Wisdom Quotes
These quotes represent some great words of wisdom. They hold truths and guidance for those who practice mindfulness, meditate, or do any other contemplative practice. I’ve gleaned these from some various places on the web, books, articles, and conventional wisdom.
Use these in your mindfulness and meditation. They are powerful and wise sayings…
Consciousness Quotes
Consciousness is the all. It’s everywhere and in everything. These wisdom quotes speak of our limited mental states in relation to a grand consciousness that permeates everything.
"The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, the solution comes to you and you don’t know how or why.”
-Â Albert Einstein
"The seat of faith…is not consciousness but spontaneous religious experience, which brings the individual’s faith into immediate relation with God.”
-Â C.G. Jung
“The degree to which your Consciousness expands, is the degree to which you understand yourself and the universe.â€
-Â Gina Charles
"He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings, and all being in his own self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”
– Buddha
"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of consciousness.”
– Eckhart Tolle
"If your goal is to avoid pain and escape suffering, I would not advise you to seek higher levels of consciousness or spiritual evolution.”
-Â M. Scott Peck
"Enlightenment is not imagining figures of light, but making the darkness conscious.”
-Â Carl Jung
Fear Quotes
Fear is the mind killer. It’s one of our strongest and most detrimental emotions. Fear is often misguided and more destructive to your life than you realize. Heed these awesome wisdom quotes.
“FEAR is an acronym in the English language for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real.’â€
-Â Neale Donald Walsch
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.â€
-Â Marie Curie
“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.â€
-Â Aristotle
“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.â€
-Â Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival.â€
-Â Steve Maraboli
“Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment.â€
-Â Mahatma Gandhi
“If you try to get rid of fear and anger without knowing their meaning, they will grow stronger and return.â€
-Â Deepak Chopra
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.â€
-Â Plato
“That’s the thing about fear. Death will kill you once, but fear kills you over and over and over, if you let it.â€
-Â Marcus Allen
"Overcoming fear and worry can be accomplished by living a day at a time or even a moment at a time. Your worries will be cut down to nothing.”
-Â Robert Anthony
“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.â€
-Â Jack Canfield
"If you knew who walks beside you on this path that you have chosen, fear would be impossible.”
-Â A Course in Miracles
“Ignorance is the parent of fear.â€
– Herman Melville
“While we are focusing on fear, worry, or hate, it is not possible for us to be experiencing happiness, enthusiasm or love.”
– Bo Bennett
“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.”
– Les Brown
“Come to the edge. We can’t. We’re afraid. Come to the edge. We can’t. We’ll fall! Come to the edge. And they came. And he pushed them. And they flew.”
-Â Guillaume Apollinaire
“Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person.”
– David M. Burns
"The whole secret of existence is to have no fear.”
– Buddha
"The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
– Joseph Campbell
"Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
– Dale Carnegie
"Whoever can see through all fear will always be safe.”
– Tao Te Ching
"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear.”
– Amelia Earhart
"Always do what you are afraid to do.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Don’t waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the work before you well assured that the right performance of this hour’s duties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that will follow it.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.”
– Dale Carnegie
"You can’t be afraid of stepping on toes if you want to go dancing.”
– Lewis Freedman
"I’ve loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
– Galileo
To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.
– John W. Gardner
"The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”
-Â Debbi Fields
"Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I’d like to see you in better living conditions.”
– Hafiz
"Don’t be afraid to expand yourself, to step out of your comfort zone. That’s where the joy and the adventure lie.”
– Herbie Hancock
"We all need to look into the dark side of our nature- that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.”
– Sue Grafton
"We invent what we love and what we fear.”
– John Irving
"If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
– Elbert Hubbard
"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”
– Nelson Mandela
"Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
– Jim Morrison
"Fear is what prevents the flowering of the mind.”
– Krishnamurt
"Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it?”
– Caroline Myss
"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
– Isaac Newton
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”
– Joseph Pearce
"Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making of action in spite of fear.”
– M. Scott Peck
"To hate and to fear is to be psychologically ill. It is, in fact, the consuming illness of our time.”
– H. A. Overstreet
"Death is not the biggest fear we have; our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive – the risk to be alive and express what we really are.”
– Miguel Ãngel Ruiz
"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
– Bertrand Russell
"If you listen to your fears, you will die never knowing what a great person you might have been.”
– Robert H. Schuller
"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.”
– William Shakespeare
"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.”
– Michael Pritchard
"Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.”
– W. Clement Stone
"FEAR is an acronym in the English language for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’.”
– Neale Donald Walsch
"Fear makes us feel small and uncertain, uncomfortable and separate. Fearlessness expands and creates possibilities.”
– Helena Tiainen
"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”
– Mark Twain
"We are often more frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.”
– Seneca
"You will fear the darkness only to the extent that you yourself are not providing light.”
– Marianne Williamson
Inner Knowledge Quotes
We spend so much of our lives looking outward for truth and answers. These wisdom quotes address the inner journey. It’s inside ourselves that all of our answers lie. Read these and take a look inside yourself.
"I believe in intuition and inspiration…at times I feel certain I am right while not knowing the reason.”
– Albert Einstein
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.”
– Buddha
"The self must know stillness before it can discover its true song.”
– Ralph Brum
"When you have the constant focus of going within and then acting, your life will unfold in magical ways.”
– Elizabeth Jo
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
– Aristotle
"The easiest thing in the world to be is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.”
– Leo Buscaglia
"He who experiences the unity of life sees his own self in all beings, and all beings in his own self, and looks on everything with an impartial eye.”
– Buddha
"Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”
– Carl Jung
Anything you want to ask a teacher, ask yourself, and wait for the answer in silence.
– Byron Katie
"Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you?”
– Rumi
"We dance around in a ring and suppose, but the Secret sits in the middle and knows.”
– Robert Frost
"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
– Lao Tzu
"The only journey is the journey within.”
– Rainer Maria Rilk
"Your inner knowing is your only true compass.”
– Joy Page
"You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you have to make choices, and hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.”
– Fred Rogers
Meditation Quotes
Meditation is the vehicle that takes us on our inward journey. It’s the best practice we have to help us uncover who we really are. Heed these powerful wisdom quotes and take the keys to your own inward traveling vehicle.
“The act of meditation is being spacious.â€
– Sogyal Rinpoche
“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.â€
– Voltaire
"Delight in mediation and solitude. Compose yourself, be happy. You are a seeker.”
– Buddha
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every dayâ€
– Deepack Chopra
“Meditation is the ultimate mobile device; you can use it anywhere, anytime, unobtrusively.â€
– Sharon Salzberg
“When even one virtue becomes our nature, the mind becomes clean and tranquil. Then there is no need to practice meditation; we will automatically be meditating always.â€
– Swami Satchidananda
“The difference between magic and meditation methods is the difference between drugs and diet—medicines will do swiftly what diet can only effect slowly, and in critical cases there is no time to wait for the slow processes of dietetics, so it must be either medicines or nothing. Nevertheless, drugs are no substitute for right diet and wholesome regime, and although magic enables a speedy and potent result to be attained, is is only by means of right understanding and right ethics that the position which has been won can be held.â€
– Dion Fortune
“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.â€
– Jiddu Krishnamurti
“The art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with reality, and the reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality because they confuse the world as it with the world as they think about it and talk about it and describe it. For on the one hand there is the real world and on the other there is a whole system of symbols about that world which we have in our minds. These are very very useful symbols, all civilization depends on them, but like all good things they have their disadvantages, and the principle disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality, just as we confuse money with actual wealth.â€
– Alan Wilson Watts
“Suffering is due to our disconnection with the inner soul. Meditation is establishing that connection.â€
– Amit Ray
"Meditation brings wisdom – lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
– Buddha
“Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.â€
-Â Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati
"If we want to save the world, we must have a plan. But no plan will work unless we meditate.”
– Dalai Lama
"In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart.”
– Lao Tzu
"Meditation is to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness Quotes
Like meditation, mindfulness is the most powerful way to see yourself as you really are. It’s the fastest and most effective way to realize who you really are, under piles of garbage that life has laid on top of you. Read these wisdom quotes carefully. Then learn to practice mindfulness.
“Mindfulness, as defined by the Buddha, means awareness of incessant change, of arising and vanishing, inside of your own body, which is the ultimate reality of your own life.”
– Paul Fleischman
“Mindfulness meditation should be more than just watching what you are doing. What you really need to watch is your motivation.”
– Lama Zopa Rinpoche
“Mindfulness means moment-to-moment, non-judgmental awareness. It is cultivated by refining our capacity to pay attention, intentionally, in the present moment, and then sustaining that attention over time as best we can. In the process, we become more in touch with our life as it is unfolding.”
– Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.â€
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“When we are mindful of everything we are experiencing in the present moment, we separate our awareness from our thoughts.”
– Master Nomi
“If we practice mindfulness, we always have a place to be when we are afraid.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom. You don’t have to be swept away by your feeling. You can respond with wisdom and kindness rather than habit and reactivity.”
– Bhante Henepola Gunaratana
“With mindfulness – the practice of peace – we can begin by working to transform the wars in ourselves. Conscious breathing helps us do this.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Be mindful 24 hours a day, not just during the one hour you may allot for formal meditation or reading scripture and reciting prayers. Each act must be carried out in mindfulness.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“The practice of mindfulness begins in the small, remote cave of your unconscious mind and blossoms with the sunlight of your conscious life, reaching far beyond the people and places you can see.”
– Earon Davis
“It is better to travel well than to arrive.”
– Buddha
“The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”
– Julia Cameron
“Mindfulness is the cure for everything; the essence of being alive.”
– Ellen Langer
“Luck is largely a matter of paying attention.”
– Susan M. Dodd
“How much of your life do you spend looking forward to being somewhere else?”
– Matthew Flickstein
“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths”
– Etty Hillesum
“Nature herself does not distinguish between what seed it receives. It grows whatever seed is planted; this is the way life works. Be mindful of the seeds you plant today, as they will become the crop you harvest.”
– Mary Morrissey
“To be mindfully engaged is the most natural, creative state we can be in.”
– Ellen Langler
“When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep; yes, and when I walk alone in a beautiful orchard, if my thoughts drift to far-off matters for some part of the time for some other part I lead them back again to the walk, the orchard, to the sweetness of this solitude, to myself.”
– Montaigne
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
– Mary Oliver
“We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken us a lifetime to learn…for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together…this is the great paradox.”
-Â Nicholas Sparks
“Sit. Be still. And listen…for you are drunk and we are at the edge of the roof.”
-Â Rumi
“Instructions for life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
-Â Mary Oliver
Patience Quotes
Patience is not only a virtue, it’s a powerful practice in itself. Not only does it teach you to be calm in the face of excitement and greed, being patient just makes things easier. While learning it is certainly not easy, the benefits are astounding. Read the following wisdom quotes carefully and see if you can learn to become more patient in your own life.
"The greatest prayer is patience.”
-Â Buddha
“He that can have patience can have what he will.â€
-Â Benjamin Franklin
“Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is “timing” it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.â€
-Â Fulton J. Sheen
“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.â€
-Â Hal Borland
“Why is patience so important? “Because it makes us pay attention.â€
-Â Paulo Coelho
"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.”
-Â John Quincy Adams
“We need to learn and embrace patience. Patience is a holy key that will unlock the door to a more fulfilling life. Behind the blessed door of patience are found better parents, powerful teachers, great businessmen, wise masters, and a more compassionate world.â€
-Â Steve Maraboli
“Inner peace is impossible without patience. Wisdom requires patience. Spiritual growth implies the mastery of patience. Patience allows the unfolding of destiny to proceed at its won unhurried pace.â€
-Â Brian L. Weiss
“Patience is not passive waiting. Patience is active acceptance of the process required to attain your goals and dreams.â€
-Â Ray Davis
“Tolerance is nothing more than patience with boundaries.â€
-Â Shannon L. Alder
"Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.”
-Â Benjamin Disraeli
"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience.”
-Â Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let if first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
-Â Epictetus
"Patience is also a form of action.”
-Â Auguste Rodin
"Who can wait quietly until the mud settles? Who can remain still until the moment of action?”
-Â Lao Tzu
"Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.”
-Â Mother Teresa
"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
-Â Leo Tolstoy
"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”
-Â Harriet Tubman
Zen Quotes
Zen is zen, and that is the truth. Wisdom quotes and sayings are quotes and words are zen. Get it?
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.”
-Â Tao Te Ching
“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”
-Â Thomas Edison
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.”
-Â Robert Louis Stevenson
“Time isn’t a commodity, something you pass around like cake. Time is the substance of life. When anyone asks you to give your time, they’re really asking for a chunk of your life.”
-Â Antoinette Bosco
“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”
-Â Thomas Jefferson
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
-Â Chinese Proverb
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
-Â Epictetus
Always now – just now – come into being. Always now – just now – give yourself to death. Practicing this is Zen practice.
-Â Soko Morinaga
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
-Â Vincent Van Gogh
“If you neglect your art for one day it will neglect you for two.”
– Chinese Proverb
“Following the Noble Path is like entering a dark room with a light in the hand; the darkness will all be cleared away, and the room will be filled with light.”
-Â Buddha
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
-Â Mahatma Gandhi
“The only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”
-Â Robert M. Pirsig
"Zen is the vehicle of reality.”
-Â Jim Harrison
“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.â€
-Â Thich Nhat Hanh
“If you have time to be mindful, you have time to meditate.â€
-Â Ajahn Chah
"Great knowledge is universal. Small knowledge is limited. Great words are inspiring; small words are chatter.”
-Â Chuang Tzu
"The more one is absorbed in so-called philosophy, the greater one’s delusion and blindness.”
-Â Emanuel Swedenborg
"Sayings remain meaningless until they are embodied in habits.”
-Â Kahlil Gibran
"The sage does not collect precious things. He does not hold on to ideas. He brings men back to what they have lost.”
-Â Lao Tzu
"Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.”
-Â Zen Proverb
"If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four: If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen, thirty-two, and so on. Eventually, one discovers that it is not boring but very interesting.”
-Â Zen Proverb