Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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1		"Everywhere I looked there was beauty. In that dirty alley, wherever there was a leaf or blade of grass, it sparkled…Then a thought came. It said 'See! Everything is alive, everything lives. That insect, it has a life, the grass, the air even!' And then I felt joy, and with the joy, love, and then a feeling of reverence….I felt a loving obligation to be respectful and kind, to relate to all of life with a feeling of reverence and love." Edward Robinson, 'Living the Question'

2		"Platonist and Neo-Platonist thinkers have traditionally asserted that humans are secretly rooted in Divinity and can realize that fact through the practice of virtue, the pursuit of beauty, and philosophic inquiry (or dialectic). 'God', wrote Plotinus, 'is outside of none.'"

3		"There is a volition beyond drives for dominance, an ego-transcending identity based upon solidarity with others, a superabundant vitality that overflows to those in need."

4		"In the Bhagavad Gita (15.7), Krishna, the Lord of Existence, says: 'It is an eternal portion of Me that has become the living being in a world of living things."

5		"Love in all its greater expressions requires dedication as well as natural attraction, and steadfastness through many kinds of difficulty. But it is always renewable, and it can take root anywhere. Indeed, it is part of the genius of love that it can be summoned in situations where its existence at first seems impossible."

6		"Love, like all human attributes, grows through its exercise. Love grows through acts of love, both given and received."

7		"Mental images, attitudes, and emotions help determine sickness and well-being. Life-giving exercises of the imagination, for example, were described in Egyptian books of the dead, the Vedas, and other religious scriptures. In the Phaedrus, Phaedo, and Symposium, Plato celebrated the power of images to stimulate health. Aristotle recognized the intimate connections between mental pictures, volition, sensation, and other bodily functions…Renaissance physicians believed that images were connected to impulses that travel through the nerves from the brain, stirring up humors that lead to changes in cognitive, emotional, and somatic functioning."

8		"The dynamism of Buddha-nature is all-pervading." Philip Novak, philosopher, 'Buddhist-Christian Studies'

9		"Evolution, with all its meandering, unfolds a luminous existence hidden or involved in this universe since its inception."

10		"Loving behaviors are evident in many animal species, as for example in the self-sacrificing protection provided by cetacean mothers for their young, the natural grooming of primates, and affectionate feline play. Both the animal and human worlds exhibit countless acts of caring."

11		"All events, all persons, are the incognitos of God."

12		"Buddhist, Hindu, Platonist, Christian, and Islamic traditions reflect an enduring realization, shared by countless people since ancient times, of a Reality ordinarily hidden but immediately recognized as our original face, our true identity (as a tiger among sheep), our immortal soul, our shared Ground with God."