Random quotes I found interesting

Each person is good in God's sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows, or meadowlarks to be hawks.
Sitting Bull (Lakota Sioux Chief) ___________________________________________________

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot, and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.
Michael Jordan
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One day a man approached Ikkyu and asked, "Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?" Ikkyu took his brush and wrote, "Attention." "Is that all?" asked the man. Ikkyu then wrote, "Attention. Attention." "Well," said the man, "I really don't see much depth in what you have written." Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times: "Attention. Attention. Attention." Half-angered, the man demanded, "What does that word 'Attention' mean anyway?" Ikkyu gently responded, "Attention means attention."
Zen story from Japan
The principal form that the work of love takes is attention. When we love another, we give him or her our attention, we attend to that person's growth.
M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled ____________________________________________________

We must travel in the direction of our fear.
John Berryman
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Follow the three R's: Respect for Self; Respect for Others; Responsibility for all your Actions.
Dalai Lama (attributed)
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Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.
Thomas a Kempis
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To plunge the world into the great joy of coupling, God became both man and woman, and graciously performed the act of marrying. Who can comprehend the acts of a Lord who does all this for us? Parancati Muivar, The Secret Marriage of Shiva and Parvati
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A life of the spirit brings not peace but a sword, as Jesus put it, a sword that is going to cut away every vestige of the nonsense that disturbs our wholeness, development, and power.
Joseph Chilton Pearce, The Bond of Power
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[On his 80th birthday, John Quincy Adams responded to a query concerning his well-being:]
John Quincy Adams is well. But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon its foundation. Time and the seasons have nearly destroyed it. Its roof is pretty well worn out. Its walls are much shattered, and it trembles with every wind. I think John Qunicy Adams will have to move out soon, but he himself is quite well. Quite well.
John Quincy Adams
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Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice deep looking directed toward the person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. . . . If a husband, for example, does not understand his wife's deepest troubles, her deepest aspirations, if he does not understand her suffering, he will not be able to love her in the right way. Without understanding, love is an impossible thing. What must we do in order to understand a person? We must have time; we must practice looking deeply into this person. We must be there, attentive; we must observe; we must look deeply. And the fruit of this looking deeply is called understanding. Love is a true thing if it is made up of a substance called understanding.
Thich Nhat Hanh, True Love: A Practice for Awakening the Heart
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If you were to see yourself as you really are, you would realize that you are neither man nor woman; you don't belong to any religion or caste or creed. You are really and truly the most fascinating, beautiful light of God. The highest Truth exists within your heart.
A sage
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with obvservation; Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Luke 17: 20-21
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The best way to help women is to work on your fellow men. That's where the real struggle is--getting enlightenment through the concrete block known as a man's head.
Michael Moore
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Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead they sometimes take the apples from the ground that aren't as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they're amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree. Now Men. Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it's up to women to stomp the shit out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.
Sent in by a male reader with the comment, "Is this CLOSE?"
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That which the person is and that which the person could be exist simultaneously. The human being is simultaneously that which s/he is and that which s/he yearns to be.
Abraham Maslow
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She was intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily. If there was chicken, she took the leg; if there was a draft, she sat in it--in short, she was so constituted that she never had a mind or wish of her own, but preferred to sympathize always with the minds and wishes of others. . . . I did my best to kill her. My excuse, if I were to be had up in a court of law, would be that I acted in self-defense. Had I not killed her, she would have killed me.
Virginia Woolf, "Professions for Women" (quoted in Sue Monk Kidd, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter
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We cannot develop a sense of worth unless the people important to us convey that they recognize and acknowledge our experience. Adults often do this for infants and children, of course. If a child expresses distress, adults try to figure out what the matter is, and to respond. Is the child afraid or tired or hungry? Or, if a child is joyous or just 'hanging out,' they join the child in that mode or mood, and the child feels attended to and recognized. This attention and recognition are just as vital for adults and must be present all through life.
Jean Baker Miller and Irene Pierce Stiver, The Healing Connection
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A sage, when asked if it is very difficult to get rid of things like lust, anger, arrogance, and fear, replied, "If you really want to get rid of them, it is not very difficult. If you really do not want to get rid of them, it is incredibly difficult."
Swami Muktananda
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Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means rather that the evil act is no longer a barrier to the relationship.
Martin Luther King Jr.
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Women feel deeply frustrated when they know they are not getting what they need--that is, to be listened to, understood, affirmed--yet feel guilty because they are not at all clear that it is reasonable to want something different from what they are getting.
The Stone Center
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