Spiritual Quotes By Famous Personalities

A basic concept in Zen is that ‘softness triumphs over hardness.’ This is not necessarily true in the bedroom. -Roshi So

A beautiful woman who is pleasing to men is good only for frightening fish when she falls into the water. -Zen Proverb

A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand that gives roses. -Chinese Proverb

A clever mind is not a heart. -Taoist Proverb

A conservative believes nothing should be done for the first time. -Lynwood L. Giacomini

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. -Aesop

A donkey carrying a pile of holy books is still a donkey. -Zen Proverb

A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey.

A flower dies even though we love it. A weed grows even though we do not love it. -Zen Proverb

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it. -Dogen Zenji

A gem cannot be perfected without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. – Chinese Proverb

A generous heart, kind speech and a life of service and compassion, are the things which renew humanity. – Buddha

A generous heart, kind speech, and compassion are the things which renew humanity. – Gautama Siddhartha

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. – Saul Bellow

A haiku is the expression of a temporary enlightenment in which we see into the life of things. – R.H. Blyth

A hallucination is a fact, not an error; what is erroneous is a judgment based upon it. – Bertrand Russell

A heavy snowfall disappears into the sea. What silence! – Zen Proverb

A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life. – Dalai Lama

A madman and an arahant both smile, but the arahant knows why while the madman doesn’t. – Ajahn Chah

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. – Mohandas Gandhi

A man will give up almost anything except his suffering. – John Cleese

A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it. – Rabindranath Tagore

A mind to search elsewhere
For the Buddha,
Is foolishness
In the very center of foolishness – Ikkyus doka – Zen

A painting of rice cake does not satisfy hunger. – Zen Proverb

A perfect faith would lift us absolutely above fear – George MacDonald

A person who says, I’m enlightened probably isn’t. – Baba Ram Dass

A real act of honesty is not enough to be honored by everyone, but being witnessed by you and God alone.

A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar. -Tao Te Ching

A smile is an inexpensive way to change your looks. – Charles Gordy

A wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind. – Zen Proverb

A wise man, recognizing that the world is but an illusion, does not act as if it is real, so he escapes the suffering. – Tao

A word is no more than a means to an end. It’s an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself. – Eckhart Tolle

Abandon learning, and you will be free from trouble and distress. – Lao Tzu

Accept that your life is going on beyond your usual understanding. – Dainin Katagiri

Act non-action; undertake no undertaking; taste the tasteless. – Lao Tzu

Action should culminate in wisdom. – Bhagavad Gita

After a heavy snowfall the more rigid branches of the pine break under the weight of the snow. – Taoist Proverb

After a heavy snowfall the more supple willow branches bend, thus allowing the snow to fall to the ground. – Taoist Proverb

After enlightenment, the laundry. – Zen Proverb

After happiness comes suffering. After suffering arises happiness. For beings happiness & suffering revolve like a wheel. – Nagarjuna

After the mind essence has been pointed out and one has recognized it, one must practice and train. – Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

Alas! The world is full of enormous lights & mysteries, and the man shuts them from himself with one small hand. – Zen Proverb

All beings are Buddha. All beings are the truth, just as they are. – Robert Aitken

All beings are the truth just as they are. – Zen Proverb

All Buddhas preach emptiness. Why? Because if a student even clings to an idea of emptiness, he betrays all Buddhas. – Bodhidharma

All composite things decay; work out your salvation with diligence. – The Buddha

All conditioned things are impermanent. Work out your own salvation with diligence. – The Buddha’s last words

All difficult things have their origin in that which is easy, and great things in that which is small. – Taoist Proverb

All evil done clings to the body. – Zen Proverb

All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. – Leo Tolstoy

All is empty yet appears, appears yet is empty. – Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

All know that the drop merges into the ocean but few know that the ocean merges into the drop. – Kabir

All know the Way, but few actually walk it. – Bodhidharma

All people on the planet are children, except for a very few. No one is grown up except those free of desire. – Rumi

All states of consciousness are available right now. – Thaddeus Golas

All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. – Einstein

All that we know is nothing…unless we are in touch with that which laughs at all our knowing. – D.H. Lawrence

All the things that truly matter, beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace — arise from beyond the mind. – Eckhart Tolle

All true artists, whether they know it or not, create from a place of no-mind, from inner stillness. – Eckhart Tolle

All truth is very ordinary. It is peoples’ fantasies of what is true that is so extraordinary. – Brian Perkins

All we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. – Edgar Allen Poe

All wisdom comes out of one center, and the number of wisdom is one. – Paracelsus

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain? – Zen Proverb

Alternate between the solitary and the social. Whether alone or with others, keep serenity. – Deng Ming-Dao

Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision. – Hsi-Tang

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. – Helen Keller

Although you see the pit, you cannot avoid it. -Rumi

Always keep a smiling face and a loving mind, and speak truthfully without malice. -Atisha

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox. -Zen Proverb

An emotion is the body’s reaction to your mind. -Eckhart Tolle

And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot

And when they played they really played. And when they worked they really worked. -Dr. Seuss

And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself? -Rumi

Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly. -G.K. Chesterton

Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth. -Cato the Elder