"The hardest thing is learning to wait while maintaining the calm of someone in control of the situation. You have to endure the test of the pause, during which nothing happens."
Vadim Zeland "Reality Transurfing"
"Calmness is nothing other than proper order in one's thoughts." Marcus Aurelius
"The highest source of happiness for my soul is the tranquility of my mind. Nothing can disturb it except my own anger." The 14th Dalai Lama
"Just as warm clothing protects against the cold, endurance protects against offense. Increase your patience and peace of mind, and offense, however bitter it may be, will not touch you." Leonardo da Vinci
Oh, if you are calm and not confused, When others are losing their heads,
And if you remain true to yourself,
When your best friend does not believe in you,
And if you know how to wait without anxiety,
Do not answer lies with lies,
Do not become spiteful when made a target by everyone,
Yet do not call yourself a saint,—
And if you master your passions,
Rather than being mastered by them,
And remain steadfast in good fortune and misfortune,
Whose worth is essentially the same,
And if you are prepared for your words
To be twisted into a trap by a rogue,
And, having suffered defeat, can once again—
Without your former strength—resume your work.
And if you can lay out on the table
Everything that has become familiar to you,
Lose it all and start again from the beginning,
Without regretting what you have gained,
And if you can make your heart, nerves, and sinews
Rouse themselves so that you rush forward,
When with the years your strength begins to fail
And only your will says: "Hold on!"—
And if you can remain yourself in a crowd,
Maintain your bond with the people beside a king,
And, respecting every opinion,
Not bow your head before popular opinion,
And if you can measure distance
In seconds, setting off on a distant run—
The Earth is yours, my boy, your inheritance, And what is more, you are a man!
* Rudyard Kipling, "If—" (translated by Samuil Marshak)
"Thought is the beginning of everything. And thoughts can be controlled. Therefore, the main task of self-improvement is to work on one's thoughts."
Leo Tolstoy
"…each of us is obliged to work on ourselves, on perfecting our personality, taking upon ourselves a certain share of responsibility for the life of humanity…"
Marie Skłodowska-Curie
"Even your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own careless thoughts."
Buddha
"Wherever we go and whatever we do, our thoughts create the reality around us...
Always be aware of what you are thinking about. Today's thoughts create your future."
John Kehoe
"There is no benefit in worship without knowledge, and no benefit in knowledge without right understanding."
Ali ibn Abi Talib
"She had failed to understand either of the two men she loved, and now she had lost them both. Somewhere in her mind lurked the thought that if she had understood Ashley, she would never have loved him, but if she had understood Rhett, she would never have lost him."
Margaret Mitchell, "Gone with the Wind"
"Why does he hate us so much?" Glennon whispered.
"I think he loves us." Lee scratched the back of her head and covered her face with her hair, as she always did when she felt uneasy.
"But when Mom says she loves us, it seems to me she is saying, 'I listen to you talk about what you like,' while when Dad says it, he is saying, 'You can listen to me talk about what I like.'" Julianne Brand, "The Legend of the Old Lighthouse"
"The world will become real when people learn to love, and until then we will live believing that we know what love is, while fearing to see it as it truly is."
Paulo Coelho, "The Zahir"
"When a man dies, you can't stop loving him, damn it. Especially if he was better than all the living, you understand?"
J. D. Salinger
"Sometimes love passes on its own,
Touching neither heart nor mind.
That is not love, but youthful amusement.
Love has no right to vanish without a trace.
It comes in order to live forever,
Until a person disappears into the earth."
Nizami Ganjavi
"Love is a priceless gift. It is the only thing we can give, and yet it remains with you." Leo Tolstoy
"Life is a priceless gift, not a right that one person must dispute with another."
Clifford Simak, "Ring Around the Sun"
"What matters is not knowing in which city or part of the world the other person is, but what place they occupy in your heart."
Marc Levy, "Those Words We Didn't Say to Each Other"
"Pain exists only in resistance. Joy exists only in acceptance. Even events filled with pain become joyful when we accept them with an open heart. Even events filled with joy become painful if we do not accept them. There is no such thing as a bad experience—there is only resistance to what is." Jalaluddin Rumi
The soft and weak overcome the hard and strong. In the world, nothing is weaker or softer than water, yet in overcoming the hard and strong, it is invincible." (Laozi, "Tao Te Ching," chapter 78)
To accept does not mean to surrender. It means becoming like water: not breaking against the rocks, but flowing around them; not striking against obstacles, but filling any form. Then even what seemed like pain becomes a channel through which life flows.
May everyone's heart be as gentle as water and as invincible as its current. Then every experience will become not a trial, but a path.
"It is better to be soft on the outside and hard within than hard on the outside and soft within."
Lao Tzu
"To be strong, one must be like water. There are no obstacles—it flows; a dam—it stops; the dam breaks—it flows again; in a square vessel it is square; in a round one, round. Because it is so yielding, it is the most useful and the strongest."
Lao Tzu
"Move like water. Be still like a mirror. Respond like an echo." Bruce Lee
"Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. When water is poured into a cup, it becomes the cup. When water is poured into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. When water is poured into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. Water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend." Bruce Lee
"For those whose minds are clear and spirits noble,
Rest is wearying, familiar walls are confining.
So set out on a journey, though it may be far;
These changes will be for your good.
Leave behind all that was dear!
In foreign lands you will find consolation.
Be steadfast, and praise God;
You will not know life without knowing hardship.
Indeed, I have seen how water
Goes bad when it stands still.
But its taste is sweet
When it is in motion."
Muhammad al-Shafi'i
"The true path of life is the path of Truth, Nonviolence, and Love." Indira Gandhi
"You have your path. I have my path. As for the right path, the correct path, and the only path, it does not exist." Friedrich Nietzsche
"Never judge a person until you have walked a long way in their shoes." Lao Tzu
"It is very simple to confirm that you are on the right path: your tension will begin to disappear, you will become calmer and calmer, more and more serene, and you will find beauty in what never seemed beautiful before.
You will feel that life is not a problem, but a gift, a bliss, a blessing."
Osho