Welcome to my Daily Inspiration - Daily Quote. See today's daily inspirational quotes below.
May the world be kind to you, and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself. - Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

It's Not That Simple


The contradictions are what make human behavior
so maddening and yet so fascinating,
all at the same time.
- Joan D. Vinge

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

I think wholeness is God's design for us;
and that often amounts to embracing contradictions.
- Bono

It's one of life's great paradoxes ...
Accepting with gratitude whatever life throws at us
is critical to happiness.
Yet without a goal and commitment, life lose much of its value.
The best we can do in the face of this paradox
is to play to win, but be cheerful in defeat
and ready to play again.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We all have free will, but only within the harsh constraints of predestination.
Within the limits placed upon our lives by the circumstances of our genes,
our place and condition of birth, the parenting we receive, and other events beyond our control,
we are defined by the free will we can still exercise.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

The Golden Rule is Not Always Golden

Yin-Yang

Managing Your Wayward Mind

Overflowing Cup of Tea - Zen Koan

Life is Really Simple

Balance in All Things

The Basics
   

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

You Need Courage


Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.
- Mark Twain

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

Whatever you do, you need courage.
Whatever course you decide upon,
there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong.
There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do.
There can be no courage unless you're scared.
- Eddie Rickenbacker


Further reading: Courage and Intent

Circumstance Reveals a Person's Nature

Life of Storms

Choose To Be Fearless
   

Monday, August 29, 2016

Live Fully and Joyfully


"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
- Hans Christian Andersen

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
- Rabindranath Tagore

How much do you engage yourself in what's truly real
and important in life? That's the individual question.
- Ted Danson

Do not lose hold of your dreams or aspirations.
For if you do, you may still exist but you have ceased to live.
- Henry David Thoreau


Today's affirmation:
I live every moment, and I live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Live Every Moment, Joyfully

A Life Without Fear

Enjoy Life

Life in Bold Colors
    

Sunday, August 28, 2016

Highest and Innermost God


The highest God and the innermost God is one God.
- Ernest Holmes

You don't look out there for God, something in the sky,
you look in you.
- Alan Watts

You are within God.
God is within you.
- Peace Pilgrim

When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room,
remember, never to say that you are alone,
for you are not alone, but God is within.
- Epictetus

To be at one with God is to be at peace...
peace is to be found only within,
and unless one finds it there
he will never find it at all.
Peace lies not in the external world.
It lies within one's own soul.
- Ralph W. Trine


Further reading: Quiet Time

Becoming Love

Being an Open Channel

Good Works
   

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Beware of False Knowledge


To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Further reading: Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.

The Danger of Assumptions

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind
    

Friday, August 26, 2016

The Hero Revealed


Hard times don't create heroes.
It is during the hard times when the 'hero' within us is revealed.
- Bob Riley

Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength
which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
- Marcus Aurelius

Where there is no struggle, there is no strength.
- Oprah Winfrey

A hero is someone who has given his life to something bigger than himself
or something other than himself.
- Joseph Campbell

Some days call for courage,
and ask those who would otherwise lead ordinary lives to become heroes.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Circumstance Reveals What You Are Made Of

The Quiet Voice of Courage

Gather Strength

How Hard?

Choosing a Joyful Life
    

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Co-Creation, Not Possession


Love one another but make not a bond of love.
Let it rather be a moving sea
between the shores of your souls.
- Khalil Gibran

Love is the absence of judgment.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

The best relationship is one in which
your love for each other
exceeds your need for each other.
- Anonymous

True love is a process of co-creation
in which neither feels ownership or superiority.
Jealousy is a highly destructive force
for love and relationships.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Love Allows Freedom

7 Secrets of Happy Couples

Possession Is Not Love

Celebrating Your Differences
    

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Stop Opposing Reality


Dwell in stillness.
Observe without reacting and without judging.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.
- Byron Katie

 Be still and know who you are.
- Kirtana

Life is simple.
Everything happens for you, not to you.
Everything happens at exactly the right moment, neither too soon nor too late.
You don't have to like it... it's just easier if you do.
- Byron Katie

Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is,
and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- Aldous Huxley

You're either attaching to your thoughts or you're inquiring. There is no other choice.
- Byron Katie


Further reading: Cultivate Awareness

Breath by Breath

Live in the Present

Cherish This Moment

Cease Striving
   

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Grin Your Smile


Grin your smile; giggle your laugh; unfurl your joy;
dash the last trace of your self-consciousness;
and cavort your most uninhibited play.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The burden of the self is lightened when I laugh at myself.
- Rabindranath Tagore

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.
- e. e. cummings

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

Consciously adopt the mindset of a young child,
to whom all of life is a grand adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Lighten Up, Be Happy

The Need for Humor

Laughter

Not Too Serious
    

Monday, August 22, 2016

Arguments Create Unhappiness


Do you prefer that you be right or happy?
- A Course In Miracles

The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
- Dale Carnegie

You prove your worth with your actions,
not with your mouth.
- Jean Paul

You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak.
- George Clooney

Arguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
- Booth Tarkington

What we have to do...
is to find a way to celebrate our diversity
and debate our differences
without fracturing our communities.
- Hillary Clinton

We cling to our own point of view,
as though everything depended on it.
Yet our opinions have no permanence;
like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
- Zhuangzi

One of the surest ways to cause
yourself great suffering
is to insist upon being right -
to demand that all others view life
exactly as you view it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Why should it impede your happiness for others to have differing views on politics or religion?
for others to paint their houses purple or grow asparagus in place of a grassy lawn?
for others to dress, mingle, celebrate, or dine in their own manner?

The path to happiness is to live your life joyfully in your own way
and to support and encourage others to do likewise.

Further reading: Listen, Really Listen

Opinions

Arguing

Disagreement
   

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Compassion, Kindness, Humility


Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Bear with each other and forgive one another.
- Colossians 3:12

The only way you can serve God is by serving other people.
- Rick Warren

Let us touch the dying, the poor,
the lonely and the unwanted
according to the graces we have received
and let us not be ashamed
or slow to do the humble work.
- Mother Teresa

If you are going to be spiritually curious,
you better not get cluttered up with too many material things.
- Mary Oliver

Religion is a blessing when, and only when,
it provides a focus for a compassionate community
to minister to its members and to the world at large.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Love One Another

Doing God's Work

True Religion is about Helping Others

Peace

A Common Denominator of All Religions...
    

Saturday, August 20, 2016

Seek Your Own Wisdom


Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise;
rather, seek what they sought.
- Matsuo Basho

No one saves us but ourselves.
No one can and no one may.
We ourselves must walk the path.
- The Buddha

Travelers, there is no path.
Paths are made by walking.
- Antonio Machado

There is no subject so old that something new cannot be said about it.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Quotations are dead unless a spur for inquiry.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Know Yourself

The Wisdom of Lao Tzu

Maybe So, Maybe Not. - Ancient Taoist Proverb

Accepting the Fear of Change
    

Friday, August 19, 2016

Appreciate Your Blessings


Thank you, God, for this good life
and forgive us if we do not love it enough.
- Garrison Keillor

It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge
that the whole country isn't in flames,
that there are people in the country besides politicians,
entertainers, and criminals.
- Charles Kuralt

When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light,
for your life, for your strength.
Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.
If you see no reason to give thanks,
the fault lies in yourself.
- Tecumseh

I thank you God for this most amazing day,
for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and for the blue dream of sky
and for everything which is natural,
which is infinite, which is yes.
- e. e. cummings


Further reading: Give Thanks and Celebrate

Thankful and Content

Give Thanks for the Commonplace

Gratitude for THIS Moment
    

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Calm and Without Panic


If you can keep your head
when all about you are losing theirs...
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you...
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it.
- Rudyard Kipling

A good head and a good heart
are always a formidable combination.
- Nelson Mandela

I believe the ability to think is blessed.
If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it.
The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think.
- Richard Pryor

Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic;
it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.
- Vannevar Bush


Further reading: Have Confidence in Yourself

How to Make a Decision You Won't Regret

Life of Storms
   

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Soar, It's Your Natural State


One can never consent to creep when one feels the impulse to soar.
- Helen Keller

If we insist on being as sure as is conceivable...
we must be content to creep along the ground,
and never soar.
- John Henry Newman

There is an eagle in me that wants to soar,
and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
- Carl Sandburg

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that, but the really great
make you feel that you, too, can become great.
- Mark Twain

In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth,
God is pleased when we're pleased.
He wills that we be as free as birds to soar
and sing our maker's praise without anxiety.
- Aiden Wilson Tozer

Soar - it's your natural state.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Life Lived to the Edge

Let Your Heart Soar

Spread Your Wings

The Edge
    

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Wonder and Innocence


Bringing a childlike wonder
and a beginner's mind to life
maximizes both success and joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Children are born innocent.
Before they are domesticated they live in the moment,
love without fear, and don't even think about the opinions of others.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Become more and more innocent,
less knowledgeable and more childlike.
Take life as fun -
because that's precisely what it is!
- Osho

Innocence isn't ever lost completely;
we just need to maintain our goodness to regain it.
- Jewel


A newborn does not have worry, or stress, or anger, because they have not yet learned those things. Consider what life would be like if you could forget all the past resentments and perceived offenses that color your thinking and your emotions. Buddhists call that state "beginner mind" - an opening to experience life without the jaundiced filter of past disappointments.

Further reading:  Growing Up - Staying Young

Reverence

Natural Web
    

Monday, August 15, 2016

The Dance of Life


Dance Lightly With Life:
Today is your day to
dance lightly with life,
sing wild songs of adventure,
soar your spirit,
unfurl your joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Life may not be the party we hoped for,
but while we are here we might as well dance.
- Anonymous

When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor.
It's to enjoy each step along the way.
- Wayne Dyer

Dance like no one is watching,
love like you'll never be hurt.
Sing like no one is listening.
Live life like it's heaven on earth.
- Anonymous (various attributions and alternate phrasings)


Further reading: Appreciate Today

Finding Joy in Our Troubled Lives

Choose to Love Life

Not Too Serious

Today is Your Day (long form of my poem)
    

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Nature Speaks God's Truth


Listen for my stories in the whispers of the wind.
Listen to the truth in the gurgling of a mountain brook.
Nature remembers the truth. Be still and listen.
Listen to your heart’s guidance.
- Susan Gregg

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books,
but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.
- Joseph Smith, Jr.

Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.
- Juvenal

When the solution is simple, God is answering.
- Albert Einstein

Those who find beauty in all of nature
will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself.
- L. Wolfe Gilbert

Nature Speaks God's Truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Spend Time In Nature

The Wisdom of Patience

Beyond Answers

Secrets of Water
    

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Give the World Your Best


Simply do your best, and you will avoid
self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
- don Miguel Ruiz

Success comes from knowing that
you did your best to become the best
that you are capable of becoming.
- John Wooden

Give the world the best you have
and it may never be enough.
Give the world your best anyway.
- Kent Keith (frequently attributed to Mother Teresa)

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

Today's affirmation:
I will do my best...
and then relax in the knowing
that I have done all I could.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Play to Win, but be a Good Loser

Ignore Your Critics

DO IT

Take Charge of Your Life
    

Friday, August 12, 2016

Life Without Stress


The life of inner peace,
being harmonious and without stress,
is the easiest type of existence.
- Norman Vincent Peale

There is more to life than increasing its speed.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit.
Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever,
even if your whole world seems upset.
- Saint Francis de Sales

The greatest weapon against stress
is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- William James

Whenever you feel you must hurry,
ask yourself whether the busy-ness is fulfilling your purpose in life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Feeling Overwhelmed?

Clarity

Seven Tips for Stress-Free Living

Living in Peace
    

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Looking for the Open Door


When one door of happiness closes, another opens,
but often we look so long at the closed door
that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
- Helen Keller

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again, and fail.
It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
- Charles Kettering

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams

It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up.
- Vince Lombardi

Circumstances don't defeat you -
you defeat yourself when you give up.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


All good things end - and new good things begin.

Further reading: Learning from Failure

Don't Give Up

The Quiet Voice of Courage

Finding A Way
    

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Inner Strength and Self Respect


What lies behind us and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

Go within every day and find the inner strength
so that the world will not blow your candle out.
- Katherine Dunham

Nothing is more valuable than your self respect.
When you lose respect for yourself, you have lost everything.
Whatever it takes, and whoever you upset,
do what you know - deep inside - is the right thing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Integrity

Conscience

Character
    

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

How We Treat Our Children


There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul
than the way in which it treats its children.
- Nelson Mandela

The philosophy of the school room in one generation
will be the philosophy of government in the next.
- Abraham Lincoln

He who has health has hope,
and he who has hope has everything.
- Anonymous

So long as you have food in your mouth,
you have solved all questions for the time being.
- Franz Kafka

What kind of world do you want to leave your great-grandchildren?
What can you do today to help create that world?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Honor the Children

Passing the Torch

Our Grandchildren

Full Measure
   

Monday, August 8, 2016

Your Thoughts Create Your Future


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

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our life is what our thoughts make it.
- Marcus Aurelius

Blessings flow toward gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Today's affirmation:
I am one with the power and wisdom of the Universe.
I have all that I need.
- Louise L. Hay


Further reading: Be an Open Channel

Thinking as Creation

The Power of Your Intention

Creating Well-Being
    

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Sanctuary for All Creation


When the vast cathedral of our being
becomes a sanctuary for all creation,
we become the face of God.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Be completely humble and gentle;
be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit.
- Ephesians 4:2-4

The highest revelation is that God is in every man.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity
are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi


Further reading: Unity with Spirit and All Creation

Give Thanks for the Love

Perspective on Diversity

Again Tomorrow
    

Saturday, August 6, 2016

One Breath


All things share the same breath -
the beast, the tree, the man...
the air shares its spirit
with all the life it supports.
- Attributed to Chief Seattle
but actually written in 1972 by screenwriter Ted Perry

Let children walk with Nature,
let them see the beautiful blendings
and communions of death and life,
their joyous inseparable unity,
as taught in woods and meadows,
plains and mountains and streams
of our blessed star,
and they will learn that death
is stingless indeed,
and as beautiful as life.
- John Muir

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
- William Shakespeare

When we try to pick out anything by itself,
we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.
- John Muir

We are all one - the web of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Natural Web

All Life

All Brothers and Sisters

Unity with Spirit and All Creation
    

Friday, August 5, 2016

Happiness is the Choice to be Happy in This Moment


Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety.
It is a long succession of little decisions
simply to be happy in the moment.
- J. Donald Walters

Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness.
- Zhuangzi

You don't need a reason to be happy,
just a choice.
Happiness is the Choice to be Happy in This Moment
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The only reason you suffer is because you choose to suffer.
The only reason you are happy is because you choose to be happy.
Happiness is a choice, and so is suffering.
- don Miguel Ruiz

One can flow harmoniously with the River of Life -
or one can struggle fearfully against the River -
and the River just flows.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Release the Struggle

A Happy Life

The Secret of Happiness

The River of Life
   

Thursday, August 4, 2016

Rekindle the Light


At times our own light goes out
and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude
of those who have lighted the flame within us.
- Albert Schweitzer

Friends share our pain and touch our wounds
with a gentle and tender hand.
- Henri Nouwen

A friend is someone who won't stop
until he finds you and brings you home.
- Fraser Sr. in the movie Due South

A true friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.
- Anonymous

Be thankful to those who have offered us challenges, rather than easy answers.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Today's affirmation: I gratefully accept the light and pay it forward.

Further reading:

Pay It Forward - as an Expression of Universal Gratitude

Appreciating Friends

Giving Love and Comfort
    

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Boldly Paint Your Life


Life is a great big canvas,
and you should throw all the paint you can on it.
- Danny Kaye

Don't Wait!
Start on your dreams, your impulses,
your longings, your special occasions today.
Because this is your moment.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

YOU make a difference to the world.
Act on your dreams today.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Without zest, what is life?
Just waiting for death?
- Osho

I am the poet of my mind.
I am the painter of my heart.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Be Curious - Be Adventurous

The Whole Leap

Choose to Love Life
    

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

The Enemy Within


We carry our worst enemies within us.
- Charles Spurgeon

Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself.
- Anonymous

It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe,
that lures him to evil ways.
- The Buddha

Above all, don't lie to yourself.
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie
comes to a point that he cannot
distinguish the truth within him, or around him,
and so loses all respect for himself and for others.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Today's affirmation:
I lay aside the battles within my own mind,
and grant myself peace.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie


Further reading: Stilling Your Mind

Creating Peace Within Yourself

Our Own Worst Enemy

Managing Your Wayward Mind
     

Monday, August 1, 2016

Honor Your Commitments


The most important promises are the ones we make to ourselves.
The promises we make to ourselves are the ones
that assure us we have the capacity to keep our promises to others.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

If you have integrity, nothing else matters.
If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.
- Alan K. Simpson

Honor your commitments with integrity.
- Les Brown

First say to yourself what you would be;
then do what you have to do.
- Epictetus


Today's exercise:
Consider how much you do or do not value your promises to yourself.
Do you take such promises seriously? Break them easily?
Make new promises as circumstances change?

Further reading: Commitment

The Habit of Making Excuses

Character

What You Know Is Right
   
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