The quote database

The soul should take care of the body, just as a pilgrim on his way to Mecca takes care of his camel.

The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively.

I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it

The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not, as we feel in a thousand instances.

You’ll never see a U-haul behind a hearse.

Do not admire your clothes, and then you will not be angry with the thief.

Have you anything better or greater to see than the sun, the moon, the stars, the whole earth, the sea?

If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault; for God has made all men to be happy, to be free from perturbations.

Does it seem to you so small and worthless a thing to be good and happy?

Keep by every means what is your own; do not desire what belongs to others.

Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.

We find the fullness of life not only in options, but in commitments.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

My world is built of touch-sensations, devoid of physical colour and sound; but without colour and sound it breathes and throbs with life.

Whatever moves me, whatever thrills me, is as a hand that touches me in the dark, and that touch is my reality.

Every landscape is, as it were, a state of the soul, and whoever penetrates into both is astonished to find how much likeness there is in each detail.

To sleep is to strain and purify our emotions, to deposit the mud of life, to calm the fever of the soul

My most sacred and memorable life is commonly on awaking in the morning.

If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.

To admit that this picture has its shades is but to say that it is still the condition of men upon earth.

Ask yourself whether you are happy, and you cease to be so.

While I silently ponder on that Change wrought in me, I find no Language equal to it, nor any Means to convey to another a clear Idea of it.

You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.

Beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.

We classify too much and enjoy too little.