Tag Archives: Quotes

Top Ten Tuesday: Quotes About Science


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A male Asian scientist wearing a face mask and peering through a microscope at something on a slide. Perhaps he is looking at a highly infectious disease?While all of my book reviews on this blog are about the speculative fiction genre, I read many other genres as well.

Nonfiction is a particular favourite of mine. It’s exciting to learn about everything from prehistory to astronomy to the latest medical breakthroughs in books.

Here are ten bookish quotes about science.

“We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special.”
Stephen Hawking

 

“The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson

 

The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he’s one who asks the right questions.”
Claude Levi-Strauss

 

“Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.”
Werner Heisenberg, Across the Frontiers

 

“Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.”
Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

 

“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.”
Alan Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence

 

“I penetrated the outer cell membrane with a nanosyringe.”
“You poked it with a stick?”
“No!” I said. “Well. Yes. But it was a scientific poke with a very scientific stick.”
Andy Weir, Project Hail Mary

 

“In what terms should we think of these beings, nonhuman yet possessing so very many human-like characteristics? How should we treat them? Surely we should treat them with the same consideration and kindness as we show to other humans; and as we recognize human rights, so too should we recognize the rights of the great apes? Yes.”
Jane Goodall

 

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.

{Speech accepting the John Burroughs Medal}”
Rachel Carson

 

“It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is. The most effective way he knew to accomplish that, the most powerful tool at his disposal, was the scientific method, which over time winnows out deception. It can’t give you absolute truth because science is a permanent revolution, always subject to revision, but it can give you successive approximations of reality.”
Ann Druyan

 

If you’ve read any great books about any branch of science lately, I’d love to hear about them!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Quotes for Spring


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Spring is my favourite season of the year. In honour of it, here are ten quotes about spring, from literal musings about it to jokes to the use of this time of year as a metaphor for much bigger topics..

 

A photo of a sweet little grey and white baby rabbit who is tucked into the bottom of someone’s grey sweater. The person is holding up the side of their sweater so the rabbit does not fall out. The person is standing outside, too, and you can see some melting snow on the ground. “…I hear the sounds of melting snow outside my window every night and with the first faint scent of spring, I remember life exists…”
John Geddes, A Familiar Rain

 

“The most beautiful springs are those that come after the most horrible winters!”
Mehmet Murat ildan

 

“Spring is the time of the year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade”
Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

 

“Spring time in Florida is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color, in nature—glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitor from the north. The miles of hyacinths are like an undulating carpet on the surface of the river and divide reluctantly when the slow-moving alligators push their way log-like across. The nights are white nights as the moon shines with dazzling splendor, or in the absence of that goddess, the soft darkness creeps down laden with innumerable scents. The heavy fragrance of magnolias mingled with the delicate sweetness of jasmine and wild roses.”
Zora Neale Hurston, Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance

 

A cute little Cape May Warbler is sitting on a branch and looking around at the world. This bird is black and yellow and about the size of a sparrow. “Every year, I’m shocked at the abundance of growth, life, and wholeness that seem to happen in a matter of weeks. Half the year we live in Eden, the other half on Mars.”
Myquillyn Smith, Welcome Home: A Cozy Minimalist Guide to Decorating and Hosting All Year Round

 

“Snow in April is an abomination.”
L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams

 

”Winter has frozen
my heart.
I can’t wait to drink
a glass of spring
and get wild.”
Bhuwan Thapaliya

 

“I love the smell of rain and growing things.”
Serina Hernandez

 

A photo of a cherry tree in full blossom against a light blue sky. The pink petals are blooming everywhere on the branch. “Come with me into the woods where spring is
advancing, as it does, no matter what,
not being singular or particular, but one
of the forever gifts, and certainly visible.”
Mary Oliver, Dog Songs: Poems

 

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.”
Pablo Neruda

 

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Quote from a Book

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Dozens of small candles lighting up a room together. I’m good-naturedly shaking my fist at the person who came up with these prompts!

How on earth are we supposed to pick only one quote? Can’t I pick twenty instead?

(Yes, I’m being a little silly there. It was hard to narrow it down, though!)

The imagery in the quote below makes me smile.

Individually, our efforts to change the world might not look like much, but they can add up to more than the sum of their parts if we work together and do what we can.

 

 

“Each person held aloft a single lit candle—the city’s traditional way to express its appreciation for that year’s peace prize winner. It was a magical sight, as if a pool of stars had descended from the sky; and as Michelle and I leaned out to wave, the night air brisk on our cheeks, the crowd cheering wildly, I couldn’t help but think about the daily fighting that continued to consume Iraq and Afghanistan and all the cruelty and suffering and injustice that my administration had barely even begun to deal with. The idea that I, or any one person, could bring order to such chaos seemed laughable; on some level, the crowds below were cheering an illusion. And yet, in the flickering of those candles, I saw something else. I saw an expression of the spirit of millions of people around the world: the U.S. soldier manning a post in Kandahar, the mother in Iran teaching her daughter to read, the Russian pro-democracy activist mustering his courage for an upcoming demonstration—all those who refused to give up on the idea that life could be better, and that whatever the risks and hardships, they had a role to play.

Whatever you do won’t be enough, I heard their voices say.

Try anyway.”

― President Barack Obama, A Promised Land 

If you haven’t already read the memoirs that President and Mrs. Obama have written, I recommend picking them up. They are both excellent storytellers.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Humorous Quotes from Books


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

A woman with black hair who is wearing a blue scarf and a blue shirt. She is laughing and looks perfectly joyful.

One of the happiest stock photos I’ve seen in ages!

Yes, I’ve blogged about humorous quotes from books before. It’s one of those evergreen topics that I think can and should be returned to whenever you’re in need of a pick-me-up.

I don’t know about all of you, but after the the last two years I am definitely needing reasons to laugh and lighthearted things to think about.

Here are some humorous quotes from books that do just that for me. I hope they have the same effect on everyone who reads this.

 

“The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

 

 

“Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.”
Lemony Snicket

 

 

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH’, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.”
Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

 

“Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

 

 

“I don’t want tea,” said Clary, with muffled force. “I want to find my mother. And then I want to find out who took her in the first place, and I want to kill them.”
“Unfortunately,” said Hodge, “we’re all out of bitter revenge at the moment, so it’s either tea or nothing.”
Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

 

 

A red flower with a yellow smiley face button sitting in the middle of it. “No sight so sad as that of a naughty child,” he began, “especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?”

“They go to hell,” was my ready and orthodox answer.

“And what is hell? Can you tell me that?”

“A pit full of fire.”

“And should you like to fall into that pit, and to be burning there for ever?”

“No, sir.”

“What must you do to avoid it?”

I deliberated a moment: my answer, when it did come was objectionable: “I must keep in good health and not die.”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

 

 

“Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.”
Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

 

 

“It’s not like there’s a law against flying.”

“Yes there is. The law of gravity.”
Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

 

 

A sign shaped like the word “Joy.” It is covered in about 16 glowing white lights. “She’s the sort of woman who lives for others – you can tell the others by their hunted expression.”
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

 

 

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.”
George Bernard Shaw, Immaturity

 

 

I hope this post brought a little joy to all of your lives!

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Top Ten Tuesday: Memorable Things Characters Have Said

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Here is my list. It will be interesting to see how everyone’s interpretations of what makes a quote memorable line up!

 

Photo of a stone angel surrounded by stormy grey clouds“I am not an angel,” I asserted; “and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself.”
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

 

“Still, I wonder if we shall ever be put into songs or tales. We’re in one, of course, but I mean: put into words, you know, told by the fireside, or read out of a great big book with red and black letters, years and years afterwards. And people will say: “Let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring!” And they will say: “Yes, that’s one of my favourite stories. Frodo was very brave, wasn’t he, dad?” “Yes, my boy, the famousest of the hobbits, and that’s saying a lot.”
‘It’s saying a lot too much,’ said Frodo, and he laughed, a long clear laugh from his heart. Such a sound had not been heard in those places since Sauron came to Middle-earth. To Sam suddenly it seemed as if all the stones were listening and the tall rocks leaning over them. But Frodo did not heed them; he laughed again. ‘Why, Sam,’ he said, ‘to hear you somehow makes me as merry as if the story was already written. But you’ve left out one of the chief characters: Samwise the stouthearted. “I want to hear more about Sam, dad. Why didn’t they put in more of his talk, dad? That’s what I like, it makes me laugh. And Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam, would he, dad?”‘
‘Now, Mr. Frodo,’ said Sam, ‘you shouldn’t make fun. I was serious.’
‘So was I,’ said Frodo, ‘and so I am.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

 

 

“You know what would help this boy?” Demeter mused. “Farming.”
Persephone rolled her eyes. “Mother-”
“Six months behind a plow. Excellent character building.”
Rick Riordan, The Last Olympian

 

 

“I can’t imagine how anyone can say: “I’m weak,” and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: “Because it’s so much easier not to!”
Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

 

 

 

The word doubt printed on a grey background. The “ubt” has been crossed out, leaving only the word “do.” You are the biggest fool of a boy I’ve ever known,” Mott said. Then his tone softened. “But you will serve Carthya well.”
“I wish I felt ready to do this,” I said. “The closer we come to the moment, the more I see every defect in my character that caused my parents to send me away in the first place.”
“From all I’m told, the prince they sent away was selfish, mischievous, and destructive. The king who returns is courageous, noble, and strong.”
“And a fool,” I added
Mott chuckled. “You are that too.”
Jennifer A. Nielsen, The False Prince

 

 

“Don’t the great tales never end?”
“No, they never end as tales,” said Frodo. “But the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended. Our part will end later – or sooner.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

 

“What are you reading?” Owen asks.
“Charlotte’s Web,” Liz says. “It’s really sad. One of the main characters just died.”
“You ought to read the book from end to beginning,” Owen jokes. “That way, no one dies, and it’s always a happy ending.”
Gabrielle Zevin, Elsewhere

 

 

 

 

“Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot”. ~Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1958, spoken by the character Holly Golightly”
Truman Capote

 

 

“Allow me to tell you, Mr Taylor,” said I, but quietly as the occasion demanded, “that one gentleman does not rejoice at the misfortune of another in public”.”
William Golding

 

 

Person putting puzzle pieces together. “To think that this is my twentieth birthday, and that I’ve left my teens behind me forever,” said Anne, who was curled up on the hearth-rug with Rusty in her lap, to Aunt Jamesina who was reading in her pet chair. They were alone in the living room. Stella and Priscilla had gone to a committee meeting and Phil was upstairs adorning herself for a party.

“I suppose you feel kind of sorry,” said Aunt Jamesina. “The teens are such a nice part of life. I’m glad I’ve never gone out of them myself.”

Anne laughed.

“You never will, Aunty. You’ll be eighteen when you should be a hundred. Yes, I’m sorry, and a little dissatisfied as well. Miss Stacy told me long ago that by the time I was twenty my character would be formed, for good or evil. I don’t feel that it’s what it should be. It’s full of flaws.”

“So’s everybody’s,” said Aunt Jamesina cheerfully. “Mine’s cracked in a hundred places. Your Miss Stacy likely meant that when you are twenty your character would have got its permanent bent in one direction or ‘tother, and would go on developing in that line. Don’t worry over it, Anne.”
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Favourite Movie Quotes (and Why)

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Four blocks that spell out the word hope I narrowed down this week’s topic to movie quotes only.

 

“Just keep swimming.” -Finding Nemo (2003)

Why I Love It: Sometimes this is the best advice for a hard day, week, month, or year!

 

“If you build it, he will come.” – Field of Dreams (1989)

Why I Love It: I’ve had multiple experiences in life that showed the value in putting in hard work long before you have any inkling if, how, or when that effort will pay off. More often than not, you will be rewarded when you least expect it.

 

“Roads? Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” – Back to the Future (1985)

Why I Love It: This makes me giggle. It’s as simple as that.

 

“There’s no crying in baseball!”  – A League of Their Own (1992)

Why I Love It: Not only does this make me giggle, the context gives me hope as well. This film was loosely based on the first women’s baseball teams in the United States during World War II. The players dealt with many naysayers who thought women shouldn’t play baseball, especially professionally. I truly enjoyed seeing how they and their coach responded to that and rose above everyone who tried to stop them.

 

“This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” – Casablanca (1942)

Why I Love It: There’s nothing like meeting someone and realizing that you two would make excellent friends.

 

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it, always.” – Gandhi (1982)

Why I Love It: Hope is something that should always be cultivated.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Romantic Quotes

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s prompt is a love freebie, so I decided to share some romantic quotes for it since this isn’t actually a holiday I observe.

How many of the other Top Ten Tuesday participants live in countries where candy conversation hearts are sold at this time of the year?  I enjoy them, but I haven’t seen them around much the last couple of years. Here’s hoping that changes soon.

If you celebrate Valentine’s Day and have a different favourite candy from it, I’d like to know about that, too!

1. “The very essence of romance is uncertainty.”
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays

A pink plate covered in candy conversation hearts. The six hearts we can read say "soul mate," love bug," "sweet talk," "say yes," "love," and "xoxo."2. “And he took her in his arms and kissed her under the sunlit sky, and he cared not that they stood high upon the walls in the sight of many.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

3. “Come sleep with me: We won’t make Love, Love will make us.”
Julio Cortázar

4. “It’s bullshit to think of friendship and romance as being different. They’re not. They’re just variations of the same love. Variations of the same desire to be close.”
Rachel Cohn, Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List

5. “your hand
touching mine.
this is how
galaxies
collide.”
Sanober Khan

6. “Love is too precious to be ashamed of.”
Laurell K. Hamilton, A Stroke of Midnight

7. “Before I fell
in love with words,
with setting skies
and singing birds—
it was you I fell
in love with first.”
Lang Leav, Love & Misadventure

a hot chocolate topped with whipped cream sitting in a pink, polka dotted mug. There are two heart-shaped cookies sitting on a doily next to the mug. 8. “Love, like everything else in life, should be a discovery, an adventure, and like most adventures, you don’t know you’re having one until you’re right in the middle of it.”
E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly,

9. “It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.”
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

10. “Giving generously in romantic relationships, and in all other bonds, means recognizing when the other person needs our attention. Attention is an important resource.”
Bell Hooks, All About Love: New Visions

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Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: My Favorite Quotes from Books

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Confession: I love quotes. (Those of you who already follow me on Twitter are no doubt 100% unsurprised by this).

I had to restrain myself for this week’s prompt. It would have been so easy to write a 1000+ word post and share dozens of quotes, but I’ll try to keep things short and sweet for the WWBC community.

One of my favourite Harry Potter quotes is in the photo I picked to accompany this post. If you can’t see it, it says “I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” I giggle every time I read it.

Technically, I don’t know that the next quote on this list is from a book. I’d like to think that Mark Twain would be amused by me bending the rules slightly to include him, though!

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
Mark Twain

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“The story so far:
In the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

“Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.”
Lemony Snicket

“Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying ‘End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH’, the paint wouldn’t even have time to dry.”
Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”
Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“Do your thing and don’t care if they like it.”
Tina Fey, Bossypants

“You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!”
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question. The image below is the list of upcoming prompts for this blog hop.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Inspirational/Thought-Provoking Book Quotes

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Here are some of my favourite inspirational and thought-provoking quotes. I honestly have no idea what else to write in the introduction to this post, so let’s move on to the quotes!

1. “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”  – Neil Gaiman, Coraline

2. “I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.”  – Brian Selznick, The Invention of Hugo Cabret

3.  ““What you imagine as overwhelming or terrifying while at leisure becomes something you can cope with when you must-there is no time for fear.”   – Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster

4. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”  – Leonard Cohen, Selected Poems, 1956-1968

5. “Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”  – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

6. “Whatever comes,” she said, “cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.”  – Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

7. “Adversity is like a strong wind. It…tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.” – Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

8. “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”  – Oscar Wilde, The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde

9. “There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.”  – John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

10. “But remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword.” – Rick Riordan, The Battle of the Labyrinth

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10 Quotes I Like About Mindfulness and Meditation

This year I’ve slowly gotten into the habit of collecting quotes about mindfulness and meditation that speak to me. Here are ten of my favourite ones so far. Most of them are serious. One is downright snarky in a funny, not cruel, sort of way.

A few of them might appear to contradict each other at first, but they will end up in the same place if you give yourself a chance to think about what they’re saying.

“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
Thich Nhat Hanh,

 

“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things – that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.”
Walter Isaacson

 

“Sometimes you need to sit lonely on the floor in a quiet room in order to hear your own voice and not let it drown in the noise of others.”
Charlotte Eriksson

 

“Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.”
Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

“I believe that reading and writing are the most nourishing forms of meditation anyone has so far found. By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.”
Kurt Vonnegut

 

“Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.”
Sharon Salzberg

 

“Sitting still is a pain in the ass.”
Noah Levine

 

“Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living.”
Elizabeth Lesser

 

“You cannot control the results, only your actions.”
Allan Lokos

 

“Mindfulness meditation doesn’t change life. Life remains as fragile and unpredictable as ever. Meditation changes the heart’s capacity to accept life as it is. It teaches the heart to be more accommodating, not by beating it into submission, but by making it clear that accommodation is a gratifying choice.”
Sylvia Boorstein

 

If you have a favourite quote on this topic, I’d love to hear it!

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