JANUARY 2011
Quotes on building THE VESSEL
Forget about one’s spiritual progress and live to benefit humanity. Nurture the desire to fit oneself to be the better able to help and teach others.
To live to benefit mankind is the first step. To practise the six glorious virtues is the second. - The Voice of the Silence
Virtue and wisdom are sublime things; but if they create pride and a consciousness of separateness from the rest of humanity in the mind of a man, then they are only the snakes of self re-appearing in a finer form. The virtues of man are steps indeed, necessary -- not by any means to be dispensed with. Yet, though they create a fair atmosphere and a happy future, they are useless if they stand alone. The whole nature of man must be used wisely by the one who desires to enter the way. - Light on the Path
Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace. - Albert Schweitzer
Brotherhood is the starting point in discipline. The practice of Brotherhood does not imply non recognition of outer differences of mind, character and body. The differences, however, disappear in the process of evolution; their remains and residuum make a grand unity. - Theosophical Movement Volume 6
Each must find out which virtues carried to excess are most dangerous for him - Theosophical Movement Volume 30
Lying can never save us from another lie. - Vaclav Havel
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us. - Helen Keller
Live in the present. Do the things that need to be done. Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold. - Peace Pilgrim
It is better to believe than to disbelieve, in so doing you bring everything to the realm of possibility. - Albert Einstein
Never bear more than one kind of trouble at a time. Some people bear all three — all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. - Edward Everett Hale
A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
... break all the glasses and fall toward the glassblower ... - Rumi
I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have. - Abraham Lincoln
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway. - Mother Teresa
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman
What we see depends mainly on what we look for. - Sir John Lubbock
In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy. - Albert Clarke
When asked if my cup is half-full or half-empty my only response is that I am thankful I have a cup. - Sam Lefkowitz
Everything is given to me and I pass it on. You must give if you want to receive. - Peace Pilgrim
If you don't like something change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. - Maya Angelou
It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer. - Albert Einstein
Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. - T.A. Edison
Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else. - Brian Tracy
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. - Harriet Beecher Stowe
It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired, you quit when the gorilla is tired. - Robert Strauss
Be gentle with yourself, learn to love yourself, to forgive yourself, for only as we have the right attitude toward ourselves can we have the right attitude toward others. - Wilfred Peterson
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 It is more important to understand the ground of your own behavior than to understand the motives of another. - Dag Hammarskjold
You will discover that you have two hands. One is for helping yourself and the other is for helping others. - Audrey Hepburn
There are two ways of spreading light — to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. - Edith Wharton
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. - Albert Pike
Genius is eternal patience. - Michelangelo
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit. - Nelson Henderson
The purpose of the journey is compassion. When you have come past all the pairs of opposites you have reached compassion. - Joseph Campbell
Confidence, like art, never comes from having all the answers; it comes from being open to all the questions. -Earl Gray Stevens
The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to them their own. - Benjamin Disraeli
It is the food which you furnish to your mind that determines the whole character of your life. - Emmet Fox
... character is what God and angels know of us. - Thomas Paine