Mr. SponsorPants

5 Quotes by Thomas Merton

 

 

 

Pride makes us artifical and humility makes us real.

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To consider persons and events and situation only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell.

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The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.

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The very contradictions in my life are in some ways signs of God's mercy to me.

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Perhaps I am stronger than I think.

 

5 Quotes on Meditation

 

 

Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.

-- Thich Nhat Hanh, "Stepping into Freedom: Rules of Monastic Practice for Novices"

 

Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness.

-- George MacDonald

 

To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.

-- Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn't depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn't depend on how long you've held on to the old view.

When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn't matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.

The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn't see before.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.

-- Sharon Salzberg, "Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation"

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 day

-- Deepack Chopra

5 Quotes on Optimism

 

 

 

 

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.  Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

-- Helen Keller

 

Optimism is the foundation of courage.

-- Nicholas M. Butler

 

Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.

-- Dalai Lama XIV

 

Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.

-- Noam Chomsky

 

If you're not able to be optimistic at least some of the time, then I'm afraid ultimately you're kind of boring.  Nothing is as dull as the self-involved lazy defeatism of the addict.

-- Mr. SponsorPants

 

 

5 Quotes on Hope

 

 

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

~Author Unknown

 

Hope is that thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops... at all. 

~Emily Dickinson

 

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. 

~Anne Lamott

 

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you're slamming the door in the face of God.

   ~Charles L. Allen

 

Hope is putting faith to work when doubting would be easier.

~Author Unknown

5 Quotes on Trust

 

 

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

-- Ernest Hemingway

 

Those who trust us educate us.

-- George Eliot

 

Either we are adrift in chaos or we are individuals, created, loved, upheld and placed purposefully, exactly where we are.  Can you believe that?  Can you trust God for that?

-- Elisabeth Elliot

 

I'd rather trust and regret than doubt and regret.

-- Rei Kawahara

 

Yes, sometimes it's hard to trust.  But sometimes it's harder to be trusted.

-- Mr. SponsorPants

 

 

5 Quotes on Alcoholism

 

 

 

To dispute with a drunkard is to debate with an empty house.

-- Publilius Syrus

 

When you go out with a drunk, you'll notice how a drunk fills your glass so he can empty his own.  As long as you're drinking, drinking is okay.  Two's company.  Drinking is fun.  If there's a bottle, even if your glass isn't empty, he'll pour a little in your glass before he fills his own.

-- Chuck Palanhiuk, "Invisible Monsters"

 

I always drank, from when it was legal for me to drink.  And there was never a time for me when the goal wasn't to get as hammered as I could possibly afford to.  I never understood social drinking, that's always seemed to me like kissing your sister.

-- Stephen King

 

Wine hath drowned more men than the sea.

-- Thomas Fuller

 

We are not cured of alcoholism.  What we have is a daily reprieve contingent upon the maintenance of our spiritual condition.  Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all our daily activities.

-- William Griffith Wilson

 

5 Quotes on Honesty

 

A sarcastic person has a superiority complex that can be cured only by the honesty of humility.

-- Lawrence G. Lovasik

 

Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty.  When I am honest I never feel stupid.  And when I am honest I am automatically humble.

-- Hugh Prather

 

You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.

-- Alan Moore, 'V for Vendetta'

 

You can't lie to your soul.

-- Irvine Welsh, 'Porno'

 

Honesty without compassion is brutality.

-- I don't know who said it, but I always felt it was important and true.

 

 

5 Quotes on Prayer

 

 

 

“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.”

-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

-- Soren Kierkegaard

 

“You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.”

-- Kahlil Gibran, 'The Prophet'

 

“Help" is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn't matter how you pray--with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors. Years ago I wrote an essay that began, "Some people think that God is in the details, but I have come to believe that God is in the bathroom.”

-- Anne Lamott, 'Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith'

 

“Be not forgetful of prayer. Every time you pray, if your prayer is sincere, there will be new feeling and new meaning in it, which will give you fresh courage, and you will understand that prayer is an education.”

-- Fyodor Dostoevsky, 'The Brothers Karamazov'

 

5 Quotes on Service

 

 

 

I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.

-- Albert Schweitzer

 

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

If you can't do great things, do little things with great love.  If you can't do them with great love do them with a little love.  If you can't do them with a little love, do them anyway.  Love grows when people serve.

-- Mother Teresa

 

Though my work may be menial, though my contribution may be small, I can perform it with dignity and offer it with unselfishness.  My talents may not be great, but I can use them to bless the lives of others... the goodness of the world in which we live is the accumulated goodness of many small and seemingly inconsequential acts.

-- Gordon B. Hinckley

 

Service keeps you sober.

-- A.A.

 

5 (more) Quotes on Gratitude (it seemed appropriate)

 

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

--- William Arthur Ward

 

They do not love, that do not show their love.

--- William Shakespeare

 

The only people with whom you should try to get even are those who have helped you.

--- John E. Southard

 

Stop thinking of gratitude as a by-product of your circumstances and start thinking of it as a world view.

--- Bryan Robles

 

I try hard to hold fast to the truth that a full and thankful heart cannot entertain great conceits.  When brimming with gratitude, one's heartbeat must surely result in outgoing love, the finest emotion we can ever know.

--- Bill Wilson