Quote Vault

I wanted to share some of the deepest and most meaningful quotes that I have some across. These quotes have inspired me when I was down, given hope in dark times and helped me to hold the brightest vision for human possibility in times of suffering. If you have any comments or some of your own favorites you would like to share please let me know.

With Heart & Gratitude, Jack Blackwell

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands -- this is not optional -- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference. ~ Jimmy Carter

Am I being compelled to disturb my inner universe in question of the undiscovered being who clamors from within? ~ Linda Kohanov

It is a long, long way if you listen to your mind. It is a short way if you listen to your heart ~ Mirko Udzenija

Ah! Your very being is the perfect teacher, recognize your nature, take this to heart. For all those who have not realized this arouse compassion, to help them find this pure and holy space. ~ Buddhist invocation

Your worth is not established by teaching or learning…Again, nothing you do, or think, or wish , or make, is necessary to establish your worth… Your worth is established by God. ~ A Course In Miracles

You can look the whole world over and never find anyone more deserving of love than yourself. ~ Buddha

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~ Howard Thurman

Life shrinks or expands, according to ones’ courage. ~ Anais Nin

And then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. ~ Anais Nin

The problem with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat. ~ Lily Tomlin

Don't pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to live boldly in the face of overwhelming odds. ~ Jack Blackwell

If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. ~ Henry David Thoreau

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist. ~ Dom Helder Camara

Do, or do not. There is no try. ~ Yoda

The only question in life is whether or not you are going to answer a hearty ‘YES!’ to your adventure. ~ Joseph Campbell

Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody's power, that is not easy. ~ Aristotle

[The warrior] lives a life exactly the opposite of most human lives. He lives not to gratify his personal needs and wishes or his physical appetites but to hone himself into an efficient spiritual machine, trained to bear the unbearable in the service of the transpersonal goal. ~ Robert Moore

If we knew what children are suffering inside, we would beg every man we meet on the street to give up his career and become a father. ~ Robert Bly

There is a moment in every man's life when he must stand and be counted. If at that moment he does not, he will be crushed under the tyranny of his own impotence. ~ Atnov (4th century A.D.)

A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone. We are it. It is up to us. It is up to you. ~ Marian Wright Edelman

Rivers of blood may have to flow before we gain our freedom, but it must be our blood. ~ Gandhi

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." ~ Ayn Rand

To believe in something, and not to live it, is dishonest. ~ Gandhi

All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing. ~ Edmund Burke

Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead

Only to the extent to which man commits himself to the fulfillment of his life’s meaning, to this extent he also actualizes himself ~ Victor Frankl

To be completely honest with oneself is the very best effort a human can make. ~ Abraham Maslow

What usually has the strongest psychic effect on the growth of a child is the life which the parents have not lived ~ Carl Jung

Now and then, in the search for your True Self, you have to find the courage to enter a great absurdity. Kierkegaard pointed out that courage isn’t the absence of despair and fear but the capacity to move ahead in spite of them. ~ Sue Monk Kidd

Soul making is not necessarily a happy thing. Crucial parts of it are not. It almost always involves a painful excursion into pathos wherein the anguish is enormous. ~ Jean Houston

The question of desirable grief and pain or the necessity for it must also be faced. Is growth and self-fulfillment possible at all without pain and grief and sorrow and turmoil? ~ Abraham Maslow

How can the heart in love ever stop opening? ~ Rumi

In his later years Pablo Picasso was not allowed to roam an art gallery unattended, for he had previously been discovered in the act of trying to improve on one of his old masterpieces. ~ Unknown

I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free. ~ Michelangelo

My mother said to me, "If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk, you'll end up as the Pope." Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso. ~ Pablo Picasso

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. ~ Albert Einstein

Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. ~ Albert Einstein

Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person. ~ Albert Einstein

Today I’ll talk to myself. I’ll say accept life – the places it bleeds and the places it smiles. That’s your most holy and human task. Gather up the pain and the questions and hold them like a child upon your lap. Have faith in God, in the movement of your soul. Accept what is, accept the dark. It’s okay. Just be true. ~ Sue Monk Kidd

You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. ~ Dr. Seuss