Love Quotes - 263 quotes

Love is a complex emotion characterized by deep affection, attachment, and care for someone or something. Romantic Love involves emotional and sexual attraction, passion, intimacy, and commitment. Platonic Love is the deep friendship and affection you feel for friends and family. Self-Love is the pe... show more

 and all you got to do is think it through you can't have love if you're not free if you're not free to choose your love it's not love at the point of a sword you can't have virtue at the point of the sword you have to be able to choose it it's not charity when Elizabeth Warren takes this guy's money and gives it to this guy it's charity when you reach into your pocket and say I would have liked to go to the movies but here's five bucks go buy yourself a burger that's charity that hurts that's hard everything else is just degrading
- Andrew Klavan
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 Beast: I wanna do something for her. But what? Cogsworth: Well, there's the usual things. Flowers, chocolates, promises you don't intend to keep. Lumière: Ah, no no. It has to be something very special. Something that sparks her interest.
- Beauty and the Beast (1991 Movie)
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 ... as the father i had the exact same experience...when did i first see my biological son? The day he was born i didn't carry him right ? My first interaction with him was the day he was born...well my first interaction with my adopted son was the day he was born...what difference is it to me?
- Dennis Prager
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 When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then it subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness. It is not excitement. It is not the desire to mate every second of the day. It is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every part of your body...No. Don't blush. I tell you some truths. That is just being in love. Which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is leftover when being in love has burned away. It doesn't sound very exciting does it? But it is.
- Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001 Movie)
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 Your work is going to fill a large part of your life. And the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle.
- Steve Jobs
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 As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it.
- Steve Jobs
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 Love without service is like faith without works.

- Aaron Critchfield

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 Love is in no way essential to a successful marriage. ~ General Léonard Duphot

- Allison Pataki

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 Love begins in how we communicate with and about one another.

- Ally Isom

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 Without love, justice is rendered ultimately incapable of establishing or restoring right relationships between God and humanity or between neighbors. In fact, without love, justice can actually destroy the possibility of right relationships.

- Anonymous

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 The humility of love constitutes the proper exercise of power. Look to Christ on the Cross (the omnipotent, all-powerful God).

- Anonymous

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 U.S.—The party known for being loving and tolerant of everyone also wished for the death of their political opponent this week, with many Democrats on social media erupting in celebration as Senator Rand Paul announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus. "Love everyone, unless they are on the other side of the aisle from you, then may they die a horrible death," said vocal progressive activist Squish McGee. "We are all about loving people who are different from ourselves, as long as they think exactly the same. It's all about love, bro. Also, I hope you die if you think slightly differently." Nancy Pelosi's daughter, Christine Pelosi, tweeted, "Rand Paul's neighbor was right," referring to an incident where Paul's neighbor had brutally assaulted him, once again showing what good Catholics the Pelosis are. "We don't hate anyone," Christine Pelosi said. "We're good Catholics, and we aren't allowed to hate. That's just science." "And apropos of nothing, I wish Rand had been beaten to death, and I hope the coronavirus finishes the job Paul's neighbor started," she added. "Also, how dare you."

- Babylone Bee

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 And in your daily acts of citizenship, I see our future unfolding...It’s the son who finds the courage to come out as who he is, and the father whose love for that son overrides everything he’s been taught.

- Barack Obama

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 Some members wonder why their priesthood leaders will not accept them just as they are and simply comfort them in what they call pure Christian love. Pure Christian love, the love of Christ, does not presuppose approval of all conduct. Surely the ordinary experiences of parenthood teach that one can be consumed with love for another and yet be unable to approve unworthy conduct. ...If we, out of sympathy, should approve unworthy conduct, it might give present comfort to someone but would not ultimately contribute to that person’s happiness.

- Boyd K. Packer

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 Some members wonder why their priesthood leaders will not accept them just as they are and simply comfort them in what they call pure Christian love. Pure Christian love, the love of Christ, does not presuppose approval of all conduct. Surely the ordinary experiences of parenthood teach that one can be consumed with love for another and yet be unable to approve unworthy conduct. We cannot, as a church, approve unworthy conduct or accept into full fellowship individuals who live or who teach standards that are grossly in violation of that which the Lord requires of Latter-day Saints. If we, out of sympathy, should approve unworthy conduct, it might give present comfort to someone but would not ultimately contribute to that person’s happiness.

- Boyd K. Packer

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 We cannot, as a church, approve unworthy conduct or accept into full fellowship individuals who live or who teach standards that are grossly in violation of that which the Lord requires of Latter-day Saints. If we, out of sympathy, should approve unworthy conduct, it might give present comfort to someone but would not ultimately contribute to that person’s happiness.

- Boyd K. Packer

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 The things you love about others are the things you love about yourself. The things you hate about others are the things you cannot see in yourself.

- Brianna Wiest

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 Do I say Love your enemies? Yes, upon certain principles. But you are not required to love their wickedness: you are only required to love them so far as concerns a desire and effort to turn them from their evil ways, that they may be saved through obedience to the Gospel.

- Brigham Young

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 Do I love murderers and mobocrats as I do good men? No. Do I pray for them? Yes, that the Lord would judge them out of their own mouths, and that speedily.

- Brigham Young

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 'Love your enemies!' What, love hell? When people do that, they get where devils are…I would feed and clothe them, take peculiar care of them, and place them where they would not hurt anybody.

- Brigham Young

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 I have not much love for them, only in the Gospel. I would cause them to repent, if I could, and make them good men and a good community. I have no fellowship for their avarice, blindness, and ungodly actions. To be great, is to be good before the Heavens and before all good men. I will not fellowship the wicked in their sins, so help me God.

- Brigham Young

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 Love your enemies! What, love hell? When people do that, they get where devils are. If it had been written, 'Love the spirits God has placed in tabernacles, and try to reclaim them and do them good, and pray for those who despitefully use you,' I would feed and clothe them, take peculiar care of them, and place them where they would not hurt anybody. You may think that I am disputing the Bible. If you understood what the Lord means when he talks about loving His children, you would understand that he does not love them as they are now; for he hates and is angry with the wicked. He dislikes their wicked acts, but he loves His children, because he has organized them, and he wishes to see them obedient.

- Brigham Young

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 Do I say love your enemies? Yes, upon certain principles. But you are not required to love their wickedness: you are only required to love them so far as concerns a desire and effort to turn them from their evil ways, that they may be saved through obedience to the gospel.

- Brigham Young

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 You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.

- Cheryl Strayed

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 When you're having dealings with a woman, you cannot say 'I love you' too often....It applies to all women....Gender is a far more important distinction than race. ~ Sephrenia, High Priestess of Aphrael

- David Eddings

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 That's why my favorite verse from the Bible -- I am a God-believing individual, and the Bible is the book of my wisdom, and I often debate which is my favorite verse, but I have to say, at this time, my favorite verse is, "Those of you who love God, must hate evil."  It is an actual -- It is a scriptural directive.  If you don't hate evil, you don't love God.  Okay?  It's simple as that.  And so there's a directive to hate evil.

- Dennis Prager

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 Love conquers all pre-maritally. Not post.

- Dennis Prager

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 Our part is to love and serve God and to love and serve God’s children. As you do so, God will encircle you with His love, joy, and certain guidance through this life, even under the most serious circumstances, and even beyond.

- Dieter F. Uchtdorf

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 Truly He loves us, and because He loves us, He neither compels nor abandons us.

- D. Todd Christofferson

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 Perhaps it goes without saying that despite genuine love and sincerity, many, if not most, of our invitations to share the message of the Restoration will be declined. But remember this: everyone is worthy of such an invitation—“all are alike unto God”;11 the Lord is pleased with every effort we make, no matter the outcome; a declined invitation is no reason for our association to end; and a lack of interest today may well turn to interest tomorrow. Regardless, our love remains constant.

- D. Todd Christofferson

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 The love we know here is not a fleeting shadow, but the very substance that binds families together for time and eternity.

- Ezra Taft Benson

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 The love we know here is not a fleeting shadow, but the very substance that binds families together for time and eternity.

- Ezra Taft Benson

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 Love is not simply social assistance and certainly not social assistance to reassure consciences. That is a business (and) those are transactions. Love is free. Charity, love is (a) life choice...it is a path of humility and solidarity.

- Francis, Pope

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 This respect comes of recognition that each of us is a son or daughter of God, endowed with something of his divine nature, that each is an individual entitled to expression and cultivation of individual talents and deserving of forbearance, of patience, of understanding, of courtesy, of thoughtful consideration. True love is not so much a matter of romance as it is a matter of anxious concern for the well being of one’s companion.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 Companionship in marriage is prone to become commonplace and even dull. I know of no more certain way to keep it on a lofty and inspiring plane than for a man occasionally to reflect upon the fact that the help-meet who stands at his side is a daughter of God, engaged with Him in the great creative process of bringing to pass His eternal purposes. I know of no more effective way for a woman to keep ever radiant the love for her husband than for her to look for and emphasize the godly qualities that are a part of every son of our Father and that can be evoked when there is respect and admiration and encouragement. The very processes of such actions will cultivate a constantly rewarding appreciation for one another.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 We seldom get into trouble when we speak softly. It is only when we raise our voices that the sparks fly and tiny molehills become great mountains of contention. To me there has always been something significant in the description of the prophet Elijah’s contest with the priests of Baal. The scripture records that “a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks … but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 There is need for a vast amount of discipline in marriage, not of one’s companion, but of one’s self.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 I know of few more meaningful statements for fathers and for fathers-to-be than this counsel given by President David O. McKay. Said he: “A father can do no greater thing for his children than to let them feel that he loves their mother.”

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 I repeat, the voice of domestic peace is a gentle voice

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 I am convinced that there is no better discipline nor one more fruitful of blessings than for those who establish homes and families to follow the commandment given to ancient Israel through the prophet Malachi: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, … and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” (Mal. 3:10.)

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 Marriage usually brings with it the incurring of many obligations. To you, my young friends, I should like to suggest that you make it your first obligation to live honestly with God in the payment of your tithes and offerings. You will need his blessings; oh, how much you will need them! I give you my solemn testimony that he does that which he has promised to do. Among those blessings will be peace in the home and love in the heart.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 As you discipline yourselves in the expenditure of your means, beginning with your obligations to your Father in heaven, the cankering selfishness that leads to so much strain in domestic affairs will go out of your lives, for if you will share with the Lord whom you do not see, you will deal more graciously, more honestly, and more generously with those whom you do see. As you live honestly with God, you will be inclined to live honestly with one another.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 I know of no single practice that will have a more salutary effect upon your lives than the practice of kneeling together as you begin and close each day. Somehow the little storms that seem to afflict every marriage are dissipated when, kneeling before the Lord, you thank him for one another, in the presence of one another, and then together invoke his blessings upon your lives, your home, your loved ones, and your dreams.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 God then will be your partner, and your daily conversations with him will bring peace into your hearts and a joy into your lives that can come from no other source. Your companionship will sweeten through the years; your love will strengthen. Your appreciation for one another will grow.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 Your children will know the security of a home where dwells the Spirit of the Lord. You will gather them together in that home, as the Church has counseled, and teach them in love. They will know parents who respect one another, and a spirit of respect will grow in their hearts. They will experience the security of the kind word softly spoken, and the tempests of their own lives will be stilled. They will know a father and mother who, living honestly with God, live honestly also with one another and with their fellowmen. They will grow up with a sense of appreciation, having heard their parents in prayer express gratitude for blessings great and small. They will mature with faith in the living God.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 The destroying angel of domestic bitterness will pass you by and you will know peace and love throughout your lives which may be extended into all eternity. I could wish for you no greater blessing, and for this I humbly pray in your behalf, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 If the world is to be improved, the process of love must make a change in the hearts of men. It can do so when we look beyond self to give our love to God and others, and do so with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 Racial strife still lifts its ugly head. I am advised that even right here among us there is some of this. I cannot understand how it can be... ...I am told that racial slurs and denigrating remarks are sometimes heard among us. I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ... I have recognized and spoken a number of times on the diversity we see in our society. It is all about us, and we must make an effort to accommodate that diversity. Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children. ...there is no basis for racial hatred among the priesthood of this Church. If any within the sound of my voice is inclined to indulge in this, then let him go before the Lord and ask for forgiveness and be no more involved in such.

- Gordon B. Hinckley

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 Love makes hunters of us all.

- Gregory Maguire

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 Cultivate love, for love is the light that gives the eye to see great and noble things.

- Helen Keller

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 You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.

- Henry Drummond

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 “Love is the very difficult understanding that something other than yourself is real.”

- Iris Murdoch

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 The more romantic the advice, the more likely it is to be wrong. Your brain isn't limitless so use it wisely. Love does not conquer all, so love judiciously but generously.

- Jacob Manalan

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 This caused great sadness, “for the heavens wept over him—he was Lucifer, a son of the morning.” Does this not place some responsibility on the followers of Christ to show concern for loved ones who have lost their way and “are shut out from the presence of God”? I know of no better way than to show unconditional love and help lost souls seek another path.

- James E. Faust

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 At the zenith of His mortal ministry, Jesus said, "Love one another, as I have loved you." To make certain they understood exactly what kind of love that was, He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments" and “whosoever ... shall break one of [the] least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be ... the least in the kingdom of heaven."

- Jeffrey R. Holland

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 Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others.

- Jeffrey R. Holland

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 “God expects you to have enough faith and determination and enough trust in Him to keep moving, keep living, keep rejoicing. In fact, He expects you not simply to face the future (that sounds pretty grim and stoic); He expects you to embrace and shape the future--to love it and rejoice in it and delight in your opportunities. God is anxiously waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as He always has. But He can’t if you don’t pray, and He can’t if you don’t dream. In short, He can’t if you don’t believe.”

- Jeffrey R. Holland

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 But, he also said, “we have to be careful that love and empathy do not get interpreted as condoning and advocacy, or that orthodoxy and loyalty to principle not be interpreted as unkindness or disloyalty to people. As near as I can tell, Christ never once withheld His love from anyone, but He also never once said to anyone, “Because I love you, you are exempt from keeping my commandments.” We are tasked with trying to strike that same sensitive, demanding balance in our lives.”

- Jeffrey R. Holland

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 So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be, then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others. Jesus clearly understood what many in our modern culture seem to forget: that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinite capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it (which He never ever did even once).

- Jeffrey R. Holland

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 Yet McGinley was not simply some reactionary fossil preaching a revanchist view of American motherhood or womanhood. Rather, like any sensible traditionalist, she sought a balance. Her goal was not the destruction of the working woman, but the elevation of the homemaker and mother. At the heart of this vision was her advocacy of “casual motherhood,” one that respects a mother’s identity not just as a nurturer but as a person with her own life goals: “Love with a casual touch never says, ‘My children are my life.’ That mother makes a life of her own which is full enough and rewarding enough to sustain her. And she permits her young to let their lives be individual accomplishments.”

- Jeremy Carl

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 We celebrate this Mother’s Day at a time when American motherhood is under siege, with fertility at record lows and the traditional family often the subject of pop-culture mockery. At a time when dysfunctionality and despair are considered by many an essential part of the artistic temperament, McGinley is a reminder that great art can celebrate joy and health and that the maternal can stand on its own as an eternal human value and measure of worth.

- Jeremy Carl

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 If you keep not my commandments, the love of the Father shall not continue with you, therefore you shall walk in darkness.

- Jesus Christ

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 For verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a a sign that they may bconsume it upon their lusts.

- Jesus Christ

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 The worst thing in the world when you feel broken is to have somebody coming at you with open-faced love.

- Jim Carrey

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 Lehi then stated, “I beckoned unto them; and I also did say unto them with a loud voice that they should come unto me, and partake of the fruit.”16 Please note that Lehi did not leave the tree of life. He stayed spiritually with the Lord and invited his family to come where he was to partake of the fruit. The adversary would entice some to leave the joy of the gospel by separating Christ’s teachings from His Church. He would have us believe that we can stay firmly on the covenant path on our own, through our own spirituality, independent of His Church. In these latter days, Christ’s Church was restored in order to help Christ’s covenant children stay on His covenant path.

- John A. McCune

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 Mutual expressions of love are seldom impressive to anyone not taking part in them.

- John Le Carré

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 The Lord compensates the faithful for every loss. That which is taken away from those who love the Lord will be added unto them in His own way. While it may not come at the time we desire, the faithful will know that every tear today will eventually be returned a hundredfold with tears of rejoicing and gratitude.

- Joseph B. Wirthlin

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 Everyone is pleased to speak of God’s love; rare are the mentions of his wrath or displeasure.

- Joseph Fielding McConkie

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 It is not an unusual thing to have students cover willful disobedience in the blanket of God’s love and to advance the idea of a universal salvation that sounds dangerously like that advocated by Lucifer in the councils of heaven.

- Joseph Fielding McConkie

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 There is a difference between the love we should bear towards our enemies and that we should bear towards our friends.

- Joseph F. Smith

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 But we do not love to associate with our enemies, and I do not think the Lord requires us to do it. If He does He will have to reveal it, for I cannot find it anywhere revealed.

- Joseph F. Smith

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 I do not love them so that I would take them into my bosom, or invite them to associate with my family, or that I would give my daughters to their embraces, nor my sons to their counsels. I do not love them so well that I would invite them to the councils of the Priesthood, and the ordinances of the House of God, to scoff and jeer at sacred things which they do not understand, nor would I share with them the inheritance that God, my Father, has given me in Zion.

- Joseph F. Smith

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 Love is one of the chief characteristics of Deity, and ought to be manifested by those who aspire to be the sons of God. A man filled with the love of God, is not content with blessing his family alone, but ranges through the whole world, anxious to bless the whole human race.

- Joseph Smith

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 Don't envy sinners---have mercy on them. God will destroy them.

- Joseph Smith

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 ...Melancholy and awful that so many are under the condemnation of the devil and going to perdition.... they should be cast out from this Society, yet we should woo them to return to God lest they escape not the damnation of hell!

- Joseph Smith

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 Nothing is so much calculated to lead people to forsake sin as to take them by the hand and watch over them with tenderness.

- Joseph Smith

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 “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

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 Many parents are given automatic credit for "loving" their kids even as they treat those beloved offspring like accessories to, and burdens on, their self-centered lives. Parents may have moments, even many moments, where they feel a deep affection for their children, but if that affection is not consistently expressed through action and sacrifice, then it isn’t love. Those parents love their kids in about the same way they love the family dog — maybe less.

- Matt Walsh

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 The love between husband and wife, consecrated by God, serves as the foundation of a properly ordered family. Their love literally gives birth to their children. As the kids grow older, they will depend upon that love and look to it for comfort, security, and direction. Husband and wife were there before the kids existed, and, if they honor their vows and stay alive and healthy, they’ll be there together long after the kids have moved out and started their own families. If spouses put their kids first, what do they do before the kids are born, and what will they do after they leave? And anyway, how can it be proper and right to love a child more than you love the person who gave you that child?

- Matt Walsh

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 Everything in a family hinges on and depends upon the love between the mother and father. The family lives or dies by it. We may gain some emotional benefit from spoiling our kids, but what they need — what gives them the greatest benefit — is to see a father who honors his wife and a mother who respects her husband. One way or another, whether we like or not, they will learn far more about love from observing us than they will from the hugs and kisses we heap on them.

- Matt Walsh

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 A husband does not need to earn his wife’s respect any more than a wife needs to earn her husband’s love. A wife ought to respect her husband because he is her husband, just as he ought to love and honor her because she is his wife. Your husband might “deserve” it when you mock him, berate him, belittle him, and nag him, but you don’t marry someone in order to give them what they deserve. In marriage, you give them what you’ve promised.

- Matt Walsh

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 This doesn’t mean that a man has a license to be lazy, abusive, or uncaring. Precisely the opposite. He is challenged to live up to the respect his wife has for him. But if his wife parcels out her respect on a reward system, the husband will feel demoralized and empty. He will not feel at home in his home. He will not have the sense of masculine purpose and fulfillment that his family life ought to afford him. After a while, he will dread coming home at night, preferring to remain at work where his contributions are appreciated and his talents are admired. Now the marriage has entered a very dangerous place. If a man feels more like a man when he’s away from his wife than when he’s with her, disaster is right around the corner. The marriage is already half-dead. It won’t take much to finish it off.

- Matt Walsh

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 We all seem to understand that love is supposed to be unconditional, but we struggle to see how respect must be the same. I wonder: how would we respond to a husband who says he is not going to love his wife because she hasn’t earned it? What would we say about a man who chooses to act unlovingly toward his wife because she isn’t doing a good job of keeping the house together, or she doesn’t have dinner ready when he comes home, or she isn’t properly satisfying him in other ways, or she isn’t doing all the things he demands on the timetable that he prefers? Even if it were true that the wife is slacking in her responsibilities, we would consider the man to be a monster for holding that over her head or using it as an excuse to degrade and demean her.

- Matt Walsh

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 So, why do we accept this approach from women? Why is it considered appropriate for a woman to order her husband around, but not the reverse? Why is it normal in our culture for a woman to assign a list of chores to her husband (the “Honey Do List,” we call it), yet we would think a man tyrannical and possibly abusive if he gave his wife her own list of mandatory assignments for the day? "Headed to work, honey. Your chore list is on the fridge." Why do we think nothing of women who sit around complaining to each other about their husbands, even when those very same women would be devastated if their husbands did the same? Why is it acceptable for a woman to kick a man out of his own bed and banish him to the living room like a scolded puppy, while it would be seen as entirely unacceptable for a man to pull the same stunt with his wife? Imagine a wife saying to her girlfriends, “I’m really in the doghouse, girls. My husband made me sleep on the couch last night.” Her friends would probably tell her to call the police and file for divorce.

- Matt Walsh

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 A man in this situation is called nonetheless to endure, to fight for his family, and never to be unfaithful to his wife or leave her. But if he does wander, it should be noted that he is not the only traitor in the marriage. She betrayed him. She promised him a wife and instead gave him a stepmother. The two have now betrayed each other, each in their own way. There are two sides to every story, as they say. I think this is the side that is not often told.

- Matt Walsh

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 But it's not really love. Yes, some people do love their pets, and love them in a healthy way, by loving them in accordance with the natural order of things. But people who love their pets more than they love people don't actually love pets at all. They don't love anything. More precisely, what they love about the pet is what it does for them and how it makes them feel. They love themselves through their pets. The animal is a blank slate that the loveless modern man can turn into a little avatar of himself. He worships his dog because his dog worships him.

- Matt Walsh

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 Of course, a tree or a rock or an orange has never lied to anyone, either. A paper towel has never cut me off in traffic. A pair of shoes has never taken too long ordering food in the drive thru while I'm starving to death a few cars behind. A box of crayons has never texted in a movie theater. A dandelion has never deleted the show I had saved on the DVR. Plants, animals, and inanimate objects have never committed any evil acts at all, because they are not capable of committing evil acts. It is not a mushroom's superior virtue that prevents it from becoming a terrorist; it is the fact that it's a mushroom. Your dog cannot hurt you like your brother can hurt you, because he is a dog. It's not that he's making better moral choices than the humans in your life, it's that he's not making any moral choices at all.

- Matt Walsh

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 It is pure unadulterated narcissism that leads a man in this direction. He is rejecting the entire human race because the human race requires too much of him. It is not subservient enough. It will not lie down and lick his palms, so he dismisses it outright. And here is the most tragic thing of all: while he protects himself from greater pains by idolizing a lesser being, he has excluded himself from the greater joy that comes from loving a greater being. I'm afraid that one day, when he's dying alone with only his mutt to mourn him, he'll regret that choice.

- Matt Walsh

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 We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.

- Maya Angelou

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 If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.

- Maya Angelou

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 Love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free. A Brave and Startling Truth.

- Maya Angelou

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 I don't care how much you love each other, if you have secrets, it'll never work. That's why she's your loved one, because it's the love of one. Togetherness, you are one.

- Mike Tyson

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 Let men tremble to win the hand of a woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart!

- Nathaniel Hawthorn

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 Though His plans are known to Him, there is no premature exposure of the Lord's plans. This could bring unnecessary persecution upon an unready Lord's people. Further, a premature showing of His power and strength in support of His Saints could cut short the trial of our faith.

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 The future duties to be given to some of us in the worlds to come by an omniscient God will require of us an earned sense of esteem as well as proof of our competency. Thus the tests given to us here are given not because God is in doubt as to the outcome, but because we need to grow in order to be able to serve with full effectiveness in the eternity to come. Further, to be untested and unproven is also to be unaware of all that we are. If we are unknowing of our possibilities, with what could we safely be entrusted? Could we in ignorance of our capacities trust ourselves? Could others then be entrusted to us? Thus the relentless love of our Father in heaven is such that in His omniscience, He will not allow the cutting short some of the brief experiences we are having here. To do so would be to deprive us of everlasting experiences and great joy there. What else would an omniscient and loving Father do, even if we plead otherwise? He must at times say no. Furthermore, since there was no exemption from suffering for Christ, how can there be one for us? Do we really want immunity from adversity? Especially when certain kinds of suffering can aid our growth in this life? To deprive ourselves of those experiences, much as we might momentarily like to, would be to deprive ourselves of the outcomes over which we shouted with anticipated joy when this life's experiences were explained to us so long ago, in the world before we came here.

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 Afflictions can soften us and sweeten us, and can be a chastening influence. (Alma 62:41.) We often think of chastening as something being done to punish us, such as by a mortal tutor who is angry and peevish with us. Divine chastening, however, is a form of learning as it is administered at the hands of a loving Father. (Helaman 12:3.)

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 Elder James E. Faust of the Council of the Twelve has said, "In the pain, the agony, and the heroic endeavors of life, we pass through the refiner's fire, and the insignificant and the unimportant in our lives can melt away like dross and make our faith bright, intact, and strong." (Ensign, May 1979, p. 53.) Elder Faust continued, "This change comes about through a refining process which often seems cruel and hard. In this way the soul can become like soft clay in the hands of the Master." (Ibid.)

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 Isn't it interesting that of the many ways in which the Lord might have phrased the object of the "thou shalt" in the second great commandment, He chose the word neighbor—not mankind, not organizations, not people, and not society, but neighbor. In keeping the second great commandment, the most significant and basic service we can regularly render unto others will emerge from our most basic roles—as brothers and sisters, as parents, as neighbors, as disciples. What we do vocationally and professionally matters, of course—and sometimes very much. But those of us who try to escape from, or neglect, our basic roles will find that we have only made the effective keeping of the second great commandment even more difficult. Keeping the commandments and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ are the two most relevant things we can do to assist our fellowman in our time. In addition to keeping the second commandment by direct service to others, what a service we render others when we do not commit adultery or steal, even though these become more and more fashionable!

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 Our capacity to grow and to assist each other depends very much upon our being "willing to communicate." (1 Timothy 6:18) Communication includes proper measures of counsel, correction, and commendation. Since we depend upon each other to supply these ingredients in our lives, our insensitivity in communicating can be far more damaging than we realize. When we "pass by" others and "notice them not," a degree of deprivation occurs. (Mormon 8:39.) One of the ways, therefore, we will be "proved herewith" is our determination as to whether or not we love others enough to give and to receive such vital communications. We may quickly say that communicating thusly with those close to us is difficult; indeed, it is, but with whom else is it really possible? Are not the people proximate to us our tiny portion of humanity, given to us by God as our social stewardship? We can scarcely attain that attribute of sainthood—being "full of love" (Mosiah 3:19)—unless we are willing to communicate by giving and receiving appropriate counsel, correction, and commendation.

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 Yes, one of the great challenges of life is for us not to give justifiable offense, nor to be offended. This can be more easily avoided if our brotherhood and sisterhood are real—and if we are willing to communicate, including the difficult giving and receiving of counsel, correction, and commendation. Helping relationships always involve some weighty communications. The true Christian is a communicator.

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 It is so easy to pass by, especially when we are busy and when we are on the equivalent of the other side of the street. We are busy being busy. We are often actually less generous with our time than with our money. We keep forgetting where our time comes from!

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 If we truly care about giving counsel and correction, in addition to taking the time to ponder beforehand the content and substance, we will make certain that our voice tone, bodily posture, and facial expression "are all enlisted," so that the moment draws the best out of us, in order to have the best chance of completing the communication circuit. Timing is often as crucial as content.

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 We should learn from our errors, but we ought to forget them as soon as we can. There may be some value in "instant replay" in order to learn what we can and then move on. But some of us engage in "constant replay," which can be enervative and destructive of our self-confidence.

- Neal A. Maxwell

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 No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

- Nelson Mandela

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 No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

- Nelson Mandela

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 Any man can tell if a woman loves him. All he has to do is kiss her. ~ Smitty

- Norene Morris

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 Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.

- Oscar Wilde

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 “A guy who gives you less that what he has to give is, one, telling you what he thinks of you, and two, telling you what he thinks of himself.”

- Pete Carril

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 Men in love always promise they will give the woman they love everything she wants; women in love always trust the men they love in spite of themselves.

- Philippa Gregory

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 First young love - (is) totally abandoned, without caution or forethought. The acceptance, each of the other, (is) complete.

- Phyllis Whitney

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 No one (can) OWE love. Love (makes) its own rules.

- Phyllis Whitney

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 Love finally asks much more of us than justice or fairness; it asks us not only to respect and negotiate rights but to regard other human beings as our brothers and sisters with the potential to become like Heavenly Father and live with him eternally. Whereas fairness addresses the complexities of our mortal situation, love is the bond of a celestial eternity.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 Our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are the ultimate Givers. The more we distance ourselves from Them, the more entitled we feel. We begin to think that we deserve grace and are owed blessings. We are more prone to look around, identify inequities, and feel aggrieved—even offended—by the unfairness we perceive. While the unfairness can range from trivial to gut-wrenching, when we are distant from God, even small inequities loom large. We feel that God has an obligation to fix things—and fix them right now!

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 “In one of the Savior’s final lessons to His disciples,” Pres. Uchtdorf teaches, “he spoke to them of the final Judgment. The wicked and the righteous would be separated. The good would inherit eternal life; the wicked would be delivered to eternal punishment.” In being “fair” to those who reject the very distinction between righteousness and wickedness, we must never forget the reality of eternal consequences. Love must not be defined by the political complexities of “fairness;” rather, true fairness must be understood in the light of the only true love.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 Both of these thoughtful and faithful young Latter-day Saints were effectively falling in with the “Love Wins” mentality, not out of any particular enthusiasm for sexual liberation or revolution in family structure, but according to the logic of universalism, inclusiveness, which indeed seems to be a defining gesture of the Gospel, and especially of Paul’s letters. Similarly, when an account of Elder Holland’s recent address at BYU Education Week, which included a strong warning against the rising tide of secularism, was published in the Deseret News, the first online comment that appeared chastised the apostle for erecting “walls” when he should be “building bridges.” It seems to me, though, that there is a pretty simple logical problem with this movement of thought: universalism is by itself empty and meaningless: there must be some content, some substance, to be universalized, something to be shared. A bridge must be from somewhere to somewhere. Every outreach presupposes an affirmation, every extension a center, every movement of compassion some understanding of the good, of what it would mean to heal. The enthusiasm for inclusiveness or the movement of compassion without regard to content is not only religiously suicidal but logically incoherent.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 The prospects for a respectful “pluralism” obviously remain dim as long as “civil rights” is interpreted to imply the absolutism of a “non-discrimination” in which sexual minorities, unlike religious minorities, are considered a favored class. That is, if people of traditional religious beliefs regarding sexual morality and the meaning of marriage are necessarily classified as intolerant, sexist and homophobic, then appeals to “religious liberty” will count for nothing against the exacting justice of “non-discrimination.” The appeal to “fairness” presupposes some minimal agreement on justice, and that is what increasingly appears to be lacking.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 What is the thrust of these images, these appeals? What they imply is that there is no difficult question of constitutional law or political philosophy to examine, nothing to debate regarding moral and social purposes of the natural family or the ethical principles that underlie our social compact: the simple word “love,” and the feeling it is supposed to evoke, are held to have settled all such questions. If you are not against love, then you cannot oppose the indefinite expansion of “rights” protecting sexual expression and affirming diverse lifestyles. And who can be against love?

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 Progressive liberalism claims the authority of reason and of openness to a “diversity” of views and ways of life. But the Love Wins mantra reveals the sacred dogma that underlies the pose of open-minded rationalism: “love” understood as boundless acceptance and empathy, excluding all moral judgment, is the new, unquestioned standard of moral judgment. And the prestige of this secular love, impatient with all boundaries and standards, is clearly a residue (however distorted and misapplied) of the very Christianity that secularism must overcome. Secularism is the secularized residue of Christianity. And this residue, in the form of the ideology of “love,” wields amazing dogmatic authority in our supposedly free-thinking secular age.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 Question every authority, progressive liberalism entices us, but do not even think about questioning “love,” meaning absolute acceptance and non-judgmental empathy, as the sole standard of human goodness. Never in the darkest of Christian “Dark Ages” did an ideological authority envision such a total domination over the human mind and heart as that asserted by the post-Christian humanistic religion of “love.”

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 The counterfeiting of “love,” the central ideal of Christianity, for purposes directly contrary to basic Christian morality is a beguiling argument because it seems to allow an individual to avoid the hard choice between the Church and the world, the Tree of Life and the Great and Spacious Building.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 If “love” can be reduced to “non-discrimination,” then one can be a true Christian by abandoning the burden of traditional Christian morality and embracing the ethics of a relativist society.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 Unfortunately, this debasing of the idea of Christian love has proved attractive even among Latter-day Saints, including prominent voices in LDS higher education, who have every reason to know better.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 One way of separating love from morality that is popular among LDS critics of the Church’s teachings on sexual morality and the family is to use the language of humility to set aside our moral principles while elevating “love” (now severed from definite moral principles) as the whole substance of religion.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 Thus the counsel of Church Leaders is turned on its head: rather than standing up for an unpopular truth, we are urged, in the name of “humility” and of a “love” severed from commandments and eternal purposes, to consider all opinions as equally uncertain.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 ...If we have no reliable access to truth, then all views are mere individual “preferences” – and so why should any preference for one lifestyle or another be favored?

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 The essence of the Love Wins strategy is contained in this formula: the imperative to spread the message trumps any content of the message.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 No distinction is admitted between desires for good eternal outcomes and bad ones, because any deliberate pursuit of goals is considered a denial of God’s grace. We are supposed to let go of what we think we want and simply be open to whatever God gives. There is no room in such a radical philosophy of grace for a plan of salvation or a “great plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8) – since planning itself is inherently sinful.

- Ralph C. Hancock

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 President Russell M. Nelson has said: “Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the deepest expressions of pure love. … “Moreover, we can’t fully appreciate joyful reunions later without tearful separations now. The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.”

- Reyna I. Aburto

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 President Nelson has taught: “Death is a necessary component of our eternal existence. No one knows when it will come, but it is essential to God’s great plan of happiness. Thanks to the Atonement of the Lord, eventual resurrection is a reality and eternal life is a possibility for all humankind. … “… For sorrowing loved ones left behind … the sting of death is soothed by a steadfast faith in Christ, a perfect brightness of hope, a love of God and of all men, and a deep desire to serve them. That faith, that hope, that love will qualify us to come into God’s holy presence and, with our eternal companions and families, dwell with Him forever.”

- Reyna I. Aburto

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 Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more — more unseen forms become manifest to him.

- Rumi

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 Are you fleeing from Love because of a single humiliation? What do you know of Love except the name? Love has a hundred forms of pride and disdain, and is gained by a hundred means of persuasion. Since Love is loyal, it purchases one who is loyal: it has no interest in a disloyal companion.

- Rumi

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 Come, seek, for search is the foundation of fortune: every success depends upon focusing the heart.

- Rumi

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 That which God said to the rose, and caused it to laugh in full-blown beauty, He said to my heart, and made it a hundred times more beautiful.

- Rumi

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 To Love is to reach God.

- Rumi

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 Love rests on no foundation. It is an endless ocean, with no beginning or end.

- Rumi

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 They will ask you what you have produced. Say to them, except for Love, what else can a Lover produce?

- Rumi

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 This is a gathering of Lovers. In this gathering there is no high, no low, no smart, no ignorant, no special assembly, no grand discourse, no proper schooling required. There is no master, no disciple. This gathering is more like a drunken party, full of tricksters, fools, mad men and mad women. This is a gathering of Lovers.

- Rumi

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 Love said to me, there is nothing that is not me. Be silent.

- Rumi

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 Love is best when mixed with anguish. In our town, we won't call you a Lover if you escape the pain. Look for Love in this way, welcome it to your soul, and watch you spirit fly away in ecstasy.

- Rumi

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 Prayer is a key. Pray to know what to stop doing and what to start doing. Pray to know what to add to your environment and what to remove so the Spirit can be with you in abundance. Plead with the Lord for the gift of discernment. Then live and work to be worthy to receive that gift so that when confusing events arise in the world, you will know exactly what is true and what is not. Serve with love. Loving service to those who have lost their way or who are wounded in spirit opens your heart to personal revelation. Spend more time—much more time—in places where the Spirit is present. That means more time with friends who are seeking to have the Spirit with them. Spend more time on your knees in prayer, more time in the scriptures, more time in family history work, more time in the temple. I promise you that as you consistently give the Lord a generous portion of your time, He will multiply the remainder.

- Russell M. Nelson

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 You are constantly mindful of the Savior’s atonement and rejoice in His unconditional love.

- Russell M. Nelson

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 Now may I offer an important note of caution. An erroneous assumption could be made that if a little of something is good, a lot must be better. Not so! Overdoses of needed medication can be toxic. Boundless mercy could oppose justice. So tolerance, without limit, could lead to spineless permissiveness.

- Russell M. Nelson

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 They do not love that do not show their love.

- Shakespeare

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 They do not love that do not show their love.

- Shakespeare

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 Jesus saw sin as wrong but also was able to see sin as springing from deep and unmet needs on the part of the sinner. This permitted him to condemn the sin without condemning the individual. We can show forth our love for others even when we are called upon to correct them. We need to be able to look deeply enough into the lives of others to see the basic causes for their failures and shortcomings.

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 Jesus’ leadership emphasized the importance of being discerning with regard to others, without seeking to control them. He cared about the freedom of his followers to choose. Even he, in those moments that mattered so much, had to choose voluntarily to go through Gethsemane and to hang on the cross at Calvary. He taught us that there can be no growth without real freedom. One of the problems with manipulative leadership is that it does not spring from a love of others but from a need to use them. Such leaders focus on their own needs and desires and not on the needs of others.

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 Jesus was not afraid to make demands of those he led. His leadership was not condescending or soft. He had the courage to call Peter and others to leave their fishing nets and to follow him, not after the fishing season or after the next catch, but now! today! Jesus let people know that he believed in them and in their possibilities, and thus he was free to help them stretch their souls in fresh achievement. So much secular leadership is condescending and, in many ways, contemptuous of mankind because it treats people as if they were to be coddled and cocooned forever. Jesus believed in his followers, not alone for what they were, but for what they had the possibilities to become. While others would have seen Peter as a fisherman, Jesus could see him as a powerful religious leader—courageous, strong—who would leave his mark upon much of mankind. In loving others, we can help them to grow by making reasonable but real demands of them.

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 Jesus gave people truths and tasks that were matched to their capacity. He did not overwhelm them with more than they could manage, but gave them enough to stretch their souls. Jesus was concerned with basics in human nature and in bringing about lasting changes, not simply cosmetic changes.

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 Jesus also taught us how important it is to use our time wisely. This does not mean there can never be any leisure, for there must be time for contemplation and for renewal, but there must be no waste of time. How we manage time matters so very much, and we can be good managers of time without being frantic or officious. Time cannot be recycled. When a moment has gone, it is really gone. The tyranny of trivia consists of its driving out the people and moments that really matter. Minutia holds momentous things hostage, and we let the tyranny continue all too often. Wise time management is really the wise management of ourselves.

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 We must remember that those mortals we meet in parking lots, offices, elevators, and elsewhere are that portion of mankind God has given us to love and to serve. It will do us little good to speak of the general brotherhood of mankind if we cannot regard those who are all around us as our brothers and sisters. If our sample of humanity seems unglamorous or so very small, we need to remember the parable Jesus gave us in which he reminded us that greatness is not always a matter of size or scale, but of the quality of one’s life. If we do well with our talents and with the opportunities around us, this will not go unnoticed by God. And to those who do well with the opportunities given them, even more will be given!

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 I make no apology for giving something of the accomplishments of Jesus Christ to those who seek success as leaders. If we would be eminently successful, here is our pattern. All the ennobling, perfect, and beautiful qualities of maturity, of strength, and of courage are found in this one person. As a large, surly mob, armed to the teeth, came to take him prisoner, he faced them resolutely and said, “Whom seek ye?” The mob, startled, mumbled his name, “Jesus of Nazareth.” “I am he,” answered Jesus of Nazareth with pride and courage—and with power: the soldiers “went backward, and fell to the ground.” A second time he said, “Whom seek ye?” and when they named him, he said, “I have told you that I am he: if therefore ye seek me, let these [his disciples] go their way.” (John 18:4–8).

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 Perhaps the most important thing I can say about Jesus Christ, more important than all else I have said, is that he lives. He really does embody all those virtues and attributes the scriptures tell us of. If we can come to know that, we then know the central reality about man and the universe. If we don’t accept that truth and that reality, then we will not have the fixed principles or the transcendent truths by which to live out our lives in happiness and in service. In other words, we will find it very difficult to be significant leaders unless we recognize the reality of the perfect leader, Jesus Christ, and let him be the light by which we see the way!

- Spencer W. Kimball

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 Socrates says the greatest favor that you can do for another human being is to refute them. And he thinks, “Yeah, be kind and loving,” which is to say, explain to people why their fundamental understanding of their lives is wrong.

- Steve Paulson

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 33 ¶ And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

- the Lord

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 Saying he doesn’t even feel like trying anymore, 8-year-old Max Bledsoe expressed his strong disappointment Monday after learning that his parents’ love is unconditional. “I always thought they loved me because I’d actually earned it, but unfortunately it turns out that their affection is apparently limitless,” said a frustrated Bledsoe, wondering aloud the point of doing well in school, learning how to play the piano, and always going to bed before 9 p.m. if his parents were just going to keep on loving him no matter what. “Look at me: I just wasted the last three years of my life trying to win their approval by being a good kid. And for what? To get the love that was coming to me anyway?” Bledsoe added that he envied his adopted younger brother, who really has to work for his parents’ love.

- The Onion

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 When a member of your bishopric stopped by your home and asked that you serve the Lord as a Scoutmaster, a teacher of a Beehive class, or perhaps a secretary or executive in the Sunday School, did you actually stop and contemplate the true meaning of your acceptance? Did you look upon your assignment in terms of twenty-four Boy Scouts, or twelve Beehive girls, or perhaps an obligation to devote two hours each Sunday morning? Or did you reflect upon the real meaning of your opportunity as the words of the Lord found lodgment in your heart: "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God." (D&C 18:10.) If so, you were humbled as you became aware that God, our Eternal Father, and His Beloved Son had chosen you to play a vital role in a glorious cause. "This is my work and my glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39.) First, the successful leader has faith. He recognizes that the greatest force in this world today is the power of God as it works through man. He takes comfort from the very real assurance that divine help can be his blessing. He is, through his faith, a believer in prayer, knowing that prayer provides power-spiritual power, and that prayer provides peace-spiritual peace. He knows and he teaches youth that the recognition of a power higher than man himself does not in any sense debase him; rather, it exalts him. He further declares, "If we will but realize that we have been created in the image of God, we will not find Him difficult to approach." This knowledge, acquired through faith, accounts for the inner calm that characterizes the successful leader. Second, the successful leader lives as he teaches. He is honest with others. He is honest with himself. He is honest with God. He is honest by habit and as a matter of course. Third, the successful leader works willingly. Formula "W" applies to him. What is Formula "W"? Simply this: Work will win when wishy-washy wishing won't. Victory is bound to come to him who gives all of himself to the cause he represents when there be truth in the cause. Fourth, the successful leader leads with love. Where love prevails in a class, discipline problems vanish. Fifth, the successful leader is prepared. In his mind, he has carefully stored full information with respect to his assignment. He knows the program. He knows what is expected of him. He does not approach his assignment just hoping or wishing for success. In his heart, he has made spiritual preparation, too. He has earned, through his faithfulness, the companionship of the Holy Spirit. He has knowledge to give. He has a testimony to share. Sixth, the successful leader achieves results. To begin with, he recognizes that no aim leads to no end. In short, he develops goals of accomplishment. If he be a Scoutmaster, he determines that each boy will achieve. You see such a leader at every court of honor in full uniform, his boys receiving award upon award. Their leader has taught them that we were not placed on earth to fail, but rather to succeed; that we cannot rest content with mediocrity when excellence is within our reach. Such a leader recognizes that his attitude determines his altitude. He knows full well that nothing is as contagious as enthusiasm, unless it is a lack of enthusiasm. He carries others to accomplishment through the sheer strength of his overwhelming desire to bring success to his assignment. The leader who gets the job done is one who inspires confidence, who motivates action, and who generates enthusiasm. You will ever recognize his work-for it will be well done.

- Thomas S. Monson

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 "There is no better time than now, this very Christmas season, for all of us to rededicate ourselves to the principles taught by Jesus the Christ. It is the time to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart — and our neighbors as ourselves. It is well to remember that he who gives money gives much; he who gives time gives more; but he who gives of himself gives all. "Let us make Christmas real. It isn’t just tinsel and ribbon, unless we have made it so in our lives. Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values. It is peace because we have found peace in the Savior’s teachings. It is the time we realize most deeply that the more love is expended, the more there is of it for others."

- Thomas S. Monson

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 Stresses in our lives come regardless of our circumstances. We must deal with them the best we can. But we should not let them get in the way of what is most important—and what is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should let them know. Wrote William Shakespeare, “They do not love that do not show their love.” We will never regret the kind words spoken or the affection shown. Rather, our regrets will come if such things are omitted from our relationships with those who mean the most to us.

- Thomas S. Monson

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  Love is so much more than words. ~ Jason Intissar

- Tracie Peterson

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 Now, why does Jesus advocate personal charity rather than government charity? Why does he put the onus on us as individuals instead of the State? I think the reason is this: love. The goal is not to eradicate poverty, like poverty is some kind of disease. The goal is simply to love each other. This is why Christ especially commends the old woman at the temple who gave comparatively little. It was, for her, an act of great love. And that is what Christ wants from us. He wants us to love each other. There is no love in the Welfare System. There is no love in taxation. It is bureaucratic, impersonal, disinterested, dehumanizing. A man is not experiencing the fruits of love when he cashes a monthly check sent to him by some government office. Rather, he is being treated like a number, a statistic, a problem that must be solved. This does not appear to be what Jesus had in mind.

- Unknown

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 Marriage isn't "I promise to love you until I stop loving you." It's "I promise to make a conscious decision to continue to love you even when it's hard because I'm aware no one is perfect, but you are worth it."

- Unknown

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 Not every day is a good day, live anyway. Not all you love will love back, love anyway. Not everyone will tell the truth, be honest anyway. Not all deals are fair, play fair anyway.

- Unknown

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 Love is of all the passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart, and the body.

- Voltaire

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 Because God's love is all-embracing some speak of it as unconditional, and in their minds they may project that thought to mean that God's blessings are unconditional and that salvation is unconditional...they're not. Some are want to say 'the savior loves me just as I am'...and that is certainly true, but he cannot take any of us into his kingdom just as we are. For no unclean thing can dwell there or dwell in his presence...our sins must first be resolved.
- D. Todd Christofferson
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 Douglass was an escaped slave who became one of the most charismatic and forceful leaders of the American abolition movement. As a young man he briefly embraced Christianity but soon abandoned it, observing that the religion did so little to soften the behavior of slave owners. At the age of 20 he made his daring escape. Here are two versions of a quotation attributed to him: I. Praying for freedom never did me any good til I started praying with my feet. 2. I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs. According to Heschel's daughter Dr. Susanna Heschel: (http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Evox/0405/0404/heschel.html) ""When he came home from Selma in 1965, my father wrote, 'For many of us the march from Selma to Montgomery was about protest and prayer. Legs are not lips and walking is not kneeling. And yet our legs uttered songs. Even without words, our march was worship. I felt my legs were praying.""

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

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 One river gives its journey to the next. We give because someone gave to us. We give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us. We have been better for it, We have been wounded by it— Giving has many faces: It is loud and quiet, Big, though small, diamond in wood-nails. Its story is old, the plot worn and the pages too, But we read this book, anyway, over and again: Giving is, first and every time, hand to hand, Mine to yours, yours to mine. You gave me blue and I gave you yellow. Together we are simple green. You gave me What you did not have, and I gave you What I had to give—together, we made Something greater from the difference.

- Alberto Ríos

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 Is not absence death to those who love?

- Alexander Pope

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 There is a voice that doesn't use words. LISTEN. Listen to silence, it has so much to say. Let silence take you to the core of life.

- Alexis Karpouzos

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 When we dance we touch the essence of who we are and experience the unity between spirit and matter.

- Angeles Arrien

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 Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.

- Anne Frank

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 Love is Confused There are definitions of love in Greek: Eros Sexual Passion: “…eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you…Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks.” Philia Friendship: “…showing loyalty to your friends…” Ludius Playful Affection: “…referred to the playful affection between children or young lovers.” Agape Universal Brotherly Love: “This was a love that you extended to all people, whether family members or distant strangers.” Pragma Longstanding Love: “…the deep understanding that developed between long-married couples. It was about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.” Philautia Self-Love “…two types ... unhealthy narcissism, where you became self-obsessed … and healthy self-esteem. As Aristotle said, ‘All friendly feelings for others are an extension of man’s feelings for himself.’”

- Armon Eaton

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 The heart has arguments with which the logic of the mind is not acquainted.

- Blaise Pascal

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 Empathy is simply listening, holding space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of- you're not alone.

- Brené Brown

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 If you can’t manage $1000, you can’t manage $10,000. If you’re not happy on your own, you won’t be happy in a relationship. If you don’t feel good now, you won’t feel good when you have everything you’re working toward. Money doesn’t make you good with money. Love doesn’t make you love yourself. Success doesn’t make you happier, unless you are already happy. You are your own foundation. If you’re not solid, nothing else can stand on it.

- Brianna Wiest

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 Speak to your children as if they are the wisest, kindest, most beautiful and magical humans on earth, for what they believe is what they will become.

- Brooke Hampton

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 An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life... ""A fight is going on inside me,"" he said to the boy. ""It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. ""One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. ""The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. ""This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."" The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, ""Which wolf will win?"" The old chief simply replied, ""The one you feed.""

- Cherokee Parable

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 Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

- Comte de Bussy-Rabutin

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 There is no controlling life. Try corralling a lightning bolt, containing a tornado. Dam a stream and it will create a new channel. Resist, and the tide will sweep you off your feet. Allow, and grace will carry you to higher ground. The only safety lies in letting it all in – the wild and the weak; fear, fantasies, failures and success. When loss rips off the doors of the heart, or sadness veils your vision with despair, practice becomes simply bearing the truth. In the choice to let go of your known way of being, the whole world is revealed to your new eyes.

- Danna Faul

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 The root of joy is gratefulness...It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful.

- David Steindl-Rast

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 The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.

- Derek Walcott

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 Every day we have the opportunity to create, and re-create our lives. This is the power we yield. No dark fate determines our future.

- Desmond Tutu

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 ""Joy subsumes happiness. From The Book of Joy “Joy subsumes happiness. Joy is a far greater thing. Think of a mother who is giving birth. Almost all of us want to escape pain. And others know that they are going to have pain, the great pain of giving birth. But they accept it. And even after the most painful labor, once the baby is out, you can’t measure the mother’s joy. It is one of those incredible things that joy can come so quickly from suffering.”""

- Desmond Tutu

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 Joy is much bigger than happiness. While happiness is often seen as being dependent on external circumstances, joy is not.

- Desmond Tutu

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 What's it like to be a woman? A little bird whispered in my ear. Is it just like being human? Oh it is so much more, my dear. We are the holders, we are the keepers, Of the secrets and the truth. We are the safe place in a storm, The creator of all youth. We are the place where life is softest, We are the colour in the story. We are the wisdom and the instinct, Mother Nature in all her glory. We are the taker of all worry, We keep it deep within our hearts So that others may unburden, So that great new lives may start. We are the makers of the home, Not just the walls but of the spirit. Bringing everyone together, Letting love and laughter fill it. We are sisters, mothers, wives, So many things in every day. We are the start of every life, We are the reason, we are the way. We are fueled by intuition, Call it magic, if you like We are women, we are so much more, Than any words that I could write.

- Donna Ashworth

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 How did the rose Ever open its heart And give to this world All its beauty? It felt the encouragement of light Against its being, Otherwise, We all remain Too frightened

- Hafiz

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 Every Child Has known God, Not the God of names, Not the God of Don'ts Not the God who ever does anything weird But the God who only knows four words And keeps repeating them, saying: ""Come dance with Me"" Come Dance

- Hafiz

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 Let yourself sit quietly and at ease. Allow your body to be relaxed and open, your breath natural, your heart easy. Begin the practice of gratitude by feeling how year after year you have cared for your own life. Now let yourself begin to acknowledge all that has supported you in this care: With gratitude I remember the people, animals, plants, insects, creatures of the sky and sea, air and water, fire and earth, all whose joyful exertion blesses my life every day.With gratitude I remember the care and labor of a thousand generations of elders and ancestors who came before me.I offer my gratitude for the blessing of this earth I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the measure of health I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the family and friends I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the community I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the teachings and lessons I have been given.I offer my gratitude for the life I have been given.Now shift your practice to the cultivation of joy. Continue to breathe gently. Bring to mind someone you care about, someone it is easy to rejoice for. Picture them and feel the natural joy you have for their well-being, happiness, and success. With each breath, offer them your grateful, heartfelt wishes: May you be joyful.May your happiness increase.May you not be separated from great happiness.May your good fortune and the causes for your joy and happiness increase. Sense the sympathetic joy and caring in each phrase. When you feel some degree of natural gratitude for the happiness of this loved one, extend this practice to another person you care about. Recite the same simple phrases that express your heart’s intention. Then gradually open the meditation to other loved ones and benefactors. After the joy for them grows strong, turn back to include yourself. Let the feelings of joy more fully fill your body and mind. Continue repeating the intentions of joy over and over, through whatever resistances and difficulties arise, until you feel stabilized in joy. Next begin to systematically include the categories of neutral people, then difficult people and even enemies until you extend sympathetic joy to all beings everywhere, young and old, near and far. Practice dwelling in joy until the deliberate effort of practice drops away and the intentions of joy blend into the natural joy of your own wise heart. Excerpt: The Wise Heart

- Jack Kornfield

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 If we cannot be happy in spite of our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice? Gratitude is a gracious acknowledgment of all that sustains us, a bow to our blessings, great and small. Buddhist monks begin each day with chants of gratitude for the gifts of food and shelter, of friendship and for the teachings that benefit all. In the same way, Native American elders begin each ceremony with grateful prayers to Mother Earth and Father Sky, to the four directions, to the animal, plant, and mineral brothers and sisters who share our earth and support our life. Gratitude is the confidence in life itself. In it, we feel how the same force that pushes grass through cracks in the sidewalk invigorates our own life. In Tibet, the monks and nuns even offer prayers of gratitude for the suffering they have been given: “Grant that I might have enough suffering to awaken in me the deepest possible compassion and wisdom.” Gratitude does not envy or compare. Gratitude is not dependent on what you have. It depends on your heart. You can even find gratitude for your measure of sorrows, the hand you’ve been dealt. There is mystery surrounding even your difficulties and suffering. Sometimes it’s through the hardest things that your heart learns its most important lessons. As gratitude grows it gives rise to joy. We experience the courage to rejoice in our own blessings and in the good fortune of others. In joy, we are not afraid of pleasure. We do not mistakenly believe it is disloyal to the suffering of the world to honor the measure of happiness we have been given. Joy gladdens the heart. We can be joyful for people we love, for moments of goodness, for sunlight and trees, and for the very breath within our lungs. Like an innocent child, we can rejoice in life itself, in being alive. Encounter every new moment with wonder and gratitude, and you’ll experience that it’s never too late to open your mind and your heart. As Bob Dylan sings, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” Give birth to a grateful spirit and you will discover how to live fully and freely.

- Jack Kornfield

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 We must understand the power of the stories we tell ourselves, and differentiate them from the direct experience of life. In this way, we can use thoughts without becoming trapped by them.

- Jack Kornfield

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 When you notice destructive, unhealthy thoughts, pause & feel their pain. Take a breath; hold your pain with kindness. Then inwardly recite loving-kindness phrases, imagining each one is a seed of compassion you are planting into your mind. MAY I LOVE MYSELF JUST AS IAM. MAY I SENSE MY WORTHINESS. MAY I LIVE WITH DIGNITY. MAY I HOLD MYSELF IN COMPASSION.

- Jack Kornfield

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 When the stories of our life no longer bind us, we discover within them something greater. We discover that within the very limitations of form, of our maleness and femaleness, of our parenthood and our childhood, of gravity on the earth and the changing of the seasons, is the freedom and harmony we have sought for so long. Our individual life is an expression of the whole mystery, and in it we can rest in the center of the movement, the center of all worlds.

- Jack Kornfield

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 When our identity expands to include everything, we find a peace with the dance of the world. The ocean of life rises and falls within us – birth and death, joy and pain, it is all ours, and our heart is full and empty, large enough to embrace it all.

- Jack Kornfield

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 Your world is reborn each morning. And you are allowed to start over, at least in spirit, choosing your way with a beginners mind. Open wide the doors and windows, or close them and sit by the fire. But wherever you are, make room for the new, the uncertain, the mystery...And Love..

- Jack Kornfield

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 You tumbled into my heart I fell hopelessly in love with you from the first time I spied your tiny eyes Awe and terror that something so precious that smelled so pure could be given into my care I long to know that I have done good enough I wanted so much to do it perfectly to mother you as I was never mothered give you the life I had always dreamed But real life and my humanness got in the way If I find fault, it is not criticism of you but my own guilt at my own failings That I could save you from the fire of your own life that my struggle could take away yours and my suffering could protect you from pain All I can do is admire you admire you into your life Rejoice in you, everything Watch breath-taken as you create your world Forgive me for my mistakes Honour me for doing the best that I could Share with me all the worlds you find and come back to me in the spaces between

- Jane O'Shea

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 Being numb is to be invisible Asleep to yourself and any kind of promise Choosing to feel nothing is sometimes the best you can do Being afraid is better than being numb But being afraid slowly drains the life right out of you until all that is left is something small Nobody can see in It’s still better than the nothingness Feeling angry is bigger and better than being afraid But being angry is exhausting and scares the chickens But at least you feel you are alive at least something is happening at least it’s a start Even if it spills out at least people know you’re there And somewhere after numb somewhere between the fear and the dread through the fury and the madness A real life begins Courage to move out of the numbness ignoring the sirens, the alarm bells the signposts warning of danger Courage to be scared Courage to grow big enough to hold the rage Courage to forgive Courage to take your life back from the past Claiming This is now This is mine

- Jane O'Shea

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 Do not try to open your heart. That would be a subtle movement of aggression toward your immediate embodied experience. Never tell a closed heart to open; it will shut more tightly to protect itself, feeling your resistance and disapproval. A heart unfurls only when conditions are right; your demand for openness invites closure. This is the supreme intelligence of the heart. Instead, bow to the heart in its current state. If it's closed, let it be closed; sanctify the closure. Make it safe; safe even to feel unsafe. Trust that when the heart is ready, and not a moment before, it will open, like a flower in the warmth of the sun. There is no rush for the heart. Trust the opening and the closing, too, the expansion and contraction; this is the heart's way of breathing: safe, unsafe, safe, unsafe; the beautiful fragility of being human, and all held in the most perfect love.

- Jeff Foster

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 Willing to experience aloneness, I discover connection everywhere; Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within; Opening to my loss, I gain the embrace of the universe; Surrendering into emptiness, I find fullness without end. Each condition I flee from pursues me, Each condition I welcome transforms me And becomes itself transformed Into its radiant jewel-like essence. I bow to the one who has made it so, Who has crafted this Master Game; To play it is purest delight - To honor its form, true devotion.

- Jennifer Paine Welwood

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 Love is friendship set on fire.

- Jeremy Taylor

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 Among other wonders of our lives, we are alive with one another, we walk here in the light of this unlikely world that isn't ours for long. May we spend generously the time we are given. May we enact our responsibilities as thoroughly as we enjoy our pleasures. May we see with clarity, may we seek a vision that serves all beings, may we honor the mystery surpassing our sight, and may we hold in our hands the gift of good work and bear it forth whole, as we were borne forth by a power we praise to this one Earth, this homeland of all we love.

- John Daniel

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 May the beauty of your life become more visible to you, that you may glimpse your wild divinity. May the wonders of the earth call you forth from all your small, secret prisons and set your feet free in the pastures of possibilities. May the light of dawn anoint your eyes that you may behold what a miracle a day is. May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears and darkness within the circle of ease. May the angel of memory surprise you in bleak times with new gifts from the harvest of your vanished days. May you allow no dark hand to quench the candle of hope in your heart. May you discover a new generosity towards yourself, and encourage yourself to engage your life as a great adventure. May the outside voices of fear and despair find no echo in you. May you always trust the urgency and wisdom of your own spirit. May the shelter and nourishment of all the good you have done, the love you have shown, the suffering you have carried, awaken around you to bless your life a thousand times. And when love hides the path to your door may you open like the earth to the dawn, and trust your every hidden color towards its nourishment of light. May you find enough stillness and silence to savor the kiss of God on your soul and delight in the eternity that shaped you, that holds you and calls you. And may you come to see your life as a quiet sacrament of service, which awakens around you a rhythm where doubt gives way to the grace of wonder, where what is awkward and strained can find elegance, and where crippled hope can find wings, and torment enter at last unto the grace of serenity. May Divine Beauty bless you.

- John O'Donohue

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 Open your heart to who you are, right now, not who you would like to be. Not the saint you're striving to become. But the being right here before you, inside you, around you. All of you is holy. You're already more and less than whatever you can know. Breathe out, look in, let go.

- John Welwood

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 Healing is a coming to terms with things as they are, rather than struggling to force them to be as they once were, or as we would like them to be, to feel secure or to have what we sometimes think of as our own way.

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

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 When people say "Let it go," what they really mean is "Get over it," and that's not a helpful thing to say. It's not a matter of letting go - you would if you could. Instead of "Let it go," we should probably say "Let it be"; this recognizes that the mind won't let go and the problem may not go away, and it allows you to form a healthier relationship with what's bothering you.

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

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 The only time you ever have in which to learn anything or see anything or feel anything, or express any feeling or emotion, or respond to an event, or grow, or heal, is this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets. You're only here now; you're only alive in this moment.

- Jon Kabat-Zinn

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 Always we hope someone else has the answer, some other place will be better, some other time it will all turn out. This is it; no one else has the answer, no other place will be better, and it has already turned out. At the center of your being, you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. There is no need to run outside for better seeing. Nor to peer from a window. Rather abide at the center of your being; for the more you leave it, the less you learn. Search your heart and see the way to do is to be.

- Lao-Tzu

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 Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.

- LR Knost

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 The New Year is a great door that stands across the evening and Yom Kippur is the second door. Between them are song and silence, stone and clay pot to be filled from within myself

- Marge Piercy

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 In loving ourselves, we love the world. For just as fire, rock, and water are all made up of molecules, everything, including you and me, is connected by a small piece of the beginning. Yet, how do we love ourselves? It is as difficult at times as seeing the back of your head. It can be as elusive as it is necessary. I have tried and tripped many times. And I can only say that loving yourself is like feeding a clear bird that no one else can see. You must be still and offer your palmful of secrets like delicate seed. As she eats your secrets, no longer secret, she glows and you lighten, and her voice, which only you can hear, is your voice bereft of plans. And the light through her body will bathe you till you wonder why the gems in your palm were ever fisted. Others will think you crazed to wait on something no one sees. But the clear bird only wants to feed and fly and sing. She only wants light in her belly. And once in a great while, if someone loves you enough, they might see her rise from the nest beneath your fear. In this way, I've learned that loving yourself requires a courage unlike any other. It requires us to believe in and stay loyal to something no one else can see that keeps us in the world—our own self-worth. All the great moments of conception—the birth of mountains, of trees, of fish, of prophets, and the truth of relationships that last—all begin where no one can see, and it is our job not to extinguish what is so beautifully begun. For once full of light, everything is safely on its way—not pain-free, but unencumbered—and the air beneath your wings is the same air that trills in my throat, and the empty benches in snow are as much a part of us as the empty figures who slouch on them in spring. When we believe in what no one else can see, we find we are each other. And all moments of living, no matter how difficult, come back into some central point where self and world are one, where light pours in and out at once. And once there, I realize—make real before me—that this moment, whatever it might be, is a fine moment to live and a fine moment to die.

- Mark Nepo

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 Practice, Why we recite, do, memorize, return to over and over again. This Breath. This moment. Over and Over Sometimes it feels mechanical. And sometimes it brings up its opposite. And you just keep working with it. In the Jewish mystical tradition, there’s a story of a great rabbi who taught his disciples to memorize, reflect, contemplate, and place the teachings of the holy words of the Torah (Jewish bible) ON their heart. One day a student asked the rabbi why he always used the phrase “on your heart.” The master replied, “Only something greater than yourself can put the teachings in your heart. Here we recite and learn and put them on the heart, hoping that someday when your heart breaks, they will fall in.” So we do this practice both to release ourself from the past, and also to allow the heart finally to break open and to renew the original goodness.

- Mark Nepo

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 The best chance to be whole is to love whatever gets in the way until it ceases to be an obstacle.

- Mark Nepo

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 We waste so much energy trying to cover up who we are when beneath every attitude is the want to be loved, and beneath every anger is a wound to be healed and beneath every sadness is the fear that there will not be enough time. When we hesitate in being direct, we unknowingly slip something on, some added layer of protection that keeps us from feeling the world, and often that thin covering is the beginning of a loneliness which, if not put down, diminishes our chances of joy. It's like wearing gloves every time we touch something, and then, forgetting we chose to put them on, we complain that nothing feels quite real. Our challenge each day is not to get dressed to face the world but to unglove ourselves so that the doorknob feels cold and the car handle feels wet and the kiss goodbye feels like the lips of another being, soft and unrepeatable.

- Mark Nepo

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 Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

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 A Woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing. She goes where she will without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself

- Maya Angelou

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 I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

- Maya Angelou

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 Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.

- Maya Angelou

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 Think of JOY as a more meaningful type of happiness. ’Hedonistic happiness’ is fleeting, and only includes emotions we tend to think of as positive. ’Eudaimonic happiness’ includes meaning, growth, and acceptance. Even of emotions we may call negative.

- Mission Joy

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 May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.

- Nelson Mandela

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 May all places be held sacred. May all beings be cherished. May all injustices of oppression and devaluation be fully righted, remedied and healed. May all who are captured by hatred be freed to the love that is our birthright. May all who are bound by fear discover the safety of understanding. May all who are weighed down by grief be given over to the joy of being. May all who are lost in delusion find a home on the path of wisdom. May all wounds to forests, rivers, deserts, oceans, all wounds to Mother Earth be lovingly restored to bountiful health. May all beings everywhere delight in whale song, birdsong, and blue sky. May all beings abide in peace and well-being, awaken and be free.

- One Earth Sangha

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 You know what breaks me? When someone is visibly excited about a feeling or an idea or a hope or a risk taken, and they tell you about it but preface it with: "Sorry, this is dumb but-". Don't do that. I don't know who came here before me, who conditioned you to think you had to apologize or feel obtuse. But not here. Dream so big it's silly. Laugh so hard it's obnoxious. Love so much it's impossible. And don't you ever feel unintelligent. And don't you ever apologize. And don't you ever shrink so you can squeeze yourself into small places and small minds. Grow. It's a big world. There's room. You fit. I promise.

- Owen Lindley

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 As often happens on the spiritual journey, we have arrived at the heart of a paradox: each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up. All we need to do is stop pounding on the door that has just closed, turn around - which puts the door behind us - and welcome the largeness of life that now lies open to our souls. The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality.

- Parker Palmer

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 During any dance to which we surrender with joy, the brain loses its controlling power, and the heart takes up the reins of the body.

- Paulo Coelho

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 If someone comes along and shoots an arrow into your heart, it's fruitless to stand there and yell at the person. It would be much better to turn your attention to the fact that there’s an arrow in your heart.

- Pema Chodron

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 Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.

- Pema Chodron

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 Feel the feelings and drop the story.

- Pema Chodron

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 To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest.

- Pema Chodron

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 Let us love temperately, things violent last not.

- Philip Massinger

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 In a World Without Forgiveness evil begets evil, harm generates harm, and there is no way short of exhaustion or forgetfulness of breaking the sequence. Forgiveness breaks the chain. ...It represents a decision not to do what instinct and passion urge us to do. It answers hate with a refusal to hate, animosity with generosity. Few more daring ideas have ever entered the human situation.

- Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

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 Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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 There is a brokenness out of which comes the unbroken, a shatteredness out of which blooms the unshatterable. There is a sorrow beyond all grief which leads to joy and a fragilityout of whose depths emerges strength. There is a hollow space too vast for words through which we pass with each loss, out of whose darkness we are sanctioned into being. There is a cry deeper than all sound whose serrated edges cut the heart as we break open to the place inside which is unbreakable and whole, while learning to sing.

- Rashani Réa

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 Software built on pride and love of subject is superior to software built for profit.

- Ravi Simhambhatla

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 The Practice: Accept Them As They Are. Pick someone who is important to you. (You can do this practice with multiple people.) In your mind, out loud, or in writing, say things like these and see how you feel: ""I accept you completely. Countless causes, large and small, have led you to think, speak, and act the way you do. You are who you are. I let it be. You are a fact and I accept the facts in my life. You and I are part of a larger whole that is what it is, and I accept it, too."" If you like, be more specific, naming aspects of this person that particularly bother you, such as: ""I accept that you . . . snore . . . leave your clothes on the floor . . . are still angry with me . . . have little natural interest in sex . . .. . . don't really understand me . . . are not a good teacher for my child . . . break the law . . . hurt people on a large scale . . ."" (And remember that you can still disagree with, make requests of, or stand up to other people – while accepting them fully.) See if you can tolerate what comes up for you when you soften into acceptance. Often, we avoid accepting other people as a way to avoid the feelings we'd have if we opened wide to everything they are and everything they're not. Consider how you have gotten tangled up with this other person, struggling to change them. When I do this myself, I become aware of my own rightness, positionality, judgments, pushiness, irritability, narrow views, hurts, longings, grievances, or remorse. See if you can let go of some, even all of these entanglements. Open to the easing, relief, and peace that can come when you do. Also consider how much you like it when you feel that another person accepts you completely. It's a beautiful gift – and we can give it ourselves to others when we accept them. Imagine how it might improve your relationship with someone if that person felt you accepted him or her fully. Acceptance is a gift that gives back.

- Rick Hanson

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 In what ways do you wish that people were different? Think about the people close to you – friends, family, mates – as well co-workers, drivers on the highway, business-people, media types, politicians, and world leaders. Think about people who are not doing their share of housework, not getting you the healthcare you need, promoting political policies that you dislike if not despise, etc., etc. It's normal to wish that others were different, just like it's normal to wish that you, yourself, were different (e.g., thinner, richer, wiser). It's fine to try to influence others in skillful, ethical ways.But problems come when we tip into righteousness, resistance, anger, fault-finding, badgering, or any other kind of struggle. Instead, we could accept them for who they are and for who they are not. Accepting people does not itself mean agreeing with them, approving of them, waiving your own rights, or downplaying their impact upon you. You can still take appropriate actions to protect or support yourself or others. Or you can simply let people be. Either way, you accept the reality of the other person. You may not like it, you may not prefer it, you may feel sad or angry about it, but at a deeper level, you are at peace with it. That alone is a blessing. And sometimes, your shift to acceptance can help things get better. Activity/Reflection Pick someone who is important to you. (You can do this practice with multiple people.) In your mind, out loud, or in writing, say things like these and see how you feel: ""I accept you completely. Countless causes, large and small, have led you to think, speak, and act the way you do. You are who you are. I let it be. You are a fact and I accept the facts in my life. You and I are part of a larger whole that is what it is, and I accept it, too."" If you like, be more specific, naming aspects of this person that particularly bother you, such as: ""I accept that you . . . snore . . . leave your clothes on the floor . . . are still angry with me . . . have little natural interest in sex . . . are fighting me tooth-and-nail in this divorce . . . don’t really understand me . . . are not a good teacher for my child . . . break the law . . . hurt people on a large scale . . ."" (And remember that you can still disagree with, make requests of, or stand up to other people – while accepting them fully.) See if you can tolerate what comes up for you when you soften into acceptance. Often we avoid accepting other people as a way to avoid the feelings we’d have if we opened wide to everything they are and everything they’re not. Consider how you have gotten tangled up with this other person, struggling to change them. When I do this myself, I become aware of my own rightness, positionality, judgments, pushiness, irritability, narrow views, hurts, longings, grievances, or remorse. See if you can let go of some, even all of these entanglements. Open to the easing, relief, and peace that can come when you do. Also consider how much you like it when you feel that another person accepts you completely. It’s a beautiful gift – and we can give it ourselves to others when we accept them. Imagine how it might improve your relationship with someone if that person felt you accepted him or her fully. Acceptance is a gift that gives back.

- Rick Hanson, Ph.D.

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 So I can't save the world— can't save even myself, can't wrap my arms around every frightened child, can’t foster peace among nations, can’t bring love to all who feel unlovable. So I practice opening my heart right here in this room and being gentle with my insufficiency. I practice walking down the street heart first. And if it is insufficient to share love, I will practice loving anyway. I want to converse about truth, about trust. I want to invite compassion into every interaction. One willing heart can’t stop a war. One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry. And sometimes, daunted by a task too big, I tell myself what’s the use of trying? But today, the invitation is clear: to be ridiculously courageous in love. To open the heart like a lilac in May, knowing freeze is possible and opening anyway. To take love seriously. To give love wildly. To race up to the world as if I were a puppy, adoring and unjaded, stumbling on my own exuberance. To feel the shock of indifference, of anger, of cruelty, of fear, and stay open. To love as if it matters, as if the world depends on it.

- Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

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 A healthy social life is found only when, in the mirror of each soul, the whole community finds its reflection, and when, in the whole community, the virtue of each one is living.

- Rudolf Steiner

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 Dance, when you are broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance, when you are perfectly free. Struck, the dancers hear the tambourine inside them, as a wave turns the foam on its very top, begin. Maybe you don't hear that tambourine, all the tree leaves clapping time. Close the ears on your head that listen mostly to lies and cynical jokes. There are other things to hear and see: dance, music and a brilliant city inside the soul.

- Rumi

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 This being human is a guest house.

- Rumi

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 While divine love can be called perfect, infinite, enduring, and universal, it cannot correctly be characterized as unconditional. The word does not appear in the scriptures. On the other hand, many verses affirm that the higher levels of love the Father and the Son feel for each of us—and certain divine blessings stemming from that love—are conditional. Before citing examples, it is well to recognize various forms of conditional expression in the scriptures.

- Russell M. Nelson

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 We can travel a long way in life and do many things, but our deepest happiness is not born from accumulating new experiences. It is born from letting go of what is unnecessary, and knowing ourselves to be always at home.

- Sharon Salzberg

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 Attention is the most basic form of love. By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life, and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.

- Tara Brach

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 All text, no title, no author. Happiness lies not in finding what is missing, but in finding what is present.

- Tara Brach

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 In any moment, no matter how lost we feel, we can take refuge in presence and love. We need only pause, breathe, and open to the experience of aliveness within us. In that wakeful openness, we come home to the peace and freedom of our natural awareness.

- Tara Brach

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 We wait for things to be different in order to feel okay with life. As long as we keep attaching our happiness to the external events of our lives, which are ever changing, we’ll always be left waiting for it.

- Tara Brach

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 Awakening from mistaken belief that it’s something outside ourselves. It’s right here. More we trust, the more we can manifest it. But we must shed the skin of the trance we live in. Niche says, “If a snake cannot shed its skin, it perishes.” This means letting go of old identity, thoughts, beliefs, story. It is a risk- no way to shed skin without opening up vulnerability How am I holding on to this skin? Where am I closed, defended?

- Tara Brach

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 The ultimate source of a meaningful life is within our own self. Usually everybody seeks happiness, joyfulness from the outside, from money, from power, from a big car, from a big house. The ultimate source of a happy life, even physical health, is inside not outside.

- The Dalai Lama

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 The ultimate source of happiness is within us. Not money, not power, not status. Outward attainment will not bring real inner joyfulness. We must look inside.

- The Dalai Lama

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 The 8 Pillars of Joy 1. Perspective 2. Humility 3. Humor 4. Acceptance 5. Forgiveness 6. Gratitude 7. Compassion 8. Generosity

- The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu

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 The highest form of wisdom is kindness.

- The Talmud

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 The cosmos is filled with precious gems. I want to offer a handful of them to you this morning. Each moment you are alive is a gem, shining through and containing earth and sky, water and clouds. It needs you to breathe gently for the miracles to be displayed. Suddenly you hear the birds singing, the pines chanting, see the flowers blooming, the blue sky, the white clouds, the smile and the marvelous look of your beloved. You, the richest person on Earth, who have been going around begging for a living, stop being the destitute child. Come back and claim your heritage. We should enjoy our happiness and offer it to everyone. Cherish this very moment. Let go of the stream of distress and embrace life fully in your arms.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

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 Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

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 We have a lamp inside us. The oil of that lamp is our breathing, Our steps, and our peaceful smile. Our practice is to light up the lamp.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

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 I see dance as glue for a community

- Twyla Tharp

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 I love that women.I love here more than sharks love blood.

- Unknown

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 You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

- Unknown

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 I want you to believe deep in your heart that you are capable of achieving anything you put your mind to. That you will NEVER LOSE. You either win or learn. Just go forth and aim for the skies. I can’t promise to be here for the rest of your life, but I promise to love you for the rest of mine (and forever) Love DAD

- Unknown

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 May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being. May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

- Unknown

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 Freedom is happening every moment when we are not craving something more.

- Yung Pueblo

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 How will you help heal the world? By healing myself and supporting the healing of those around me. By allowing love to fill my very being and guide my every action.

- Yung Pueblo

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 I held my fear by the hand, honored its existence, and thanked it for teaching me that happiness exists beyond the boundaries it creates.

- Yung Pueblo

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 We are conditioned to believe love is a feeling, usually the feeling that we ""get"" from the other person. Relationships are actually spaces to evolve, to grow, to learn to meet the parts of ourselves that we abandoned years ago. So many people look for relationships as an escape from themselves. To numb the pain, to be rescued from life as they know it. This unrealistic expectation will always lead to disappointment, because this was never the role of a partner. True commitment to another person involves a commitment to yourself. To unlearn toxic patterns, to learn how to communicate, to learn how to ask for your needs to be met. This won't always feel good. We won't always be “happy"" with our partners. Relationships take work. Especially if you haven’t witnessed a healthy, open, emotionally connected relationship in childhood. A partner is a mirror: showing you what needs healing.

- Yung Pueblo

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 When she started letting go, her vision became clearer. The present felt more manageable and the future began to look open and full of bright possibilities. As she shed the tense energy of the past, her power and creativity returned. With a revitalized excitement, she focused on building a new life in which joy and freedom were abundant.

- Yung Pueblo

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 The forces of the universe support those who are working on healing themselves.

- Yung Pueblo

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 True power is living the realization that you are your own healer, hero, and leader. It is when you share your truth with compassion and peace. Your power grows when you make progress in your own freedom and wisdom. Those who are truly powerful do not harm themselves or others; instead, they use their energy to enrich all they know with love.

- Yung Pueblo

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 I trust and feel at home around the ones who: - are not afraid to be vulnerable with themselves - live confidently in their power and gentleness - try their best to live without harming others - are serious about their healing and growth - have the humility to say 'I don't know

- Yung Pueblo

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