Selected growth quotes

1. I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.

2. Autumn to winter, winter into spring, Spring into summer, summer into fall, - So rolls the changing year, and so we change; Motion so swift, we know not that we move.

3. Nothing fails like success.

4. It is the enemy who can truly teach us to practice the virtues of compassion and tolerance.

5. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.

6. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.

7. What has changed is that my life then was less difficult and my future seemingly less gloomy, but as far as my inner self, my way of looking at things and of thinking is concerned, that has not changed. But if there has indeed been a change, then it is that I think, believe and love more seriously now what I thought, believed and loved even then.

8. Let me stop there, but my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.

9. I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things go differently from the expected, it is necessary to take heart again and new courage. For the great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.

10. If boyhood and youth are but vanity, must it not be our ambition to become men?

11. It is a pity that, as one gradually gains experience, one loses one's youth.

12. When we are working at a difficult task and strive after a good thing, we are fighting a righteous battle, the direct reward of which is that we are kept from much evil. As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.

13. I must continue to follow the path I take now. If I do nothing, if I study nothing, if I cease searching, then, woe is me, I am lost. That is how I look at it - keep going, keep going come what may. But what is your final goal, you may ask. That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely, much as the rough draught turns into a sketch, and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it, through the elaboration of the original vague idea and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.

14. A man who has made up his mind on a given subject twenty-five years ago and continues to hold his political opinions after he has been proved to be wrong is a man of principle; while he who from time to time adapts his opinions to the changing circumstances of life is an opportunist.

15. The thirsty earth soaks up the rain, And drinks, and gapes for drink again; The plants suck in the earth, and are With constant drinking fresh and fair.

16. He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.

17. I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.

18. I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

19. You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.

20. Education is learning to grow, learning what to grow toward, learning what is good and bad, learning what is desirable and undesirable, learning what to choose and what not to choose.

21. The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.

22. What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.

23. Many people never grow up. They stay all their lives with a passionate need for external authority and guidance, pretending not to trust their own judgment.

24. There always comes a time when one must choose between contemplation and action. This is called becoming a man.

25. I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.

26. A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.

27. Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

28. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

29. Measured objectively, what a man can wrest from Truth by passionate striving is utterly infinitesimal. But the striving frees us from the bonds of the self and makes us comrades of those who are the best and the greatest.

30. Grow into your ideals so that life cannot rob you of them.

31. Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals.

32. One who gains strength by overcoming obstacles possesses the only strength which can overcome adversity.

33. You cannot force ideas. Successful ideas are the result of slow growth. Ideas do not reach perfection in a day, no matter how much study is put upon them.

34. Man is the result of slow growth; that is why he occupies the position he does in animal life. What does a pup amount to that has gained its growth in a few days or weeks, beside a man who only attains it in as many years.

35. The striving for significance, this sense of yearning, always points out to us that all psychological phenomena contain a movement that starts from a feeling of inferiority and reach upward. The theory of Individual Psychology of psychological compensation states that the stronger the feeling of inferiority, the higher the goal for personal power.

36. It is a barren kind of criticism which tells you what a thing is not.

37. There will be certain things in a man that have to be won, not forced; inspired, not compelled.

38. I've always believed in experiencing everything in life. When you walk out with blinders on, you cut yourself off from the angels and the fairies.

39. Life is a stream On which we strew Petal by petal the flower of our heart.

40. Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

41. Change is the end result of all true learning.

42. Change. It has the power to uplift, to heal, to stimulate, surprise, open new doors, bring fresh experience and create excitement in life. Certainly it is worth the risk.

43. Don't smother each other. No one can grow in the shade.

44. It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.

45. Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.

46. The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.

47. We are no longer puppets being manipulated by outside powerful forces: we become the powerful force ourselves.

48. Life consists in penetrating the unknown, and fashioning our actions in accord with the new knowledge thus acquired.

49. True life is lived when tiny changes occur.

50. Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development.

51. I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.

52. It was never what I wanted to buy that held my heart's hope. It was what I wanted to be.

53. A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.

54. It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.

55. Hinduism is a living organism. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. Knowledge is limitless and so also the application of truth. Everyday we add to our knowledge of the power of Atman (soul) and we shall keep on doing so.

56. It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

57. Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

58. Keeping score of old scores and scars, getting even and one-upping, always makes you less than you are.

59. For years I wanted to be older, and now I am.

60. Very early, I knew that the only object in life was to grow.

61. Drudgery is as necessary to call out the treasures of the mind, as harrowing and planting those of the earth.

62. The public must learn how to cherish the nobler and rarer plants, and to plant the aloe, able to wait a hundred years for it's bloom, or it's garden will contain, presently, nothing but potatoes and pot-herbs.

63. I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had.

64. Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.

65. As of today, I have absolutely no regrets. I think I am a mature person who can take things in stride. I'm grateful for people in my past. They helped me get to where I am, wherever that is. But now, I am thinking for myself and sitting in on all the business transactions.

66. My illusions didn't have anything to do with being a fine actress. I knew how third rate I was. I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!

67. Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

68. Solitude is the place of purification.

69. What shelter to grow ripe is ours? What leisure to grow wise?

70. I was a modest, good-humoured boy. It is Oxford that has made me insufferable.

71. The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step toward knowledge.

72. One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.

73. Troubles are a blessing that force you to change, to believe.

74. You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.

75. Whether men soar to outer space or dive to the bottom of the deepest ocean they will find themselves as they are, unchanged, because they will not have forgotten themselves nor remembered to exercise the charity of forgiveness.

76. If a tax cut increases government revenues, you haven't cut taxes enough.

77. We don't have a desperate need to grow. We have a desperate desire to grow.

78. Everywhere, and at all times, economic progress has meant far more to the poor than to the rich.

79. Sacrifice is a part of life. It's supposed to be. It's not something to regret. It's something to aspire to.

80. Over the years my religion has changed and my spirituality has evolved. Religion and spirituality are very different, but people often confuse the two. Some things cannot be taught, but they can be awakened in the heart. Spirituality is recognizing the divine light that is within us all. It doesn't belong to any particular religion; it belongs to everyone.

81. The man who has no imagination has no wings.

82. The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.

83. In youth men are apt to write more wisely than they really know or feel; and the remainder of life may be not idly spent in realizing and convincing themselves of the wisdom which they uttered long ago.

84. It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.

85. Fame is but a fruit tree- so very unsound. It can never flourish 'till its stock is in the ground.

86. Friends, the soil is poor, we must sow seeds in plenty for us to garner even modest harvests.

87. He who stops being better stops being good.

88. I am a woman in process. I'm just trying like everybody else. I try to take every conflict, every experience, and learn from it. Life is never dull.

89. I don't believe in failure. It is not failure if you enjoyed the process.

90. I don't think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.

91. I know for sure that what we dwell on is who we become.

92. My philosophy is that not only are you responsible for your life, but doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.

93. Turn your wounds into wisdom.

94. At first he thought he felt bad because he was afraid of leading an army, but it wasn't true. He knew he'd make a good commander. He felt himself wanting to cry. He hadn't cried since the first few days of homesickness after he got here. He tried to put a name on the feeling that put a lump in his throat and made him sob silently, however much he tried to hold it down. He bit down on his hand to stop the feeling, to replace it with pain. It didn't help.

95. By faithful study of the nobler arts, our nature's softened, and more gentle grows.

96. How little is the promise of the child fulfilled in the man.

97. The greatest barrier to consciousness is the belief that one is already conscious.

98. You do not chop off a section of your imaginative substance and make a book specifically for children, for - if you are honest - you have no idea where childhood ends and maturity begins. It is all endless and all one.

99. In the period where I had to live the life of a citizen - a life where, like everybody else, I did tons of laundry and cleaned toilet bowls, changed hundreds of diapers and nursed children - I learned a lot.

100. Mohammed personally mapped out seven heavens. If he got to seven, you know there's more.