Martin Luther King Day
In the United States, today is Martin Luther King day, and we are hearing numerous glowing tributes as well as commentary about what still needs to be done.
I was only a child when Dr. King was assassinated and living thousands of miles away in a part of the country and a school that was largely color blind, I knew little of the terrible discrimination which was still a fact of life in the United States. And in some places still is.
But what I remember was the extraordinary oratory that still sends chills down my spine.
His insights and his statements are timeless, and like Mahatma Gandhi before him, he was more than a social reformer, he was a World Teacher.
When we are hearing Truth, it can usually be applied in more than one setting: many of Dr. King’s principles about harmony, brotherhood and equality can also be applied in to the health and harmony of the body and our interpersonal relationships.
This is a good day to ponder on what he said, and here are a few quotations from my collection. I hope that you will find some of them as inspirational as I have.
“A lie cannot live.”
“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live."
“A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.”
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
“A right delayed is a right denied.”
“A riot is the language of the unheard.”
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.”
“An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness, in a descending spiral of destruction. The chain reaction of evil must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
“Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.”
“Don’t hate, it’s too big a burden to bear”
“Each of us is something of a schizophrenic personality, tragically divided against ourselves.”
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”
“Every man is someone because he is a child of God.”
“Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."
“Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.”
“Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.”
“Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
“Goodness defeated is stronger than evil triumphant”
“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.”
“Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies – or else? The chain reaction of evil – hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars – must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”
“He (Jesus) knew that the old eye-for-eye philosophy would leave everyone blind. He did not seek to overcome evil with evil. He overcame evil with good. Although crucified by hate, he responded with aggressive love.”
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
“Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable… Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.”
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted”
"I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good."
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal." … I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”
“I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land."
“I look forward confidently to the day when all who work for a living will be one with no thought to their separateness as Negroes, Jews, Italians or any other distinctions. This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream; a dream yet unfulfilled. A dream of equality of opportunity, of privilege and property widely distributed; a dream of a land where men will not take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few; a dream of a land where men will not argue that the color of a man’s skin determines the content of his character; a dream of a nation where all our gifts and resources are held not for ourselves alone, but as instruments of service for the rest of humanity; the dream of a country where every man will respect the dignity and worth of the human personality.”
“I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
"I want to be the white man’s brother, not his brother-in-law."
“If a man is called to be street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the host of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his j
ob well.”
"If man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
"If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive."
"If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values – that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control."
“If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all. And so today I still have a dream.”
“If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolute night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will be an endless reign of meaningless chaos."
"If you will protest courageously, and yet with dignity and Christian love, when the history books are written in future generations, the historians will have to pause and say, "There lived a great people – a black people – who injected new meaning and dignity into the veins of civilization."
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
“Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”
“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.”
“Lives begin to end the day we become silent on the things that matter.”
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
“My faith in man is, at bottom, a faith in God.”
“My place is in the sunshine of opportunity.”
“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
"Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him."
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.”
"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane.”
“Oh, the worst of tragedies is not to die young, but to live until
I am seventy-five and yet not ever truly to have lived.”
"One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.”
“One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.”
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
“Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.”
“Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.”
“Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, "Here is an opportunity for me to celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is necessary."
"Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."
“Real peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of justice.”
"Science investigates religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power religion gives man wisdom which is control."
"Seeing is not always believing."
"Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will."
"So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”
“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”
"The art of acceptance is the art of making someone who has just done you a small favor wish that he might have done you a greater one.”
“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
“The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood.”
“The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict.”
“The limitation of riots, moral questions aside, is that they cannot win and their participants know it. Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary because it invites defeat. It involves an emotional catharsis, but it must be followed by a sense of futility."
“The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
“The moral arc of the universe bends at the elbow of justice.”
“The old law about an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.”
"The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”
"The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be.”
“The strong man is the man who can stand up for his rights and not hit back.”
“The time is always right to do what is right.”
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
"There is nothing more tragic than to find an individual bogged down in the length of life, devoid of breadth.”
"Through our scientific genius, we have made this world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual development, we must make of it a brotherhood."
"We are not makers of history. We are made by history."
"We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobile rather than
by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind.”
"We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.”
"We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now."
"We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.”
"We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.
“We must use time creatively and forever realize that the time is ripe to do what’s right."
"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.”
"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. "
"We will speed the day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing …Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.”
“What does not destroy me, makes me strong.” (Paraphrasing Nietzsche)
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”
"….when we let it ring from every village, and every hamlet, from every state and every city , we will be able to speed up the day when all of god children…will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, ‘free at last! free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”
"Without justice, there can be no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.”
"Without love, benevolence becomes egotism.”
Albert Schweitzer
Today is the birthday of Albert Schweitzer who was born in Kaysersberg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany. It is one of those parts of the world that has often changed hands and is now in Haut-Rhin, Alsace, France.
He was a remarkable man: as a youngster he was a famous organist and was highly interested in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he regarded as a religious mystic.
He decided that after the age of 30 he would dedicate himself to the service of humanity and became both a theologian and physician. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of "reverence for life" expressed in many ways but most famously in founding and sustaining the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa.
I have heard some people be very critical of Schweitzer, describing him as patronizing toward Africa. I don’t think that is right. If you look at his actions and his writings, it is clear that he had an extraordinary compassion and vision.
Here are a few of his writings from my own collection. I hope that you find some of them as inspirational as I have.
“A great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up.”
“A heavy guilt rests upon us for what the whites of all nations have done to the colored peoples. When we do good to them, it is not benevolence it is atonement.”
“A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.”
“A man does not have to be an angel to be a saint.”
"All the kindness which a man puts out into the world
works on the heart and thoughts of mankind.”
“All work that is worth anything is done in faith.”
“An idea is, in the end, always stronger than circumstances.”
“Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of their way, but must accept their lot calmly, even if people roll a few stones upon it.”
“As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.”
“As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious.”
“At that point in life where your talent meets the needs of the world, that is where God wants you to be.”
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”
“Be faithful to your love and you will be recompensed beyond measure.”
“Because I have confidence in the power of Truth and of the spirit, I believe in the future of mankind.”
“By having reverence for life, we enter into a spiritual relation with the world.”
“Do something wonderful, people may imitate it.”
“Ethical existence is the highest manifestation of spirituality.”
“Ethics, too, are nothing but reverence for life. That is what gives me the fundamental principle of morality, namely, that good consists in maintaining, promoting, and enhancing life, and that destroying, injuring, and limiting life are evil.”
“Every man has to seek his own way to make himself more noble and to realize his own true worth”
“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
“Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.”
“I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”
“I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.”
"If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
“In the same way as the tree bears the same fruit year after year, but each time new fruit, all lastingly valuable ideas in thinking must always be reborn.”
“It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world.”
“Knowing all truth is less than doing a little bit of good.”
“Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth.”
“Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.”
“Medicine is not only a science, but also the art of letting our own individuality interact with the individuality of the patient.”
“Natural and super-natural, temporal and eternal – continuums, not absolutes.”
“No ray of sunshine is ever lost, but the green which it awakens into existence needs time to sprout, and it is not always granted for the sower to see the harvest. All work that is worth anything is done in faith.”
“One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”
“One truth stands firm. All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.”
“One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.”
“Only those who respect the personality of others can be of real use to them.”
“Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality, namely that good consists in maintaining, assisting, and enhancing life, and that to destroy, to harm, or to hinder life is evil.”
“Success is not the key to happiness; Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
“The awareness that we are all human beings together has become lost in war and through politics.”
“The first step in the evolution of ethics is an enlargement of the sense of solidarity with other human beings.”
“The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.” (He is here reiterating something said by the great psychologist and philosopher William James)
“The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret…. It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.”
“The man who h
as become a thinking being feels a compulsion to give to every will-to-live the same reverence for life that he gives to his own.”
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
“The true worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colors and textures that come alive in others.”
“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”
“There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”
“There is so much coldness in the world because we are afraid to be as cordial as we really are.”
“To educate yourself for gratitude means to take nothing for granted but to seek out and value the kindness that lies behind the action.”
“Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.”
“Very little of the great cruelty shown by men can really be attributed to cruel instinct. Most of it comes from thoughtlessness or inherited habit. The roots of cruelty, therefore, are not so much strong as widespread. But the time must come when inhumanity protected by custom and thoughtlessness will succumb before humanity championed by thought. Let us work that this time may come.”
“We cannot possibly let ourselves get frozen into regarding everyone we do not know as an absolute stranger.”
“Wherever a man turns he can find someone who needs him.”
“Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way. But if you hold it up against the light of God’s goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright. And then you ask yourself in amazement: Is this really my own life I see before me?”
Cicero’s Six Mistakes of Man
Today is traditionally taken to be the birthday of the great Roman lawyer, political figure, orator and philosopher Cicero, whose full name was Marcus Tullius Cicero. Nobody really knows the exact date of his birth, but for several centuries, January the 3rd it has been.
His life was extraordinarily successful by the standards of the day, and generations of school children learned some basic history and philosophy from him.
We also learned that success is subjective.
Over two thousand years ago he wrote about the “Six Mistakes of Man:”
- The delusion that personal gain is made by crushing others
- The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected
- Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it
- Refusing to set aside trivial preferences
- Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and studying
- Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do
Even after all this time, how much has really changed?
I urge you to think about those six and whether any of them are operating in your life. I often use “The Six” as a jumping off point in therapy or workshops: they often help us to focus on some of our false beliefs and perceptions.
And to celebrate his birthday, here are a few choice Cicero quotations from my own collection.
Enjoy and, perhaps, learn something from them.
“A liar is not believed even though he tells the truth.”
“A man’s own manner and character is what most becomes him.”
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.
“A youth of sensuality and intemperance delivers over a worn out body to old age.”
“Advice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end.”
“All things are full of God.”
“As fire when thrown into water is cooled down and put out, so also a false accusation when brought against a man of the purest and holiest character, boils over and is at once dissipated, and vanishes and threats of heaven and sea, himself standing unmoved.”
“As I approve of a youth that has something of the old man in him, so I am no less pleased with an old man that has something of the youth. He that follows this rule may be old in body, but can never be so in mind.”
“As I give thought to the matter, I find four causes for the apparent misery of old age; first, it withdraws us from active accomplishments; second, it renders the body less powerful; third, it deprives us of almost all forms of enjoyment; fourth, it stands not far from death.”
“Avarice in old age is foolish; for what can be more absurd than to increase our provisions for the road the nearer we approach to our journey’s end.”
“Before beginning, plan carefully.”
“Before you trust a man, eat a peck of salt with him.”
“Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.”
“Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.”
“By doubting we come at truth.”
“Cultivation to the mind is as necessary as food to the body.”
“Diseases of the soul are more dangerous and more numerous than those of the body.”
“Freedom suppressed and again regained bites with keener fangs than freedom never endangered.”
“Generosity should never exceed ability.”
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
“Great is the power of habit. It teaches us to bear fatigue and to despise wounds and pain.”
“He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.”
“He who suffers, remembers.”
“If you would abolish avarice, you must abolish its mother, luxury.”
“In a disturbed mind, as in a body in the same state, health can not exist.”
“In everything satiety closely follows the greatest pleasures.”
“In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in giving health to men.”
“Inability to tell good from evil is the greatest worry of man’s life.”
“It is a shameful thing to be weary of inquiry when what we search for is excellent.”
“It is exercise alone that supports the spirits, and keeps the mind in vigor.”
“Justice is the crowning glory of the virtues.”
“Many wish not so much to be virtuous, as to seem to be.”
“Natural ability without education has more often raised a man to glory and virtue than education without natural ability.”
“Nature has placed in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth.”
“No man is so old as not to think he can live one year more.”
“One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul will ever be destroyed”
“Our minds possess by nature an insatiable desire to know the truth.”
“Reason should direct and appetite obey.”
“Study carefully, the character of the one you recommend, lest their misconduct bring you shame.”
“Superstition is a senseless fear of God.”
“That last day does not bring extinction to us, but change of place.”
“The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.”
“The beauty of the world and the orderly arrangement of everything celestial makes us confess that there is an excellent and eternal nature, which ought to be worshiped and admired by all mankind.”
“The beginnings of all things are small.”
“The celestial order and the beauty of the universe compel me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being, who deserves the respect and homage of men.”
“The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.”
“The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food supplied for the soul of man.”
“The diseases of the mind are more and more destructive than those of the body.”
“The foolishness of old age does not characterize all who are old, but only the foolish.”
“The forehead is the gate of the mind.”
“The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil”
“The harvest of old age is the recollection and abundance of blessing previously secured.”
“The noblest spirit is most strongly attracted by the love of glory.”
“The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil.”
“There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal.”
“There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.”
“There is no grief which time does not lessen and soften”
“There is nothing so absurd that some philosopher has not already said it.”
“Through doubt we arrive at the truth.”
“To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.”
“To the sick, while there is life there is hope.”
“True glory strikes root, and even extends itself; all false pretensions fall as do flowers, nor can any feigned thing be lasting.”
“Virtue is its own reward.”
“We are all motivated by a keen desire for praise, and the better a man is, the more he is inspired by glory
“Whatever that be which thinks, which understands, which wills, which acts, it is something celestial and divine and on that account must necessarily be eternal.”
“When you are aspiring to the highest place, it is honorable to reach the second or even the third rank.”
“Work makes a callus against grief.”
Remembering Mahatma Gandhi
On this day in 1869, in the town of Porbandar, Gujurat State, India, a child named Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born. His life has been written about in hundreds of books and articles, and nobody can deny that he, and his non-violent resistance, changed the world in the most extraordinary way.
Yet we all still have much more to learn about what he tried to teach.
Starting life as an English-trained lawyer, he read widely, drawing inspiration from such sources as the Bhagavad-Gita, John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, and his personal philosophy underwent significant changes.
It was not until later in life that he became known as "Mahatma," or Great Soul.
Not only did he leave a profound political and philosophical legacy, but he left us an extraordinary number of sayings and quotations. Here are a few of of my favorites.
_________________________
“A "No" uttered from deepest conviction is better and greater than a "Yes" merely uttered to please, or what is worse, to avoid trouble.”
“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love, it is the prerogative of the brave”
“A faith gained in strength only when people were willing to lay down their lives for it.”
“A genuine fast cleanses the body, mind, and soul. It crucifies the flesh and to that extent sets the soul free.”
“A life of sacrifice is the pinnacle of art, and is full of true joy.”
“A living faith cannot be manufactured by the rule of majority.”
“A vow is fixed and unalterable determination to do a thing, when such a determination is related to something noble which can only uplift the man who makes the resolve.”
“Action alone is just that does not harm either party to a dispute.”
“Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation."
“An eye for an eye will only serve to make the whole world blind”
“Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“Both heaven and hell are within us.”
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
“Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err.”
“God alone is the judge of true greatness because he knows men’s hearts.”
“God answers prayer in His own way, not ours.”
“God forbid that India should ever take to industrialism after the manner of the west… keeping the world in chains. If [our nation] took to similar economic exploitation, it would strip the world bare like locusts.”
“God is not a person…God is the force. He is the essence of life. He is pure and undefiled consciousness. He is eternal. And yet, strangely enough, all are not able to derive either benefit from or shelter in the all-pervading living presence.”
“God turns his back on those who quarrel amongst themselves.”
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“How can I, who knows the body to be perishable and the soul to be imperishable, mourn over the separation of body from soul?”
“Human life is a series of compromises, and it is not always easy to achieve in practice what one has found to be true in theory.”
“I am painfully conscious of my imperfections, and therein lies all the strength I possess, because it is a rare thing for a man to know his own limitations.”
“I am part and parcel of the whole and cannot find God apart from the rest of humanity.”
“I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill.”
“I believe in what Max Muller said years ago, namely, that truth needed to be repeated as long as there were men who disbelieved it.”
“I believe that the sum total of the energy of mankind is not to bring us down but to lift us up, and that is the result of the definite, if unconscious, working of the law of love. The fact that mankind persists shows that the cohesive force is greater than the disruptive force, centripetal force greater than centrifugal.”
“I claim to be no more than an average person with less than average ability. I have not the shadow of doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.”
“I do feel that spiritual progress does demand, at some stage, that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants.”
“I first learned the concepts of non-violence in my marriage.”
“I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul.”
“I have found that life persists in the midst of destruction, and therefore there must be a higher law than that of destruction.”
“I have learned through bitter experience the one supreme lesson to conserve my anger, and as heat conserved is transmitted into energy, even so our anger controlled can be transmitted into a power that can move the world.”
“I hope there is no pride in me. I feel I recognize fully my weakness. But my faith in God and His strength and love is unshakable. I am like clay in the Potter’s hands. I shall continue to confess blunders each time the people commit them. The only tyrant I accept in this world is the ‘still small voice’ within me. And even though I have to face the prospect of a minority of one, I humbly believe I have the courage to be in such a hopeless minority. I believe in the supreme power of God. I believe in Truth and, therefore, I have no doubt in the future of this country or the future of humanity.”
“I implicitly believe in the truth of the saying that not a blade of grass moves but by His will. He will save it (my life) if He needs it for further service in this body. None can save it against His will.”
“I know of your capacity to do great things, but I have yet to discover your capacity to do little things.”
“I own no enemy on earth. That is my creed.”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
“If we reach the heart of our own religion, we also reach the heart of other religions.”
“If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishes from others without thinking evil of them.”
“In doing something, do it with love or never do it at all”
“In matters of conscience, the law of majority has no place.”
“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”
“. . . in the midst of death life persists . . .”
“In this age of the rule of brute force, it is almost impossible for anyone to believe that any one else could possibly reject the law of the final supremacy of brute force.”
“Indolence is a delightful but distressing state; we must be doing something to be happy. Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame.”
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”
“It is knowledge that ultimately gives salvation.”
“It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.”
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
“Just think out for yourselves, if a man who was good yesterday has become bad after having come in contact with me, is he responsible that he has deteriorated or am I? … It is well to take the blame sometimes.”
“Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive, because your words become your behavior.
Keep your behavior positive, because your behavior becomes your habits.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your value system.
Keep your values positive, because your values become your destiny.”
“Life becomes livable only to the extent that death is treated as a friend, never as an enemy.”
“Life is an aspiration. Its mission is to strive after perfection, which is self-realization.”
“Life is greater than all art.”
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
“Love and exclusive possession can never go together.”
“Love can never express itself by imposing sufferings on others. It can only express itself-suffering, by self-purification.”
“Love is no love which asks for a return.”
“Man’s destined purpose is to conquer old habits, to overcome the evil in him and to restore good to its rightful place.”
“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe that I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn’t have it in the beginning.”
“My life is my message”
“No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.”
“Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain.”
“Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat
is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being.”
"Nonviolence which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain."
“Not to have control over the senses is like sailing in a rudderless ship, bound to break to pieces on coming in contact with the very first rock.”
“Peace will not come out of clash of arms but out of justice lived and done by unarmed nations in the face of odds.”
“Personally, I hold that a man, who deliberately and intelligently takes a pledge and then breaks it, forfeits his manhood.”
“Prayer is a confession of one’s own unworthiness and weakness.
“Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.”
“Prayer is the key of the morning and the bolt of the evening.
“Prayer is the only means of bringing about orderliness, peace and repose in our daily acts.”
“Real sacrifice lightens the mind of the doer and gives him a sense of peace and joy”
“Service has no meaning unless one takes pleasure in it”
“Silence is a great help to a seeker after truth. In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth, and the soul requires inward restfulness to attain its full height.”
“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.
“The control of the palate is a valuable aid for the control of the mind.”
“The Difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
“The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law, to the strength of the spirit.”
“The future depends on what we do in the present.”
“The golden rule of conduct.. is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall always wee Truth in fragment and from different angles of vision.”
“The history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.”
“The law of love knows no bounds of space or time.”
“The man of prayer will be at peace with himself and with the whole world.”
“The mice which helplessly find themselves between the cats’ teeth acquire no merit from their enforced sacrifice.”
“The music of life is in danger of being lost in the music of the voice.”
“The only devils in this world are those running around in our own hearts, and that is where all our battles should be fought.”
“The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.”
“The pure unadulterated love of one can nullify the hatred of millions.”
“The seven social sins:
- Knowledge without character,
- Science without humanity,
- Wealth without work,
- Commerce without morality,
- Politics without principles,
- Pleasure without conscience,
- Worship without self-sacrifice.”
“The still small voice within you must always be the final arbiter when there is a conflict of duty.”
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”
“The wise are unaffected either by death or life. These are but faces of the same coin.”
“. . . there are chords in every human heart. If we only knew how to strike the right chord, we would bring out the music.”
“There are innumerable definitions of God because his manifestations are innumerable.”
“There are people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread”
“There are subjects where reason cannot take us far and we have to accept things on faith. Faith then does not contradict reason but transcends it. Faith is a kind of sixth sense which works in cases which are without the purview of reason.”
“There comes a time when an individual becomes irresistible and his action becomes all-pervasive in its effects. This comes when he reduces himself to zero.”
“There is a soul force which if we permit it, will flow through us, producing miraculous results”
“There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed.”
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
“There is no god higher than truth.”
“There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and anyone who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever”
“Though I cannot claim to be a Christian in the sectarian sense, the example of Jesus suffering is a factor in the composition of my undying faith in non-violence which rules all my actions, worldly and temporal.”
“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”
“To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowed in prayer.”
“To my mind, I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more
entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
“To see the universal and all-pervading Spirit of Truth face to face one must be able to love the meanest of creation as oneself.”
“True beauty consists of purity of heart.”
“Truth never damages a cause that is just.”
“Unity to be real must stand the severest strain without breaking.”
“We have no evidence whatsoever that the soul perishes with the body.”
“. . . we have to learn to use that force (love) among all that lives, and in the use of it consists our knowledge of God. Where there is love there is life; hatred leads to destruction.”
“We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it. The Attainment of freedom, whether for a person, a nation or a world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of nonviolence for each.”
“We must be the change we wish to see.”
“What is faith worth, if it is not translated in to action?”
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”
“When his duty is to face danger and he flees, it is cowardice.”
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall — think of it, ALWAYS!”
“Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, try the following experiment: Recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person you have ever seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be for any use to him or to her . . . Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away.”
“Where there is love there is life.”
“Wherever you are confronted with an opponent, conquer him with love.”
“Without prayer there is no inward peace.”
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”
“Your capacity to keep your vow will depend on the purity of your life.”
Some Memorable Quotations
Regular readers will know that I often find that quotations can inspire and educate us and can amplify points.
My own quotations database, lovingly crated over many years, contains almost 30,000 entries. Here are some that I think are wonderful, but for which I can find no reliable attribution. The first was said to have been written by a victim of the Holocaust, but I’ve not been able to confirm that.
If anyone can help with authorship please do let me know, and I’ll edit this entry, giving credit where it’s due!
I hope that you find these as inspirational as I have.
I believe in the sun, even when it isn’t shining.
I believe in love, even when I cannot feel it.
I believe in God, even when He is silent.
In the end, all I have of ultimate value is my word
And His Word.
I choose them carefully.
Yet my beliefs and mistakes abound
In a universe where justice prevails.
Let me be judged by my choices,
Not by the voices of condemnation
Shouting down errors
They cannot see in themselves.
Reality has rules whose breach does not go unnoticed,
Each violation creates a debt that must be paid.
All of life a striving toward this balance,
Frenzied futility, apology, pretense, denial,
And seeking of forgiveness and mercy.
The universe is just and accountable.
We seek formulas
God has the answers.
Let me love and be loved, even when it goes unnoticed,
And if my feelings and beliefs and vain wonderings
Figure into the solution,
Cast them as adornments
To the ledger of mercy and justice.
Along the journey of life
The longest distance is the foot
Between the heart and the head.
Step forward into the separation of powers,
And travel into eternity.
Miracles and Expectations
“I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain kinds of phenomena are impossible.”
–William James (American Psychologist and Philosopher, 1842-1910)
There was a very interesting article published in the British Medical Journal in 1983. My old friend Peter Fenwick wrote a very interesting paper on prayer that cited this story.
Christian missionaries had gone to Ethiopia, but were required to leave by the Government in power at the time. They left behind some Gospels. When they returned some years later, they found not only a flourishing church, but also a community of believers amongst whom miracles like those mentioned in the New Testament happened every day. There had been no missionaries to teach them that such things were not supposed to be taken literally. They created miracles because they had never been told that they could not. There were no scientifically trained missionaries to tell them that miracles only occurred in the first century of the Church’s existence, or in special circumstances if a highly trained priest is present.
This sort of case – and there are many others – gets straight to the heart of the role of belief and expectation in our lives. Is there one fixed external reality, and we are no more than puppets dancing on cosmic strings? I’ve heard many people say that. Just recently the Editor of Psychology Today said that he felt that everything in human behavior could be reduced to genes, learning and reflexes. I must respectfully disagree. Free will is not an illusion, and our hopes and expectations have a massive impact on the structure of our lives and our reactions to the events that will come our way.
How many things are you failing to achieve because of fears or negative expectations?
Some people might describe the Ethiopians as unsophisticated. I would not: these good people can teach us something that many of us have forgotten.
Clean up and focus your expectations, ensure the purity of your intentions and see what happens in your life.
I’ve put just a few quotations below. I selected them for this reason: as you look at them, see how many are directly relevant to your life.
Do any of them give you ideas about managing your own life? If not, you may like to have a look at/listen to Healing, Meaning and Purpose or the articles and podcasts that I shall be posting this month.
“Men are probably nearer the central truth in their superstitions than in their science.”
–Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist and Philosopher, 1817-1862)
“Perhaps the only limits to the human mind are those we believe in.”
–Willis Harman (American Scientist and Late President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences; 1920-1997)
“It is one of the most common of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.”
C.W. Leadbeater (English Clergyman and Theosophical Writer, 1854-1934)
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
–Arthur C. Clarke (English-born Writer, 1917-)
“Only if you reach the boundary will the boundary recede before you. And if you don’t, if you confine your efforts, the boundary will shrink to accommodate itself to your efforts. And you can only expand your capacities by working to the very limit.”
–Hugh Nibley (American Scholar in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-2005)
“Know from whence you came. If you know whence you
came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.”
–James Baldwin (African-American Writer, 1924-1987)
“Give yourself the freedom to explore the possibility of life without limits. Goals are dreams with deadlines, a means to an end but not the ultimate purpose of life.”
–Glynis Nunn (Australian Heptathlete, 1960-)
“Imposing limitations on yourself is cowardly because it protects you from having to try, and perhaps failing.”
–Vladimir Zworykin (Russian-born American Physicist and, in 1923, the inventor of the “Iconoscope:” the first television camera, 1889-1982)
“Divine wisdom is inexhaustible; the limitation is only in the receptive faculty of the form.”
–Henricus Madathanus (German Philosopher, Alchemist and Co-Founder of the Fraternity Rosae Crucis, 1575-1639)
Historical Amnesia
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
–George Santayana (Spanish-born American Philosopher, Humanist and Poet, 1863-1952)
For a long time now I have been convinced that one of the many reasons for the social dislocation in much of the developed world is that we have lost our memory. If we do not remember who we are, what we are, where we came from or where we are going, we are doomed to a life of perplexity and confusion. Have you ever felt that there is something about you, some skill, some knowledge, some hidden fact that is there just beyond the horizon, but that you cannot quite grasp? That feeling can be very disorientating and anxiety provoking.
We need to remember our history, and the insights of the geniuses who came before us will help us to understand and to frame the chaos of our lives.
I was thrilled to read a piece by Richard Stengel, the new Managing Editor of Time magazine, in which he laments the epidemic of historical illiteracy that threatens every aspect of our lives. As he points out, being an American is not based upon ancestry or geography, but an acceptance of the ideas of who we are. A few years ago, a survey of Americans aged 18-49 found that only 10% could name the president who ordered the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan. At the time of the study, I was having lunch with a group of faculty at a major Ivy League university, and one of the assembled company – a very good clinician and researcher – responded to the results by saying, “Who cares who did?” We all need to care for these major events provide a context and a framework for us to understand our place in the world, and who we are as a people and as a nation. As Thomas Jefferson, our 3rd president said: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Historical illiteracy is a threat to democracy and may lead us to repeat mistakes.
I have spent years working on a series of antidotes to this historical amnesia. As one part of this effort, I have developed a database of quotations. Not cute sayings, but insights, comments and revelations that mean something and can transform our lives. As I said in the introduction to my book Words of Power:
“This book has been created over thousands of years and by thousands of minds. You will find here the fruits of many lifetimes of contemplation and study. From the marble halls of ancient Greece, to the steamy ashrams of India; from the sacred groves of the American Natives, and from the medicine huts of Africa right up to the startling insights of mystics and scientists walking amongst us today.”
Knowing what someone said is valuable, but only half of the equation. We are evolving as a species. If you met a persons from a thousand years ago, they might appear quite dull: our thoughts, beliefs and perceptions are also the fruits of the times and places where we live. It is good to know who said something, and essential to know when and where it was said. As in any conversation, the words are only a small part of a communication: context is key.
For many years now, I have strongly suggested that people interested in personal development should spend just a few minutes a day with a classic maxim or quotation.
If you are interested in quotations, I have well over 27,000 in my database, and I would be very happy to post some of them.
Technorati tags: Social dislocation Quotations Memory Historical illiteracy
John Kenneth Galbraith Quotations
You may perhaps have seen the news this weekend of the death of John Galbraith, at the age of 97.
I never met him, but this Canadian-born economist, Harvard professor, public servant and writer has left a rich legacy, which we should celebrate. Many will disagree with some of his political positions and evaluations, but few could deny that he did his best to stimulate civilized debate about important matters.
He was also a master of the insightful and sometimes humorous quotable quotes. We have an almost totally clean database of over 26,000 quotations (i.e. no duplicates and virtually all sources checked), and here are some of my favorite Galbraith quotations that I hope that you might find interesting, stimulating, and in a few cases amusing. A small memorial to a fine mind and generous soul.
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
“All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.”
“Any consideration of the life and larger social existence of the modern corporate man begins and also largely ends with the effect of one all-embracing force. That is organization — the highly structured assemblage of men, and now some women, of which he is a part. It is to this, at the expense of family, friends, sex, recreation and sometimes health and effective control of alcoholic intake, that he is expected to devote his energies.”
“Change comes not from men and women changing their minds, but from the change from one generation to the next.”
“Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.”
“Every community needs a great many communal services. By rewarding such work with honor and esteem, the very best men can be had for nothing.”
“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.”
“I am not quite sure what the advantage is in having a few more dollars to spend if the air is too dirty to breathe, the water too polluted to drink, the commuters are losing out in the struggle to get in and out of the city, the streets are filthy, and the schools so bad that the young perhaps wisely stay away, and the hoodlums roll citizens for some of the dollars they saved in the tax cut.”
“If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.”
“If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always right, it will sooner or later be awkward for public administration if most people suppose that it is always wrong.”
“In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.”
“In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone.” “In economics, the majority is always wrong.”
“In the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there’s no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.”
“It is a far, far better thing to have a firm anchor in nonsense than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.”
“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to do anything.”
“Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.”
“More die in the United States of too much food than of too little.”
“Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory.”
“One of the greatest pieces of economic wisdom is to know what you do not know.”
“People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage.”
“Production only fills a void that it has itself created.”
“The conspicuously wealthy turn up urging the character building values of the privation of the poor.”
“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”
“The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.”
“There is certainly no absolute standard of beauty. That precisely is what makes its pursuit so interesting.”
“We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us.”
“Wealth is not without its advantages, and the case to the contrary, although it has often been made, has never proved widely persuasive.”
“What is called a high standard of living consists, in considerable measure, in arrangements for avoiding muscular energy, for increasing sensual pleasure and enhancing caloric intake above any conceivable nutritional requirement.”
“When people are the least sure, they are often the most dogmatic.”
“Where humor is concerned there are no standards – no one can say what is good or bad, although you can be sure that everyone will.”
“You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.”
Technorati tags: John Galbraith, quotations,
Using your Core Values for Rapid Stress Management
“The cyclone derives its powers from a calm center. So does a person.” — Norman Vincent Peale (American Cleric, Writer and Self-Help Expert, 1898-1993)
As a professional speaker, I often forget that glossophobia – fear of public speaking – is the most common phobia in America today. I have a whole toolkit of techniques that I use for helping people with this problem, but I am always interested in new methods that can work quickly.
A study of 80 UCLA undergraduates published in the journal Psychological Science suggests that taking a few minutes to contemplate your personal values (Click here to take an online assessment of your personal values) in the moments before a tense situation, like making a speech, an examination or a visit to the dentist, can keep stress levels low.
People in the study who affirmed their values before delivering a speech had significantly lower levels of one of the stress hormones – cortisol – than did the control group, and psychological measures also indicated that they were less stressed.
“People can’t live with change if there’s not a changeless core inside them. The key to the ability to change is a changeless sense of who you are, what you are about and what you value.” –Steven R. Covey (American Author and Businessman, 1932-)
Reaffirming your core values is one of the keys to the development of resilience, and that is what was happening in this study. For anyone who is interested in dealing with fear of public speaking or in developing personal resilience, we shall be putting new articles on my website in the next few days.
“Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.” –Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Spiritual Teacher and, in 1920, Founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship, 1893-1952)
Technorati tags: stress, stress management, core values
