Quotes About Wisdom

Sometimes we complicate things too much. There is great wisdom in keeping things simple. When the Dalai Lama was asked to explain his religion and philosophy of life, he answered very simply that his religion is kindness. Can you envision a world in which kindness was everyone's primary motivation? We would be living in heaven on earth.

The further we go on the spiritual path, the more we realize what beginners we really are.

One of the most insidious forms of spiritual materialism is attachment to intellectual attainment.

Likewise may I begin to see new growth in myself as I approach old fears with greater courage and the faith that all situations, seen rightly, are an opportunity for growth in love and wisdom.

The modern proverb "Use it or lose it" is very wise. If we don't exercise our muscles, they waste away. If we don't exercise our minds, they begin to close.

The serenity prayer of Reinhold Niebuhr is a classic. Say it with all your heart and let its wisdom penetrate your mind: God give me the courage to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I can't and the wisdom to know the difference.

The only thing that we can know is that we know nothing, and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.

The twin flames of wisdom and trust continue to burn away any obscurations to our awareness of love's presence until we come to abide in the understanding that we are always cared for, always loved, always cheered on, regardless of the difficulties we may be experiencing.

To rest and recreate will have far-reaching effects on your life. Spend a few minutes in meditation and contemplate the wisdom of the Sabbath and whether it feels right to add a Sabbath to your week.

In this way we will restore our place in the Great Web of Life that we may treat the earth and all her children with the greatest respect and love. February is the perfect time for the flowering of compassion. Listen to the voices of the Ancient Ones as they penetrate the winter stillness: The seeds are beginning to stir in the dark womb of the Earth Mother. Days grow longer and Brother Bear stretches in his den.

Our conscious minds are clever, but unfortunately, they just don't have the full awareness we need to make appropriate choices day by day.

Humility is reality to the full.

Darkness deserves gratitude. It is the alleluia point at which we learn to understand that all growth does not take place in the sunlight.

Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.

Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you someone who has never achieved much.

For ten years I was alone, I filled the days with work, with the children, and with a few good friends. And I made a friend of myself. To have a friend you have to be one. You have to learn to like yourself—which usually means getting over a few had habits. I'm sure that I grew a little wiser, and I learned something about faith.

Life is not about age, about the length of years we manage to eke out of it. It is about aging, about living into the values offered in every stage of life. As E. M. Forster wrote, "We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Regret claims to be insight. But how can it be spiritual insight to deny the good of what has been for the sake of what was not? No, regret is not insight. It is, in fact, the sand trap of the soul. It fails to understand that there are many ways to fullness of life, all of them different, all of them unique.

old ways of doing things. It is the ability to make ancient truth the living memory of today. Only the elderly have lived through both the good and the bad decisions of the past. It is they, then, who have the wisdom to alert us to alternatives, to evaluate present choices from the perspective of history. The role of

The service that the whole world needs from the elders is not the service of hours spent and time put in and documents finished and machines fixed. There are untold numbers of people who can do all of those things. No, the service of the elders is not a service of labor, it is a service of enlightenment, of wisdom, of discernment of spirits. Only the carriers of generations past can give us those things, because wisdom is what lasts after an experience ends.

We need to think again about the beauties of age, its freedom and its splendor. It is the "fresh life within" that age reveals to us, if we only give it a chance.

One of the functions of leadership is to lead, and weak managers may simply check and check and check with others because they are not capable of leading when it is required of them to lead. Benedict says that in matters of importance the abbot or prioress is to ask everyone in the community, 'starting with the youngest,' and then the abbot or prioress is to 'do what seems best.

Knowledge of God and knowlegde of self give birth to humility.

The young hear memory in the voice of their elders and, delighted by these voices from the past or bored by them, too often miss the content behind the content. Memory is not about what went on in the past. It is about what is going on inside of us right this moment. It is never idle. It never lets us alone.