“Human beings are very frail.. Wise people seek out the company of others, so they can support one another as they walk.”

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179), abbess, composer, healer, mystic, preacher, and visionary, who died on this day

Art by Peder Severin Krøyer

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.”

Vernon Howard (1918 – 1992), writer and philosopher

International Day of Democracy

“Oh, democracy…. That’s a word that means different things everywhere. One thing’s certain, it never means what the Greeks originally meant by it.”

From Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie (1890 – 1976), born on this day

“I think it’s a deep consolation to know that spiders dream, that monkeys tease predators, that dolphins have accents, that lions can be scared silly by a lone mongoose, that otters hold hands, and ants bury their dead. That there isn’t their life and our life. Nor your life and my life. That it’s just one teetering and endless thread and all of us, all of us, are entangled with it as deep as entanglement goes.”

Kate Forster

“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”

From Matilda by Roald Dahl (1916 – 1990), born on this day

“Western man has been turning outwards to the world of the senses for centuries and losing himself in outer space. He has to learn again to turn inwards and find his Self. He has to learn to explore not outer space but the inner space within the heart, to make that long and difficult journey to the Centre, to the inner depth and height of being, which Dante described in the Divine Comedy compared with which the exploration of the moon and the other planets is the play of children.

Each man must therefore discover this Centre in himself, this Ground of his being, this Law of his life. It is hidden in the depths of every soul, waiting to be discovered. It is the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great price. It is the one thing which is necessary, which can satisfy all our desires and answer all our needs… It is the original paradise from which we have all come.”

Bede Griffiths / Swami Dayananda (1906 – 1993), quoted in Christian Mystics by Matthew Fox

“There never was a good war or bad peace.”

Benjamin Franklin, September 11, 1773

“Go deeper.
Past thoughts into silence.
Past silence into stillness.
Past stillness into the heart.
Let love consume all that is left of you.”

Kabir

“No one leaves here alive. So please stop treating yourself as an afterthought. Eat delicious food. Walk in the sun. Jump into the sea. Speak the truth that you carry in your heart like a hidden treasure. Be silly. Be good. Be weird. There is no time for anything else.”

Anthony Hopkins

“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.”

Jean Shinoda Bolen