Following your bliss by Joseph Campbel/Happiness quote

The way to find out about your happiness is to keep your mind on those moments when you feel most happy, when you really are happy -- not excited, not just thrilled, but deeply happy. This requires a little bit of self-analysis. What is it that makes you happy? Stay with it, no matter what people tell you. This is what I call 'following your bliss.' If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are -- if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time.
Joseph Campbel

Science quotes by Carl sagan

For myself, I like a universe that, includes much that is unknown and, at the same time, much that is knowable. A universe in which everything is known would be static and dull, as boring as the heaven of some weak-minded theologians. A universe that is unknowable is no fit place for a thinking being. The ideal universe for us is one very much like the universe we inhabit. And I would guess that this is not really much of a coincidence.

I believe that in every person is a kind of circuit which resonates to intellectual discovery—and the idea is to make that resonance work.

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth—never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.

[Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is sometimes true.

Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism.

Mark Masri - Time lyrics

Time lyrics
Mark Masri

If all the world’s a stage
and life is but a page
how do we make it last
the moments fly so fast
It's not for us to know
how long until we go
but while here on this earth
we must learn what time is worth

Time is too slow
for those who wait
time is too swift for those who fear
time is too long
for those who grieve
but for those who love
for those who are loved
time is eternity
for those who are loved
like you love me

And so the story goes
a tale of joy and woe
it's up to us to find
the reason and the rhyme

Time is on our side
like the ocean wide
a never ending wave upon
a never ending shore
and where your heart ends
or where mine begins
doesn't really matter anymore
Time is too long
for those who grieve
but for those who love
for those who are loved
time is eternity
for those who are loved
like you love me

Love quotes by Anaïs Nin

Richard Johnson Painting

I know no joy as great as a moment of rushing into a new love, no ecstasy like that of a new love. I swim in the sky; I float; my body is full of flowers, flowers with fingers giving me acute, acute caresses, sparks, jewels, quivers of joy, dizziness, such dizziness. Music inside of one, drunkenness. Only closing the eyes and remembering, and the hunger, the hunger for more, more, the great hunger, the voracious hunger, and thirst.
The Diary of Anaïs Nin

Love is the axis and breath of my life. The art I produce is a byproduct, an excrescence of love, the song I sing, the joy which must explode, the overabundance — that is all!.
The Diary of Anaïs Nin

Inspiring Love and humanism reflections and quotes by Bertrand Russell,C. JoyBell C,Rumi,Lao Tzu,Rainer Maria Rilke

Music:
Joshua Bell,Ladies in Lavender(OST)

The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish form our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instill faith in times of despair.
Bertrand Russell

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last--I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.
Bertrand Russell

Be like the sun for grace and mercy. Be like the night to cover others' faults. Be like running water for generosity. Be like the Earth for modesty. Appear as you are. Be as you appear.
Rumi

This being human is a guest house. Every morning is a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor...Welcome and entertain them all. Treat each guest honorably. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
Rumi

Leonid Afremov Art

You can talk with someone for years, everyday, and still, it won't mean as much as what you can have when you sit in front of someone, not saying a word, yet you feel that person with your heart, you feel like you have known the person for forever.... connections are made with the heart, not the tongue.
C. JoyBell C.

I consider myself a stained-glass window. And this is how I live my life. Closing no doors and covering no windows; I am the multi-colored glass with light filtering through me, in many different shades. Allowing light to shed and fall into many many hues. My job is not to direct anything, but only to filter into many colors.
C. JoyBell C.

I find it odd- the greed of mankind. People only like you for as long as they perceive they can get what they want from you. Or for as long as they perceive you are who they want you to be. But I like people for all of their changing surprises, the thoughts in their heads, the warmth that changes to cold and the cold that changes to warmth... for being human. The rawness of being human delights me.C.
JoyBell C.

Vladimir Volegov Painting

To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation...Love is a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world for himself for another's sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things.
Rainer Maria rilke

Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.
Lao Tzu

Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. But with the best leaders, when the work is done, the task accomplished, the people will say 'We have done this ourselves.
Lao Tzu

Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.
Lao Tzu

If a person seems wicked, do not cast him away. Awaken him with your words, elevate him with your deeds, repay his injury with your kindness. Do not cast him away; cast away his wickedness.
Lao Tzu

Insightful Love quote by Louis de Bernières

Richard Johnson Art

Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
Louis de Bernières, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

A Silent Wood by Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal

A Silent Wood
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal

O silent wood, I enter thee
With a heart so full of misery
For all the voices from the trees
And the ferns that cling about my knees.

In thy darkest shadow let me sit
When the grey owls about thee flit;
There will I ask of thee a boon,
That I may not faint or die or swoon.

Gazing through the gloom like one
Whose life and hopes are also done,
Frozen like a thing of stone
I sit in thy shadow – but not alone.

Can God bring back the day when we two stood
Beneath the clinging trees in that dark wood?

Sweet Sister by Victor Hugo/With the French Original Version: A une jeune fille

Sweet Sister
Victor Hugo
(1802-1885)
Translated from French by MRS. B. SOMERS.

Sweet sister, if you knew, like me,
The charms of guileless infancy,
No more you'd envy riper years,
Or smiles, more bitter than your tears.

But childhood passes in an hour,
As perfume from a faded flower;
The joyous voice of early glee
Flies, like the Halcyon, o'er the sea.

Enjoy your morn of early Spring;
Soon time maturer thoughts must bring;
Those hours, like flowers that interclimb,
Should not be withered ere their time.

Too soon you'll weep, as we do now,
O'er faithless friend, or broken vow,
And hopeless sorrows, which our pride
In pleasure's whirl would vainly hide.

Laugh on! unconscious of thy doom,
All innocence and opening bloom;
Laugh on! while yet thine azure eye
Mirrors the peace that reigns on high.

A une jeune fille
Victor Hugo

Vous qui ne savez pas combien l'enfance est belle,
Enfant ! n'enviez point notre âge de douleurs,
Où le coeur tour à tour est esclave et rebelle,
Où le rire est souvent plus triste que vos pleurs.

Votre âge insouciant est si doux qu'on l'oublie!
Il passe, comme un souffle au vaste champ des airs,
Comme une voix joyeuse en fuyant affaiblie,
Comme un alcyon sur les mers.

Oh ! ne vous hâtez point de mûrir vos pensées!
Jouissez du matin, jouissez du printemps;
Vos heures sont des fleurs l'une à l'autre enlacées;
Ne les effeuillez pas plus vite que le temps.

Laissez venir les ans ! Le destin vous dévoue,
Comme nous, aux regrets, à la fausse amitié,
A ces maux sans espoir que l'orgueil désavoue,
A ces plaisirs qui font pitié.

Riez pourtant ! du sort ignorez la puissance
Riez ! n'attristez pas votre front gracieux,
Votre oeil d'azur, miroir de paix et d'innocence,
Qui révèle votre âme et réfléchit les cieux

Grown-ups love by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Constantin Razoumov Art

Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him.
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince.

Grief quote by Laurell K. Hamilton

You can not die of grief, though it feels as if you can. A heart does not actually break, though sometimes your chest aches as if it is breaking. Grief dims with time. It is the way of things. There comes a day when you smile again, and you feel like a traitor. How dare I feel happy. How dare I be glad in a world where my loved one is no more. And then you cry fresh tears, because you do not miss him as much as you once did, and giving up your grief is another kind of death.
Laurell K. Hamilton

Insightful Reflection Quotes

Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance; but revelry is the same flower, when rank and running to seed.
Desiderius Erasmus

No matter what we have come through, or how many perils we have safely passed, or how many imperfect and jagged - in some places perhaps irreparably - our life has been, we cannot in our heart of hearts imagine how it could have been different. As we look back on it, it slips in behind us in orderly array, and, with all its mistakes, acquires a sort of eternal fitness, and even, at times, of poetic glamour.
Randolph Silliman Bourne

SEA-BIRDS by Elizabeth Akers

SEA-BIRDS
Elizabeth Akers
[1832-1911]

O lonesome sea-gull, floating far
Over the ocean's icy waste,
Aimless and wide thy wanderings are,
Forever vainly seeking rest: -
Where is thy mate, and where thy nest?

'Twixt wintry sea and wintry sky,
Cleaving the keen air with thy breast,
Thou sailest slowly, solemnly;
No fetter on thy wing is pressed: -
Where is thy mate, and where thy nest?

O restless, homeless human soul,
Following for aye thy nameless quest,
The gulls float, and the billows roll;
Thou watchest still, and questionest: -
Where is thy mate, and where thy nest?

In Full Bloom

Some beautiful images of a wide ranges of flowers and other foliage, all brought to life through the magic of time lapse camera techniques and extremely detailed High Definition footage.

LE PARADOXE DE NOTRE ÉPOQUE de Dr. Bob Moorehead

LE PARADOXE DE NOTRE ÉPOQUE
Dr. Bob Moorehead

Le paradoxe de notre temps est que nous avons de plus grands bâtiments mais des plus petits tempéraments, des autoroutes plus larges mais des points de vue plus étroits.
Nous dépensons plus mais nous avons moins. Nous achetons plus mais apprécions moins. Nous avons de plus grandes maisons, mais de plus petites familles, plus de commodités mais moins de temps.

Nous avons plus d’instruction mais moins de bons sens, plus de connaissances mais moins de jugement, plus d’experts et encore plus de problèmes, plus de médicaments mais moins de bien-être.
Nous avons trop, nous fumons trop, nous nous dépensons inconsidérément, nous rions trop peu, conduisons trop vite, nous nous mettons trop en colère, nous nous levons trop tard et fatigués, nous pensons trop peu, regardons trop la telé et méditons trop rarement.

Nous avons multiplié nos possessions mais réduit nos valeurs. Nous parlons trop, aimons trop rarement et haïssons trop souvent. Nous avons appris comment gagner notre vie mais pas la vie.
Nous avons ajouté des années à la vie, pas de la vie aux années. Nous sommes allés sur la lune et en sommes revenus, mais avons des difficultés à traverser la rue pour rencontrer un nouveau voisin.
Nous avons conquis l’espace sidéral mais pas notre espace intérieur. Nous avons fait de grandes choses mais pas les meilleures choses. Nous purifions l’air, mais polluons les âmes.

Nous avons conquis l’atome, mais pas vaincu nos préjugés. Nous écrivons plus mais apprenons moins. Nous planifions plus mais accomplissons moins. Nous avons appris à nous précipiter mais pas à attendre.
Nous construisons plus d’ordinateurs pour obtenir plus d’informations pour produire plus de documents que jamais, mais nous communiquons de moins en moins.

Nous sommes dans le temps de la nourriture rapide mais des digestions lentes, des êtres humains de grandes tailles mais de petits caractères, des trop larges profits et des relations peu profondes.Nous jouissons de deux revenus mais divorçons, nos maisons sont luxueuses mais nos foyers détruits.
De nos jours nous faisons des voyages éclairs, et des couches-culottes jetables, nous appliquons une morale sur mesure, et nous engageons des flirts sans lendemain. C’est l’époque des personnes obèses et des comprimés à tout faire, qui vous remontent le moral, vous apaisent et vous tuent.

C’est une époque où seule l’apparence compte au détriment du contenu. A notre époque on peu choisir de partager ce texte ou de le supprimer.

Souviens-toi, passe du temps avec tes proches, ils ne seront pas là éternellement. N’oublie pas de dire un mot gentil à quiconque te regarde avec admiration. Bientôt cet enfant pour qui tu es un héros sera devenu grand et vivra sa propre vie.
N’oublie pas de serrer dans tes bras les personnes que tu aimes, parce que c’est le seul trésor qui vienne du cœur et qui ne coûte rien.

N’oublie pas de dire je t’aime à ton partenaire et aux personnes qui comptent pour toi, mais surtout, dis-le avec sincérité.
On peut guérir n’importe quelle blessure en serrant quelqu’un contre soi, pourvu qu’on le fasse avec tendresse.

Souviens-toi de profiter du temps que tu as avec la personne que tu aimes, parce qu’un jour cette personne ne sera plus là.
Prends le temps d’aimer, prend le temps de parler et de partager tes pensées intimes. Et n’oublie jamais ceci :
La vie ne se mesure pas par le nombre de fois qu’on respire, mais par le nombre d’instants beaux à couper le souffle…

Abri de Esther Granek

Abri
Esther Granek
( Ballades et réflexions à ma façon, 1978 )

Dans les lignes de ta main
Pour me plaire j’y veux voir
Que rien ne nous sépare
Et qu’avons même destin.

Dans les lignes de ta main
Je découvre en cherchant
Les signes bienfaisants
De ce qui me convient.

Dans le creux de ta paume
Où ma main se blottit
Je retrouve mon abri
Doux et calme. Comme un baume.

Schöne Sprüche,Motivierende und inspirierende Zitate und Weisheiten für das leben.

Rob Hefferan Art

Die Leute sagen oft, dass Motivation nicht lange anhält. Nun, auch das Baden hält nicht dauerhaft. Aus diesem Grund empfehlen wir es täglich!
Zig Ziglar

Eine gute Enzyklopädie enthält die meisten bekannten Fakten der Welt, aber sie sind so nutzlos wie Sanddünen bis sie nicht organisiert und in Form von Handlung zum Ausdruck kommen.
Napoleon Hill

Was vor uns liegt und was hinter uns liegt, sind Kleinigkeiten im Vergleich zu dem, was in uns liegt. Und wenn wir das, was in uns liegt, nach außen in die Welt tragen, geschehen Wunder.
Henry David Thoreau

In dieser Welt kommt es nicht so sehr darauf an, wo wir sind, sondern darauf, in welche Richtung wir uns bewegen.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Wenn Du der Einsamkeit begegnest, hab keine Angst. Es ist die beste Gelegenheit, mit sich selbst Freundschaft zu schließen.

Nichts bringt uns mehr vom Weg zum Glück ab, als dass wir uns nach dem Gerede der Leute richten, statt nach unseren Überzeugungen.
Seneca

Man soll alle Tage wenigstens ein kleines Lied hören, ein gutes Gedicht lesen, ein treffliches Gemälde sehen und, wenn es möglich zu machen wäre, einige vernünftige Worte sprechen.
Eigentlich weiß man nur,wenn man wenig weiß.
Mit dem Wissen wächst der Zweifel.

Freudvoll/ Und leidvoll,/ Gedankenvoll sein;/ Langen/ Und bangen/ In schwebender Pein,/ Himmelhoch jauchzend,/ Zum Tode betrübt,/ Glücklich allein/ Ist die Seele, die liebt.

Kein Segen kommt dem der Arbeit gleich,
und nur der Mensch, der sein ganzes Leben lang
mit Leib und Seele gearbeitet hat,
kann sagen: “Ich habe gelebt!”
Johann Wolfgang Goethe

Die wichtigste Stunde ist immer die Gegenwart. Der bedeutendste Mensch ist immer der, der dir gerade gegenübersteht. Das notwendigste Werk ist stets die Liebe.
Meister Eckhart

Wenn die Sonne nicht auf Lob und Bitten wartet, um aufzugehen, sondern eben leuchtet und von der ganzen Welt begrüßt wird, so darfst auch du weder Schmeichelei noch Beifall brauchen, um Gutes zu tun. Aus dir selbst heraus mußt du es tun: Dann wirst du wie die Sonne geliebt werden.
Epiktet

Khalil Gibran on Love & Marriage

Music:
Secret Garden-Adagio

On Love
Khalil Gibran

Richard Johnson Art

When love beckons to you, follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your
tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,So shall he descend
to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that
you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may
know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge
become a fragment of Life's heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace
and love's pleasure,Then it is better for you that you
cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not
all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart,"
but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love,
if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires,
let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings
its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks
for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your
heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

On Marriage
Khalil Gibran

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.