Prem Rawat’s new book is a tour de force – sparking, in most readers, a deep sense of wonder, inspiration, and the recognition that all human beings are, somehow, on the same life journey. One of the ways in which Prem accomplishes this effect is via the artful inclusion of evocative quotes from a wide variety of wise ones throughout history – sages, saints, teachers, poets, philosophers, monks, economists, writers, kings, statesmen, physicists, boxers and presidents. What follows is a selection of 20 of these quotes – the first in a three-part series that will eventually feature all of the third-party quotes Prem has included in his book.
NOTE: PremRawat.com would like to know what your favorite quote is of the following 20. Towards that end, we invite you to click this link for the “Inquiries” form, select the Subject: “Feedback to the Editor” and jot down your favorite one.
Ready? Here goes:
“Wisdom is not the product of schooling, but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it.” – Albert Einstein
“Know thyself.” – Socrates
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” – Isaac Asimov
“You are a song, a wished-for song.
Go through the ear to the center,
Where the sky is, where wind,
Where silent knowing.” – Rumi
“Be quiet in your mind, quiet in your senses, and also quiet in your body. Then, when all these are quiet, don’t do anything. In that state, truth will reveal itself to you.” – Kabir
“Do everything as if it is the last thing you will do in this life.” – Marcus Aurelius
“To see the world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” – William Blake
“There is some kiss we want our whole lives,
the touch of Spirit on the body.
Seawater begs the pearl to break its shell.
And the lily, how passionately it needs some wild darling!
At night, I open the window and ask the moon to come
and press its face against mine.
Breathe into me,
Close the language door,
and open the love-window.
The moon won’t use the door,
only the window.” – Rumi
“To believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul. Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.” – Swami Vivekananda
“In our world, everyone thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
“If you don’t get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don’t want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can’t hold onto it forever. Your mind is your predicament. It wants to be free of change, free of pain, free of the obligations of life and death. But change is a law, and no amount of pretending will alter that reality… Life is not suffering; it’s just that you will suffer it, rather than enjoy it, until you let go of your mind’s attachments and just go for the ride freely, no matter what happens.” – Socrates
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” – Mike Tyson
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” – Seneca
“It’s not because things are difficult that we do not venture. It is because we dare not venture that they are difficult.” – Seneca
“Unbreakable, Lord,
Is the love
That binds me to you:
Like a diamond,
It breaks the hammer that strikes it.
My heart goes into you
As the polish goes into the gold.
As the lotus lives in the water,
I live in you.
Like the bird
That gazes all night
At the passing moon,
I have lost myself dwelling in you.
O, my love, return.” – Mirabai
“The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere; they’re in each other all along.” – Rumi
“It is an amazing creation you have created,
From a mere thought you have created this play
Without pen, paper, or color you have created magnificence
In all I see a face, from one face you have made many
From a drop of water you have created all beings
Within all the temples of the heart you have made your home
Without pillars and beams you support this creation
Without land you have made an enchanting palace
Without seed you created an entire forest
You reside with everyone yet hidden
Brahmanand’s heart is filled will immense joy
When the master shows me the hidden you.” – Brahmanand
“We all know that there is a drop in the ocean, but very few know there is an ocean in the drop.” – Kabir
“Knowledge, they say, is like the sandalwood tree, and the Master like a breeze. The entire sandalwood tree is filled with fragrance, but even if it wanted to give its fragrance away, it could not. Yet, when the breeze blows, it carries the fragrance to the whole forest. As a result, other trees become as fragrant as the sandalwood tree. In the same way, the entire world can be fragrant with Knowledge.” – Shri Hans Ji Maharaj
“Each moment is fragile and fleeting.
The moment of the past cannot be kept, however beautiful.
The moment of the present cannot be held, however enjoyable.
The moment of the future cannot be caught, no matter how desirable.
But the mind is desperate to fix the river in place:
Possessed by ideas of the past, preoccupied with images of the future,
It overlooks the plain truth of the moment.” – Lao Tzu
