Catalyst Quotes

“The Soul Unfolds Itself”

“A man said to the universe:  ‘Sir, I exist!’

‘However,’ replied the universe.

‘The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.’”   (Stephen Crane, War is Kind and Other Poems)

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“So many people walk around with a meaningless life.  They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important.  This is because they’re chasing the wrong things.  The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”   (Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie:  An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson)

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“At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning.”   (Swami Satchidananda, The Young Sutras)

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“Say not, ‘I have found the truth,’ but rather, ‘I have found a truth.’  Say not, ‘I have found the path of the soul.’  Say rather, ‘I have met the soul walking upon my path.’  For the soul walks upon all paths.  The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed.  The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.”   (Kahlil Gibran)

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“Sometimes, the most profound of awakenings come wrapped in the quietest of moments.”  (Stephen Crane)

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“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”   (Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan)

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“Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.”   (Dale Carnegie)

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“The Sum Total of Everything That Went Before Me”

“We do not create our destiny; we participate in its unfolding.  Synchronicity works as a catalyst toward the working out of that destiny.”   (David Richo, The Power of Coincidence)

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“I don’t want to be little again.  But at the same time I do. I want to be me like I was then, and me as I am now, and me like I’ll be in the future.  I want to be me and nothing but me.  I want to be crazy as the moon, wild as the wind and still as the earth.  I want to be every single thing it’s possible to be.  I’m growing and I don’t know how to grow.  I’m living but I haven’t started living yet.  Sometimes I simply disappear from myself.  Sometimes it’s like I’m not here in the world at all and I simply don’t exist.  Sometimes I can hardly think.  My head just drifts and the visions that come seem so vivid.”    (David Almond, Jackdaw Summer)

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“You are afraid to die, and you’re afraid to live.  What a way to exist.”   (Neale Donald Walsch, Home With God, In a Life That Never Ends)

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“Before you write, think.

Before you spend, earn.

Before you invest, investigate.

Before you criticize, wait.

Before you pray, forgive.

Before you quit, try.

Before you retire, save.

Before you die, give.”   (William Arthur Ward)

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“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me.  I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine.  I am anything that happens after I’m gone which would not have happened if I had not come.”   (Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children)

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“Your Creators and Experiences Have Made You” – Find Purpose

“In the beginning, God created the earth, and he looked upon it in his cosmic loneliness.

And God said, ‘Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what We have done.’

And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man.  Mud as man alone could speak.  God leaned close to mud as man sat, looked around, and spoke.  ‘What is the purpose of all this?’ he asked politely.

‘Everything must have a purpose?’ asked God.

‘Certainly,’ said man.

‘Then I leave it to you to think of one for all this,’ said God.

And He went away.”   (Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle)

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“Life is difficult.”   (M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled)

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“Perhaps the most terrible (or wonderful) thing that can happen to an imaginative youth, aside from the curse (or blessing) of imagination itself, is to be exposed without preparation to the life outside his or her own sphere – the sudden revelation that there is a there out there.”   (Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume)

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“I cannot believe that the purpose of life is to be happy.  I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be compassionate.  It is, above all to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all.”   (Leo Rosten)

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“Coincidences give you opportunities to look more deeply into your existence.”   (Doug Dillon)

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“I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.  I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here.  I don’t have to know an answer.  I don’t feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.”  (Richard P. Feynman)

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“You are what your creators and experiences have made you, like every other being in this universe.  Accept that and be done; I tire of your whining.”   (N. K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms)

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“Deliver More Than You Promise”

“The best way to get unstuck:

Don’t wait for the right answer and the golden path to present themselves.

This is precisely why you’re stuck.  Starting without seeing the end is difficult, so we often wait until we see the end, scanning relentlessly for the right way, the best way and the perfect way.

The way to get unstuck is to start down the wrong path, right now.

Step by step, page by page, interaction by interaction.  As you start moving, you can’t help but improve, can’t help but incrementally find yourself getting back toward your north star.

You might not end up with perfect, but it’s significantly more valuable than being stuck.

Don’t just start.  Continue.  Ship.  Repeat.”     (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog)

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“The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the ‘buts’ you use today.”   (Les Brown)

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“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news.  The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be!  How much you can love!  What you can accomplish!  And what your potential is!”   (Anne Frank)

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“Here’s a little workshop to rock the new year and manifest whatever your heart desires:

1)       Ask once.

2)      Give thanks often.

End of little workshop.  Thanks again.   (signed) The Universe.”   (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, January 7, 2014)

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“Do what you love, love what you do, and deliver more than you promise.   (Harvey Mackay)

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“It Is Not What One Does; It’s What one Becomes”

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”    (Plato)

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“There are two ways of spreading light:  to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.”   (Edith Wharton)

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“Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.”   (Goethe)

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“It’s a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.”   (W. Somerset Maugham)

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“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.”   (Max Lerner)

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“How many slams in an old screen door?  Depends how loud you shut it.  How many slices in a bread?  Depends how thin you cut it.  How much good inside a day?  Depends how good you live ‘em.  How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ‘em.”   (Shel Silverstein)

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“I have learned this:  it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it.”   (Oscar Wilde)

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“Know Yourself”

“It’s dark because you are trying too hard.  Lightly child, lightly.  Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.  Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.  I was so preposterously serious in those days … Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me … So throw away your baggage and go forward.  There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly.  Lightly my darling.”   (Aldous Huxley, Island)

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“You are here to learn something.  Don’t try to figure out what it is.  This can be frustrating and unproductive.”   (Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell)

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“The precept, ‘Know yourself,’ was not solely intended to obviate the pride of mankind; but likewise that we might understand our own worth.”   (Cicero)

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“The soul creates, the mind reacts.  The soul understands what the mind cannot conceive. The soul speaks to you in feelings.  Listen … follow and honor your feelings.”   (Neale Donald Walsch)

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“You are one thing only.  You are a Divine Being.  An all-powerful Creator.  You are a Deity in jeans and a t-shirt, and within you dwells the infinite wisdom of the ages and the sacred creative force of All that is, will be and ever was.”   (Anthony St. Maarten)

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“Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy.”   (Brian Tracy)

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“Be The Person”

“Living is the Challenge”

“Living is the challenge.  Not dying.  Dying is so easy.  Sometimes it only takes ten seconds to die. But living?  That can take you eighty years and you do something in that time.”   (Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi)

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“When faced with two equally tough choices, most people choose the third choice: to not choose.”   (Jarod Kintz, This Book Title is Invisible)

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“If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own.  We listen to people in other denominations and religions.  We don’t find demons in those with whom we disagree.  We don’t cozy up to people who mouth our jargon.  If we are open, we rarely resort to either – or:  either creation or evolution, liberty or law, sacred or secular, Beethoven or Madonna.  We focus on both – and, fully aware that God’s truth cannot be imprisoned in a small definition.”   (Brennan Manning)

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“Learning that miracles are little more than simple shifts in how we perceive our lives, other people, and the myriad situations that engage us makes it possible to thoroughly appreciate every moment of a day.”   (Karen Casey, Daily Meditations for Practicing the Course)

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“Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete.”   (Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan)

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