“A first sign of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die.” “He is terribly afraid of dying because he hasn’t yet lived.” “The meaning of life is that it stops. Only the moment counts. It determines life.” The truth is always an abyss. One must — […]
“One family went on a trip to England to buy something from a beautiful antique shop, for the celebration of their 25th anniversary of marriage. The husband and wife liked antiques and clay products, ceramics, especially cups of tea. They observed an exceptional cup and asked: “Can we […]
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.” “Life is paradise, and we are all in paradise, but we refuse to see it.” “Love life more than the meaning of it.” I have a longing for life, and […]
“To progress is always to begin, always to begin again.” “God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.” “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, […]
The first thing to be understood is what ego is. A child is born. A child is born without any knowledge, any consciousness of his own self. And when a child is born the first thing he becomes aware of is not himself; the first thing he becomes […]
Popularly attributed to Socrates, Know Thyself! has gripped the attention of the greatest seers, Sages and thinkers of all ages. It is the essential experience welling up from the heart of yearning souls belonging to every country of the world and giving expression to it, the terminologies, the […]
“I think, therefore I am.” “It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.” “Reason is nothing without imagination.” “Conquer yourself rather than the world.” The supreme good consists in virtue, which is a firm and constant resolution to use […]
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.” “Live your life as an Exclamation rather than an Explanation.” “To arrive at the simplest truth requires years of contemplation.” I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself […]
“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.” “The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.” “Much love much trial, but what an utter desert is life without love.” Nothing is easier than to […]
“All of us have life; few of us have an idea of it.” “What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.” “Life is the childhood of our immortality.” The important thing in life is to have a great aim, and the determination to […]
“The art of living well and the art of dying well are one.” “If a little is not enough for you, nothing is.” “Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.” Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life. Tranquility and rationality are the cornerstones […]
“Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received…but only what you […]
“Man’s purpose on Earth is to advance.” “In all things let reason be your guide.” “Learn to obey before you command.” Seek to learn constantly while you live; do not wait in the faith that old age by itself will bring wisdom. In giving advice seek to help, […]
“There is no religion higher than Truth.” “That cruelest of tyrants – public opinion.” “The Universe is worked and guided from within outwards.” Who is the great man? He who is strongest in patience. He who patiently endures injury, and maintains a blameless life–he is a man indeed! […]
“Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.” “Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil.” “A person’s worth is measured by the worth of what he values.” Dwell on […]
“The smallest thing in its rightful place can lead to the highest goals.” “Love starts when we push aside our ego and make room for someone else.” “For even the wisest can learn incalculably much from children.” Our highest endeavor must be to develop free human beings who […]
“Men ask for health in their prayers to the gods: they do not realize that the power to achieve it lies in themselves.” “To a wise and good man the whole earth is his fatherland.” By convention sweet and by convention bitter, by convention hot, by convention cold, […]
“The goal of life is living in agreement with Nature.” “Man conquers the world by conquering himself.” “Happiness is a good flow of life.” All things are parts of one single system, which is called Nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with Nature. […]
“God, to know you is life. To serve You is freedom. To praise you is the soul’s joy and delight.” “The measure of love is to love without measure.” “Do you wish to rise? Begin by descending. You plan a tower that will pierce the clouds? Lay first […]
“There’s a place in the soul where you’ve never been wounded.” “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.” “Nobody at any time is cut off from God.” If anyone went on for a thousand years asking of life: “Why […]
“What are men? Mortal gods.What are gods? Immortal men.” “Everything flows, and nothing stands still.” “Because it is so unbelievable, the truth often escapes being known.” No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. The […]
“Joy is not in things; it is in us.” “Music is the living God in our bosoms.” “The purpose of art is to make the unconscious conscious.” I believe in God, Mozart and Beethoven, and likewise their disciples and apostles; – I believe in the Holy Spirit and […]
“Most of us walk unseeing through the world, unaware alike of its beauties, its wonders, and the strange and sometimes terrible intensity of the lives that are being lived about us.” “For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to […]
“No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty.” “Beauty beyond thought everywhere, beneath, above, made and being made forever.” “The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of […]
“We are gods with anuses.” “We did not create ourselves, but we are stuck with ourselves.” “Guilt results from unused life, from the unlived in us.” “The urge to immortality is not a simple reflex of the death-anxiety but a reaching out by one’s whole being toward life.” […]
“Life is a constant process of dying.” “Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.” “A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man.” “Human life must be some kind of mistake. The truth of this will be sufficiently obvious if we only remember that man is a […]
“The truth shall make you free, but first it shall make you angry.“ “Nothing but truth is immortal.” “Liberty is a word without which all other words are vain.” What light is to the eyes – what air is to the lungs – what love is to the […]
“People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing.” “Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.” “Life is too short to be little”. You can sing only what you are. You can paint only what you are. You must be what your experiences, your environment, […]
“Love is a word of light, written by a hand of light, upon a page of light. “ “From a sensitive woman’s heart springs the happiness of mankind, and from the kindness of her noble spirit comes mankind’s affection.” “When a man’s hand touches the hand of a woman […]
“The more you learn, the harder the lessons get.” “Live, so you do not have to look back and say: ‘God, how I have wasted my life.’ “ “Consciously or not, we are all on a quest for answers, trying to learn the lessons of life. We grapple […]
“The supreme bliss that pulsates in the wake of meditation is your pure essence.” “You can’t stop the waves but you can learn how to surf.” “Love is our only reason for living and the only purpose of life. We live for the sake of love, and we […]
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” “Man has made a discovery… the way to make life easy is to make it meaningless.” “Faith is the highest passion in a man.” “To be human, is not a fact, but a task.” […]
“If you want to be more alive, love is the truest health.” “What you seek is seeking you.“ “Silence is the language of God,all else is poor translation.” “Woman is the light of God.“ “This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils […]
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.“ “Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of man.“ “Silence is a true friend who never betrays.“ “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. We have two lives, and the second begins […]
“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.” Accept everything just the way it is. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake. Do not, under any […]
There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, “When your own heart asks.” “I do not know how to defeat others. All I know is the path to defeat myself.“ “Singlemindedness is all-powerful.“ “There is surely nothing […]
“No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself. No man is free who cannot command himself.“ “The most momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.“ “Be silent or let thy words be worth more than […]
“Soli Deo Gloria“ “Where there is devotional music, God is always at hand with His gracious presence.“ “Music is an agreeable harmony for the honor of God and the permissible delights of the soul. Harmony is next to Godliness. It is the special province of music to move […]
Life is after all a form of affirmation. However insistently the blind may deny the existence of the sun, they cannot annihilate it. Life as it is lived suffices. It is only when the disquieting intellect steps in and tries to murder it that we stop to live […]
“Walking is man’s best medicine.“ “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.“ “The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.“ “A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought […]
“The kingdom of heaven is not a placebut a state of mind.” “Every walk to the woods is a religious rite, every bath in the stream is a saving ordinance. Communion service is at all hours, and the bread and wine are from the heart and marrow of […]
“Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.“ “Give me liberty, or give me death.“ “When it can be said by any country in the world, my […]
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” “Be courageous. I have seen many depressions in business.Always America has emerged from these stronger and more prosperous.Be brave as your fathers before you.Have faith!Go forward!“ “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize […]
“I thought I was learning to live; I was only learning to die.” “He who does not value life does not deserve it.” “Life without love, is no life at all.” “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. The height of a man’s […]
“Honesty is the first chapter of the book of wisdom.” “Without books, I would certainly die.“ “The art of life is the art of avoiding pain.” Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you. Nothing can stop the man […]
“The true work of artis but a shadow of the divine perfection.” “With few words I shall make thee understand my soul.” “To touch is to give life…” “Your gifts lie in the place where your values, passions and strengths meet. Discovering that place is the first step […]
“I believe in the supreme worth of the individualand in his right to life, libertyand the pursuit of happiness.” “God gave me my money.” “Singleness of purpose is one of the chief essentials for success in life, no matter what may be one’s aim. The road to happiness […]
“The madness of love is the greatest of heaven’s blessings.“ “The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself;to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.” “Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always […]
“Men are developed the same way gold is mined. When gold is mined, several tons of dirt must be moved to get an ounce of gold; but one doesn’t go into the mine looking for dirt—one goes in looking for the gold.“ “If you want to be happy, […]
“Life is hard but so very beautiful.” “Whatever you are, be a good one.” “When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion. I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound […]
“Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” “Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine. Music is the […]
“Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man.“ “Nothing is more odious than music without hidden meaning. Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties. How strange! […]
“I am in the world only for the purpose of composing. There is no such thing as happy music. My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs. Those who are born of grief give greatest delight […]
“The unexamined life is not worth living.“ “Know thyself.“ “We cannot live better than in seeking to become better. The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. And to live well meant, along with more enjoyable things in life, to live according to your […]
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.“ “Man is a goal-seeking animal. His life only has meaning if he is reaching out and striving for his goals. Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. And happiness depends […]
“For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the sheltered will never know.” Believe you can and you’re halfway there. Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground. The joy […]
“When love has fused and mingled two beings in a sacred and angelic unity, the secret of life has been discovered so far as they are concerned; they are no longer anything more than the two boundaries of the same destiny; they are no longer anything but the […]
“The supreme harmony of the cosmos is selected in the harmony of the spirit.“ “Life is only a long and bitter suicide, and faith alone can transform this suicide into a sacrifice. In life one must decide whether to conjugate the verb to have or the verb […]
“The animal knows everything, but cannot say it. Man can say a lot, but knows nothing.” “Joy and happiness are the children of love, but love itself, as the moving force, is patience and compassion. Love is the root of life. But she does not come just […]
“Art has always been a weapon in the struggle of man against matter, threatening to swallow his spirit…” “Man is interesting to me for his willingness to serve something higher than oneself, and even for his inability to perceive the ordinary and the philistine moral life. I’m […]
To wisely live your life, you don’t need to know much.Just remember two main rules for the beginning: • You better starve, than eat whatever;• And better be alone, than with whoever. Scholars really have nothing to teach you. But from the soft touch of the eyelashes of […]
“Love begets courage, moderation creates abundance and humility generates power.” “Life means to be living. Problems will always be there. When they arise navigate through them with yoga — don’t take a break. Yoga is like music: the rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind, […]
“The good God does not need years to accomplish His work of love in a soul; one ray from His Heart can, in an instant, make His flower bloom for eternity.” “Every flower created by God is beautiful. That the brilliance of the rose and the whiteness […]
“The more you know, the less you need.” “The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. It’s so easy to make it complex. What’s important is leading an examined life. Mastery… is to work toward simplicity; replace complex technology with knowledge, hard work, and skill. […]
“Today the most civilized countries of the world spend a maximum of their income on war and a minimum on education. The twenty-first century will reverse this order. It will be more glorious to fight against ignorance than to die on the field of battle. The discovery of […]
“The minute you choose to do what you really want to do, it’s a different kind of life.” “Dare to be naive Dare to think Dare to go with the truth And dare to really love completely.” “The purpose of our lives is to add value to the […]
“You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete. Therefore, one may say without being presumptuous that the experience of experiences is being alive. In a world where death is the hunter, my friend, there is no time […]
“Tear your heart away from everything else; then seek God and you will surely find Him.” “It is foolish to think that we will enter heaven without entering into ourselves.” “It is love alone that gives worth to all things. The important thing is not to think […]
For life makes no mistakes and always gives man that which man first gives himself. “The drama of life is a psychological one which we bring to pass by our attitudes rather than by our acts. There is no escape from our present predicament except by a […]
“Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.” “The true meaning of existence is disclosed in moments of living in the presence of God.” “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. …get up in the morning and look at the world […]
“We focus too much on things and not enough on the intangibles that make this worthwhile; too much on success and not enough on character, without which success is meaningless. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every […]
“And with truth comes beauty and with this beauty a freedom before God.” “To be really Bible-Believing Christians we need to practice, simultaneously, at each step of the way, two biblical principles. One principle is that of the purity of the visible church. Scripture commands that we […]
You are — your life, and nothing else. “Life has no meaning, the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal. Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. […]
“The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between…” “We live in this world in order always to learn industriously and to enlighten each other by means of discussion and to strive vigorously to promote the progress of science and the fine arts. As death, […]
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in […]
Dad?” “What?” A small bird rises from a tree in front of us. “What should I be when I grow up?” The bird disappears over a far ridge. I don’t know what to say. “Honest,” I finally say. “One of the most moral acts is to […]
Do not forget that the value and interest of life is not so much to do conspicuous things… as to do ordinary things with the perception of their enormous value. “Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not […]
“Do we in our time have an answer to the question of what we really mean by the word ‘being’? Not at all. So it is fitting that we should raise anew the question of the meaning of Being. But are we nowadays even perplexed at our inability […]
“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others. Only then have we ourselves become true human beings. I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be […]
“If anyone were to ask me what I want out of life I would say: the opportunity for doing something useful, for in no other way, I am convinced, can true happiness be attained. To leave the world richer—that is the ultimate success.” “The purpose of life […]
“The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. He studies it because he takes pleasure in it, and he takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing, and life would not be […]
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself” “All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.” “Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, […]
“As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that. That is why people are always searching for a meaning to life… Meaning is only found when you go beyond meaning. Life only makes sense […]
“We are in such a haste to be doing, to be writing, to be gathering gear, to make our voices audible a moment in the derisive silence of eternity, that we forget that one thing, of which these are but parts – namely to live!” (“Walking Tours”, in The […]
“There is not one big cosmic meaning for all; there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.” (Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934) “The secret of […]
Nobody needs to ask the question: “what is my purpose?” It will always be found in service. If you can just, for one day, put your attention on making life better for someone else. If you can focus on thinking like that, that’s how God thinks. It’s an […]
The meaning of life is that it is to be lived, and it is not to be traded and conceptualized and squeezed into a patter of systems. You can never step in the same water twice, my friend. Like flowing water, life is perpetual movement. There is nothing […]
“I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life.” There must be only three supreme values which govern a person’s life: Reason, Purpose, and Self-esteem. Reason, as his only tool of knowledge–Purpose, as his choice of the happiness […]
“Don’t aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater […]
In 1924, Nikola Tesla was asked why he never married? His answer was this: “I had always thought of woman as possessing those delicate qualities of mind and soul that made her in her respects far superior to man. I had put her on a lofty pedestal, figuratively […]
“The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.” If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty. The deepest experience of the […]
Devote yourself to spiritual practice and go forward. Through practice you will advance more and more in the path of God. At last you will come to know that God alone is real and all else is illusory, and that the goal of life is the attainment of […]
“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently; they’re not fond of rules. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is […]
“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” “The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over […]
“My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.” Joy is the goal of existence, and joy is not […]
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Life, as I see it, is not a location, but a journey. Even the man who most feels himself “settled” is not settled—he is probably sagging back. Everything is in flux, and was […]
“The pure mind is itself Brahman; it therefore follows that Brahman is not other than the mind of the sage.” Your own Self-Realization is the greatest service you can render the world. Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking […]
If someone smells a flower and says he does not understand, … what does it all mean? Then one has to make it more abstruse by saying: the scent is the shape which the universal joy takes in the flower. Let your life lightly dance on the edges […]
“The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unfortunate but almost disqualified for life.” A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, […]
Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy – by one, or more, or all of these – and be free. This is the whole of […]
Excellence Reporter 