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May you find comfort and joy in these encouraging quotes by Stephen Jay Gould.
The most erroneous stories are those
we think we know best -
and therefore never scrutinize or question.
- Stephen Jay Gould
Related topics: Life Human-Nature Psychology Wisdom Choice Tradition
There are only two or three human stories,
and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely
as if they had never happened before.
- Willa Cather
I forgive myself completely for having created stories of suffering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We tell the real truth of our life
by the stories we repeatedly tell.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
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Thank You,
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
If you follow the trail of your own
enthusiastically repeated stories,
you will begin to rediscover the things
that invigorate and enliven you.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.
- Terry Pratchett
I forgive myself completely
for having created stories of suffering.
I forgive myself for all
my angers, resentments, jealousies,
and all the other emotions of suffering.
I have unbounded compassion for myself
at all times and under all circumstances.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Our stories are the window to our emotions.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I am merely a bit player in your stories,
as you are merely a bit player in mine.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The world just IS, and we all have our stories about it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The "stories" we choose to tell about our past
are never what a video camera would have recorded.
We can tell a sad story or a happy story,
and neither story is either
more accurate or "better" than the other story.
The difference is that one story causes us to suffer,
while the other brings us joy. I choose joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I confessed recently to an old friend,
"I realized I was looking at you,
in your visit, through old glasses.
Speaking old words.
Telling old stories.
I realize that in my life I've made so many
physical changes and I need to give my spirit time to catch up."
Time for my spirit to look at my friend
through the new glasses of current life experiences.
Old friends are precious.
They become even more treasured when they are wrapped
in the currentness of life experiences
and not relegated to the past in which they once lived.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
If you have an emotional reaction in the presence of someone,
your heart is telling you that you have
not resolved your issues with them.
In other words, you have not truly forgiven that person.
All of this begs the question, how do we forgive?
First, cease lying to yourself and stop telling yourself stories
about why you behave the way you do.
Stop blaming your behavior on other people
and take responsibility for your emotional reactions.
If you could forgive all the people in your life
who have hurt or wounded you
it would be possible to be in control of your behavior
instead of being in reaction to other people all of the time.
Imagine living life without experiencing
a constant emotional roller-coaster of pain, anger, and jealousy!
That would be bliss!
-Sheri Rosenthal
Life is an adventure.
I can only wonder what treasure
awaits at the top of the path.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Hate is never conquered by hate,
Hate is only conquered by love.
- The Buddha
Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
You're only here for a short visit.
Don't hurry. Don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
- Walter Hagen
We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand -
and melting like a snowflake.
- Marie B. Ray
Nothing in life is to be feared.
It is only to be understood.
- Marie Curie
One can not reflect in streaming water.
Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.
- Lao Tzu
People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are no facts, only interpretations.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
- Albert Einstein
Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy
Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank you, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph
is for enough good men to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke
Don't hurry. Don't worry.
You're only here for a short visit.
So don't forget to stop and smell the roses.
- Walter Hagen
Miracles are the natural way of the Universe -
our only job is to move our doubting minds aside
and let the miracles flow.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Imagine all the people living life in peace.
You may say I'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
and the world will be as one.
- John Lennon
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy
is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet,
alone with the heavens, nature and God.
Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.
- Anne Frank
Move out of your comfort zone. You can only
grow if you are willing to feel awkward and
uncomfortable when you try something new.
- Brian Tracy
Majority rule only works if you're also
considering individual rights,
because you can't have five wolves and one sheep
voting on what to have for dinner.
- Larry Flynt
Choose Inner Peace.
Nothing is worth losing your inner peace.
Take action as circumstances require,
but never surrender your inner peace.
Stop. Breathe deeply.
Close your eyes and breathe deeply again.
Then, and only then, take action -
from a peaceful heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We can only be said to be truly alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
- Thornton Wilder
I teach one thing and one only:
that is, suffering and the end of suffering.
- The Buddha
Only from the heart can you touch the sky.
- Rumi
The only place where your dream becomes impossible
is in your own thinking.
- Robert H. Schuller
My only reason for not experiencing bliss at this very moment
is thinking about what I don't have.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie
You can conquer almost any fear
if you will only make up your mind to do so.
For remember, fear doesn't exist
anywhere except in the mind.
- Dale Carnegie
God doesn't require us to succeed;
He only requires that you try.
- Mother Teresa
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal,
and then leap in the dark to our success.
- Henry David Thoreau
Could you risk believing that everything
will unfold just fine if you completely let go
of all concern about everything else,
and simply are here, now - if only for a moment?
- Dmitri Bilgere
If only the people who worry about their liabilities
would think about the riches they do possess,
they would stop worrying.
- Dale Carnegie
Don't give up. There are too many nay-sayers out there
who will try to discourage you.
Don't listen to them.
The only one who can make you give up is yourself.
- Sidney Sheldon
Minds are like parachutes.
They only function when they are open.
- James Dewar
Remember, there are no mistakes, only lessons.
Love yourself, trust your choices, and everything is possible.
- Cherie-Carter Scotts
The only way to discover the limits of the possible
is to go beyond them into the impossible.
- Arthur C. Clarke
Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow,
it only saps today of its joy.
- Leo Buscaglia
Just stop it. Seriously.
Whatever it is. Just stop it.
If only for an hour, a day, a week.
Stop doing it long enough to get a glimpse
of what the change would actually look like.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
We are rich only through what we give,
and poor only through what we refuse.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Find your balance and stand with it.
Find your song and sing it out.
Find your cadence and let it appear like a dance.
Find the questions that only you know how to ask and
The answers that you are content to not know.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
The only roadblock to success is limited thinking.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The only one who can make you give up is yourself.
- Sidney Sheldon
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue,
but the parent of all other virtues.
- Cicero
Love is the only force capable of
transforming an enemy into friend.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
You only live once -
but if you work it right, once is enough.
- Joe E. Lewis
Courage is the art of being the only one
who knows you're scared to death.
- Earl Wilson
Life only
appears to be
rushing toward us
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I can only wonder what treasure awaits at the top of the path.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead
I can only have peace of mind when I forgive rather than judge.
- Gerald Jampolsky
Forgiveness is the only way to heal
- don Miguel Ruiz
There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth;
not going all the way, and not starting.
- The Buddha
When one has nothing to lose, one becomes courageous.
We are timid only when
there is something we can still cling to.
- Carlos Castaneda
You have to accept whatever comes
and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage
and with the best that you have to give.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
For some of us, the world appears to provide
only a fixed quantity of each resource -
a limited amount of food, of money,
of love, of success, of appreciation.
For others, life is unlimited.
Their world expands with the generosity, compassion,
inventiveness, and service that they contribute.
In this world-view, money that is spent
or given away returns multiplied.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.
Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
- Marie Curie
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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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