True self tells us who we are, where we are planted in the ecosystem of life, what "right action" looks like for us, and how we can grow more fully into our own potentials. --Parker Palmer (in That Friend Walking Behind Me)

Self-awareness, intelligence, and the search for meaning that have --erroneously-- been ascribed as belonging only to human beings, are in fact general conditions for every life-form -- and particularly for plants. --Stephen Harrod Buhner (in The Intelligence of Plants)

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. ---Joseph Campbell- (in The Heartbeat of a Drum)

There is more to life than increasing its speed. --Mahatma Gandhi (in The Empty Promise of Productivity and the Art of Slowing Down)

Even when life challenges us, it's a gift beyond all measure. --Parker Palmer (in The Politics of the Brokenhearted)

When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life. --John Lennon (in The Happiness Multiplier Effect)

For life and death are one, even as the river and sea are one. --Khahil Gibran (in Margaret Wheatley: Warriors for the Human Spirit)

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. --Helen Keller (in Dan Millman: No Ordinary Moments in the School of Life)

What at first glance what may appear to be messy and inefficient may actually be life experimenting -- discovering what is possible. --Margaret Wheatley (in The Unplanned Organization)

Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind. --Henry James (in David Fryburg: Inspiring Kindness Through Images)

We are so achievement-oriented that we often surge right by the true value of relating to what's before us, because we think that accomplishing things will complete us, when it is experiencing life that will. --Mark Nepo from (in The Secret to Happiness Around the World)

Life is much less a competitive struggle for survival than a triumph of cooperation and creativity. --Fritjof Capra (in Fritjof Capra on Life and Leadership)

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. --Lao Tzu (in When Gratitude Holds Hands with Grief)

I've found that many of the decisions in my life involving change have come from the heart. --Judy Wicks (in Good Morning, Beautiful Business!)

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. --Anais Nin (in The Butterfly Child)

Life seems to have one question it asks us over and over: will you have your heart broken with something you care about? --David Whyte (in The renowned poet David Whyte has learned to walk on the borders)

Once we view the economy as supporting a meaningful, comfortable life for everyone in a sustainable world, then we can use economic growth to provide the goods and services we actually want, that actually benefit the people and the planet. --Clair Brown (in Creating a Compassionate Economy)

Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.
--Oprah Winfrey (in How to Unhijack Your Mind from Your Phone)

In the tapestry of life, we're all connected. Each one of us is a gift to those around us, helping each other be who we are, weaving a perfect picture together --Anita Moorjani (in Designed by Masters, Woven with Dignity)

Life is like getting into a boat that's just about to sail off to sea and sink. --Shunryu Suzuki Roshi (in How to Befriend the Universe)

Do I prefer to grow up and relate to life directly, or do I choose to live and die in fear? --Pema Chodron (in Little Panic: What It Takes to Break Free from Anxiety)

You may not have saved a lot of money in your life, but if you have saved a lot of heartaches for other folks, you are a pretty rich man. --Seth Parker (in The Price on Everything is Love)

I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels. --Pearl S. Buck (in Laura Grace Weldon: Four Poems)

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
--Kahil Gibran (in Raise Your Children to Be Happy, Healthy, Complete)

If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.
--Amit Ray (in Breathing into Balance)

Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. --Norman Cousins (in BJ Miller Understands Mortality)

Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
And between the two my life moves.
--Nisargadatta Maharaj (in The Monk, the Butcher & the Origins of Deep Counting)

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything? --Vincent Van Gogh (in How to Break the Loop of Our Destructive Patterns)

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.
--Melodie Beattie (in Say Grace)

God is not always silent, and man is not always blind. In every man's life there are moments when there is a lifting of the veil. --Rabbi Abraham Heschel (in What Are You Doing With Your Freedom?)

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts --Rachel Carson (in The Meadow Across the Creek)

Into the void of silence, into the empty space of nothing, the joy of life is unfurled. --C. S. Lewis (in The Japanese Words for "Space")

Love is the most ordinary, simplest, and most direct way to uncover what is real -- the innermost secrets of life. -- Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (in Unity and the Power of Love)

But down deep, at the molecular heart of life, the trees and we are essentially identical. --Carl Sagan (in Sustainability and the Sacred)

The best part of life is not just surviving, but thriving with passion and compassion and humor and style and generosity and kindness.
--Maya Angelou (in Grateful Changemakers: Karma Kitchen)

Life is like carrying a message from the child you were to the old man you'll become, without losing it along the way. --Yann Arthus-Bertrand (in Home: The Movie)

When you're living a committed life, your own small desires start becoming petty. Your commitment wakes you up in the morning and tells you what to wear, who to meet with, why to go here or there. --Lynne Twist (in The Extra-Ordinarily Committed Life of Lynne Twist)

Life is full of losses and disappointments, and the art of living is to make of them something that can nourish others. --Rachel Naomi Remen- (in Matthew Sanford Transforms Loss)

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. --Dr. Seuss (in Maira Kalman: Daily Things to Fall in Love With)

The freedom of affluence opposes and contradicts the freedom of community life. --Wendell Berry (in When the Market is Our Only Language)

Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it. --Mary Oliver (in Mary Oliver: Instructions for Living A Life)

In the Light of interbeing, peace and happiness in your daily life means peace and happiness in the world.
--Thich Nhat Hanh (in The New and Ancient Story of Interbeing)

Life is embodied network. --David George Haskell (in First, the Work of Paying Attention to the World)

You change your life by changing your heart. ---Max Lucado- (in Welcome to Fearless Dialogues. Are You Ready for Change?)

There is no passion in playing small--in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. --Nelson Mandela (in Thoughts in Passing)

The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all...Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life. --Wendell Berry (in Reconnecting to the Soil, to Heal Ourselves and the Planet)

You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life --Mary Oliver (in Mary Oliver: Poet of Awe)

The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely. --Louisa May Alcott (in Discovering the Sacred in Everyday Life)

A river doesn't just carry water, it carries life. --Amit Kalantri (in In Which the River Makes Off with Three Stationery Characters)

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one. --Kahlil Gibran (in A Good Death: An Interview with Stephen Jenkinson)