Catalyst Quotes

“One Word Frees Us”

“Whatever we’re going through, whatever pains are inviting us to change, whatever love is breathing new life into us, revealing the presence of the divine at our center, we are receiving these transformations of growth and healing not only for ourselves but for everyone, for the whole human race. 

The changes that are alive in us, the love that is reshaping our hearts and restructuring our individual possibilities, are the blueprint of tremendous change for everyone.

Every feather on the bird’s wing carries the beautiful bird a little bit closer to home.  Every moment of love each one of us feels brings us all a little bit closer . . . . “    (365 Days of Love, Daphne Rose Kingma, Conari Press)

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“One word frees us of all weight and pain of life; that word is love.”    (Sophocles, 496 – 406 BC)

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“Images of What Love is About”

“Is it possible for the rose to say, ‘I will give my fragrance to the good people who smell me, but I will withhold it from the bad?’  Or is it possible for the lamp to say, ‘I will give my light to the good people in this room, but I will withhold it from the evil people’?  Or can a tree say, ‘I’ll give my shade to the good people who rest under me, but I will withhold it from the bad’? These are images of what love is about.”     (Anthony De Mello)

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“Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought; our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”     (Samuel Johnson)

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“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”    (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

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“When your heart speaks, take good notes.”    (Judith Campbell)

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“Four Questions of Value”

“If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.”    (Rabindranath Tagore)

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“There are no extra pieces in the universe.  Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle.”    (Deepak Chopra)

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“The lesson which life constantly repeats is to ‘look under your feet.’  You are always nearer to the divine and the true sources of your power than you think.  The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive.  The great opportunity is where you are.  Do not despise your own place and hour.  Every place is under the stars.  Every place is the center of the world.”    (John Burroughs)

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“There are only four questions of value in life …

1.     What is sacred?
2.     Of what is the spirit made?
3.     What is worth living for, and
4.     What is worth dying for?

The answer to each is the same:  only love.”    (Johnny Depp as Don Juan in the movie ‘Don Juan De Marco’)

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“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.

Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.

Walk beside me and be my friend.”     (Albert Camus)

“Inner Value”

“We are told that talent creates its own opportunities.  But it sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities, but its own talents.”    (Eric Hoffer)

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“Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”    (Albert Einstein)

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“Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along.  This applies to play as well as work.  A day merely survived is no cause for celebration.  You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine.  No more busy work.  No more hiding from success.  Leave time, leave space to grow.  Now.  Now!  Not tomorrow!    (Og Mandino)

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“We’re so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it is all about.”    (Joseph Campbell)

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“The words ‘I am …’ are potent words; be careful what you hitch them to.  The thing you’re claiming has a way of reaching back and claiming you.”    (A. L. Kitselman)

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:  ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”    (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”   (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”   (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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 “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.  That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”     (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve.  You don’t have to have a college degree to serve.  You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.  You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.”    (Martin Luther King Jr.)

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“Life’s most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?”    (Martin Luther King Jr.)

“Light in the Soul – Beauty, Harmony, Order and Peace ”

“An optimist may see a light where there is none, but why must the pessimist always run to blow it out?”     (Michel De Saint-Pierre)

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“Know that the purpose for which each soul enters a material experience is that it may be as a light unto others . . . Thus, in that consciousness of daily living and being that which is in keeping with the ideal – life and its problems become not a burden, but opportunities.”   (Edgar Cayce)

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“If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person.

If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house.

If there is harmony in the house, there will order in the nation.

If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.”     (Chinese Proverb)

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“You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”    (Oliver Goldsmith)

“Impossible – I’m Possible”

“One of the annoying things about believing in free will and individual responsibility is the difficulty of finding somebody to blame your problems on.  And when you do find somebody, it’s remarkable how often his picture turns up on your driver’s license.    (P. J. O’Rourke)

“Watch your thoughts, they become words.

Watch your words, they become actions.

Watch your actions, they become habits.

Watch your habits, they become character,

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”            (Frank Outlaw)

“Any time you’re tempted to say ‘Impossible’, add an apostrophe and a space, and say, ‘I’m possible.’”     (Al Secunda)

“Let us remember that within us there is a palace of immense magnificence.”     (Teresa of Avila)

“Misshapen, Imperfect, Scarred – Extraordinary”

“The fir tree has no choice about starting its life in the crack of a rock . . . .  What (nourishment) it finds is often meager, and above the ground appears a twisted trunk, grown in irregular spurts, marred by dead and broken branches, and bent far to one side by the battering winds.  Yet at the top . . . some twigs hold their green needles year after year, giving proof that – misshapen, imperfect, scarred – the tree lives.”     (Harriet Arrow)

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“It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex.  Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.”     (Alex Karras)

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“It is extraordinary how extraordinary the ordinary person is.”      (George F. Will)

“Wake Up – You Are a Child of the Universe”

“When you hear ‘Repent for your past,’ realize it’s a great religious distraction from waking up. Wake up!  That’s what repent means.  Not ‘weep for your sins.’  Wake up!  Stop all the crying.  Understand!  Wake up!     (Anthony De Mello)

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“One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations.”    (Ludwig van Beethoven)

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“Every time I close the door on reality, it comes in through the window.”     (Ashleigh Brilliant)

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“Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”      (Author Unknown)

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“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.”        (Max Ehrmann)

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“Change – Too Many People Grow Up”

“We cannot change our past.  We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.  We cannot change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude.”     (Charles Swindoll)

“The Six Phases of Change:   1) Not me!    2) Why me?    3) Deal with me!    4) Oh me!    5) Now me!    6) It’s up to me!”      (Luke De Sadeleer & Joseph Sherren, ‘Vitamin C for a Healthy Workplace’)

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

Courage to change the things I can; and

Wisdom to know the difference.”      (Reinhold Niebuhr)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world.  Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”       (Margaret Mead)

“Too many people grow up.  That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up.  They forget.”      (Walt Disney)