Catalyst Quotes

“In Every Problem There is a Lesson to Learn”

“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus!  That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t.  We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities; we are eaten up by nothing.”  (Charles Bukowski)

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“We can either own our circumstances and be creative in them, or we can throw up our hands and say, I cannot be held accountable because the conditions are not ideal.”   (Patti Digh, Creative Is a Verb:  If You’re Alive, You’re Creative)

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“You’ve got choices, like any other creature.  You can stumble down that road, pretending you can’t help it.  You can curl up and die of regret and sorrow for what you’ve done.  Or you can get up and fight, even though the battle might be lost.”   (Kersten Hamilton, Tyger Tyger)

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“We must assume every event has significance and contains a message that somehow pertains to our questions. This especially applies to what we used to call bad things. The challenge is to find the silver lining in every event, no matter how negative.”   (James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy)

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“In every problem there is a lesson to learn, an asset to acquire, a rest to restore, a bitterness to sweeten, a load to lighten or a price to pay.”    (Ikechukwu Joseph)

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“Do What You Are Afraid to Do”

“Life is indeed a gamble, the ultimate game of chance, based purely upon having the ability to make the right choices at the right time.  You never win or lose in life if you realize it is all just for the experience. Learn to create your own destiny; don’t wait to see what fate throws your way.”   (Steven Redhead, Keys to Creating Your Reality)

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“Once we rid ourselves of traditional thinking, we can get on with creating the future.”   (James Bertrand)

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“The path to wisdom does, in fact, begin with a single step.  Where people go wrong is in ignoring all the thousands of other steps that come after it.  They make the single step of deciding to become one with the universe and for some reason forget to take the logical next step of living for seventy years on a mountain and a daily bowl of rice and yak butter tea that would give it any meaning.  While evidence says that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, they’re probably all on first steps.”   (Terry Pratchett)

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“In the beginning, spirituality is a seeking practice.  We seek peace, we seek joy, we seek wisdom, we seek awakening, we seek self betterment.  Farther down the road, the realization comes that we already are the peace and joy and wisdom and awakening and self betterment that we seek.  At that point, spirituality becomes what it is … Not a practice of seeking anything. But a practice of uncovering what was there inside you all along.  You already are the light at the end of the tunnel.  You already are the wisdom, you already are the peace, you already are the joy.  You already are awakened, you already are perfect.  All that’s left is for you to discover that you are.”   (Teal Scott)

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“A man, who seeks only the light, while shirking his responsibilities, will never find illumination.  And one who keeps his eyes fixed upon the sun ends up blind.

It doesn’t matter what others think – because that’s what they will think, in any case.  So, relax.

Let the universe move about.  Discover the joy of surprising yourself.

The master says:  ‘Make use of every blessing that God gave you today.  A blessing cannot be saved.’

There is no bank where we can deposit blessings received, to use them when we see fit.  If you do not use them, they will be irretrievably lost.  God knows that we are creative artists when it comes to our lives.  On one day, he gives us clay for sculpting, on another, brushes and canvas, or a pen.  But we can never use clay on our canvas, nor pens in sculpture.  Each day has its own miracle.  Accept the blessings, work, and create your minor works of art today. Tomorrow you will receive others.”   (Paulo Coelho, Maktub)

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“Always do what you are afraid to do.”    (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

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“Down the Road to Wisdom”

“It’s a lot easier to be lost than found.  It’s the reason we’re always searching and rarely discovered – so many locks not enough keys.”   (Sarah Dessen)

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“There are only two questions that human beings have ever fought over, all through history. ‘How much do you love me?’ and ‘Who’s in charge?’  Everything else is somehow manageable.  But these two questions of love and control undo us all, trip us up and cause war, grief and suffering.”   (Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love)

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“If we doubted our fears instead of doubting our dreams, imagine how much in life we’d accomplish.”   (Joel Brown)

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“Sometimes life isn’t about the end.  It’s not always about tomorrow and the day after that, what we achieve over the years and how we leave the world.  Sometimes it’s about today.

Any of us could die tomorrow regardless of the horde.  We could get sick or be injured or anything else.  That’s the risk we take waking up each morning and stepping outside.”   (Carrie Ryan, The Dark and Hollow Places) 

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“Don’t do what you want.  Do what you don’t want.  Do what you’re trained not to want.  Do the things that scare you the most.”   (Chuck Palahniuk)

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“The Road to Wisdom

The road to wisdom?

Well, it’s plain and simple to express:

Err and err and err again

but less and less and less.”   (Piet Hein)

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“I hate how my past actions keep messing up my future options, Seth muttered.

Then you’ve started down the road to wisdom, Grandpa replied.”   (Brandon Mull, Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary)

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“Be, Don’t Become”

“Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time.  That’s the secret to life, really — never stop learning.  It’s the secret to career.  I’m still working because I learn something new all the time.  It’s the secret to relationships. Never think you’ve got it all.”    (Clint Eastwood)

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“I think that you find your own way.  You have your own rules.  You have your own understanding of yourself, and that’s what you’re going to count on.  In the end, it’s what feels right to you.  Not what your mother told you.  Not what some actress told you.  Not what anybody else told you but the still, same voice.”    (Meryl Streep)

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“The four hardest tasks on earth are neither physical nor intellectual feats, but spiritual ones:

    1)  to return love for hate;

    2)  to include the excluded;

    3)  to forgive without apology, and

    4)  to be able to say ‘I was wrong.’”       (Anon)

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“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.  If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him.  If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.”    (Buddha)

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“Be — don’t try to become.”    (Osho)

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“To Find the Yellow Brick Road, Start On the Dusty, Dirt One”

“Usually, the best way to find the yellow brick road of your life is to start out on the dusty, dirt one.

And then let yourself become so preoccupied in making the best of it, having fun, and challenging yourself that you actually stop paying attention to the path.

Until, one day, not so long from now, with a new best friend, wearing cool clothes, feeling awesome, a teeny tiny bit taller, fresh from a WOW vacation, looking for the path you just left, you’ll notice that it’s 24 carats… baby.

And you’ll wonder for a long, long time, sipping on some exotic fruit drink, when the transformation actually took place…

Also wondering, as everyone always does, ‘Whatever did I do to deserve so much, so fast…?’

    (signed)   The Universe”         (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, 8.15.13)

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“The first and most important principle in asking for and getting what you want is the ‘ground of being’ from which you ask.  By ‘ground of being’ we mean your state of thinking in regard to your level of certainty about getting what you are asking for.  If your expectation is that you will get what you are asking for, it will affect everything else — your body posture, eye contact, tone of voice and choice of words .…

Start with the assumption that you can get what you want.”    (Jack Canfield & Mark V. Hanson, The Aladdin Factor)

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“For me the world is weird because it is stupendous, awesome, mysterious, un-fathomable; my interest has been to convince you that you must assume responsibility for being here, in this marvelous world, in this marvelous desert, in this marvelous time.  I want to convince you that you must learn to make every act count, since you are going to be here for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”    (Carlos Castaneda, Journey to Ixtlan)

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“The person who really wants to do something finds a way; the other person finds an excuse.”    (Unknown Author)

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“I cannot tell you any spiritual truth that deep within you don’t know already.  All I can do is remind you of what you have forgotten.”    (Eckhart Tolle)

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“Do We Still Have What It Takes”

“I just want to do something that matters.  Or be something that matters.  I just want to matter.”   (John Green, An Abundance of Katherines)

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“Sometimes in life you have an appointment with destiny, and sometimes you just have to get destiny to squeeze you in.”    (Robert Brault)

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“The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.”    (Napoleon Hill)

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“Our lives are so hopelessly entangled in the choices of others, we can never have full control over our destiny or fate or purpose or whatever you want to call it.  The choices we make will define us, of course, but so do the choices of everyone around us whether we know them or not.”    (How to Disappear Completely, David Bowick)

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“For most of my life I have thought of grace as a hope of a bright tomorrow in spite of the darkness of today — and this is true.  In this way we are all like Pamela, walking a road to grace — hoping for mercy.  What we fail to realize is that grace is more than our destination, it is the journey itself, manifested in each breath and with each step we take.  Grace surrounds us, whirls about us like the wind, falls on us like rain.  Grace sustains us on our journeys, no matter how perilous they may be and, make no mistake, they are all perilous.  We need not hope for grace, we merely need to open our eyes to its abundance.  Grace is all around us, not just in the hopeful future but in the miracle of now.”   (Richard Paul Evans, The Road to Grace)  

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“Wherever you go, go with inspiration and aspiration.

Whatever you do, do with love and concern.

Whomever you see, see with purity’s beauty

And responsibility’s glory.”     (Sri Chinmoy, The Wings of Joy:  Finding Your Paths to Inner Peace)

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“Is it always to be a winners-losers world, or can we keep everyone in the game?  Do we still have what it takes to find a better way?”    (Robert Fulghum)

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“Jump Out the Window and Grow Wings”

“Life is short, Break the Rules.

Forgive quickly, Kiss SLOWLY.

Love truly. Laugh uncontrollably

And never regret ANYTHING

That makes you smile.”     (Mark Twain)

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“I never think of what I am proud about.  I never look back, except to find out about mistakes.  Because mistakes are hard to remember and to draw conclusions from.  But I only see danger in thinking back about things you are proud of.  When people ask me if I am proud of something, I just shrug and hope to get away as soon as possible.  I should explain that my way is to look ahead, all my pleasant thoughts are about the future.  It has been that way since I was twenty years old.  I start every day fresh.”    (Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann)

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“Dreams come true, that’s what they do.  The only variable is when.

For the slow approach:  Resist.  Attach.  Insist.  Deny.  Stop.  Second guess. Whine.  Argue.  Defend.  Protest. Cry.  Struggle.  And ask others, ‘when you know the answer yourself.’

For the quick approach:  Visualize.  Pretend.  Prepare.  Dodge.  Roll.  Serpentine.  Do not waiver over intentions, but over methods.  Show up, even when nothing happens.  And give thanks in advance.

You knew that,

    (signed)   The Universe          (Mike Dooley, Notes from the Universe, 7.25.13)

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“Our great business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.”    (Thomas Carlyle)

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“Sometimes you just have to jump out the window and grow wings on the way down.”    (Ray Bradbury)

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“Hear What Your Heart Already Knows”

“If only the scientific experts could come up with something to get it out of our minds. One cup of fixit fizzle that will lift the dirt from our lives, soften our hardness, protect our inner parts, improve our processing, reduce our yellowing and wrinkling, improve our natural color, and make us sweet and good.”    (Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten) 

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“Heaven’s not a place that you when you die, it’s that moments in life when you actually feel alive, so live for the moment.  Take this advice, live by every word, love is just a hoax so forget anything that you have heard and live for the moment now.”    (‘The Tide’ lyrics by The Spill Canvas)

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 “We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity.  Life is eternal.  We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.  This is a precious moment.  It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”  (Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist)

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“The rest of your life is a long time and whether you know it or not it’s being shaped right now.  You can choose to blame your circumstances on fate or bad luck or bad choices.  Or you can fight back.  Things aren’t always going to be fair in the real world.  That’s just the way it is.  But for the most part, you get what you give.”    (One Tree Hill)

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 “Sometimes divine revelation simply means adjusting your brain to hear what your heart already knows.”    (Dan Brown)

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“Changing the World Can Be So Simple”

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”    (Leo Buscaglia)

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“Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push.   A smile.   A word of optimism and hope.   A ‘you can do it’ when things are tough.”   (Richard M. Devos)

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“Make yourself a blessing to someone. Your kind smile or pat on the back just might pull someone back from the edge.”    (Carmelia Elliot)

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“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”    (John Lennon)

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“Remember me and smile, for it’s better to forget than to remember me and cry.”   (Dr. Seuss)

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“One smile has the power to…

Calm fears.

Soften stone walls.

Warm a cold heart.

Invite a new friend.

Mimic a loving hug.

Beautify the bearer.

Lighten heavy loads.

Promote good deeds.

Brighten a gloomy day.

Comfort a grieving spirit.

Offer hope to the forlorn.

Send a message of caring.

Lift the downtrodden soul.

Patch up invisible wounds.

Weaken the hold of misery.

Act as medicine for suffering.

Attract the companionship of angels.

Fulfill the human need for recognition.

Who knew changing the world would prove so simple?”    (Richelle E. Goodrich)

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“Peace begins with a smile.”   (Mother Teresa)