Words for My Soul

“We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.”
-E. E. Cummings (1894-1962); poet, essayist, painter, playwright

“You have many choices. You can choose forgiveness over revenge, joy over despair. You can choose action over apathy….”
-Stephanie Marston; family therapist, author

“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.”
-Roy Disney (b. 1930); former Disney executive, nephew of Walt Disney

“To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others.”
-Anne Sophie Swetchine (1782-1857); Russian author

“One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is Love.”
-Sophocles (496 BCE-406 BCE); ancient Greek tragedian

“I have never met a person whose greatest need was anything other than real, unconditional love. You can find it in a simple act of kindness toward someone who needs help. There is no mistaking love…it is the common fiber of life, the flame that heats our soul, energizes our spirit and supplies passion to [...]

“Love consists in this, that its own should be another’s; to feel the joy of another as joy in oneself, that is loving.”
-Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772); philosopher, scientist, theologian

“You’ll discover that real love is millions of miles past falling in love with anyone or anything. When you make that one effort to feel compassion instead of blame or self-blame, the heart opens again and continues opening. ”
-Sara Paddison; author

“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.”
-Vincent “Vince” Lombardi (1913-1970), athletic coach

“It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed.”
-Harvey S. Firestone (1868-1938); founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company