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51fe3e5 Nothing had just happened to her, she had made a choice, and then she had made another and another after that. Taken together, the small choices anyone made added up to a life. big-picture choice choices choices-and-consequences decisions life life-lessons maturation wisdom J. Courtney Sullivan
8004a04 I hold visions to be wisdom, and would deny them only to ambition, which exists only by the destruction of visions of everybody else egocentrism vision wisdom Horace Walpole
e57a58e Dear God, I don't want my fear to be a barrier to the blessings you are trying to bestow. Cast out my fear, and help me to trust your perfect love. But also grant me a full measure of wisdom. Do not let me be led astray by my own desires. If it is not your will that I pursue a relationship with Levi, I pray that you will stop me. Make your message so clear that I cannot argue it away. Protect me, Lord, and show me the way I should go. faith-quotes godly-woman historical inspirational prayer relationships religion wisdom Karen Witemeyer
7176781 You don't correct a president. You merely compliment them on their wisdom in seeking your counsel. president wisdom Robert Ferrigno
21a9af6 ... and she was awed to see that vibrant life still struggled to thrive despite such destruction. flowers garden inspirational metaphor wisdom Lois Lowry
0116d68 When they expect you to give up, that's when you should put your foot down and double speed. wisdom Sophie Kinsella
80c88bb Fear was wisdom in a situation like this, and he was pleased that Folly was obviously intelligent enough to know it. He hoped that she would use the fear to make her cleverer, rather than more foolish, but that was asking much of a human, relatively odd or not. foolishness humans-and-animals wisdom Jim Butcher
d7e47cb Honor,' he said firmly. 'I have great honor. So will you. But you will find that that is not the same as power. philosophy power wisdom Lois Lowry
5039ad9 Where have i=I read that at the end, when life, surface upon surface, has become completely encrusted with experience, you know everything, the secret, the power, and the glory, why you were born, why you are dying, and how it all could have been different? You are wise. But the greatest wisdom, at that moment, is knowing that your wisdom is too late. You understand everything when there is no longer anything to understand. life philosophy wisdom Umberto Eco
2cd6a77 The little Otak was hiding in the rafters of the house, as it did when strangers entered. There it stayed while the rain beat on the walls and the fire sank down and the night wearing slowly along left the old woman nodding by the hearthpit. Then the otak crept down and came to Ged where he lay stretched stiff and still upon the bed. It began to lick his hands and wrists, long and patiently, with its dry leaf-brown tongue. Crouching beside his head it licked his temple, his scarred cheek, and softly his closed eyes. And very slowly under that soft touch Ged roused. He woke, not knowing where he had been or where he was or what was the faint grey light in the air about him, which was the light of dawn coming to the world. Then the otak curled up near his shoulder as usual, and went to sleep. Later, when Ged thought back upon that night, he knew that had none touched him when he lay thus spirit-lost, had none called him back in some way, he might have been lost for good. It was only the dumb instinctive wisdom of the beast who licks his hurt companion to comfort him, and yet in that wisdom Ged saw something akin to his own power, something that went as deep as wizardry. From that time forth he believed that the wise man is one who never sets himself apart from other living things, whether they have speech or not, and in later years he strove to learn what can be learned, in silence, from the eyes of animals, the flight of birds, the great slow gestures of trees companionshipship hoeg loyalty otak pets wisdom Ursula K. Le Guin
0eb847d Simply put, meditation is the path to clarity, compassion, and a path of wisdom leading to the eradication of suffering. clarity-of-thought compassion meditation suffering wisdom Jon Kabat-Zinn
9617184 Everything is old, here. We are old - the Masters. experienced old-age travel wisdom Ursula K. Le Guin
5dc74f1 All the books, all the lectures, all the pages of ... of information, areas nothing against the measure of our experience -- and by that he meant the experience we take to heart, that we go back to, trying to work out the why, what, and how of whatever has come about in our lives. That, he said, is where we learn the value of true knowledge, with our life's lessons to draw upon so that we might one day be blessed with wisdom. I may not be there yet, but the better part of me is doing my utmost, and one of the elements of life I am learning the hard way is the wisdom to be found in forgiveness. It's what is setting me free. knowledge wisdom Jacqueline Winspear
2818419 When you stopped to think about it, he reflected, there weren't many things in life one truly needed. To want too much was worse than greed: it was stupidity - a waste of precious time and effort. time wisdom Tad Williams
725c0c8 Let's face it, life is trivial, and my guess is that dying imparts very little wisdom on those in process. wisdom Sue Grafton
41c06b3 She felt very old and mature and wise--which showed how young she was. She told herself that she longed greatly to go back to those dear merry days when life was seen through a rosy mist of hope and illusion, and possessed an indefinable something that had passed away forever. Where was it now--the glory and the dream? childhood dreams wisdom L.M. Montgomery
b9d68a5 Remember to remember: sometimes your adversary is your biggest asset. Where would David be without Goliath? Jesus without Judas? achievement-attitude adversity bravery courage growth humor inspiration irony life-lessons motivation strength success wisdom Brandi L. Bates
cf81a39 THE NEXT DAY WAS RAIN-SOAKED and smelled of thick sweet caramel, warm coconut and ginger. A nearby bakery fanned its daily offerings. A lapis lazuli sky was blanketed by gunmetal gray clouds as it wept crocodile tears across the parched Los Angeles landscape. When Ivy was a child and she overheard adults talking about their break-ups, in her young feeble-formed mind, she imagined it in the most literal of essences. She once heard her mother speaking of her break up with an emotionally unavailable man. She said they broke up on 69th Street. Ivy visualized her mother and that man breaking into countless fragments, like a spilled box of jigsaw pieces. And she imagined them shattered in broken shards, being blown down the pavement of 69th Street. For some reason, on the drive home from Marcel's apartment that next morning, all Ivy could think about was her mother and that faceless man in broken pieces, perhaps some aspects of them still stuck in cracks and crevices of the sidewalk, mistaken as grit. She couldn't get the image of Marcel having his seizure out of her mind. It left a burning sensation in the center of her chest. An incessant flame torched her lungs, chest, and even the back door of her tongue. Witnessing someone you cared about experiencing a seizure was one of those things that scribed itself indelibly on the canvas of your mind. It was gut-wrenching. Graphic and out-of-body, it was the stuff that post traumatic stress syndrome was made of. beauty black-authors black-history deity emotion foodies humor inspiration knowledge literary-fiction love meaning new-york poetry prose rebirth scorpios sex stress valentine-s-day wilmington wisdom Brandi L. Bates
933921b They are not brave, the days when we are twenty-one. They are full of little cowardices, little fears without foundation, and one is so easily bruised, so swiftly wounded, one falls to the first barbed word. Today, wrapped in the complacent armor of approaching middle age, the infinitesimal pricks of day by day brush one lightly and are soon forgotten, but then - how a careless word would linger, becoming a fiery stigma, and how a look, a glance over a shoulder, branded themselves as things eternal. wisdom Daphne du Maurier
20b2ee2 "Not everything's funny, Mother." "No," said Leola, "so I guess when you can laugh,, it's all the sweeter." truth-of-life wisdom Lorna Landvik
2c898c3 Miro hacia la biblioteca. Aquella sabiduria no calmaria nunca su fuego; siglos y siglos de palabras no podian satisfacer aquel deseo imperativo e irracional. books desire frustration knowledge libraries longing sex wisdom world-literature Richard Matheson
b251696 The soul is always wiser than the mind, even though we are dependent on the mind to read the soul for us. soul wisdom wise John O'Donohue
0b3b1b9 She was coming to look on men and women as fellow survivors; well-dissemblers of their woes, who, with few signals of grief, had contained, assimilated, or just put to use their own destruction. Of those who had endured the worst, not all behaved nobly or consistently. But all, involuntarily, became part of a deeper assertion to life. Though the dissolution of love created no heroes, the process itself required some heroism. There was the risk that endurance might appear enough of an achievement. That risk had come up before. truth wisdom Shirley Hazzard
680498a "Remember this always: There is a reason God limits man's days." "What is the reason?" "Finish your journey and you will know." mitch-albom the-time-keeper wisdom Mitch Albom
26984ba "No respecter of evidence has ever found the least clue as to what life is all about, and what people should do with it. Oh, there have been lots of brilliant guesses. But honest, educated people have to identify with them as such--as guesses. What are guesses worth? Scientifically and legally, they are not worth doodley-squat. As the saying goes: "Your guess is as good as mine." The guesses we like best, as with so many things we like best, were taught to us in childhood--by people who loved us and wished us well. We are reluctant to criticize those guesses. It is an ultimate act of rudeness to find fault with anything which is given to us in a spirit of love. So a modern, secular education is often painful. By its very nature, it invites us to question the wisdom of the ones we love. Too bad. I have said that one guess is as good as another, but that is only roughly so. Some guesses are crueler than others--which is to say, harder on human beings, and on other animals as well. The belief that God wants heretics burned to death is a case in point. Some guesses are more suicidal than others. The belief that a true lover of God is immune to the bites of copperheads and rattlesnakes is a case in point. Some guesses are greedier and more egocentric than others. Belief in the divine right of kings and presidents is a case in point. Those are all discredited guesses. But it is reasonable to suppose that other bad guesses are poisoning our lives today. A good education in skepticism can help us to discover those bad guesses, and to destroy them with mockery and contempt. Most of them were made by honest, decent people who had no way of knowing what we know, or what we can find out, if we want to. We have one hell of a lot of good information about our bodies, about our planet, and the universe--about our past. We don't have to guess as much as the old folks did. Bertrand Russell declared that, in case he met God, he would say to Him, "Sir, you did not give us enough information." I would add to that, "All the same, Sir, I'm not persuaded that we did the best we could with the information we had. Toward the end there, anyway, we had tons of information." life meaning-of-life secular-education skepticism theories wisdom Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
15a0482 I suppose we never know what we have the capacity to forgive until we're truly tested. friendships relationships trials wisdom Elise Broach
5735ca7 At the alpha level, your imagination acts powerfully on your subconsciousness mind and therefore your imaginings are powerfully effective in producing the desired result. It is believed that our subconscious mind represents nearly 90 percent of our mental capacity, which is why influencing your subconscious mind produces such powerful effects. chris-prentiss imagination meditation passages-malibu subconscious-mind wisdom Chris Prentiss
ec233ba Sister Simone Campbell: community enoughness faith on-being responsibility wisdom Krista Tippett
08d5137 If I were to create a word that more accurately describes alcoholism and addiction, I would say it was dependencyism. Sounds silly, doesn't it? Yet it's no sillier than the word alcoholism. The reason alcoholism no longer sounds silly to you is because you're used to hearing it, reading it, and thinking about it. addiction-and-recovery alcohol-abuse alcohol-treatment-center alcoholism chris-prentiss inspiration passages-malibu passages-ventura pax-prentiss substance-abuse wisdom Chris Prentiss
dd611f5 Music open our minds to allow the perception of new thoughts of a higher nature, which gives us a spiritual lift, which produces yet more joy. joy joyful-living music wisdom wu-wei Wu Wei
5b56896 His ruby red rimmed moist eyes were two glasses of cranberry. He wore a cashmere sweater the color of Earl Grey tea... affluence albert-einstein-life-quotes brandi-bates life life-lessons life-philosophy love-quotes motivation opulence soledad-francis success truth-to-power wealth wisdom Brandi L. Bates
922cff1 The mystery and art of living are as grand as the sweep of a lifetime and the lifetime of a species. And they are as close as beginning, quietly, to mine whatever grace and beauty, whatever healing and attentiveness, are possible in this moment and the next and the next one after that. attention awe beauty diversity enlightenment god grace humanity life life-force love mindfulness mystery on-being religion spirit wisdom wonder Krista Tippett
c54ad9f The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are destructible-that is precisely why they are so precious. inspirational inspirational-quotes life life-lessons living people-of-color security soul soul-searching spirit survival surviving-life thoughtful thoughts wisdom wise-words Ta-Nehisi Coates
a045090 There are two ways to be wealthy--to get everything you want or to want everything you have. satisfaction wealth wisdom Ryan Holiday
8d560a7 A lot of who you were in middle age was determined before you had a chance to manipulate, control, or eve understand the things around you. It was no mystery, he thought, why some old people's minds returned to their youth; the wonder of those years, the discoveries, the first experience with the dirty secret of death, and the first stirrings of lust and love were indelible, drawn in luminous colors on clean canvas. Indeed, the first sex act was so mind-boggling that most people could still remember it clearly twenty, thirty, sixty years later. humor inspirational life love lust old romance science sex wisdom Nelson DeMille
20d32cc "When, on a sea voyage, the ship is brought to anchor, you go out to fetch water and gather a few roots and shells by the way. But you always need to keep your mind fixed on the ship, constantly to look around, lest at any time the master of the ship call, and you must heed that call and cast away all those things, lest you be treated like the sheep that are bound and thrown into the hold. So it is with human life also. And if there be available wife and children instead of shells and roots, nothing should hinder us from taking them. But if the master call, run to the ship, forsaking all those things, and without looking behind. And if thou be in old age, go not far from the ship at any time, lest the master should call, and thou be not ready...The ship and the journey represents an authentic life. We live more authentically if we keep focused on the fundamental fact of sheer being, the miracle of existence itself. If we focus on "being", then we won't get so caught up in the diversions of life that is, the material objects on the island, that we lose sight of existence itself. Not falling into the "everydayness' of life and becoming unfree-like the sheep." -- wisdom Irvin D. Yalom
237b8b3 But I don't know what the right thing to do is; I sometimes think I know too much, I've studied too much, learned too much, remembered too much. It all seems to average out, somehow; like dust that settles over... whatever machinery we carry inside us that leads us to act, and puts the same weight everywhere, so that always you can see good and bad on each side, and always there are arguments, precedents for every possible course of action... so of course one ends up doing nothing. Perhaps that's only right; perhaps that's what evolution requires, to leave the field free for younger, unencumbered minds, and those not afraid to act. wisdom Iain M. Banks
570ee93 Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures.' 'A fear of time running out. mitch-albom the-time-keeper wisdom Mitch Albom
e6a7dd9 When I was eighteen or twenty, I knew everything except what I wanted. I knew all about people, and poetry, and love, and music, and politics, and baseball, and history, and I played pretty good jazz piano. And then I went traveling, because I felt that I might have missed something and it would be a good idea to learn it before I got my master's degree. (...) And the older I grew, and the farther I traveled, the younger I grew and the less I knew. I could feel it happening to me. I could actually walk down a dirty street and feel all my wisdom slipping away from me, all the things I wrote term papers about. traveling wisdom youth Peter S. Beagle
e0a3eed Emotion has the power to obscure and falsify knowledge: that the whole world assumes a smiling aspect when we have reason to rejoice, and a dark and gloomy one when sorrow weighs upon us. wisdom Irvin D. Yalom
294f9db A strike within the realm of the professional never justifies retribution in the realm of the personal retaliation retribution revenge tit-for-tat wisdom Kelley Armstrong
3ffa308 "He looked down at the books. There was a long silence. Then he raised his eyes and directed his gaze at Gershon, and Gershon did not look away. "I will tell you, Loran what is of importance is not that there may be nothing. We have always acknowledged that as a possibility. What is important is that if indeed there is nothing, then we should be prepared to make something out of the one thing we have left to us -- ourselves. I do not know what else to tell you, Loran. No one is in possession of all wisdom. No one." Gershon sat in silence, looking at Nathan Malkuson." meaning-of-life self-reliance wisdom Chaim Potok
518b5d2 Silent people can be misleading, suggesting profundity and thoughtfulness where there may be none. deception deep-thoughts misappropriation silence wisdom Rachel Kushner
42e16bc Thatcher wondered what task could be more wearisome than shoring up a stupid man's confidence in his own wisdom. stupidity wisdom Barbara Kingsolver
cffc146 Everyone is down on pain, because they forget something important about it: Pain is for the living. Only the dead don't feel it. life pain wisdom Jim Butcher
6ea7cad why do I want to appear to be drinking more than I am?' 'Make it a habit. Men in their cups are fools, more often than not. And it can be wise to look the fool at times. subterfuge wisdom Raymond E. Feist
180d3a4 Robert had taught him to keep his thoughts in the present or near future, for as Robert had told him, To dwell in the past is to live in regret. regret wisdom Raymond E. Feist
1918d6f "VI. Wisdom: The Voice of God Ninety percent of what's wrong with you could be cured with a hot bath, says God through the manhole covers, but you want magic, to win the lottery you never bought a ticket for. (Tenderly, the monks chant, embrace the suffering.) The voice never panders, offers no five-year plan, no long-term solution, no edicts from a cloudy white beard hooked over ears. It is small and fond and local. Don't look for your initials in the geese honking overhead or to see through the glass even poetry wisdom Mary Karr
0994804 It is a scholar's weakness, to run narrow and deep. study weakness wisdom Jacqueline Carey
5787526 We make fiction because we are fiction ... It lived us into being and it lives us still. collective-unconscious consciousness fiction macrocosm microcosm virtual-reality wisdom Russell Hoban
afd60d4 Another extraordinary similarity concerns the presence of Seven Sages in both the Sumerian and Vedic traditions. Most ancient societies, I concede, had their sages or seers or wise men -- in India they were, and still are, called . But it seems to me to be stretching coincidence too far to find a group specifically named the 'Seven Sages' prominently associated with two separate ancient cultures and to imagine that this did not come about through some sort of connection. In the case of Sumer the Seven Sages were depicted as amphibian, 'fish-garbed' beings who emerged from the sea in antediluvian times to teach wisdom to mankind. In the case of the the focus is not on the antediluvian period but on the flood itself and those antediluvians who are claimed to have survived it, namely Manu and the Seven Sages. connection deluges knowledge seven-sages wisdom Graham Hancock
b7af71b "Inferior people often despise those who are different," Adam said calmly. "It's the only way they can feel superior." wisdom Mary Jo Putney
8433a07 "You must convince your chiefs that what you're telling 'em is important, which ain't difficult, since they want to believe you, having chiefs of their own to satisfy; make as much mystery of your methods as you can; hint what a thoroughgoing ruffian you can be in a good cause, but never forget that innocence shines brighter than any virtue, "Flashman? Extraordinary fellow - kicks 'em in the crotch with the heart of a child"; remember that silence frequently passes for shrewdness, and that while suppressio veri is a damned good servant, suggestio falsi is a perilous master." experience hedonism human-nature knowledge-of-self philosophy the-way-the-world-works wisdom George MacDonald Fraser
8e179f1 The moment that we think we know, we've lost our perspective on wisdom. wisdom Diana Butler Bass
082ed22 "We should remember the warning of the wise Grail knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: "You must choose, but choose wisely, for as the true Grail will bring you life, the false Grail will take it from you." Choose the highest-yield material and you can be an idiot and enjoy stunning success. Choose poorly and, as the Grail knight implied, you're screwed no matter what. You'll chase your own tail for years." warning wisdom Timothy Ferriss
1a91491 However it--or the kind of extreme individualistic epistemology it embraces--can lead historians to an overly skeptical approach particularly to those sources that were intended to recount and inform events of the past, that is, testimony in this restricted sense. Particularly in Gospels scholarship there is an attitude abroad that approaches the sources with fundamental skepticism, rather than trust, and therefore requires that anything the sources claim be accepted only if historians can independently verify it..... christ-myth-theory christian-gnosticism christian-history christian-mystics church conversion-of-paul epistles epistles-of-paul facts gentile gnostic gnostic-gospels gnosticism gospel-of-john grosticicm historical-facts historicity-of-jesus historicity-of-paul jewish mystics paul solomon synoptic-gospels tanakh wisdom Richard Bauckham
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