Age is not all decay: it is the ripening, the swelling of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie
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Uplifting words from sages, poets and naturalists. Every card opens its receipt: the exact source, the locator and how it was verified.
77 quotes · page 2 of 4
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal.
Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga (Yoga Philosophy: Lectures Delivered in New York, Winter of 1895–6)
Let no man think lightly of good, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the wise man becomes full of good, even if he gather it little by little.
The Buddha, The Dhammapada
…to be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.
George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie
Utopia must spring in the private bosom before it can flower in civic virtue. Man is a soul, not an institution; his inner reforms alone can lend permanence to outer ones.
Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series
…a man may be haunted with doubts, and only grow thereby in faith. Doubts are the messengers of the Living One to rouse the honest.
George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons, Second Series
There must be a balance,—the balance of the head and the heart, the balance of power and wisdom, the balance of activity and repose.
Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Inner Life
Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal, and who obeys it: ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of the gospel virtues, therein lie the springs of great thoughts and great actions; they all reflect light from the Infinite.
Louis Pasteur, The Life of Pasteur
…the perfect man employs his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing: it refuses nothing. It receives, but does not keep.
Zhuangzi, Chuang Tzŭ: Mystic, Moralist, and Social Reformer
It is not the receiver that is blessed, but the giver. Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.
Swami Vivekananda, Karma Yoga
Is it not pleasant to learn with a constant perseverance and application? Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?
Confucius, The Analects
Be humble, if thou would’st attain to Wisdom. Be humbler still, when Wisdom thou hast mastered.
H. P. Blavatsky, The Voice of the Silence
verified
Wisdom
We learn wisdom from failure more than from success: we often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and he who never made a mistake, never made a discovery.
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct
…a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.
Charles Darwin, The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin
He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.
Lao Tzu, The Tao Teh King
The lover's ailment is different from all ailments ;
Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi
Blessed is the man who bears with his neighbor according to the frailty of his nature as much as he would wish to be borne with by him if he should be in a like case.
Francis of Assisi, The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi
Most people lose sight of the simplicity of happiness. They look for it in big, complicated things. Real happiness is perfectly simple. In fact, it is incompatible with complexity. Simplicity is its very essence.
Orison Swett Marden, Pushing to the Front
Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.
James Allen, As a Man Thinketh
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Humanity, surely, needs practical men who make the best of their work for the sake of their own interests, without forgetting the general interest. But it also needs dreamers, for whom the unselfish following of a purpose is so imperative that it becomes impossible for them to devote much attention to their own material benefit.
Marie Curie, Pierre Curie
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Where there is charity and wisdom there is neither fear nor ignorance. Where there is patience and humility there is neither anger nor worry.
Francis of Assisi, The Writings of Saint Francis of Assisi