Favorite Quotes About Life and Healing
“Know Thyself.”
~ Temple of Apollo at Delphi
“The most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.”
~ Pema Chodron
"The puzzle in therapy is not 'How did I get this way?', but rather 'What does my Angel want with me?'"
~ James Hillman
“You never overcome anything by resisting it. You only can overcome anything by going deeper into it. If you are spiteful, be more spiteful. If you are performing, increase the performance. Whatever it is, if you go deeply enough into it, then it will disappear; it will be assimilated. Any resistance is no good. You have to go full into it - swing with it. Swing with your pain, your restlessness, whatever is there. Use your spite. Use your environment. Use all that you fight and disown. So, boast about it! Boast about what a great saboteur you are. If you were in the Resistance movement in the last war, you would be probably a hero.”
~ Fritz Perls
“The only way out is through. And the only way through, is in.”
~ Robert Frost
When the human self and the divine “I” are interconnected they can achieve perfection and eternity.
~ Valentinus (Gnostic Master)
“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”
~ Joseph Campbell
"It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between."
~ Diane Ackerman
“The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.”
~ William Faulkner
“There are no facts, only interpretations.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
~ C.G. Jung
“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
And find that the dark, too blooms and sings,
And is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.”
~ Wendell Berry
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
~ Joseph Campbell
"I think the meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected."
~ Viktor Frankl
“Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
~ Harold Whitman
“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary
awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
Who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still treat each guest honorably,
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing,
And invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
~ Rumi
“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
~ T. S. Eliot
“Forget your old ideas. Forget the lies they told you.
Forget them all, and you will begin to remember.”
~ Marianne Williamson
"Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.”
~ Ram Dass
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
~ Ernest Hemingway
“There is no birth of consciousness without pain.”
~ Carl G. Jung
“How many times have I sabotaged myself by leaping ahead of my own healing process, trying so desperately to "feel better" that I make myself feel even worse because I have added to my primary pain the new complication of failure! In cheating myself of the necessary time to feel bad I have cheated myself of the only process that could really heal me. Ultimately, the only way to get through something is to get through it – not over, under, or around it, but all the way through it. And it takes as long as it takes.”
~ Alla Bozarth-Campbell
“All life is an experiment.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
~ Joseph Campbell
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
~ Chinese Proverb
"This is the true joy in life being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; that being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to make you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
~ George Bernard Shaw
“What do you say when you pray to God?”
“Nothing. I just listen.”
“Well, what does He say then?”
“Nothing. He just listens … and if you don't understand that, I can't explain it.”
~ Interviewer and Mother Theresa
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
~ Oscar Wilde
“The man who, being really on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers him refuge and comfort and encourages his old self to survive. Rather he will seek out someone who will faithfully and inexorably help him to risk himself, so that he may endure the suffering and pass courageously through it, thus making of it a raft that leads to the far shore. Only to the extent that man exposes himself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within him. In this lies the dignity of daring.”
~ Karlfried Gras von Durkheim
“To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation.”
~ From The Alchemist
"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice--
though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
'Mend my life!' each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,
though their melancholy was terrible.
It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little, as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,
that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,
determined to do the only thing you could do –
determined to save the only life you could save."
~ Mary Oliver
"When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible."
~ Brene Brown
"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."
~ Viktor Frankl
"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement."
~ Alfred Adler
"Let your meditation walk no further than pleasure, and even a little behind."
~ Ficino
"Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time – and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time."
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
"We could hardly wait to get up in the morning."
~ Wilbur Wright
"I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'"
~ Vincent Van Gogh
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.
~ Martha Graham
“We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”
~ Hermann Hesse
~ Temple of Apollo at Delphi
“The most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.”
~ Pema Chodron
"The puzzle in therapy is not 'How did I get this way?', but rather 'What does my Angel want with me?'"
~ James Hillman
“You never overcome anything by resisting it. You only can overcome anything by going deeper into it. If you are spiteful, be more spiteful. If you are performing, increase the performance. Whatever it is, if you go deeply enough into it, then it will disappear; it will be assimilated. Any resistance is no good. You have to go full into it - swing with it. Swing with your pain, your restlessness, whatever is there. Use your spite. Use your environment. Use all that you fight and disown. So, boast about it! Boast about what a great saboteur you are. If you were in the Resistance movement in the last war, you would be probably a hero.”
~ Fritz Perls
“The only way out is through. And the only way through, is in.”
~ Robert Frost
When the human self and the divine “I” are interconnected they can achieve perfection and eternity.
~ Valentinus (Gnostic Master)
“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.”
~ Joseph Campbell
"It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between."
~ Diane Ackerman
“The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.”
~ William Faulkner
“There are no facts, only interpretations.”
~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
~ C.G. Jung
“To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
And find that the dark, too blooms and sings,
And is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.”
~ Wendell Berry
“The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.”
~ Joseph Campbell
"I think the meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected."
~ Viktor Frankl
“Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”
~ Harold Whitman
“This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary
awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
Who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still treat each guest honorably,
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
Meet them at the door laughing,
And invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
~ Rumi
“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”
~ T. S. Eliot
“Forget your old ideas. Forget the lies they told you.
Forget them all, and you will begin to remember.”
~ Marianne Williamson
"Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being, we are enough.”
~ Ram Dass
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
~ Marianne Williamson
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward many are strong at the broken places.”
~ Ernest Hemingway
“There is no birth of consciousness without pain.”
~ Carl G. Jung
“How many times have I sabotaged myself by leaping ahead of my own healing process, trying so desperately to "feel better" that I make myself feel even worse because I have added to my primary pain the new complication of failure! In cheating myself of the necessary time to feel bad I have cheated myself of the only process that could really heal me. Ultimately, the only way to get through something is to get through it – not over, under, or around it, but all the way through it. And it takes as long as it takes.”
~ Alla Bozarth-Campbell
“All life is an experiment.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
“If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”
~ Joseph Campbell
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
~ Chinese Proverb
"This is the true joy in life being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; that being a force of nature instead of a feverish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to make you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I love. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
~ George Bernard Shaw
“What do you say when you pray to God?”
“Nothing. I just listen.”
“Well, what does He say then?”
“Nothing. He just listens … and if you don't understand that, I can't explain it.”
~ Interviewer and Mother Theresa
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”
~ Oscar Wilde
“The man who, being really on the Way, falls upon hard times in the world will not, as a consequence, turn to that friend who offers him refuge and comfort and encourages his old self to survive. Rather he will seek out someone who will faithfully and inexorably help him to risk himself, so that he may endure the suffering and pass courageously through it, thus making of it a raft that leads to the far shore. Only to the extent that man exposes himself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within him. In this lies the dignity of daring.”
~ Karlfried Gras von Durkheim
“To realize one's destiny is a person's only obligation.”
~ From The Alchemist
"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice--
though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
'Mend my life!' each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations,
though their melancholy was terrible.
It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little, as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own,
that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,
determined to do the only thing you could do –
determined to save the only life you could save."
~ Mary Oliver
"When you get to a place where you understand that love and belonging, your worthiness, is a birthright and not something you have to earn, anything is possible."
~ Brene Brown
"What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves and, furthermore, we had to teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual."
~ Viktor Frankl
"Trust only movement. Life happens at the level of events, not of words. Trust movement."
~ Alfred Adler
"Let your meditation walk no further than pleasure, and even a little behind."
~ Ficino
"Nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small. We haven't time – and to see takes time like to have a friend takes time."
~ Georgia O’Keeffe
"We could hardly wait to get up in the morning."
~ Wilbur Wright
"I want to touch people with my art. I want them to say 'he feels deeply, he feels tenderly.'"
~ Vincent Van Gogh
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.
~ Martha Graham
“We must become so alone, so utterly alone, that we withdraw into our innermost self. It is a way of bitter suffering. But then our solitude is overcome, we are no longer alone, for we find that our innermost self is the spirit, that it is God, the indivisible. And suddenly we find ourselves in the midst of the world, yet undisturbed by its multiplicity, for our innermost soul we know ourselves to be one with all being.”
~ Hermann Hesse