Favorite Quotes

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only on those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny - it is the light that guides your way.

~ Heraclitus

It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living.

~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of the intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the beauty in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded.

~ RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The sun glows inside her chest the moon echoes from her eyes

~ Michaela Leventis, The Bitter Vanilla (via wnq-writers)

Though my soul may set in darkness;

it will rise in perfect light;

I have loved the stars too fondly

to be fearful of the night.

~ Sarah Williams

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

~ Epicurus

When a child gives you a gift, even if it is a rock they just picked up, exude gratitude. It might be the only thing they have to give, and they have chosen to give it to you.

~ Dean Jackson c

Like a

bird singing

in the rain

let grateful

memories

survive in

time of sorrow.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The man who, solely from regard to the opinion of others, and without any wish or necessity of his own, toils after gold, honour, or any other phantom, is no better than a fool.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther

In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

They caught the wild children and put them in zoos, They made them do sums and wear sensible shoes. They put them to bed at the wrong time of day, And made them sit still when they wanted to play. They scrubbed them with soap and they made them eat peas. They made them behave and say pardon and please. They took all their wisdom and wildness away. That’s why there are none in the forests today.

~ Uit: Wild Child, van Jeanne Willis

Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern... Life is like that - One stitch at a time taken patiently, and it will all come out all right.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Cavalier, mocking, violent - this is what wisdom wishes for us to be: she is a woman, and will ever love only a warrior."

~ Thus Spoke Zarathustra

And your worst sin is that you have destroyed and betrayed yourself for nothing. Isn’t that fearful? Isn’t it fearful that you are living in this filth which you loathe so, and at the same time you know yourself (you’ve only to open your eyes) that you are not helping anyone by it, not saving anyone from anything? […] how this shame and degradation can exist in you side by side with other, opposite, holy feelings? It would be better, a thousand times better and wiser to leap into the water and end it all!

~ Fyodor Dostoevsky | Crime and Punishment

This world, with its imposing outward structure that makes it seem to some so secure, is actually tottering, its foundation rotting away from the from the self-love and unbelief with which even those who think to defend it are filled. Its fall is at hand, and the same beast of godless Communism that once swallowed the holy Russian land now stands ready to devour the rest of the world and, completing now what it began then, to exterminate the last Christians and lead apostate humanity in its worship of Antichrist.

~ The Orthodox Word

“no such reality,” writes Dostoevsky, “and there never was on earth, because the essence of things is unreachable to man, and he perceives nature as it is reflected in his idea, having passed through his senses; so it is that we must set the idea in motion and not fear the ideal."

~ Notebooks, 21, 75

Why do we judge our neighbors? Because we are not trying to get to know ourselves. Someone busy trying to understand himself has no time to notice the shortcomings of others. Judge yourself — and you will stop judging others. Judge a poor deed, but do not judge the doer. It is necessary to consider yourself the most sinful of all, and to forgive your neighbor every poor deed. One must hate only the devil, who tempted him. It can happen that someone might appear to be doing something bad to us, but in reality, because of the doer's good intentions, it is a good deed. Besides, the door of penitence is always open, and it is not known who will enter it sooner — you, "the judge," or the one judged by you.

+ St. Seraphim of Sarov

There is nothing better than peace in Christ, for it brings victory over all the evil spirits on earth and in the air. When peace dwells in a man’s heart it enables him to contemplate the grace of the Holy Spirit from within.

+ St. Seraphim of Sarov

We cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of one who gives and kindles joy in the heart of one who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other, not even those whom you catch committing an evil deed. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a morass of filth that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others. Keep away from the spilling of speech. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgement. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult, outrage, and will shield your glowing hearts against the evil that creeps around.

+ St. Seraphim of Sarov

Shades of the prison-house begin to close

Upon the growing Boy,

But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,

He sees it in his joy;

The Youth, who daily farther from the east

Must travel, still is Nature’s priest,

And by the vision splendid

Is on his way attended;

At length the Man perceives it die away,

And fade into the light of common day.

~ William Wordsworth, “Ode,” Poems, in Two Volumes

53. Endure the trial of yourself and your own faults and sins peacefully, serenely, because you know that God’s mercy is greater than your brokenness.

(This is very important. St. Seraphim of Sarov said: “To have the Holy Spirit is to see your own wretchedness peacefully, because you know that God’s mercy is greater than your wretchedness.” St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a Roman Catholic saint who died at 24, she wrote to a friend: “If you are willing to bear the trial of your own wretchedness, serenely, then you will surely be the sweetest dwelling place of Jesus.” We have to bear our own faults, serenely. St. Paul said: “Where sin has abounded, grace has superabounded.” And we cannot let the devil rejoice two times. Pythagoras said: “When we fall, the devils rejoice. When we stay down, the devils keep rejoicing.” And nothing puts the devils more to shame than having fallen, we stand up again. So we must bear peacefully, calmly, our own weaknesses, our own failings. Expect them. Don’t make them happen, but expect them. We are not God.)

~ 55 Maxims of the Christian Life, Fr. Thomas Hopko

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound's the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

~ Robert Frost

In another universe,

I meet my father

when he is a child.

We play catch in the woods

and as we play he tells me

he isn't allowed to cry

but sometimes the world

hurts him and he doesn't know

what to do with all that pain.

So I give him the shoulder

he needs to cry on.

And he does. He does

until the tears are done.

Afterwards, I buy him ice cream

and I listen to his laugh,

the glowing warm laugh

of a child who knows he is safe.

I wish someone could

have done that for him.

Been a kind, safe place

for the child he used to be.

Would it have made a difference?

Would it have made a difference?

~ Nikita Gill

In another universe,

I meet my mother

when she is a child.

We go for a walk at the seaside

and she tells me all the things

she loves about the world.

We share a hundred iokes

and she laughs so easily,

without a single worry.

I want to meet that version of her.

Wide eyed and full of joy.

Easy laughter and carefree.

Before the same world

she loved so deeply

broke her heart.

~ Nikita Gill

If you dwell on your feelings about things rather than dwelling on the faithfulness, the love, and the mercy of God, then you're likely to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Our feelings are very fleeting and ephemeral, aren't they? We can't depend on them for 5 minutes at a time. But dwelling on the love, faithfulness, and mercy of God is always safe.

~ Elizabeth Elliott

The rules are simple: they lie to us, we know they're lying, they know we know they're lying, but they keep lying to us, and we keep pretending to believe them.

~ Elena Gorokhova, A Mountain of Crumbs

...the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

~ Walt Whitman, O Me! O Life!

And God, please let the deer on the highway get some kind of heaven. Something with tall soft grass and sweet reunion. Let the moths in porch lights go some place with a thousand suns, that taste like sugar and get swallowed whole. May the mice in oil and glue have forever dry, warm fur and full bellies. If I am killed for simply living, let death be kinder than man.

~ Althea Davis

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.

~ Albert Einstein

“Boy, I was shaking like a madman. I was sweating, too. When something perverty like that happens, I start sweating like a bastard. That kinda stuff’s happening to me about twenty times since I was a kid. I can’t stand it.”

~ Holden Caulfield, Catcher in the Rye

If you ask a fly, “Are there any flowers in this area?” it will say, “I don’t know about flowers, but over there in that heap of rubbish you can find all the filth you want.” And it will go on to list all the unclean things it has been to.Now, if you ask a honeybee, “Have you seen any unclean things in this area?” it will reply, “Unclean things? No, I have not seen any; the place here is full of the most fragrant flowers.” And it will go on to name all the flowers of the garden or the meadow.You see, the fly only knows where the unclean things are, while the honeybee knows where the beautiful iris or hyacinth is.As I have come to understand, some people resemble the honeybee and some resemble the fly. Those who resemble the fly seek to find evil in every circumstance and are preoccupied with it; they see no good anywhere. But those who resemble the honeybee only see the good in everything they see. The stupid person thinks stupidly and takes everything in the wrong way, whereas the person who has good thoughts, no matter what he sees, no matter what you tell him, maintains a positive and good thought.

+ St. Paisios of Mt. Athos, “Good and Evil Thoughts,” Spiritual Counsels III: Spiritual Struggle

The synagogue is worse than a brothel, it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts, the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults. It is a criminal assembly of Jews — a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ.

+ Saint John Chrysostomos

So the godlessness of the Jews and the pagans is on par. But the Jews practice deceit which is more dangerous. In their synagogue stands in an invisible altar of deceit on which they sacrifice they sacrifice not sheep and calves but the souls of men.

+ Saint John Chrysostomos

The Jews are wise only in doing evil, and are thus unable to know the hidden plan of God.

+ Saint Justin the Martyr

Jews are slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies of God, adversaries of Grace, enemies of their Fathers’ faith, advocates of the devil, a brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men of darkened minds, the leaven of Pharisees, a congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, haters of Goodness!”

+ St. Gregory of Nyssa

But whatsoever human souls have not the Mind as pilot, they share in the same fate as souls of lives irrational. For [Mind] becomes co-worker with them, giving full play to the desires towards which [such souls] are borne,—[desires] that from the rush of lust strain after the irrational; [so that such human souls,] just like irrational animals, cease not irrationally to rage and lust, nor ever are they satiate of ills. For passions and irrational desires are ills exceeding great; and over these God hath set up the Mind to play the part of judge and executioner.

~ About the Common Mind (4), from the Hermetic Corpus

and perhaps

what made her beautiful

was not her appearance

or what she achieved,

but in her love

and in her courage,

and her audacity

to believe:

no matter

the darkness

around her,

Light ran wild

within her,

and that was the way

she came alive,

and it showed up

in everything.

~ morgan harper nichols

i.

How strange. It stained her skirt: Red shame.

How utterly unremarkable. No stark transformation.

But her mother, she spoke in a whisper.

Told her not to tell her father

Her skirt, smuggled into the laundry.

Illicit. Like the thing she’d become

A woman, she murmured to her dolls.

How strange, she thought:

She had whispered.

As if she’d committed a crime

ii.

Nubile legs peeked through her schoolgirl skirt.

Rose bud breasts and narrow hips:

Alluring.

Eyes trapped by

untouched flesh, kissed by the glow of youth,

Lilting laughter left her girlish pout.

Innocence: What a thrill.

A flash of skin: Ecstasy

iii.

How strange. It stained her skin: Strange gaze

Eyes poked at her bony limbs

Rippled her skin till her hair stood up

Illicit.

As if she’d committed a crime

~ Unknown