Catalyst Quotes

“Put On Your Big Boots / An Adventure is Going to Happen”

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”

“I don’t much care where –”

“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”   (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland)

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“I’d like to repeat the advice that I gave you before, in that I think you really should make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt.  So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.  The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure.  The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.  If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy.  But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.

Don’t settle down and sit in one place.  Move around, be nomadic, make each day a new horizon. You are still going to live a long time … and it would be a shame if you did not take the opportunity to revolutionize your life and move into an entirely new realm of experience.

You are wrong if you think Joy emanates only or principally from human relationships.  God has placed it all around us.  It is in everything and anything we might experience.  We just have to have the courage to turn against our habitual lifestyle and engage in unconventional living.”   (Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild)

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“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”   (Helen Keller)

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“Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”   (Rumi)

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“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”  (A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh)

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“Do Not Be Afraid / Learn to Turn on the Light”

“Most of us are not raised to actively encounter our destiny.  We may not know that we have one.  As children, we are seldom told we have a place in life that is uniquely ours alone. Instead, we are encouraged to believe that our life should somehow fulfill the expectations of others, that we will (or should) find our satisfactions as they have found theirs.  Rather than being taught to ask ourselves who we are, we are schooled to ask others.  We are, in effect, trained to listen to others’ versions of ourselves.  We are brought up in our life as told to us by someone else!  When we survey our lives, seeking to fulfill our creativity, we often see we had a dream that went glimmering because we believed, and those around us believed that the dream was beyond our reach.  Many of us would have been, or at least might have been, done, tried something, if…

If we had known who we really were.”    (Julia Cameron)

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“There are some things that are best forgotten.  And when I remember what a few of them are, I’ll drop you a line.  But a couple of things worth remembering, that are all too easily forgotten, are the times in your life when you felt absolutely alone and uncertain.  Yet somehow, perhaps beyond perception, there was a great click, after which suddenly a new friend appeared, an idea was imparted, or a connection established, causing the tides to turn and the floodgates to open.

And remembering this, should such ‘alone and uncertain times’ ever revisit you, however dark they may seem, you’ll at least be comforted by recalling how transient they always are. Pass it on.      (signed)    The Universe.”    (Mike Dooley, ‘Notes from the Universe’)

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“Do not be afraid.  Do not be satisfied with mediocrity.  Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”  (John Paul II)

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“We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light.”   (Earl Nightingale)

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“When you get rid of your fear of failure, your tensions about succeeding … you can be yourself.  Relaxed.   You’ll no longer be driving with your brakes on.”   (Anthony de Mello)

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“Maybe there is something you’re afraid to say, or someone you’re afraid to love, or somewhere you’re afraid to go.  It’s gonna hurt.  It’s gonna hurt because it matters.”    (John Green, Will Grayson)

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“We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow worm.”   (Winston Churchill)

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“You Are a Child of the Universe / You Have an Appointment with Destiny”

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”   (Dr. Seuss, Happy Birthday to You!)

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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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“It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.”   (Henry James)

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“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.  Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.  Be ourself.  Especially do not feign affection.  Neither be cynical about love – for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment is it perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.  Nurture strength of spirit to shield you from misfortune.  But do not distress yourself with imaginings.  Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.  Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.  And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.  With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”   (Max Ehrmann, Desiderata:  A Poem for a Way of Life)

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“Life begins where fear ends.”   (Osho)

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“Follow Your Heart / Return to the Beauty You Have Always Been”

“No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door:  the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people’s eyes, to reveal the marvels around.”   (Paulo Coelho)

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“Follow your heart. Your heart is the right guide in everything big.”   (Kahlil Gibran)

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“When you have acceptance of who you are there is no need to discuss your past.”    (Mark O’Brien)

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“When one door closes, find another.  And what if there isn’t another door?  Then you try a window. And what if there’s not a window?  Then you find a sledgehammer and make a window.  Life isn’t supposed to be easy. Generally speaking, the harder something is the more rewarding the results will be.”   (C. C. Hunter)

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“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”   (Joseph Campbell)

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“You were born a child of light’s wonderful secret — you return to the beauty you have always been.”   (Aberjhani, Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black)

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“Don’t Let a Day Go By Without Asking Who You Are”

“People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.”   (Anthony de Mello)

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“Deep within, there is something profoundly known, not consciously, but subconsciously.  A quiet truth, that is not a version of something, but an original knowing.  What this, absolute, truth [identity] is may be none of our business … but it is there, guiding us along the path of greater becoming; a true awareness.  It is so self-sustaining that our recognition of it is not required.  We are offspring’s of such a powerfully divine force.”    (T. F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters with ‘The Divine Presence’)

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“I am nothing special, of this I am sure.  I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul and to me, this has always been enough.”    (Nicholas Sparks)

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“Love is what we are born with.  Fear is what we learn.  The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts.  Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life.  Meaning does not lie in things.  Meaning lies in us.”    (Marianne Williamson)

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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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“Enlightenment is: absolute cooperation with the inevitable.”   (Anthony de Mello) 

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“Don’t let a day go by without asking who you are … each time you let a new ingredient to enter your awareness.”   (Deepak Chopra)

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“Dare to Be Yourself / Be What You Might Have Been”

“When people understand how to understand why things work the way they do, then and only then can they create a unique future for themselves and those they have been given the privilege to serve through leadership.  If you don’t assume responsibility for understanding generative learning, the best you will ever be able to achieve is mediocrity – competitive parity.”   (Bret L. Simmons)

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“We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are.”     (Max DePree)      

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“It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life.  Where you stumble, there lies your treasure.”   (Joseph Campbell)

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“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.  Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”    (C. G. Jung)

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“As long as you look for someone else to validate who you are by seeking their approval, you are setting yourself up for disaster.  You have to be whole and complete in yourself.  No one can give you that. You have to know who you are – what others say is irrelevant.”    (Nic Sheff)

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“The highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity.  Choosing right over wrong, ethics over convenience, and truth over popularity … these are the choices that measure your life.  Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.”   (Successories)

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“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”   (George Eliot)

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“The Solution of My Life Occurred to Me ….”

“I can do anything.  I can be anything.  No one ever told me I couldn’t.  No one ever expressed this idea that I was limited to any one thing, and so I think in terms of what’s possible, not impossible. 

They did sell me on the notion of reality.  That I got.  I got the laws of physics and nature pretty much down and knew early on there were very specific things I couldn’t do.  I knew I could never make anyone float, or turn water into wine, or make cats speak French.  I knew I couldn’t bring people back from the dead.  I got that part of it.  But I also knew that if I was with someone who had lost somebody I might be able to make them feel better.  I couldn’t keep someone’s house from burning down, but I could help them sort through the rubble and get their shit together and start in on another one.  So realized I wasn’t God, which was a slight disappointment, you know.  Just a slight disappointment – and a mild surprise.”  (Whoopi Goldberg)

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“If we did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”   (Thomas A. Edison)

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“The solution of my life occurred to me one evening while I was ironing a shirt.”   (Alice Munro)

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“Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit; and wise are they who obey its signals.”   (Lydia M. Child)

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“Better not to search for who you are until you decide who it is you want to find.”   (Robert Brault)

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“It is in the moments of decisions that your destiny is shaped.”   (Anthony Robbins)

“Someday the Inner Light Will Shine From Us”

“The stars are the street lights of eternity.”   (Author Unknown)

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“The hero is the one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see by.  The saint is the man who walks through the dark paths of the world, himself a light.”   (Felix Adler)

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“Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that’s been our unifying cry, ‘More light.’  Sunlight.  Torchlight.  Candlelight.  Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators.  Big floods for the night games at Soldier’s Field.  Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we’re supposed to be asleep.  Light is more than watts and foot-candles.  Light is metaphor.  Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light.”   (Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider)

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

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“In this world, darkness is always looming on the horizon.  At Gottfried, instead of avoiding the dark, we meet it head on.

Do the same with your studies and with every obstacle you face in the future. Do not accept the confines of the world as you perceive it.

Instead, look for what you cannot see.  There are universes among us, within us.  Our only way out of darkness is to learn how to see WITHOUT light.”   (Yvonne Woon, Dead Beautiful)

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“Whatever you are physically … male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy — all those things matter less than what your heart contains.  If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things, they are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside.”   (Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel)

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“Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and then we’ll need no other light.”   (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

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“We are Capable of So Much More”

“It was not the thought that I was so unloved that froze me.  I had taught myself to do without love.

It was not the thought that God was cruel that froze me.  I had taught myself never to expect anything from Him.

What froze me was the fact that I had absolutely no reason to move in any direction.  What had made me move through so many dead and pointless years was curiosity.

Now even that had flickered out.

How long I stood frozen there, I cannot say.  If I was ever going to move again, someone else was going to have to furnish the reason for moving.

Somebody did.

A policeman watched me for a while, and then he came over to me, and he said, ‘You alright?’

‘Yes,’ I said.

‘You’ve been standing here a long time,” he said.

‘I know,’ I said.

‘You waiting for somebody?’ he said.

‘No,’ I said.

‘Better move on, don’t you think?’ he said.

‘Yes, sir,’ I said.

And I moved on.”  (Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night)

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“I think it’s just as likely that someone could say that this place, right here, is heaven, hell and earth all at the same time.  And we still wouldn’t know what to do differently.  Everyone just muddles through, trying not to make too many mistakes.”   (David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle)

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“Sometimes we give up a dream to play a larger role in someone else’s dream.”   (Robert Brault)

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“Most people create a destiny of minutiae, of the mundane.  They create their own limitations. When the moment comes for them to stretch and leap, they find themselves boxed in, locked down by their own fears.”   (Bill Blais, No Good Deed)

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“If you have a belief and you come against an experience which the belief says is not possible, or, the experience is such that you have to drop the belief, what are you going to choose — the belief or the experience?  The tendency of the mind is to choose the belief, to forget about the experience.  That’s how you have been missing many opportunities when God has knocked at your door.”   (Osho)

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“So often we only do what we think is expected of us, when we are capable of so much more.”   (Cynthia Hand, Unearthly)

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