Meditations Quotes

“God is whispering in your heart, in the whole existence, just tune your ears.”
― Amit Ray, Meditation: Insights and Inspirations

“When people injure you, ask yourself what good or harm they thought would come of it. If you understand that, you'll feel sympathy rather than outrage or anger. Your sense of good and evil may be the same as theirs, or near it, in which case you have to excuse them. Or your sense of good and evil may differ from theirs. In which case they're misguided and deserve your compassion. Is that so hard?”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“In pale moonlight / the wisteria's scent / comes from far away.”
― Yosa Buson

“Why bother Her?’ What will change the echoes from my heart encapsulated into words for ears? Maybe the hope or belief that will be heard and felt by heart and soul from past lives, or will it become the dream of an actual one?”
― Raz Mihal, Just Love Her

“40. The gods either have power or they have not. If they have not, why pray to them? If they have, then instead of praying to be granted or spared such-and-such a thing, why not rather pray to be delivered from dreading it, or lusting for it, or grieving over it? Clearly, if they can help a man at all, they can help him in this way. You will say, perhaps, ‘But all that is something they have put in my own power.’ Then surely it were better to use your power and be a free man, than to hanker like a slave and a beggar for something that is not in your power. Besides, who told you the gods never lend their aid even towards things that do lie in our own power? Begin praying in this way, and you will see. Where another man prays ‘Grant that I may possess this woman,’ let your own prayer be, ‘Grant that I may not lust to possess her.’ Where he prays, ‘Grant me to be rid of such-and-such a one,’ you pray, ‘Take from me my desire to be rid of him.’ Where he begs, ‘Spare me the loss of my precious child,’ beg rather to be delivered from the terror of losing him. In short, give your petitions a turn in this direction, and see what comes.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

“When you reach a calm and quiet meditative state, that is when you can hear the sound of silence.”
― Stephen Richards, The Ultimate Cosmic Ordering Meditation

“The moon glows on the river, wind rustles the pines.
Long night clear evening--what are they for?”
― Ueda Akinari, Tales of Moonlight and Rain

“Whatever happens, happens such as you are either formed by nature able to bear it, or not able to bear it. If such as you are by nature form’d able to bear, bear it and fret not: But if such as you are not naturally able to bear, don’t fret; for when it has consum’d you, itself will perish. Remember, however, you are by nature form’d able to bear whatever it is in the power of your own opinion to make supportable or tolerable, according as you conceive it advantageous, or your duty, to do so.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“One can observe that such changes in the breath are the direct result of your reaction to thoughts. If you can simply dismiss the thoughts by giving them no value then the breathing will find its own medium and become subtle.”
― Stephen Richards, The Ultimate Cosmic Ordering Meditation

“Morality is the lullaby of the herd, sung to keep their dreams small. Wake up, and you will find the world is yours to shape.”
― David Maze

“Judge yourself entitled to any word or action which is in accord with nature, and do not let any subsequent criticism or persuasion from anyone talk you out of it. No, if it was a good thing to do or say, do not revoke your entitlement. Those others are guided by their own minds and pursue their own impulses. Do not be distracted by any of this, but continue straight ahead, following your own nature and universal nature: these two have one and the same path.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“One sort of person, when he has done a kindness to another, is quick also to chalk up the return due to him. A second is not so quick in that way, but even so he privately thinks of the other as his debtor, and is well aware of what he has done. A third sort is in a way not even conscious of his action, but is like the vine which has produced grapes and looks for nothing else once it has borne its own fruit. A horse that has raced, a dog that has tracked, a bee that has made honey, and a man that has done good - none of these knows what they have done, but they pass on to the next action, just as the vine passes on to bear grapes again in due season. So you ought to be one of those who, in a sense, are unconscious of the good they do. 'Yes', he says, 'but this is precisely what one should be conscious of: because it defines the social being to be aware of his social action, and indeed to want his fellow to be aware of it also.' 'True, but you misunderstand the point I am now making: and for that reason you will fall into one of the first categories I mentioned. They too are misled by some sort of plausible logic. But if you want to follow my meaning, don't fear that this will lead you to any deficiency of social action.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Another does wrong. What is that to me? Let him see to it: he has his own disposition, his own action. I have now what universal nature wishes me to have now, and I do what my own nature wishes me to do now.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Don't let the impression of other people's grief carry you away indiscriminately. Help them, yes, as best you can and as the case deserves, even if their grief is for the loss of something indifferent: but do not imagine their loss as any real harm - that is the wrong way of thinking. Rather, you should be like the old man in the play who reclaimed at the end his foster-child's favourite toy, never forgetting that it was only a toy. So there you are, broadcasting your pity on the hustings - have you forgotten, man, what these things are worth? 'Yes, but they are important to these folk.' Is that any reason for you to join their folly?”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“If you are doing your proper duty let it not matter to you whether you are cold or warm, whether you are sleepy or well-slept, whether men speak badly or well of you, even whether you are on the point of death or doing something else: because even this, the act in which we die, is one of the acts of life, and so here too it suffices to 'make the best move you can'.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Your principles can’t be extinguished unless you snuff out the thoughts that feed them, for it’s continually in your power to reignite new ones…. It’s possible to start living again! See things anew as you once did—that is how to restart life!”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations : A NEW TRANSLATION

“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius

“The weak call their chains virtue and their hesitation wisdom. But I tell you: to live is to will, and to will is to conquer oneself first.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“A lion does not seek the approval of sheep, nor does the storm beg the earth for permission to rage. Why, then, do you?”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“You are not here to be accepted; you are here to become. And in the fires of becoming, you will either forge yourself or be reduced to ash.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“The gods we worship are only mirrors of our fears and desires. If you would be free, stop kneeling and start creating.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“Love is not the denial of power, but its highest expression. The strong love differently than the weak.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“The man who seeks comfort will find chains; the one who embraces struggle will find wings.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“Truth is a sword, and only those willing to bleed for it should dare to wield it.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“Do not envy those who walk the easy path, for their steps leave no mark upon the world.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“He who waits for permission to live will find himself buried with the others who did the same.”
― David Maze, If Nietzsche Wrote Meditations: Think Fight Club Vibes for The Self-Improvement Fanatic.

“We must draw in our activities to a narrow compass in order that the darts of Fortune may fall into nothingness”
― Marcus Aurelius

“But before examining this point [the third Meditation: 'the Existence of God'] more carefully and investigating other truths which may be derived from it, I should like to pause here and spend some time in the contemplation of God; to reflect on his attributes, and to gaze with wonder and adoration on the beauty of this immense light, so far as the eye of my darkened intellect can bear it. For just as we believe through faith that the supreme happiness of the next life consists solely in the contemplation of the divine majesty, so experience tells us that this same contemplation, albeit much less perfect, enables us to know the greatest joy of which we are capable of in this life.”
― René Descartes