Quotes About Acceptance

Ann M. Martin

You are exaggerating, Sunny. You don't know a thing about him. He is still a stranger. You may never see him again. Get over it.

Jessi is the only black student in the sixth grade)

It's over. I can't believe it. Back to boring old life.

The paradox is that we can become wiser and more compassionate and live more fulfilling lives by refusing to be who we have tended to be in the past. But we also must relax. Accept things as they are in the present, as we thrive to change ourselves.

In my view, the realistic goal to be attained through spiritual practice is not some permanent state of enlightenment that admits of no further efforts but a capacity to be free in this moment, in the midst of whatever is happening. If you can do that, you have already solved most of the problems you will encounter in life.

And they do not want anything too critical said about people who really believe in the God of their fathers, because tolerance, perhaps above all else, is sacred.

The paradox is that we can become wiser and more compassionate and live more fulfilling lives by refusing to be who we have tended to be in the past. But we must also relax, accepting things as they are in the present, as we strive to change ourselves.

Having spent years observing my mind in meditation, I find such sudden transitions from happiness to suffering both fascinating and rather funny—and merely witnessing them goes a long way toward restoring my equanimity. My mind begins to seem like a video game: I can either play it intelligently, learning more in each round, or I can be killed in the same spot by the same monster, again and again.

Certainty about the next life is simply incompatible with tolerance in this one.

Is there a happiness that does not depend upon having one's favorite foods available, or friends and loved ones within arm's reach, or good books to read, or something to look forward to on the weekend? Is it possible to be happy before anything happens, before one's desires are gratified, in spite of life's difficulties, in the very midst of physical pain, old age, disease, and death?

The realistic goal to be attained through spiritual practice is not some permanent state of enlightenment that admits of no further efforts, but a capacity to be free in this moment, in the midst of whatever is happening. If you can do that, you have already solved most of the problems you will encounter in life.

stewing about something in the past you can't do anything about anyway.

He's a loner who doesn't want to be alone, grappling with the incubus, a rippling of nocturnal waters, the nausea of unending nights. There are troubling moments of prescience, as he intuits future fragmentation, stoically kicking his way through the shards. He's just going to keep on living till he dies. Whether he paints himself in a good or bad light is not the point. The point is to lay stuff out, smooth the curling edges.

Stoicism doesn't mean repressing emotion and shunning pleasure, I learned, but—in essence—focusing on what is in our power and letting go of everything we can't control.

Sometimes you just have to take the time to appreciate a good thing, even if it doesn't necessarily bring you exactly what you want -Obama

Sometimes you just have to take the time to appreciate a good thing, even if it doesn't necessarily bring you exactly what you want

I know I am sick, I just thought I was better.

It would seem that losing the sadness would be a good thing, but it has been replaced by nothing -a quiet acceptance of this boring, everyday life. I think it's even worse than being miserable. At least being miserable is active.

Bein with them is like walking in after a play has already started. You try to slip in quietly and find your seat, but people turn around, give you dirty looks, and whisper to their neighbors about how rude you are.

The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.

Sensible people get the greater part of their own dying done during their own lifetime

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.