Echoes

If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. If we really know how to live, what better way to start the day than with a smile? Our smile affirms our awareness and determination to live in peace and joy. The source of a true smile is an awakened mind.

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it except the pleasure of seeing it.

The inhabitants of these islands are the most hospitable people I have ever encountered; they give freely of what they possess, asking nothing in return.

Every individual matters. Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.

Happiness is not a goal, it is a by-product. Paradoxically, the one sure way not to be happy is deliberately to map out a way of life in which one would please oneself completely and exclusively.

For in all adversity of fortune, the most unfortunate kind of misfortune is to have been happy.

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.

Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship.

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.

The love of Heaven and Earth is impartial, and they demand nothing from the myriad things. The love of the sages is impartial, and they demand nothing from the people. The cooperation between Heaven and Earth is much like how a bellows works! Within the emptiness there is limitless potential; in moving, it keeps producing without end. Complaining too much only leads to misfortune. It is better to stay in the center of serenity.

There is not love of life without despair about life.

Our sadness is not sad, but our cheap joys.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Be of one mind and one faith, that you may conquer your enemies and lead long and happy lives.

Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.

Just practice good, do good for others, without thinking of making yourself known so that you may gain reward. Really bring benefit to others, gaining nothing for yourself. This is the primary requisite for breaking free of attachments to the Self.

He was that child's stay, and she was his prop. Thanks to him, she could walk through life; thanks to her, he could continue in virtue.

They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

Reaching the summit of a mountain gives great satisfaction, but nothing for me has been more rewarding in life than the result of our climb on Everest, when we have devoted ourselves to the welfare of our Sherpa friends.

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does it appear that the happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the want of this general blessing; or that life, when the gifts of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would not still be wretched, were it not elevated and delighted by the expectation of some new possession, of some enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall at last be satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent.