Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit. Khalil Gibran

Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.
- Khalil Gibran

I argue thee that love is life.
And life hath immortality.
- Emily Dickinson

Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The greatest lovers are like twin blooms,
each reflecting the passion and the glory of the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Articles on relationships

Love Quotes

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

How to Know When "Mister Right" is Mister Wrong

Online Dating After Divorce (a man's guide)

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.
- Swedish Proverb

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
- Aesop

Further reading: My Self-Help Articles

Help, It's 2AM and I Can't Fall Asleep

Be Happy, Don't Worry

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.

Where are you going?

The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change.
- Richard Bach

Footprints in the sand... Where have you been? Where are you going? Pay attention. Don't let resentments or pessimism answer for you.

If you can dream it, you can do it. Walt Disney

If you can dream it, you can do it.
- Walt Disney

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
- Henry David Thoreau

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Affirmation: I am unlimited. I am unstoppable.

Further reading: Courage

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Stop Anger Before it Stops You - 7 Secrets

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. Carl Jung

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
- Carl Jung

Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.
- Henry Ward Beecher

Whenever you are upset, look first toward yourself. Why did you react with anger or hurt? How can you relax and be happier?

Further reading: Carl Jung Quotes

What you resist persists - Carl Jung

It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves. Carl Jung

What if we just acted like everything was easy? Mary Anne Radmacher

What if we just acted like everything was easy? - Mary Anne Radmacher 

  It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Worry is rust upon the blade. - Henry Ward Beecher 

  Life is as easy or as hard as you think it is. - jlh 

 If you believe that a task will be difficult, it will be - and you will have suffered with worry beforehand. Approach life with joy and optimism. 

 Further reading: How To Talk Yourself Into Making Personal Changes 

  Joy is a Choice - but Not an Easy Choice 

  The Paradox Of Living In The Moment - How To Be Happy Today And Prepare For Tomorrow 

  Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble. George Washington

Never take yourself too seriously. Og Mandino

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously.
- Og Mandino

We don't see things as they are,
we see things as we are.
- Anaïs Nin

We see Life through the fun-house mirrors of our point-of-view.
- jlh

Beware the rattlesnake of the mind.
- jlh

The world appears menacing, and we recoil in fear. We rattle, and prepare to strike at the nearest person. Our mind has run away from our soul.

Perspective! Perspective is the key both to happiness and to living a productive life. In any disagreement, neither party is ever completely right or completely wrong. Don't let your mind and your fears run away with you. Find perspective. Keep to the middle way. Practice understanding and compassion.

Further reading: Love is saying "I feel differently" instead of "You're wrong."

Try a new perspective on diversity. Across the country and around the world, we are all one. - jlh

Don't believe yourself

Visualize a kinder world

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves. Dalai Lama

We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.
- Dalai Lama

Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
- St. Francis of Assisi

The outer world writhes and thrashes and appears to threaten turning over onto itself. From the Gulf Coast to the Middle East, from Haitian earthquake to Icelandic volcano, folly, blame, and vengeance reign.

Stop! Breathe deeply. Begin bringing peace to the outer world by regaining your own inner peace. Choose love, choose gratitude, choose forgiveness, choose peace. Begin with your own inner peace. Then use that inner peace as a platform from which to approach the outer world with perspective, understanding, patience, kindness, and a love for all people.

Further reading: Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Dalai Lama Quotes

UNITY - the eighth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

I Pray for Peace in the Middle East

Whatever you do, do with kindness. Whatever you say, say with kindness. Wherever you go, radiate kindness. - jlh

The enlightened give thanks for what most people take for granted. Michael Beckwith

The enlightened give thanks for what most people take for granted.
- Michael Beckwith

Learn to become still. And to take your attention away from what you don't want, and all the emotional charge around it, and place your attention on what you wish to experience.
- Michael Beckwith

It’s the Consciousness with which we participate in activities that makes the difference.
- Michael Beckwith

In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.
- Deepak Chopra

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
- Marianne Williamson

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself. - Ethel Barrymore

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh - at yourself.
- Ethel Barrymore

Earth laughs in flowers.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life's burdens are lighter when I laugh at myself.
- jlh

A willingness to laugh at itself is what distinguishes a compassionate religion from a cult.
- jlh

Today is your day to laugh at life,
laugh loud - laugh often,
laugh at what's funny - laugh at what's sad,
laugh at me - laugh at you - laugh at life.
- jlh

Further reading: Deflect the blows of life

How To Be Happy In Life - The 9 Paths To Happiness

Mark Twain: The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.

CELEBRATION - the seventh Point of Simply An Inspired Life

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. Henry Ward Beecher

Tears and laughter cleanse the heart. - jlh

In matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. - Thomas Jefferson [attributed] 

  We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. - Thomas Jefferson [Declaration of Independence, and inscribed in the Jefferson Memorial] 

  I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. - Thomas Jefferson [inscribed in the Jefferson Memorial] 

 Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was also a farmer, horticulturist, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, and inventor. One of his lesser known accomplishments was editing his own version of the Bible - The Jefferson Bible - which merges the four Gospels and focuses on Jesus own words. The text of The Jefferson Bible is now in the public domain and is freely available online. 

 Further reading: The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. Thomas Jefferson

Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson 

  Thomas Jefferson: I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Eleanor Roosevelt: Never allow a person to tell you No...

Never allow a person to tell you No who doesn't have the power to say Yes. - Eleanor Roosevelt 

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. - Eleanor Roosevelt 

  Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. - Eleanor Roosevelt 

Today's affirmation: I CHOOSE with Open Mind and Open Heart. 

 * Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and named "Woman of the Century" in a survey conducted by the National Women's Hall of Fame, wrote a highly popular syndicated column "My Day" for over a quarter century, from 1936 to 1962. 

 Further reading: Eleanor Roosevelt: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness 

  Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. Eleanor Roosevelt

Dont Limit Your Challenges... Challenge Your Limits.

Don't Limit Your Challenges... Challenge Your Limits.
- Anonymous

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
- Raymond Lindquist

Today's affirmation: I alone am the MASTER of my ship of life.

Further reading: Finding Balance in Life

Forgiveness and Acceptance, Another Look at the Challenges

Circumstance does not make the man: it reveals him to himself. - James Allen

There is a crack in everything... Leonard Cohen

My Positive Affirmations

Unlike grown-ups, children have little need to deceive themselves. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. - A Course In Miracles

Forgiveness is the key to happiness. - A Course In Miracles 

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love. - Bryant H. McGill 

  Forgiving is not a gift to someone else - Forgiving is your gift to yourself - a great gift - the gift of happiness. - jlh 

 Further Reading: Forgiveness is Essential to a Great Relationship 

  Six Ways to End Bickering About Money

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be. Robert Browning

Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be. - Robert Browning 

  Marriage, ultimately, is the practice of becoming passionate friends. - Harville Hendrix 

Love is saying "I feel differently," instead of "You're wrong." - Anonymous 

Happiness lies in accepting everyone in our lives EXACTLY as they are. We cause ourselves untold misery whenever we believe others to be imperfect and try to change them. This is the number one rule for a happy relationship. - jlh

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. Ralph Waldo Emerson

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer. - Ralph Waldo Emerson 

If we take the generally accepted definition of bravery as a quality which knows no fear, I have never seen a brave man. All men are frightened. The more intelligent they are, the more they are frightened. - George S. Patton 

  Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him. - Dwight D. Eisenhower 

Further reading: What to Do When Your Whole World is Falling Apart

FEAR: False Evidence Appearing Real. - Neale Donald Walsch

FEAR is an acronym in the English language for "False Evidence Appearing Real."
- Neale Donald Walsch

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

Fly Life on Free Wings, and Sing to its Glory.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

For those who do not live in fear of scarcity, life is unlimited.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How do You View the World?

How to Sleep Better Tonight

How to Fall Asleep - Now

A life lived in fear is a life half lived

Joseph Campbell: The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
    

We are free only if we do the work of freedom

We are free only if we face the challenge of freedom, do the work of freedom, fight the fight of freedom and die the death for freedom.
- Charles G. Adams

If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
- 1 John 3:17

Jesus preached more and taught more about helping the poor and the sick and the hungry than he did about heaven and hell. Shouldn't that tell us something?
- John Grisham

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.
- Jimmy Carter

Further reading: Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Compassion is the basis of morality. - Arthur Schopenhauer

Mother Teresa prayer

Jimmy Carter: We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. John Wooden

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
- John Wooden

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
- John Wooden

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation.
- John Wooden

John Wooden, the greatest college basketball coach in history, died June 4, 2010 at age 99.

Further reading: Finding Balance in Life

You can't let praise or criticism get to you. - John Wooden

Youngsters need good models more than they need critics. - John Wooden

Talent is God-given; be humble. Fame is man-given; be thankful. Conceit is self-given; be careful. - John Wooden

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans. Khalil Gibran

In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.
- Khalil Gibran

Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
It's about learning how to dance in the rain.
- Vivian Greene

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain.
- William Shakespeare

Give thanks for the rain in your life which waters the flowers of your soul.

Further reading: 7 Tips for Stress-Free Living

Lao Tzu: Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
- written on the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor

When did we forget? Why did we forget?

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

Positive Attitude: How to be Positive Around Negative People

Never Let Anyone Get Your Goat, Push Your Buttons, Get You Riled Up, Or Annoy You

Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. Mother Teresa

Gandhi: The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

You get what you settle for. Thelma and Louise

There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- the character Morpheus in the movie The Matrix

You get what you settle for.
- the character Louise in the movie Thelma and Louise

Every man dies, but not every man really lives.
- the character Braveheart in the movie Braveheart

Further reading: Do or do not, there is no try. - Yoda (Star Wars movie)

Life is like a box of chocolates. - Forrest Gump

May You be Blessed and May Others be Blessed by You

Never trust spiritual leader who doesn't dance. - Miyagi

Action will delineate and define you. Thomas Jefferson

Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
- Thomas Jefferson

Action is the real measure of intelligence.
- Napoleon Hill

I never worry about action, but only inaction.
- Winston Churchill

Choose wisely - then act decisively. Do it today!

Further reading: Rabindranath Tagore: You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water

Amelia Earhart: Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done

ACTION - the sixth Point of Simply An Inspired Life

Ability without honor is useless. Marcus Tullius Cicero

Ability without honor is useless.
- Marcus Tullius Cicero

All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

You will never do anything in this world without courage. It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- Aristotle

Further reading: Finding Balance in Life Beats Moderation: Eight Ways to Balance Your Life

Honor your being

This Above All, To Thine Own Self Be True - 5 Ways to Apply William Shakespeare's Advice Today

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. Robert Foster Bennett

Life is a sum of all your choices.
- Albert Camus

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.
- Robert Foster Bennett

My definition of success is to live your life in a way that causes you to feel a ton of pleasure and very little pain - and because of your lifestyle, have the people around you feel a lot more pleasure than they do pain.
- Tony Robbins

Today's affirmation: I make my own choices. I decide what I will and will not do. I am proud of my independence.

Further reading: Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life - 5 Secrets For Breaking Your Bad Habits

Conscious Breathing to Relieve Stress

Positive Affirmations for Relieving Stress

Anais Nin: We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.

Try Daily Journaling - 7 Hints for Beginning a Rewarding Journaling Practice

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. Henry David Thoreau

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.
- Henry David Thoreau

It is impossible to walk rapidly and be unhappy.
- Mother Teresa

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
- John Muir

Today's affirmation: I walk today's march with courage. I create today as my celebration of life.

Further reading: Go With the Flow - Six Ways to Live a Happier Life

John Muir: Everybody needs beauty as well as bread

There is sanctuary in being alone with nature. - jlh

Paul Tillich: Language... has created the word "loneliness" to express the pain of being alone. And it has created the word "solitude" to express the

George Bernard Shaw: We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing

To travel is to take a journey into yourself. Danny Kaye

To travel is to take a journey into yourself.
- Danny Kaye

It is better to travel well than to arrive.
- The Buddha

Travel teaches toleration.
- Benjamin Disraeli

Further reading: Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Practical Forgiveness by Sheri Rosenthal

Mark Twain quotes: Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness

Imagine - John Lennon: Imagine Peace, Imagine Love

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
- Confucius

Success has a simple formula: do your best, and people may like it.
- Sam Ewing

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.
- Lao Tzu

Further reading: 7 Tips for Stress-Free Living

Five Questions to Ask Yourself When You Feel Sad for No Apparent Reason

Simple living is the way to happy living - jlh

Behind that social mask is a personal truth. Phil McGraw

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
- Oscar Wilde

We all have a social mask, right? We put it on, we go out, put our best foot forward, our best image. But behind that social mask is a personal truth, what we really, really believe about who we are and what we're capable of.
- Phil McGraw

Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Further reading: Stop Anger Before it Stops You - 7 Secrets

Finding Balance in Life

Love is the great miracle cure. Louise L. Hay

Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
- Louise L. Hay

Every thought we think is creating our future.
- Louise L. Hay

I am one with the power and wisdom of the Universe. I have all that I need.
- Louise L. Hay

Further reading: Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now