The library
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 3 of 4
Nothing great, said Epictetus, is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen.
Epictetus, Discourses
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Dissolution of the Order of the Star
The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means, and the exercise of ordinary qualities.
Samuel Smiles, Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character and Conduct
The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series
The tree which fills the arms grew from the tiniest sprout; the tower of nine storeys rose from a (small) heap of earth; the journey of a thousand li commenced with a single step.
Lao Tzu, The Tao Teh King
The highest excellence is like (that of) water. The excellence of water appears in its benefiting all things, and in its occupying, without striving (to the contrary), the low place which all men dislike.
Lao Tzu, The Tao Teh King
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.
Epictetus, Enchiridion
Remain always strong and steadfast in thy own faith, but eschew all bigotry and intolerance.
Sri Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna: His Life and Sayings
There are five notes; but by combinations, innumerable harmonies are produced. There are but five colours; but if we mix them, the shades are infinite.
Sun Tzu, The Book of War
Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
As a log or rock which, motionless on flat ground, yet moves with ever-increasing force when set on an incline, so await the opportunity, and so act when the opportunity arrives.
Sun Tzu, The Book of War
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticise others.
Christian D. Larson, Your Forces and How to Use Them
Life, as I see it, is not a location, but a journey.
Henry Ford, My Life and Work
Live neither in the present nor the future, but in the eternal.
Mabel Collins, Light on the Path
Friends, we are all on the journey; life itself is a journey.
Hazrat Inayat Khan, The Inner Life
Love depends not on outward form or face.
Rumi, Masnavi i Ma'navi
What is wanted for growth is not a change without us, but a change within us.
Annie Besant, Thought Power: Its Control and Culture
Remember then: there is only one time that is important—Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.
Leo Tolstoy, What Men Live By, and Other Tales
For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.
The Buddha, The Dhammapada
Organizations cannot make you free. No man from outside can make you free;
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Dissolution of the Order of the Star
The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.
Maria Mitchell, Maria Mitchell: Life, Letters, and Journals
The law of floatation was not discovered by contemplating the sinking of things, but by contemplating the floating of things which floated naturally, and then intelligently asking why they did so.
Thomas Troward, The Doré Lectures
…holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character.
Swami Vivekananda, Address at the Final Session, World's Parliament of Religions
…the simplest reason would tell each individual that he ought to extend his social instincts and sympathies to all the members of the same nation, though personally unknown to him. This point being once reached, there is only an artificial barrier to prevent his sympathies extending to the men of all nations and races.
Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man