Quotations for Yogis

"If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word “fearlessness.” -Swami Vivenkananda

"You are what your deep, driving desire is.
As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will.
As your will is, so is your deed.
As your deed is, so is your destiny."
-   Upanishads

"Those that only take a nibble here and a nibble there will never attain anything ... Those who really want to be yogis must give up, once and for all, this nibbling at things.  Take up one idea.  Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea."
-   Swami Vivekananda    

Be perfectly resigned, perfectly unconcerned; then alone can you do any true work. No eyes can see the real forces; we can only see the results. Put out self, forget it; just let God work, it is His business. -   Swami Vivekananda

"What lies behind us, and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
~ by Ralph Waldo Emerson ~

"A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at."
-   Bruce Lee

"If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow."
-  A Chinese Proverb

“Comfort” is no test of truth; on the contrary, truth is often far from being “comfortable.” -Swami Vivekananda

"Trying to understand is like straining through muddy water. Be still and allow the mud to settle."
-   Lao Tzu

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands. -Robert Pirsig

After every happiness comes misery; they may be far apart or near. The more advanced the soul, the more quickly does one follow the other. What we want is neither happiness nor misery. Both make us forget our true nature; both are chains--one iron, one gold; behind both is the Atman, who knows neither happiness nor misery. These are states, and states must ever change; but the nature of the Atman is bliss, peace, unchanging. We have not to get it, we have it; only wash away the dross and see it. -Swami Vivekananda

"If you add a little to a little, and then do it again, soon that little shall be much."
-  Hesiod

"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-   Anatole France

"We are what we think."
-   Buddha

Come out into the universe of Light. Everything in the universe is yours, stretch out your arms and embrace it with love. If you every felt you wanted to do that, you have felt God. -Swami Vivekananda

"I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."
-   Confucius

"Metaphysics is a restaurant where they give you
a thirty thousand page menu, and no food." -Robert Pirsig

"The best way out is always through."
-   Robert Frost

"You can have anything you want if you want it desperately enough. You must want it with an inner exuberance that erupts through the skin and joins the energy that created the world."
- Sheila Graham

Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood. -Swami Vivekananda

"We are not born all at once, but by bits. The body first, and the spirit later; and the birth and growth of the spirit, in those who are attentive to their own inner life, are slow and exceedingly painful. Our mothers are racked with the pains of our physical birth; we ourselves suffer the longer pains of our spiritual growth."
-   Mary Antin

"Yoga is a light which, once lit, will never dim.
The better you practice, the brighter the flame."
-  B. K. S. Iyengar

"Attention is the beginning of devotion."
-  Mary Oliver

"Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself." -unknown

"Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal."
-   Henry Ford

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
-  Wayne Gretzky

"First, in order to be able to love people and to be loved by them, one must accustom oneself to expect as little as possible from them, and that is very hard work; for if I expect much, and am often disappointed, I am inclined rather to reproach them than to love them." -Tolstoy

"Learning lessons does not end. There's no part of life that doesn't contain its lessons. If you're alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned." -unknown

"History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats."
--B. C. Forbes

“Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.” -Alan Watts

Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water clears. They remain unmoving until the right time, so the right action arises by itself. They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all things.
- Dan Millman

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying  to please everybody."
-   Bill Cosby   

"The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it."
-  Elbert Hubbard

"You must learn to live in the present and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in flexibility and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant practice."
-   Bruce Lee

“We are sick with fascination for the useful tools of names and numbers, of symbols, signs, conceptions and ideas. Meditation is therefore the art of suspending verbal and symbolic thinking for a time, somewhat as a courteous audience will stop talking when a concert is about to begin.” -Alan Watts

"Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage. The way in which power works is a mystery."
- Albert Schweitzer

"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestioned ability of a man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor." -Henry David Thoreau

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,
My love as deep;
The more I give to thee
The more I have,
For both are infinite.
~ by William Shakespeare ~

"It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure."
~Joseph Campbell~

"I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable."
-   Joseph Addison   

“The self-confidence of the warrior is not the self-confidence of the average man. The average man seeks certainty in the eyes of the onlooker and calls that self-confidence. The warrior seeks impeccability in his own eyes and calls that humbleness. The average man is hooked to his fellow men, while the warrior is hooked only to infinity.”
~Carlos Casteneda~

Never think that God's delays are God's denials. Hold on; hold fast; hold out. Patience is genius.
-   George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” -Rumi

"The only remedy for love is more love." -Henry David Thoreau

"Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you. Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight... When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another."
-   Helen Keller

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.”-Thich Nhat Hanh

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
--Lao Tso

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.” -Rumi

It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling. -Robert Pirsig

“Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn't, it is of no use.”
~Carlos Casteneda~

"It is an illusion to think that more comfort means more happiness. Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to be needed."
--Unknown

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” -Alan Watts

Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, "I'll do nothing until I can be sure". Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don't be one of those merchants who wont risk the ocean. -Rumi

"Forgive, forget.  Bear with the faults of others as you would have them bear with yours.  Be patient and understanding.  Life is too short to be vengeful or malicious."
-   Phillips Brooks 

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

"Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual life, fight as long as there is any life in you. Even though you know you are going to be killed, fight till you “are killed.” Don’t die of fright. Die fighting. Don’t go down till you are knocked down." -Swami Vivekananda