Quotes 126: Thomas Moore

"The soul needs regression as much as it needs evolution, development and progress." 

–– Thomas Moore (b. 1940), American writer, psychotherapist, and former monk. 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 128.

Quotes 125: Anaïs Nin

"Throw your dreams into space like a kite and you do not know what it will bring back. A new life, a new friend, a new love, and new country." 

–– Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), French-Cuban American writer

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 127.

Quotes 124: Kahlil Gibran

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding." 

–– Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese-American writer and poet

Source: Kahlil Gibran. 'On Pain',The Prophet. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988; p. 58.

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 125.

Quotes 123: Mother Teresa of Calcutta

"We can do no great things –– only small things with great love."

–– Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Albanian-born Indian Roman Catholic nun

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 123.

Quotes 122: Sathya Sai Baba

"The present is a product of the past but it is also the seed for the future." 

–– Sathya Sai Baba (1926-2011), Indian guru 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 119.

Quotes 121: Ken Wiwa

"The past leaves an imprint on the future." 

–– Ken Wiwa (1968-2016), Nigerian journalist and author 

Source: The Globe and Mail, November 5, 2005, p. F5

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 117.

Quotes 120: William A. Haviland

""Just as we need food and shelter to survive, we also need to nourish and exercise our active minds ... art provides the means and the materials for our imaginative play," writes William Haviland in Cultural Anthropology. "According to this way of thinking, art is a necessary kind of social behaviour in which all human beings participate," he states."

–– William A. Haviland, Professor Emeritus, University of Vermont 

Source: Self Help News, November 1990 (Self Help, eventually renamed Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade store associated with Mennonite Central Committee).

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 117.

Quotes 119: Frederick Buechner

"Memory is more than a looking back at a time that is no longer; it is a looking out into another kind of time altogether where everything that ever was continues not just to be, but to grow and change with the life that is in it still." 

–– Frederick Buechner (b. 1926), American writer and Presbyterian minister

Source: Frederick Buechner. The Sacred Journey. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1982; p. 21.

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p.111

Quotes 118: Charles Kettering

"Learn how to fail intelligently, for failing is one of the greatest arts in the world." 

–– Charles Kettering (1876-1958), American inventor, engineer, and businessperson 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p.111

Quotes 117: Isak Dinesen

"Women when they are old enough to have done with the business of being women, and can let loose their strength, may be the most powerful creatures in the world." 

–– Isak Dinesen, pen name of Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (1885-1962), Danish writer

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 106

Quotes 116: Georgia O'Keeffe

"A great sorrow is a great experience –– a life without it seems a pale colourless thing to me –– but I can not help feeling that a great joy is more to my liking." 

–– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 106

Quotes 115: Michel de Montaigne

"I conceive that pleasures are to be avoided if greater pains be the consequence, and pains to be coveted that will terminate in greater pleasures."

–– Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), French philosopher

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 103

Quotes 114: Lin Yutang

"Sometimes it is more important to learn what one cannot do, than what one can do." 

–– Lin Yutang (1895-1976), Chinese writer and philosopher 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 101

Quotes 113: Julia Louise Mathilda Curtiss Woodruff

"Out of the strain of Doing

Into the peace of the Done." 

–– Julia Louise Mathilda Curtiss Woodruff (1833-1909), American writer

Source: 'Harvest Home' poem published in Sunday at Home magazine 1910.

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 100

Quotes 112: Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues

"The most absurd and reckless aspirations have sometimes led to extraordinary success." 

–– Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-1747), French writer and moralist 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 100

Quotes 111: Marcus Minucius Felix

"That most of us are considered poor is no disgrace, but does us credit; for as the mind is weakened by luxurious living, so it is strengthened by a frugal life." 

–– Marcus Minucius Felix (d. c. 250 AD in Rome), Roman advocate, rhetorician, and Christian apologist

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 98

Quotes 110: Persian Proverb

"If you don't crack the shell, you can't eat the nut." 

–– Persian Proverb

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 93

Quotes 109: E. L. Doctorow

"It's like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way." 

–– E. L. Doctorow (1931-2015), American writer

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 92

Quotes 108: Florida Scott-Maxwell

"You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality." 

–– Florida Scott-Maxwell (1883-1979), American writer and psychologist

via: Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 92.

Quotes 107: Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood

"Discontent and disorder [are] signs of energy and hope, not of despair." 

–– Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood (1910-1997), British historian 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 91. 

Quotes 106: Jeff Parker

"Make sure you love what you do, be prepared to hate what you love." 

–– Jeff Parker, Canadian owner of Lyghtesome Gallery in Antigonish, Nova Scotia

Source: Business Development Course taught by Adriane Abbott at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University, Tuesday March 30, 1999

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 89. 

Quotes 105: Max Ernst

"Art is not made by one artist but by several. It is to a great degree the product of their exchange of ideas with one another." 

–– Max Ernst (1891-1976), German-born American and French artist 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 78.

Quotes 104: Natalie Goldberg

"Even miracles are mundane happenings that an awakened mind can see in a fantastic way." 

–– Natalie Goldberg (b. 1948), American writer 

Source: Natalie Goldberg. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambala, 1986; p. 74.

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 67. 

Quotes 103: Henry Miller

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." 

–– Henry Miller (1891-1980), American writer

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 63. 

Quotes 102: Kabir

"Wherever you are is the entry point." 

–– Kabir (b.1398/1440; d. 1448/1518), Indian mystic poet and saint 

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 56. 

Quotes 101: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"If you want to build a ship, don't summon people to buy wood, prepare tools, distribute jobs, and organize the work, rather teach people the yearning for the wide, boundless ocean."

–– Antoine De Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944), French writer and aviator

via Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 8.

Quotes 100: Anonymous

"Sow a thought, and you reap an act;

Sow an act, and you reap a habit;

Sow a habit, and you reap a character;

Sow a character, and you reap a destiny."

–– Anonymous

via: Book of Commonplace 2005-2006, p. 6.

Quotes 99: May Sarton

"I am here alone for the first time in weeks, to take up my "real" life again at last. That is what is strange –– that friends, even passionate love, are not my real life unless there is time alone in which to explore and to discover what is happening or has happened. Without the interruptions, nourishing and maddening, this life would become arid. Yet I taste it fully only when I am alone here and "the house and I resume old conversations.""

–– May Sarton (1912-1995), Belgian-born American writer 

Source: May Sarton. Journal of a Solitude. New York: W.W. Norton, 1973.

via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 165.

Quotes 98: Rainer Maria Rilke

"Perhaps everything terrible in us is in its deepest being something helpless that needs help."

–– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist 

via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 153.

Quotes 97: Anne Lamott

"Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground –– you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it's going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move." 

–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer 

Source: Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Pantheon Books, 1994, p.28-29.

via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 139.

Quotes 96: Henry James

"It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, and I know of no substitute for the force and beauty of its process." 

–– Henry James (1843-1916), American writer 

via Book of Commonplace 2004-2005, p. 100.