I must, before I die, find some way to say the essential thing that is in me, that I have never said yet — a thing that is not love or hate or pity or scorn, but the very breath of life, fierce and coming from far away, bringing into human life the vastness and the fearful passionless force of non-human things. – Bertrand Russell
I believe it will have become evident why, for me, adjectives such as happy, contented, blissful, enjoyable, do not seem quite appropriate to any general description of this process I have called the good life, even though the person in this process would experience each one of these at the appropriate times. But adjectives which seem more generally fitting are adjectives such as enriching, exciting, rewarding, challenging, meaningful. This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-fainthearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one’s potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life. Yet the deeply exciting thing about human beings is that when the individual is inwardly free, he chooses as the good life this process of becoming. – Carl Rogers
Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it. – Maya Angelou
The last of the human freedoms: to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you become the plaything to circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity… – Viktor Frankl
Without an understanding of the unique meanings existing for the individual, the problems of helping him effectively are almost insurmountable. – Arthur Combs
I would say that there exists a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves-we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together, we are each other’s destiny. – Mary Oliver
Seek the wisdom that will untie your knot. Seek the path that demands your whole being. Leave that which is not, but appears to be. Seek that which is, but is not apparent. – Rumi
We are constantly invited to be who we are – Henry David Thoreau
I know you are sad, so I won’t tell you to have a good day. Instead, I advise you to simply have a day. Stay alive. Feed yourself well. Wear comfortable clothes and don’t give up on yourself just yet. It’ll get better. Until then, have a day. – Anon
There is no coming to [self] consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. C. G. Jung
Patience has nothing to do with waiting. Patience is about understanding the right moment for action and the right moment for stillness. – Alberto Villoldo
The first rule in answering, if there is one, is to wait. The part of our brain that has the “right” answer for everything is a dull place, built of endless chains of associations, everything we knew in the past. This knowing may be factually correct but there’s a problem with it. It is dead.
To touch something that is unique, alive, calls for a search: “Is this really true right now?” (Most likely that first instant response is already known to the questioner, and she is hoping for something new.) A response unique to the moment is precious, and even, one might say memorable.
But waiting even a split second takes courage. Dare I search in myself for what is more true? What if nothing better arises? Never fear, there is a deeper wisdom in each of us, and it needs space, and a little time to appear. It needs my trust. – Lisa Firestone