Quotes of Insight Helpful Words to Serve as Reminders



Om Asatoma Sadgamaya; Tamasoma Jyotirgamaya; Mrityorma Amritam Gamaya;
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti
Lead me from untruth to Truth; Lead me from Darkness to Light; Lead me from Mortality to everlasting Life; Om Peace Peace Peace


Quotes that Carry the Essence of the Yamas:

Ahimsa:  

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” -- Leo Buscaglia

“The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.” -- Pema Chödrön

“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power.  Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget… another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing." -- Arundhati Roy

“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.’ -- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty...That is all.” -- Oscar Wilde

"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place." -- Iain Thomas - I Wrote This For You

Satya: 

“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.” -- Albert Camus

“That’s what careless words do, they make people love you a little less.” -- Arundhati Roy

“Listen earnestly to anything [your children] want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”--Catherine M. Wallace

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Asteya: 

“Having the patience to hold one’s ground requires greater courage than fighting back…” — Thomas Aquinas

“It is not by abstaining from action that One gains freedom.” — Krishna to Arjuna; Bhagavad Gita

Brahmacharya:

“So, do it. Decide. Is this the life you want to live? Is this the person you want to love? Is this the best you can be? Can you be stronger? Kinder? More Compassionate? Decide. Breathe in.  Breathe out and decide.” — Meredith Grey

“Follow that aspect of God’s Will which leads you towards freedom from ego, and union with Him.  What God really wants is that you know Him.” — Paramahansa Yogananda

 “You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits. Act for the action’s sake. And do not be attached to inaction.” ― Bhagavad Gita 

Aparigraha: 

“You are not the Do-er.” — Krsna

“Any kind of expectation creates a problem.  We should accept, but not expect.  Whatever comes, accept it.  Whatever goes, accept it.  The immediate benefit is that your mind is always peaceful.” — Swami Satchidananda

“You have to endure the absence until something emerges in it.” — Father Thomas Keating

“When the thorns of contention arise in daily life, daily forgive, and be willing to accept forgiveness.” — Kathleen Norris

“Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” -- Eckhart Tolle

“For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice.” -- T.S.Eliot



Quotes that Carry the Essence of the Niyamas:

Saucha: 

“When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use.  When diet is correct, medicine is of no need.” — Ayurvedic Proverb

"Never regret anything you have done with a sincere affection; nothing is lost that is born of the heart." -- Basil Rathbone

“Whenever you should doubt your self-worth, remember the lotus flower. Even though it plunges to life from beneath the mud, it does not allow the dirt that surrounds it to affect its growth or beauty.” -- Suzy Kassem

Santosha: 

“The world is incomprehensibly beautiful, an endless prospect of magic and wonder.” — Ansel Adams

“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” -- Friedrich Nietzsche

“Normality is a paved road:  It’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.” — Vincent van Gogh

“I willed myself to stay awake, but the rain was so soft and the room was so warm and his voice was so deep and his knee was so snug that I slept.” -- Harper Lee

“We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn. It seems only the old are able to sit next to one another and not say anything and still feel content. The young, brash and impatient, must always break the silence. It is a waste, for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking...” -- Nicholas Sparks - The Notebook

Tapas: 

“I was laying in bed one night and I thought ‘I’ll just quit...to hell with it.’ And another little voice inside me said ‘Don’t quit...save that tiny little ember of spark.’ And never give them that spark because as long as you have that spark, you can start the greatest fire again.” -- Charles Bukowski

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” — Lewis Carroll, Alice In Wonderland

" Never mind. The self is the least of it. Let our scars fall in love." -- Galway Kinnell

“You endure what is supposedly unbearable, and before you know it, you would have done the impossible by bearing the unbearable.” -- Donovan Inniss

“Don’t be afraid. There are exquisite things in store for you. This is merely the beginning.” -- Oscar Wilde

“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” -- Carl Jung

Svadhyaya: 

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are still alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.” -- George Eliot

“The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” -- Alan Bennett

“Svadhyayan ma pramadah” (Neglect not your self-study, your self-reflection) — Taittiriya Upanishad

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.” -- Christopher Hitchens

"It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else.” -- John Waters

Ishwara Pranidhana:  

“We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time. But that is not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And that is what the world needs most.” -- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Be still and the earth will speak to you..." -- Navajo wisdom

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour."
William Blake 


*top image credit of Gita: By Mahavir Prasad Mishra - https://archive.org/details/MahabharataTejKumarBookDepotMahavirPrasadMishra, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66704373

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