Quotes on Ifs

Constantly apply cheerfulness, if for no other reason than because you are on this spiritual path. Have a sense of gratitude to everything, even difficult emotions, because of their potential to wake you up.

It is our very search, our lust for the miraculous and magical, that hides from us the truth that simply to be, simply to know I am, is already the miracle that we seek. Everything, as it is, is perfect, but you must stop seeing it as if in a mirror, as if in a dream.

If you recall the happiest moments in your life, they are all from when you were doing something for somebody else.

If you are creative, you get busier as you get older.

Poetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.

You may fear that the Lord has passed you by, but it is not so: he who counts the stars, and calls them by their names, is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made, or the only saint he ever loved. Approach him and be at peace.

Mentally, physically and emotionally we are the same. _x000D_ _x000D_ We each have the potential to good and bad and to be overcome by disturbing emotions such as anger, fear, hatred, suspicion and greed. These emotions can be the cause of many problems. _x000D_ _x000D_ On the other hand if you cultivate loving kindness, compassion and concern for others, there will be no room for anger, hatred and jealousy.

If you don't have time for the small things, you won't have time for the big things

To not to have entirely wasted one’s life seems to be a worthy accomplishment, if only for myself.

How much better the world would be if we all gave gifts of understanding, and compassion, of service, and friendship, of kindness and gentleness.

How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if you take the road to another man's city?

Fascination is one step beyond interest. Interested people want to know if it works. Fascinated people want to learn how it works.

One thing is certain: That is that the power of belief, the power of thought, will move reality in the direction of what we believe and conceive of it. If you really believe you can do something, you can. That is a fact.

An ocean of bliss may rain down from the heavens, but if you hold up only a thimble, that is all you receive

We do not learn so much by our successes as we learn by failures - our own and others! Especially if we see the failures properly corrected.

If I could live as a tree, as a river, as the moon, as the sun, as a star, as the earth, as a rock, I would. ...Writing permits me to experience life as any number of strange creations.

If you want to study Zen, you should forget all your previous ideas and just practice zazen and see what kind of experience you have in your practice. That is naturalness.

If there be a man before me who says that the wrath of God is too heavy a punishment for his little sin, I ask him, if the sin be little, why does he not give it up?

If God is enough for you, then you'll always have enough, because you'll always have God.

From the cradle to the grave is a school, so if what we call problems are lessons, we see life differently.

The grandest discourse ever delivered is an ostentatious failure if the doctrine of the grace of God be absent from it.