Quotes and life wisdom to read

10 min reading time | published on: 21.08.2024

A rich treasure trove of quotations on the meaning of life pours into our hearts from the cornucopia of inspired thinkers, mystics, philosophers and writers – provided we are receptive and listen. Perhaps we need consolation, have experienced a disappointment and are asking why. Or we are looking for happiness, motivation, inspiration, long for fulfilling love and profound wisdom. All religions such as Islam, Buddhism and Christianity, but also poets have left us words of wisdom and quotations that can touch us and remind us of our living center. The following quotations feature writers such as Goethe and Henry Ford, philosophers such as Aristotle and Epictetus, musicians and bon vivants such as John Lennon and Casanova, and mystics such as Theresa of Avila and Meister Eckhart. We receive answers to life’s questions on various levels; sometimes they are not made for the mind, but only the heart can hear them well.

You can find more touching quotes for the soul and Buddhist wisdom here: Sayings for the soul

Short quotes

“You can’t do something great every day, but you can certainly do something good.” – Friedrich Schleiermacher

“Don’t look for faults, look for solutions.” – Henry Ford

“Life can only be understood looking backwards, but it must be lived looking forwards.” – Søren Aabye Kierkegaard

“Never start to stop, never stop to start.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

“Don’t listen to reason if you want to achieve a dream.” – Henry Ford

“Being good is more important than being smart.” – Edith Stein

“Happiness belongs to those who are self-sufficient.” – Aristotle

“It is not things that are positive or negative, but our attitude that makes them so.” – Epictetus

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that is not what it was built for.” – Seneca

Life wisdom

“Once you have found yourself, you can never lose anything in this world.” – Stefan Zweig

“We rarely think about what we have, but always about what we lack.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“It is not the years of your life that count. It is the life within those years that counts.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

“What matters is not what happens to us in life, but how we respond to it.” – W. Mitchell

“Existence is delicious, you just have to have the courage to live your own life.” – Giacomo Casanova

“Every difficult situation you overcome now will save you in the future.” – Dalai Lama

“Keep your heart free from hate and your mind free from fear and worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love and spread happiness. Forget yourself, think of others. Be what you want others to be.” – H. C. Mattern

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity, an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Winston Churchill

“We must love our neighbour – either because he is good, or so that he may become good.” – Aurelius Augustinus

“The biggest mistake you can make in life is to always be afraid of making a mistake.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The way to happiness is not to worry about anything that is beyond our control.” – Epictetus

“The strongest bars are in the prisons we have built for ourselves.” – Anthony Robbins

“The value of diamonds and people can only be determined when both are disturbed.” – Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

“Everything that displeases us in others can lead us to better self-knowledge.” – Carl G. Jung

“Friends are those rare people who ask you how you are and then wait for the answer.” – Unknown

“Beginnings are often difficult and endings sad – but it is everything in between that makes life worth living.” – Bob Marley

“Reason is good, but love is better, which takes us beyond reason. It is not a question of thinking a lot, but of loving a lot.” – Theresa of Avila

Spiritual wisdom: philosophical, wise and profound

In our materialistic world, we rarely encounter words such as humility, weakness, service, falsehood, inconvenience, or perhaps even devotion. Those who hear these words in their outer or inner world may have experienced disappointments, passed through valleys of depression and grief, or are on the rare path of an inner journey. They have left the superficial, fast world of thought and touched layers of deeper being. From there, words of comfort, hope for true freedom and trust in the goodness of the world reach us.

Are you looking for inspirational quotes? Then you might also like our collection of aphorisms Sayings for the soul

“Stop identifying yourself with race, family, name, figure and social position. These belong to the body, the garment of impermanence.” – Shankara

“Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of everything before you. The future will take care of itself…” – Yogananda

“Trust simply means: Whatever happens, I accept it, joyfully, without resistance, not reluctantly – otherwise you will miss the point – but dancing, with song, with laughter, with love. Whatever happens, it is OK. Nothing can go wrong in existence. If it does not fulfill our wishes, it simply means that our wishes were wrong.” – Osho

“I know of no greater courage than that needed to look within oneself.” – Osho

“He who could give himself completely for a moment would be given everything.” – Meister Eckhart

“Service is a love song to life.” – OM C. Parkin in Thunderclap and temple silence

“God is always ready, but we are not ready; God is close to us, but we are very far from him; God is within, but we are without; God is (in us) at home, but we are (outside) in a foreign land.” – Meister Eckhart

Sayings

“Remember, you only need a little to live a happy life.” – Marcus Aurelius

“The most important hour is always the present, the most important person is always the one standing in front of you, and the most necessary work is always love.” – Meister Eckart

“The soul has the color of your thoughts.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Before you preach to people how they should be, show them yourselves.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“Worry about what other people think of you and you will always be their prisoner.” – Lao Tse

“Nothing leads us more away from happiness than following what people say rather than what we believe.” – Seneca

“Every person has the chance to improve at least one part of the world, namely himself.” – Paul de Legarde

“There are two ways to live your life: either as if nothing is a miracle, or as if everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

“Face what comes to you not with fear but with hope.” – Francis de Sales

“People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos is because things are loved and people are used.” – Dalai Lama

The silence and the meaning of life – sayings and quotes for a change of perspective

When does silence happen in our lives? Do we wait for silence, or do we consciously take it? In silence, life slows down and we can get in touch with ourselves. Perhaps we sink down a level from the carousel of thoughts and can feel the heart. Here we have selected sayings, quotes and words of wisdom that remind us of the feeling heart within us, which often looks at things differently than our thinking mind.

“The fire of the heart burns everything until only the Self remains.” – OM C. Parkin in Thunderclap and temple silence

“The joy of being is the only true happiness.” – Eckhart Tolle

“Life has only one purpose: to discover who you are.” – OM C. Parkin in Thunderclap and temple silence

“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or be happy because thorns have roses.” – Alphonse Karr

“In all matters it is healthy to occasionally add a question mark to what has long been taken for granted.” – Bertrand Russell

“If you can cultivate the right attitude, your enemies are your best spiritual teachers because their presence gives you the opportunity to cultivate and develop tolerance, patience and understanding.” – Dalai Lama

“The difference between hope and despair is another way of telling stories from the same facts.” – Alain de Botton

“You have power over your mind – not over events. Realise this and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius

“What we see depends largely on what we are looking for.” – John Lubbock

“The heart does not expand – we dream narrowness.” – OM C. Parkin in Thunderclap and temple silence

“There is only one wrong view: the belief that my view is the only right one.” – Nagarjuna

“Freedom is not worth having unless it includes the freedom to make mistakes.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would be enough to solve most of the world’s problems.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“The satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the achievement.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to manage it.” – Mahatma Gandhi