If your goal is to avoid pain and escape suffering, I would not advise you to seek higher levels of consciousness or spiritual evolution. First you cannot achieve them without suffering, and second, insofar as you do achieve them, you are likely to be called on to serve in ways more painful to you, or at least demanding of you, than you can now imagine.
– Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

Psychologically, something has to die before a new self can be born. We must come through something of a mourning phase to emerge and say, "Okay, now I have a new life; there's a new part of me that is allowed to grow." – Gail Sheehan, New Passages

Since lessons are repeated until learned, and since you cannot learn lessons until you become aware of them, it makes sense that you will need to cultivate awareness if you are to ever progress from where you are right now on your path. Ask yourself what patterns you are repeating; you might be surprised to see how evident they were all along.
If Life is a Game, These are the Rules:

You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.
– Eric Hoffer

Press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
- Former US President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933)

“Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the unknown.”
- Claude Bernard

“Of all manifestations of Power, that which most impresses is restraint.”
- Thucydides

"There is a Vitality, a Life Force, an Energy, a Quickening, that is translated to you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost."
- Martha Graham

"He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality."
- Anwar Sadat.

“Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
-Chief Seattle

"The man who has no imagination has no wings." - Muhammad Ali

"Beauty in things lies in the mind which contemplates them." - Morley

"People only see what they are prepared to see." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror” – John Ruskin

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” - Albert Einstein

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.” - Albert Einstein

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
- Marcel Proust

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The personal life deeply lived always expands into truths beyond itself.” – Anais Nin

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."- Mahatma Gandhi

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." - George Bernard Shaw

A reply to the question, “What is Enlightenment?” by Immanuel Kant, 5 December 1783, p. 516, Berlinische Monatsschrift (Journal) July to December 1784

“Enlightenment is the emergence of man out of his self-created immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s reason without the assistance of another. This immaturity is self-inflicted when it causes lies, not in the lack of intelligence, but in the lack of decision and the courage to avail oneself of it without the assistance of someone else. Sapere aude! That you may have the courage to avail yourself of your own intelligence! This then is the motto of the Enlightenment.”

"Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius in each."
--- Plato (428 BC-348 BC)

No one is in control of your happiness but you; therefore, you have the power to change anything about yourself or your life that you want to change.
-Barbara De Angelis

To live we must conquer incessantly, we must have the courage to be happy.
-Henri Frederic Amiel

Never discourage anyone w ho continually makes progress, no matter how slow.
-Aristotle

Flatter me, and I may not believe you.
Criticize me, and I may not like you.
Ignore me, and I may not forgive you.
Encourage me, and I may not forget you.
-William Arthur

We are here on earth to do good for others.
What the others are here for, I don't know.
-W. H. Auden

Learn to self-conquest, persevere thus for a time, and you will perceive very clearly the advantage which you gain from it.
-St. Teresa of Avila

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
-Alfred Adler

The scars you acquire by exercising courage will never make you feel inferior.
-D.A. Battista

Big egos are big shields for lots of empty space
-Diana Black

The greatest dangers of liberty lurk in insidious encroachment of men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
-Louis D. Brandeis

We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.
-Alice Bloch

You never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough. - William Blake

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. – William Blake

None will improve your lot if you yourself do not.
-Bertolt Brecht

Take away love, and our earth is a tomb.
-Robert Browning

Bad habits are like chains that are too light to feel until they are too heavy to carry.
-Warren Buffet

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
-Dale Carnegie

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.
-Andrew Carnegie

Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.
-G. K. Chesterton

In detachment lies the wisdom of uncertainty... in the wisdom of uncertainty lies the freedom from our past, from the known, which is the prison of past conditioning. And in our willingness to step into the unknown, the field of all possibilities, we surrender ourselves to the creative mind that orchestrates the dance of the universe.
-Deepak Chopra

People stumble over the truth from time to time,
but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened. – Sir Winston Churchill
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Sir Winston Churchill

There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.
-Gilbert K. Chesterton

There are two types of people: Those who come into a room and say, "Well, here I am!", and those who say, "Ah, there you are".
-Frederick L. Collins

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius

When you see a good man, try to emulate his example, and when you see a bad man, search yourself for his faults. - Confucius

It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs. - Confucius

What wisdom is acquired during the course of a life is a result of the mind's tenderness toward the heart. – James Cowan

Wise men contemplate the world, knowing full well that they are contemplating themselves.
– James Cowan

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.
-Wayne Dyer

Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
-Henry Van Dyke

The only way to find God, is to let go of God. – Meister Eckhart

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
-Thomas Alva Edison

To dream anything that you want to dream, that is the beauty of the human mind.
To do anything that you want to do, that is the strength of the human will.
To trust yourself, to test your limits, that is the courage to succeed.
-Bernard Edmonds

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

From now on practice saying to everything that appears unpleasant: You are merely an appearance and NOT what you appear to be.
-Epictetus

All our lauded technological progress - our very civilization - is like the axe in the hand of the pathological criminal. It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. -Albert Einstein

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him.
Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.
A human being is part of the whole called by us 'Universe', a part limited in time and space.
We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest...
This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty... We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.
Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing.
People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.
Self-pity gets you nowhere. One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world -- making the most of one's best.
-Harry Emerson Fosdick

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
-Malcolm S. Forbes

School instead creates closed minds, filled to the brim.
-Rudyh

Wink at small faults; remember thou hast great ones.
-Benjamin Franklin

Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
-Galbraith's Law

Eternity is not something that happens after you are dead. It's going on all the time. We're in it now.
-Charlotte Perkins Gilman

It is so fatally easy to confuse an aesthetic appreciation of the spiritual life with the life itself - to dream that you have waked, washed, and dressed & then to find yourself still in bed.
-From a letter by C.S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves

You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.
-Galileo

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.
I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger,
and as heat conserved is transmuted into energy,
even so our anger controlled can be transmuted into a power that can move the world.
When you make yourself into zero, your power becomes invincible.
Do not believe in telling people of one's faith, especially with a view to conversion.
Faith must be lived, and when it is, it becomes self-propagating
- Mahatma Gandhi

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. – Kahlil Gibran

Keep me away from the wisdom that does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. – Kahlil Gibran

Believe those who are seeking the truth.
Doubt those who find it.
-Andre Gide

Let everyone sweep in front of his own door and the whole world will be clean.
-Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

If you take fire into your heart, your house is likely to burn.
-Alyson's great grandmother

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So, what the hell, leap!
-Cynthia Heimel

Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. – Elbert Hubbard
I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.
- Aldous Huxley

My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it as it is and why it exists as all.
-Stephen Hawking

The easy path of aging is to become a thick-skinned, unbudging curmudgeon, a battle-ax. To grow soft and sweet is the harder way.
-James Hillman

Spiritual evolution occurs as the result of removing obstacles and not actually acquiring anything new. Devotion enables surrender of the mind's vanities and cherished illusions so that it progressively becomes more free and more open to the light of Truth.
-Dr. David R. Hawkins

Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision.
-Hsi-Tang

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward. - Dag Hammerskjvld

Do not seek death.
Death will find you.
But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment. - Dag Hammerskjvld

Life comes in the form of opportunities, which are easy to recognize, after they have been wasted...
-Javan

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors. – Thomas Jefferson

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgment of the intellect is only part of the truth. – Carl Gustav Jung

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: If there is any reaction, both are transformed. – Carl Gustav Jung

Your vision will become clear when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside awakens. – Carl Gustav Jung

And with love, do what you will, there is no risk; there is no conflict. Then love is the essence of virtue. And a mind that is not in a state of love, is not a religious mind at all. – J. Krishnamurti
‘Attention’ implies to attend, that is, to listen, hear, see, with all the totality of your being... completely. In that total attention - in which there is no division - you can do anything.
– J. Krishnamurti

We have invented god. The thinking created god for itself. That means, due to unhappiness, fear and depression we created something called god. When you are free of fear, free of suffering, there is no desire for a god. – J. Krishnamurti

Our system of upbringing is based on what to think not on how to think. – J. Krishnamurti

The nonviolent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor, it first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them a new self-respect; It calls up resources of strength and courage that they did not know they had.
It's just as evil to kill Vietnamese as it is to kill Americans.
Never could I advocate nonviolence in this country and not advocate nonviolence for the whole world.
Nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence. Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation for such method is love.
All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
As you press on for justice, be sure to move with dignity and discipline, using only the weapon of love. Let no man pull you so low as to hate him. Always avoid violence. If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Once in awhile it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.
-Alan Keightley

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes.
-Henry J. Kaiser

We would have much peace if we would not busy ourselves with the sayings and doings of others.
-Thomas À Kempis

Yesterday's the past and tomorrow's the future. Today is a gift-- which is why they call it the present.
-Bill Keane

The only unchangeable certainty in life is that nothing is unchangeable or certain.
-John F. Kennedy

To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.
Kindness in words creates confidence.
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.
Kindness in giving creates love.
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.
Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about other people's approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back. The only path to serenity.
- Lao-Tsu

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
Ann Landers
It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up.
Vince Lombardi
Things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.
Art Linkletter
Of all sad words, of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: "It might have been."
- John Greenleaf Whittier

If we give love and sympathy even to those who hate us we fill them so with mystery they know not how to rate us. – Leaves of Grass

It is surprising what a man can do when he has to, and how little most men will do when they don't have to.
Walter Linn

What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being.
To feed the hungry. To help the afflicted. To lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful.
To remove the wrongs of the injured. That person is the most beloved of God
who does the most good to God's creatures.
The Prophet Muhammed

Expose yourself to your deepest fear; After that, fear has no power. And the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.
-Jim Morrison

Absolute perfection is here and now, not in some future, near or far. The secret is in action - here and now. It is your behavior that blinds you to yourself. Disregard whatever you think yourself to be and act as if you were absolutely perfect - whatever your idea of perfection may be. All you need is courage.
-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Those who are enlightened live in a state of constant amazement. Those showing amazement however, can be either ignorant or wise.
-Rudyh

It's not what happens to you; it's what you do about it that makes the difference.
-W. Mitchell

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine with only interests.
-John Stuart Mill

The ultimate truth is so simple. It is nothing more than being in the pristine state. This is all that needs to be said. Only mature minds can grasp the simple truth in all its nakedness.
-Ramana Maharshi

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
-William G. McAdoo

I assure you, an educated fool is more foolish than an uneducated one.
-Jean Baptiste Molière

Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.
-Sir Claus Moser

With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.
-Keshavan Nair

I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.
-Sir Isaac Newton

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.
-James Oppenheim

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent that the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
-George Orwell

If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten!
-Lesley P.

If you want the rainbow, you gotta’ put up with the rain.
-Dolly Parton

When men speak ill of thee, live so that nobody believes them.
-Plato

Doubt everything or believe everything: these are two equally convenient strategies.
With either we dispense with the need for reflection.
-Henri Poincare

The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
-Plutarch

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
-Pascal

Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.
-Tony Robbins

I discovered a long time ago that if I helped people get what they wanted, I would always get what I wanted and I would never have to worry.
-Anthony Robbins

Every man dies. Not every man lives.
-Tim Robbins

Success is not to be pursued; it is to be attracted by the person you become.
-Jim Rohn

The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge
-Bertrand Russell

No one can make you feel inferior without your permission
-Eleanor Roosevelt.

Quarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
-Francois de La Rochefoucauld

If the heart wanders or is distracted, bring it back to the point quite gently and replace it tenderly in it's master's presence. And even if you did nothing during the whole hour but bring your heart back and place it again in our Lord's presence, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be very well employed.
-St Francois de Sales

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.
-Jonathan Swift

Our own true nature is Infinite Joy! Always happy, always peaceful, always free.
-Sri Swami Satchidananda

This above all; to thine own self be true.
-Shakespeare

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Like a goldfish who never suspects a greater world beyond the ponds surface, the limited awareness of humankind floats beneath the surface of a greater reality; groping, mouth agape in total ignorance. After studying all major religions, out of body experiences, near death experiences, hauntings, psychics and memories of previous lifetimes through regressive hypnosis techniques, I have indeed deduced that we are not people having spiritual experiences, but spirits having human experiences.
-Paul Schroeder

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are made for.
-John A. Shedd

Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly.
-Robert Schuller

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.
-E.F.Schumacher

The people and circumstances around me do not make me what I am, they reveal who I am.
-Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Don't be afraid of showing your feelings, be afraid of regretting it when you don't.
-Laura Springer

We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.
-Adlai E. Stevenson

If only it were all so simple, if only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being, and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

Discipline divorced from wisdom is not true discipline,
but merely the meaningless following of custom,
which is only a disguise for stupidity.
-Rabindranath Tagore

Suffering is not a prerequisite for happiness
-Judy Tatelbaum

Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbor.... Let no one come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile and kindness in your warm greeting. All that we need to know, all the wisdom of the cosmos, we will find in our own heart. - Mother Theresa
What you keep to yourself, you lose. What you give away, you keep forever. - Mother Theresa
We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. - Mother Theresa
Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'
-Brian Tracy

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
-Mao Tse Tung

Without memory, there is no healing. Without forgiveness, there is no future.
-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"When may I give you my heart?"
"When it is no longer yours or mine."
-Tykal

Courage is the mastery of fear, not the absence of fear. - Mark Twain

Courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway. - Unknown

Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.
-Margaret Thatcher

All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.
-Swami Vivekananda

As long as we are persistent in our pursuit of our deepest destiny, we will continue to grow.
We cannot choose the day or time when we will fully bloom. It happens in its own time."
-Denis Waitley

We must be courageous but also reasonable. The world admires us for walking a tightrope without falling off. It asks us to keep our balance.
-Lech Walesa

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
-William A. Ward

How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.
-George Washington

Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.
Failure is delay, not defeat.
It is a temporary detour, not a dead end.
Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
-Denis Waitley

Nothing is worse than extreme affliction which destroys the 'I' from the outside,
because after that we can no longer destroy it ourselves.
-Simone Weil

Love is the light that dissolves all walls between souls, families and nations.
-Paramahansa Yogananda

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man. True nobility is being superior to your formal (former) self.
-Thom Yorke

What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. – Zig Ziglar

It is not your aptitude, but your attitude, that determines your altitude. – Zig Ziglar

Proverbs

A bowl belongs to whoever needs it.
Native American saying
No one's head aches when he is comforting another

India
You cannot prevent the birds of sadness from passing over your head, but you can prevent them from nesting in your hair.

Sweden
Charity sees the need, not the cause.

Germany
Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.

Japan
Only after settling down one's mind can one obtain peace.
Only after obtaining peace can one think.
Only after carefully thinking can one attain a favorable end.

China
He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever.
The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.
People in the West are always getting ready to live.
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
He who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool - shun him.
He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple - teach him.
He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep - awaken him.
He who knows and knows that he knows, he is wise - follow him.

Arabia
There are two rules on the spiritual path: Begin and Continue.

Sufi
If you always assume the person sitting next to you is the Messiah waiting for some human kindness, you will soon come to weigh your words and watch your hands. And if he/she so chooses not to reveal him/herself in your time, it will not matter.