Spirtual Quotes Monday – “On Change, I Heard them Say . . .”

February 4, 2008 at 3:49 pm · Filed under Observations and tagged: adaptation, adapting, bending, change, conscious, conscious provoking, Humanity, Love, movement, progress, relationships, Spirituality, Wisdom

Photo courtesy of carf and is licenced under the Creative Commons License

Starting today, each Monday I will be posting quotes on spiritual and/or conscious provoking concepts.  I invite all of you wise ones to add your quote or view on the subject, because we can all learn from each other.   Throughout the week, reflect on Monday’s theme, and come up with a few life lessons of your own.  The theme for this Monday is Change.  I will start off with my own and add some that I have gathered. 

This morning I am Jubilant.
I am Jubilant to say
Thank God for changing seasons, and for another day.
–CordieB.  (Click here to see the whole poem)

However long the night, the dawn will break.
–African Proverb

For nothing is fixed, forever and forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
–James Baldwin

Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
–Margaret Mead

All things change; nothing perishes.
–Ovid

The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.
–James Yorke

Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.
–Anais Nin

You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters are continually flowing in.
–Heraclitus

The future is not a result of choices among alternative paths offered by the present, but a place that is created–created first in the mind and will, created next in activity. The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination.

–John Schaar

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

“We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning; for what in the morning was true will in evening become a lie.”

— C.G. Jung

Whosoever wishes to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.
Knowledge is not intelligence.
In searching for the truth be ready for the unexpected.
Change alone is unchanging.
The same road goes both up and down.
The beginning of a circle is also its end.
Not I, but the world says it: all is one.
And yet everything comes in season.
–Heraklietos of Ephesos

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.

–Anne Frank:

Change in all things is sweet.
–Aristotle (384-322 BC) – Greek philosopher

Life continually evolves. We’re always moving into new experiences, new possibilities. This constant change unsettles the personality, which finds security in stability. But with life always in flux, that security is an illusion. We experience pain by trying to hold on to things that are not solid.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.
–Alice Walker

“Do you wish to save changes?”
Microsoft

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.”
— William Somerset Maugham

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.

–Charles Darwin

Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn!
Look to this Day!
For it is Life, the very Life of Life.
In its brief course lie all the
Verities and Realities of your Existence.
The Bliss of Growth,
The Glory of Action,
The Splendor of Beauty;
For Yesterday is but a Dream,
And To-morrow is only a Vision;
But To-day well lived makes
Every Yesterday a Dream of Happiness,
And every Tomorrow a Vision of Hope.
Look well therefore to this Day!
Such is the Salutation of the Dawn!
–Kalidasa

Life becomes joyful when we can open to the constant flow and ride freely with it. This requires us to let go of the need to control. We need to learn to trust.

“Can it then be that what we call the ‘self’ is fluid and elastic? It evolves, strikes a different balance with every new breath.”

— Wayne Muller

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”
–Anatole France

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
–Epictetus:

The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one solitary and even humble individual – for it is in the solitary mind and soul of the individual that the battle between good and evil is waged and ultimately won or lost.
–M. Scott Peck:

The most powerful agent of growth and transformation is something much more basic than any technique: a change of heart.

–John Welwood

Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat.

–Caroline Schoeder

A reporter interviewing A.J. Muste, who during the Vietnam War stood in front of the White House night after night with a candle, one rainy night asked,”Mr. Muste, do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night with a candle?” Muste replied, “Oh, I don’t do it to change the country, I do it so the country won’t change me.

If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.

–Maya Angelou

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.
–Mahatma Gandhi

When you blame others, you give up your power to change.
–Dr. Robert Anthony

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
–Eric Hoffer

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
–Henri Bergson

Verily, God does not change men’s condition unless they change their inner selves;
–The Quaran

Wisdom brightens a man’s face and changes its hard appearance.
–Ecclesiastes 8 – The Bible

Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…
 –Corinthians – The Bible

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