Quotes for living and dying
“So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home.”
~ Chief Tecumseh (Poem from Act of Valor the Movie)
A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise now!
Omar Khayyam – XII the Rubaiyat (1120)
Ah make the most of what yet we may spend, before we too into dust descend.
Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life
Diversity of worship has divided the human race into seventy-two nations. From among all their dogmas, I have selected one, Divine Love
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
“Love is the absence of judgment.”
“My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”
“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
“This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.”
“The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness.”
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
“The more you are motivated by Love,
The more Fearless & Free your action will be.”
“Man surprised me most about humanity. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”
“Whether you believe in God or not does not matter much, whether you believe in Buddha or not does not matter so much; as a Buddhist, whether you believe in reincarnation or not does not matter so much. You must lead a good life.” And later he said… “Whether one believes in a religion or not, and whether one believes in rebirth or not, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t appreciate kindness and compassion.” And later….Despite all philosophical differences, all major world religions have the same potential to create good human beings.
“Learn and obey the rules very well so you will know how to break them properly.”
“We are but visitors on this planet. We are here for ninety or one hundred years at the very most. During that period, we must try to do something good, something useful with our lives. If you contribute to other people’s happiness, you will find the true goal, the true meaning of life.”
“Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to stay.”
“pain is inevitable, suffering is optional…
we have bigger houses, but smaller families. More conveniences, but less time. We have knowledge, but less judgments; more experts, but more problems ; more medicines but less health.”
“Today, more than ever before, life must be characterized by a sense of Universal responsibility, not only nation to nation and human to human, but also human to other forms of life.”
“Like a lamp, dispelling the darkness of ignorance”
“As you breathe in, cherish yourself.
As you breathe out, cherish all Beings.”
“Be gentle with the Earth.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness
Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.~ Mark Twain ~
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.~ Mark Twain ~
Humor is the great thing, the saving thing.
The minute it crops up, all our irritation and resentments slip away, and a sunny spirit takes their place.
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody has read.
”Always do right; this will gratify some and astonish the rest.”
The secret to getting ahead is getting started.
Plan for the future because that’s where you are going to spend the rest of your life.”
Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover
”The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. - Theodore Roosevelt
Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer “Present” or “Not guilty.”
I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.
I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.
Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
Joseph Campbell
Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.
Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.
The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.
I don’t have to have faith, I have experience.
What each must seek in his life never was on land or sea. It is something out of his own unique potentiality for experience, something that never has been and never could have been experienced by anyone else.