Quotes on Youth

“Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
― Franz Kafka

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“When you're young, you think everything you do is disposable. You move from now to now, crumpling time up in your hands, tossing it away. You're your own speeding car. You think you can get rid of things, and people too—leave them behind. You don't yet know about the habit they have, of coming back.

Time in dreams is frozen. You can never get away from where you've been.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

The young, free to act on their initiative, can lead their elders in the direction of the unknown... The children, the young, must ask the questions that we would never think to ask, but enough trust must be re-established so that the elders will be permitted to work with them on the answers.”
― Margaret Mead

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Quotes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Men are made for happiness, and he who is completely happy has the right to say to himself, 'I am doing God's will on earth.” 

“Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.” 

“To love someone means to see them as God intended them.” 

“If you wish to glimpse inside a human soul and get to know a man, don't bother analyzing his ways of being silent, of talking, of weeping, of seeing how much he is moved by noble ideas; you will get better results if you just watch him laugh. If he laughs well, he's a good man.” 

“I love mankind, he said, "but I find to my amazement that the more I love mankind as a whole, the less I love man in particular.” 

“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.” 

“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” 

“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart.” 

“Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others.” 

“One man doesn't believe in god at all, while the other believes in him so thoroughly that he prays as he murders men!” 

Quotes on Children

“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.”
― Margaret Mead

“Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.”
― Khaled Hosseini

“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.”
― Phyllis Diller

“ You'll love your children far more than you ever loved your parents, and -- in the recognition that your own children cannot fathom the depth of your love -- you come to understand the tragic, unrequited love of your own parents.” 

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself... 
You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.” 
― Kahlil Gibran

“Children are knives, my mother once said. They don’t mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don’t we, we clasp them until the blood flows.” 

Quotes by Carl Sagan

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” 

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” 

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” 

“But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” 

“The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” 

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” 

“You're an interesting species. An interesting mix. You're capable of such beautiful dreams, and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, so alone, only you're not. See, in all our searching, the only thing we've found that makes the emptiness bearable, is each other.” 

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” 

“We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.” 

Quotes by Scott Fitzgerald

“It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.” 

“Here's to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life.” 

“Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand.” 

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.”

“There are all kinds of love in this world but never the same love twice.” 

“At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.” 

“You know, you’re a little complicated after all.” 
“Oh no,” she assured him hastily. “No, I’m not really - I’m just a - I’m just a whole lot of different simple people.” 

“Grown up, and that is a terribly hard thing to do. It is much easier to skip it and go from one childhood to another.” 

Either you think--or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

It is in the thirties that we want friends. In the forties we know they won't save us any more than love did.

Ordinary Life - by Judith Viorst

I've had my share of necessary losses,
Of dreams I know no longer can come true.
I'm done now with the whys and the becauses.
It's time to make things good, not just make do.
It's time to stop complaining and pursue
The pleasures of an ordinary life.

I used to rail against my compromises.
I yearned for the wild music, the swift race.
But happiness arrived in new disguises:
Sun lighting a child's hair. A friend's embrace.
Slow dancing in a safe and quiet place.
The pleasures of an ordinary life.

I'll have no trumpets, triumphs, trails of glory.
It seems the woman I've turned out to be
Is not the heroine of some grand story.
But I have learned to find the poetry
In what my hands can touch, my eyes can see.
The pleasures of an ordinary life.

Young fantasies of magic and of mystery
Are over. But they really can't compete
With all we've built together: A long history.
Connections that help render us complete.
Ties that hold and heal us. And the sweet,
Sweet pleasures of an ordinary life. 

Judith Viorst

Quotes by Anais Nin

“How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?”

“People living deeply have no fear of death.”

“Anxiety is love's greatest killer. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.”

“You cannot save people. You can only love them.”

“When others asked the truth of me, I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with.”

Quotes by Khalil Gibran

“One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours? I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.”

“The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness. And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.”

“I have found both freedom and safety in my madness; the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us.”

“It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.” 

“Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself, Love possesses not nor would it be possessed: For love is sufficient unto love.” 

Selected verses by Rumi

“This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor...Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.” 

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.” 

When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for those two insomnias!
And the difference between them.” 

“Run from what's comfortable. Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I'll be mad.” 


“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words.” 

My heart is so small
it's almost invisible.
How can You place 
such big sorrows in it?
"Look," He answered,
"your eyes are even smaller,
yet they behold the world.

Your eyelashes will write on my heart
the poem that could never come from the pen of a poet.” 

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I’m sure of that,and I intend to end up there.

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn’t come here of my own accord, and I can’t leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.” 
― Rumi

Quotes by Sylvia Plath

“If you expect nothing from anybody, you’re never disappointed.
 
“I am still so naïve; I know pretty much what I like and dislike; but please, don’t ask me who I am. A passionate, fragmentary girl, maybe,


“I write only because
There is a voice within me
That will not be still”

“I love my rejection slips. They show me I try.”

“With me, the present is forever, and forever is always shifting, flowing, melting. This second is life. And when it is gone it is dead. But you can't start over with each new second. You have to judge by what is dead. It's like quicksand... hopeless from the start. ”

“What a man wants is a mate and what a woman wants is infinite security.” 

Quotes on Friendship

She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.

“What is love? two souls and one flesh; friendship? two bodies and one soul.”


 My children are delightful people, whom I would love even if they weren't my children.

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: "What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.

I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing

“When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their mouth.”

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.” ―

Hemmingway's words

“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?”

“Courage is grace under pressure.” 

 The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.”


“The first and final thing you have to do in this world is to last it and not be smashed by it.”

“No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.”

Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today.

 

Smile it's Mark Twain

Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.

God created war so that Americans would learn geography.

I've lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.

What would men be without women? Scarce, sir...mighty scarce.

Education: the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty.

Life is short, Break the Rules. Forgive quickly, Kiss SLOWLY. Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably And never regret ANYTHING That makes you smile.

The worst loneliness is to not be comfortable with yourself.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old.

The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.

The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.

The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor: he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.

Some quotes by the Dalai Lama

Whenever I find myself deviating into the old habit of worrying and let anxiety  take precedence over my life, I find going through some of these quotes by the Dalai Lama. it  really helps me get my focus back on track. His thoughts seamlessly blends the wisdom of ancient scriptures with practical solutions to face the challenges in the today's modern world.
 
Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.”
“Love is the absence of judgment.”  
“If a problem is fixable, if a situation is such that you can do something about it, then there is no need to worry. If it's not fixable, then there is no help in worrying. There is no benefit in worrying whatsoever.” 
“Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.”  
“Someone else action should not determine your response.” 
  “Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back and reasons to stay.”
The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis
Man sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. Then he is so anxious about the future that he doesn't 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.
 This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
 All major religious traditions carry basically the same message, that is love, compassion and forgiveness ... the important thing is they should be part of our daily lives.
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion
Follow the three Rs: Respect for self, Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions

Angels and Blessings

“Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”  



Blessings come in all forms. All you need are fresh set of eyes, a heart filled with gratitude and kindness for people around you.Blessings might be obvious - having healthy kids, food to eat, and friends and family who love you. Yet there are times, when you have to peer through the darkness to see the circle of protection that makes the tough ride easier.

Finding a flat tire in a foreign land, with the jack broken, can be a stroke of bad luck . Finding a U-Haul store just across the street, lending you the tools to change the tire  that is blessing. You always have a choice whether you want to look at the flat tire or look at the help you are getting. All I know from experience is that the more I focus on the "help" real or sometimes imagined, the more I attract good vibes.

Your life is what you make it to be. If I believe that I am surrounded by angels, that is my truth. And any truth, that reinforces my belief that I am not alone in my journey, makes life easier. My logical mind sometimes digresses with the fact that sighting rainbows mean something more than just light dispersed, yet it calms my heart to know that help is just around the corner.

So create your own realities, your own mood boosters and hold on to the thread of faith; for even though the journey can be bumpy at times, you know you have help at hand.

Quotes by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” 

“He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth  to themselves.” 

She discovered with great delight that one does not love one’s children just because they are one’s children but because of the friendship formed while raising them .

The problem with marriage is that it ends every night after making love, and it must be rebuilt every morning before breakfast.

Nobody deserves your tears, but whoever deserves them will not make you cry.

It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams. 

"He who awaits much can expect little."

No, not rich. I am a poor man with money, which is not the same thing."

“Amputees suffer pains, cramps, itches in the leg that is no longer there. That is how she felt without him, feeling his presence where he no longer was".

“The problem in public life is learning to overcome terror; the problem in married life is learning to overcome boredom”

“But if they had learned anything together, it was that wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good”

Wise quotes on Children and Education

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” 
― Margaret Mead

“Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself... 
You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.” 
― Kahlil Gibran

“If you must hold yourself up to your children as an object lesson, hold yourself up as a warning and not as an example.”

"Knowledge is learning something new every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day." —Zen Proverb

"There are obviously two educations. One should teach us how to make a living and the other how to live."—James Truslow Adams

"The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it, generation after generation." —Pearl S. Buck

Some quotes and a poem by Hafiz

• Now that all your worry has proved such an unlucrative
  Business, why not find a better Job. 
  
  

• Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I would like to see you living in better conditions.

• I should not make any promises right now. But I know if you pray somewhere in this world - Something good will happen.

• Love sometimes wants to do us a great favor: hold us upside down and shake all the nonsense out.

• There are different wells within your heart.
  Some fill with each good rain,
  Others are far too deep for that.
  
  

“TRIPPING OVER JOY

What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, “I Surrender!”

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
You have a thousand serious moves.” 
Even after all this time the sun never says to the Earth, "you owe me." Look what happens with a love like that. It lights up the whole sky.

Some notable quotes on friendship

“Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” 

“By chance we met, by choice we become friend” 

“Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.” 

“There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort.” 

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers & cities; but to know someone who thinks & feels with us, & who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.” 

“How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em.” 

Inspiring Quotes by Maya Angelou

If we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.

There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

The first time someone shows you who they   are,believe them.

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.

 

God puts rainbows in the clouds so that each of us- in the dreariest and most dreaded moments- can see a possibility of hope.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.