Quotes from the greatest minds

[weimy froob]

gratitude and hope cont'd.

"why do some people always see beautiful skies and grand and lovely flowers and incredible human beings, while others are hard-pressed to find anything or any place that is beautiful?"- leo buscaglia

"so much has been given to me; i have not time to ponder over that which as been denied."- helen keller

"reflect upon your blessings, of which every man has plenty, not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."- charles dickens

"i like living. i have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all i still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."- agatha christie

"if you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul."- rabbi harold kushner

"abundance is not something we acquire. it is something we tune into."- wayne dyer

[weimy froob]

gratitude and hope cont'd.

"be glad of life, it gives you the chance to love, and to work, and to play and to look up at the stars."- henry van dyke

"gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others."- cicero

"we can be thankful to a friend for a few acres or a little money; and yet for the freedom and command of the whole earth, and for the great benefits of our being, our life, health, and reason, we look upon ourselves as under no obligation."- seneca

"we often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude."- cynthia ozick

"i am grateful for what i am and have. my thanksgiving is perpetual. it is surprising how contented one can be with nothing definite--only a sense of existence. my breath is sweet to me. o how i laugh when i think of my vague indefinite riches. no run on my bank can drain it, for my wealth is not possession but enjoyment."- henry david thoreau

[weimy froob]

gratitude and hope cont'd.

"there is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy."- ralph h. blum

"i am thankful that thus far today i have not had any unkind thoughts or said any harsh words or done anything that i regret. however, now i need to get out of bed and so things may become more difficult."- sylvia boorstein

"acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance."- eckhart tolle

"think of the ills from which you are exempt."- joseph joubert

"every day, tell at least one person something you like, admire or appreciate about them."- richard carlson

"silent gratitude isn't very much to anyone."- gertrude stein

[weimy froob]

gratitude and hope cont'd.

"do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."- epicurus

"the best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. don't wait for good things to happen to you. if you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope."- barack obama

"we do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better."
- j.k. rowling

"once you choose hope anything is possible."- christopher reeve

"hope begins in the dark, stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. you wait and watch and work: you don't give up."- anne lamott

"desire and hope will push us on toward the future."- montaigne

[weimy froob]

finishing up the gratitude and hope chapter today. i've got to keep on this a little better. eventually the whole book minus about 10 quotes will be in this thread. i didn't grab everyone for the first couple of posts--but it's been all of them ever since.

"hope is a very unruly emotion."- gloria steinem

"hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness."- desmond tutu

"when you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."- harriet beecher stowe

"hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. if we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."- thich nhat hanh

"hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence."- lin yutang

"where there's life, there's hope."- terence

"we must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."- martin luther king jr.

"all human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope."- alexandre dumas

[weimy froob]

a new chapter: our shared humanity

"my humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."- desmond tutu

"nobody, but nobody
can make it out here alone."- maya angelou

"in the faces of men and women i see God, and in my own face in the glass."- walt whitman

[weimy froob]

our shared humanity cont'd.

"all of us failed to match our dreams of perfection."- william faulkner

"you have your way. i have my way. as for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist."- friedrich nietzsche

"we have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insginificant."
- jimmy carter

"if we learn to open our hearts, anyone, including the people who drive us crazy, can be our teacher."- pema chodron

""what is tolerance? it is the consequence of humanity. we are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly--that is the first law of nature."- voltaire

"one of the first things to learn if you want to be contemplative is to mind your own business. nothing is more suspicious, in a man who seems holy, than an impatient desire to reform other men."- thomas merton

[weimy froob]

going to try to post at least once a month in this thread in 2024. remind me to do that if i get slack again. there's still 39 pages to go.

our shared humanity cont'd.

"whenever you're in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. that factor is attitude."- william james

"every time a man unburdens his heart to a stranger he reaffirms the love that unites humanity."- germaine greer

"the person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. his heart withers if it does not answer another heart. his mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration."- pearl s. buck

"the brain is a social organ, and our relationship with one another are not a luxury but an essential nutrient for our survival."- daniel j. siegel

"the presence of others who see what we see and hear what we hear assures us of the reality of the world and ourselves."- hannah arendt

"speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story."- max ehrmann

[weimy froob]

our shared humanity cont'd.

"everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."- carl jung

"just as true humor is laughter at oneself, true humanity is knowledge of oneself."- alan watts

""it is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes."- thomas merton

"human nature is potentially aggressive and destructive and portentially orderly and constructive."- margaret mead

"i keep my ideals, because in spite of everything i still believe people are really good at heart."- anne frank

"you must not lose faith in humanity. humanity is an ocean; if a few drops in the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."- mahatma gandhi