Zen

1. A human being is a part of the whole, called by us Universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest-a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.

2. Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

3. The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

4. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.

5. The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.  

6. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”- Martin Luther King Jr. 

7. Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. Buddha

8. Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is. Bhagwat Gita

9. When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That’s my religion. Abraham Lincoln

10. The only test of good things is that they make us strong. Vivekananda

11. Is it not tremendously blasphemous to believe against reason? What right have we not to use the greatest gift that God has given to us? I am sure God will pardon a man who will use his reason and cannot believe, rather than a man who believes blindly instead of using the facilities He has given him. Vivekananda

12. We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far. Vivekananda

13. The first sign of your becoming religious is that you are becoming cheerful. Vivekananda

14. This I have seen in life, he who is overcautious about himself falls into dangers at every step; he who is afraid of losing honor and respect, gets only disgrace; he who is always afraid of loss always losses. Vivekananda

15. In judging others we always judge them by our own ideals. That is not as it should be. Everyone must be judged according to his own ideal, and not by that of anyone else. Vivekananda

16. The first act of true teaching must be that the teaching should not contradict reason. Vivekananda

17. In wealth is the fear of poverty, in knowledge the fear of ignorance, in beauty the fear of age, in fame the fear of backbiters, in success the fear of jealousy, even in body is the fear of death. Everything in this earth is fraught with fear. He alone is fearless who has given up everything. Vivekananda

18. An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Gandhi

19. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Gandhi

20. As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep it. Gandhi

21. You must be the change you want to see in the world. Gandhi

22. That knowledge which purifies the mind and heart alone is true knowledge, all else is only a negation of knowledge. Ramakrishna

23. If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one. Russian Proverb

24. Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet. Roger Mille

25. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau

26. That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest. Henry David Thoreau

27. This world is but a canvas to our imaginations. Henry David Thoreau

28. The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. Edward R. Murrow

29. If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Mother Teresa

Such goodwill beliefs work everywhere, on the flights to london as well as orlando flights. Whether you are getting expensive flight deals or some really cheap flights, stick to principles always.

Gerald:

Vivekananda seems to have had so much wisdom. Few can connect belief in God and rationalism. Perhaps Vivekananda was one of those few.

After contemplating some of his quotations on this site, I think he must have also been a strong individual.

March 14th, 2008 | 3:15 pm