.”

-J. Krishnamurti

"Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite of its apparent silence." -Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Innocence can't be lost.  It just needs to be maintained."

-Jewel Kilcher, lyric, Innocence Maintained

"In the end, only kindness matters."

-Jewel Kilcher, lyric, Hands

"When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations.  When power narrows the areas of a man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence.  When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for are establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our own judgement."

-John F. Kennedy

“What’s the use of teaching? You’re not going to do it anyway. You’ve got your lives planned. Beings come already taught by God. Anyone who poses as a teacher does it for the sake of their own ego.”

-Neem Karoli Baba

L “Therefore I travel.”

-Lonely Planet slogan

"I cannot be who I'm not."

-John Lennon

“You got to serve yourself; nobody’s gonna do it for you.”

-John Lennon

“When armies are mobilized and issues joined, the man who is sorry over the fact will win.” -Lao-tzu

“Survival is all relative, Jack.”

-John Locke, in the Season Finale of LOST: Season One

"Sometimes your life changes so slowly that you don't know whether it's better or worse until it is."

-Life As A House, film quote

"If poetry is like an orgasm, an academic can be likened to someone who studies the passion stains on the bedsheets."

-Irving Layton

M

“India is like Wonderland.  In this other universe everyone seems mad and everything is upside down, back to front and infuriatingly bizarre.  I’m Alice: fuzzy with feelings about my previous trip down the rabbit hole, I’m now flying straight back through the looking glass to a place where women are blamed for sleazy men and planes are sprayed when they fly from a clean city to a dirty one.  In this world we applaud a dreadful landing that’s as fast and steep as takeoff, we jump up and tackle fellow passengers in a crush at the door while the plane is still moving, and the air hostess gets off first.”

-Sarah Macdonald, Holy Cow

“India is in some ways like a fun house hall of mirrors where I can see both sides of each contradiction sharply and there’s no easy escape to understanding.”

-Sarah Macdonald, Holy Cow

“How do you know when you’re following the right path?  Same way a kite knows.”

-Robert Drake Martin, III

“The edge is where you put it.”

-Paul McHugh

“There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

-Morpheus in The Matrix

"Bliss isn't exactly synonymous with happiness.  We're usually happy because of some outside event... Bliss is more understated, non-stop happiness for no reason at all.  People experience this when they are in touch with the divine essence."

-Victoria Moran

N

“Man is not born free.  He is born to free himself.”

-Namak

“We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.”

-Anaïs Nin

"One handles truth like dynamite.  Literature is one vast hypocrisy, a giant deceptions, treachery.  All writers have concealed more than they have revealed."

-Anaïs Nin

“The real measure of your wealth is how much you’d be worth if you lost all your money.”

-Bruce Northam

“Luxuries are often not only dispensable, but frequently hindrances.”

-Bruce Northham

"There is so much energy in the universe and we get preoccupied:  'We're going to run out of energy!'   There is more energy in this room than we could consume if we really put our minds to it."

-Woody Norris, inventor

O

"You name the enemy and destroy their power."

-Michael Ondaatje, In The Skin Of A Lion

P

“No one can ever gain strength by brooding over his weakness.”

-Paramananda

"This thing we call failure is not the falling down, but the staying down."

-Mary Pickford

"When you are inspired . . . dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be." -Patanjali

"Nothing can go wrong when you reconnect to source."

-Swami Paramananda

"One can be committed to any number of things.  But when it comes to people, devotion requires attention to only one."

-Lost Girls, by Andrew Pyper

"This is the ghost of normal everyday assumptions which declares that the ultimate purpose of life, which is to keep alive, is impossible, but that this is the great purpose of life anyway, so that great minds struggle to cure diseases so that people may live longer, but only madmen ask why.  One lives longer to live longer. There is no other purpose. That is what the ghost says."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motor Cycle Maintenance

"You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow.  They know it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motor Cycle Maintenance

"The real cycle you are working on is a cycle called yourself.  The Machine that appears to be 'out there' and the person that appears to be 'in here' are not two separate things."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motor Cycle Maintenance

"The Church of Reason, like all institutions of the System, is based not on individual strength, but upon individual weakness.  What's really demanded in the Church of Reason is not ability, but inability.   Then you are considered teachable.  A truly able person is always a threat."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motor Cycle Maintenance

"Although the names keep changing, and the bodies keep changing, the larger pattern that hold us all together goes on and on."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Zen And The Art Of Motor Cycle Maintenance

"Either speak from the heart or keep quiet."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Lila

"Seeing is not believing.  Believing is seeing."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Lila

"This is what drives the really creative people--the artists, composers, revolutionaries and the like--the feeling that if they don't break out of this jail house somebody has built around them, they're going to die."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Lila

"Suicide only kills biological patterns.  That's like destroying a computer because you can't stand the program it's running."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Lila

"We don't perform religious rituals because we believe in God.  We believe in God because we perform religious rituals."

-Robert M. Pirsig, Lila

"After a while there is no arrival and no departure possible any more.  You are where you were always going."

-Al Purdy, "Transients"

"Whence come I and whither I go?  That is the great unfathomable question, the same for every one of us.  Science has no answer to it."

-Max Planck, physicist and founder of quantum theory

Q

R

“Painted cakes do not satisfy.”

-Ram Dass, Be Here Now

“The Game is not about becoming somebody, it’s about becoming nobody.”

-Ram Dass

"If I am a potter, I make pots, but who's making the pots?  I am not under the illusion that I am making the pots.  Pots are.  The potter is.  I am a hollow bamboo."

-Ram Dass, Be Here Now

"You can't rip the skin off a snake."

-Ram Dass, Be Here Now

“The next message you need is right where you are.”

-Ram Dass

“Have love for everyone, no one is other than you.”

-Ramakrishna

“It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us.  It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.”

-Agnes Repplier

"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there." -Yasutani Roshi

"Art? You just do it."

-Martin Ritt

"Stop focusing on what it means and start focusing on how to solve it."

-Anthony Robins

"Whomever you are: some evening take a step outside your house, which you know so well.  Enormous space is near..."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

"Remain with the questions.  Love the questions themselves."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

"The secret of the Great Stories is that they have no secrets.  The Great Stories are the ones you have heard and want to hear again.  The ones you can enter anywhere and inhabit comfortably."

-Arundhati Roy, The God Of Small Things

"Poems are like dreams; in them, you put what you don't know."

-Adrienne Rich

S

"It's as though our lives were the dream of a single dreamer in which all the dream characters were dreaming, too."

-Schopenhauer

“Most people see the limits of their own vision as the limits of the world.  A few do not.  Join them.”

-Schopenhauer

"Just as your dreams are composed by an aspect of yourself of which your consciousness is unaware, so your whole life has been composed by the will within you."

-Schopenhauer

“No matter what road I travel, I’m going home.”

-Shinso

“If people don’t laugh at you and your ideas at least once a week, you’re not pushing the envelope.”

-Robin Sharma, The Greatness Guide

"There is something magical about sticking to your dream longer than anyone around you thinks you have a right to stick to that dream."

-Robin Sharma

“The words you use determine the way you feel.  The language you choose shapes the way you perceive reality.  Your vocabulary drives meaning in your life.”

-Robin Sharma, The Greatness Guide

“I don’t know what your life’s Most Important To Do is.  That’s for you to figure out… But I do know this:   When you find the mission that your life will be dedicated to, you’ll wake up each day with that fire in your belly I mentioned.  You won’t want to sleep.  You’ll be willing to move mountains to make it happen.  You’ll find that sense of internal fulfillment that may now be missing from your life.  And you’ll preach that message to anyone who’ll listen.  You’ll become an evangelist.”

-Robin Sharma, The Greatness Guide "Excellence fuels excellence...start doing the things you never thought you could imagine doing; start being more excellent, and I believe and I know your best life will come knocking."

-Robin Sharma

“The Law of Diminishing Intent says that the longer you wait to implement a new idea or strategy, the less enthusiasm you will have for it.”

-Robin Sharma

“The farther you go out on a limb, the easier it is to fall.  But then again, out on the limb is where all the fruit is.”

-Robin Sharma

“Be different.  Let them laugh.  Let them call you crazy.  Let them snicker.  Stay true to your vision.   Dream bigger.   Don’t be ordinary.  It’s the kiss of death, as far as I can tell.”

-Robin Sharma

“If you are not criticized, you are not doing very much.”

-Robin Sharma

“A lot of times when we reach for our best, the people around us don’t like it.  Why?  Because it brings up their own securities, and rather than looking in the mirror and asking themselves why are they not living their best and their potential, it’s far easier to blame someone who is succeeding and living a fulfilling life.”

-Robin Sharma

“A person that is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person.”

-Robin Sharma

“Nothing happens until you move.”

-Robin Sharma

“We can curse the darkness or we can light a candle.  And our world needs more light.  Shine.  Today.”

-Robin Sharma, The Greatness Guide

“A few years ago, I remember reading a magazine article about a Vietnam vet who managed to survive his days in solitary confinement by playing imaginary games of chess.  Not only did this help him to pass the time, it also dramatically improved his playing ability.  By the time he got out and had the opportunity to play with a real opponent on a real board, his chess skills had become nothing short of brilliant.”

-Robin Sharma

“Once you surrender to your vision, success begins to chase you.  Ultimately, you really can’t pursue success, success ensues. It flows as the unintended bi-product of effective efforts concentrated in the direction of a worthy purpose.”

-Robin Sharma

"A mind is a psychic pattern through which you interpret and form reality."

-Seth, The Nature of the Psyche

"Language is meaningful only because of the rhythm of the silence upon which it rides."

-Seth, The Nature of the Psyche

"Zen Master Hogen studied with Keishin Zenji. Once Keishin Zenji asked him, 'Joza, where do you go?' Hogen said, 'I am making pilgrimage aimlessly.' Keishin said, 'What is the matter of your pilgrimage?' Hogen said, 'I don't know.' Keishin said, 'Not knowing is the most intimate.' Hogen suddenly attained great enlightenment."

-Daisetz T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture

"To be human is to be an extension of that original energy that emerged mysteriously at the beginning of time."

-Brian Swimme

"There's no road that ain't a hard road to travel on."

-Sam Roberts, lyric, Hard Road

"People don't take trips--trips take people."

-John Steinbeck

"You cannot make a film which can effectively alter the world until you have really looked at yourself and made an honest forthright evaluation.  This is the starting point."

-George Semsel, Notes From A Journal

T

“A good traveler leaves no track.”

-Tao Te Ching

“Let us not pray to be sheltered from dangers but to be fearless in facing them.  Let us not beg for the stilling of the pain but for the heart to conquer it.”

-Rabindranath Tagore

“He who thinks to reach God by running away from the world, where and when does he expect to meet him? … We are reaching him here in this very spot, now at this very moment.”

-Rabindranath Tagore

"I can live for two months on a compliment."

-Mark Twain

“Benares [Varanasi] is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

-Mark Twain “

When you go, the road is rough; when you return, smooth.”

-Thai proverb “Hear the song, not the singer.”

-Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

"Instead of learning how to do something and then doing it, do something and learn from how you did it."

-Philip Toshio Sudo, Zen Guitar

“If we respected only what is inevitable and has a right to be, music and poetry would resound along the streets.”

-Henry David Thoreau, Walden

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined."

-Henry David Thoreau

“Keep moving.”  

-Hunter Thompson

"I'm someone who is so in love with what he's doing, I don't think it has anything to do with ambition."

-Donald Trump

U

"Do not question too much, lest your head fall off.  In truth, you are questioning too much about a divinity about which further questions cannot be asked."

-Upanishads

“Tat Tvam Asi—That Thou Art.”

-Upanishads

"Always remember that Einstein published the General Theory of Relativity in one and a half thousand words."

-John Unrau

V

W

“Life is lived out on the wire.  The rest is just waiting.”

-Papa Wallenda, tight rope walker.

“Perhaps randomness itself is only a name for stories we have not recognized yet.”

-Tad Williams, Otherland III

"I am waiting for the stories that come from a distance, for a story is like the wind--it comes from far away, but we feel it."

-Tad Williams, Otherland III

"That's the modern life though, isn't it?  Our lives aren't even about doing real things, most of the time.   We think and talk about people we have never met, pretend to visit places we've never actually been to, discuss things that are just names as though they were as real as rocks and animals or something.   Information age?  Hell, it's the Imagination Age.  We're living in our minds.  No, really we're living in other people's minds."

-Tad Williams, Otherland III

"I danced, for that is what I do when my spirit is hungry."

-Tad Williams, Otherland II

"There is always something you can do, even if it is not enough."

-Tad Williams, Otherland IV

"We convince others by our presence."

-Walt Whitman

"You can't get wet from the word water."

-Alan Watts

"You can't run from the wind. You face the music, you trim the sails and keep going."

-White Squall, film quote

"People should fall in love with their eyes closed.  Just close your eyes.  Don't look." -Andy Warhol

"The more you do, the more you dare."

-Randall Wallace, screenwriter (Braveheart)

X

Y

“I am just a dreamer, but you are just a dream.”

-Neil Young

Z

"I could not stop being frightened until I discovered how frightened I was."

-Gary Zukav

"If you give away only what is easy to give, you can't grow.  That is like giving away tomatoes when your garden is full of tomatoes.  Sharing is like giving away tomatoes when you only have a few left and you love tomatoes.  You have to care about them to do that.  This is the kind of sharing your soul wants to do."

-Gary Zukav

"Everything is the same; everything distinct."

-Zen saying

“First thought, best thought.”

-Zen saying