Knowledge devoid of devotion is like chewing stones.
– Mata Amritanandamayi

If you decide to leave one relationship because you are unwilling to
forgive, what makes you think that you can succeed in another? It’s
true, people are different and some people push your buttons more than
others, but everyone is imperfect and everyone is going to push your
buttons at one time or other. You ability to create a successful
relationship depends not so much on your choice of partner, but on your
willingness to forgive yourself and the partner you choose. By all
means, hold out for the partner you want. Insist on common goals,
shared interests and mutual attraction. Abandon any relationship that
promises to be abusive, even though you might eventually learn
something there. Don’t play the game of love with half a deck.
– Paul Ferrini, Miracle of Love

Only those who go where few have gone can see what few have seen.
– Buddha

Once the blossoms are gone, the fruit becomes visible;
When one fades away, the other starts growing.  
How could bread give strength without being broken?
How could the grape give wine without being crushed?
– Rumi

We become powerful in the face of our fears when we have a sense that
we make a difference in this world. Affirmations of purpose communicate
the truth that we are all meaningful participants in this Universe and
that we are worthy of giving and receiving love.
– Susan Jeffers

Learning is finding out what you already know, doing is demonstrating
that you know it, teaching is reminding others that they know it as
well as you do. We are all learners, doers, and teachers.
– Richard David Bach

It all depends on how we look at things, and not on how things are in
themselves. The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life
than the greatest of things without it.
– Carl Gustav Jung

Care more than others think wise. Risk more than others think safe.
Dream more than others think practical. Expect more than others think
possible.
– Howard Schultz

You will identify with what you think will make you safe. Whatever it
may be, you will believe that it is one with you. Your safety lies in
truth, and not in lies. Love is your safety. Fear does not exist.
Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are
home. Identify with love, and find your Self.
– from A Course In Miracles

You do not stop losing power by refusing to recognize your fear, by
anesthetizing yourself to what you feel. The road to authentic power is
always through what you feel through your heart.
– Gary Zukav, The Seat of the Soul

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience — well that comes from poor judgment.
– Ez

=====

As I was passing the elephants, I suddenly stopped, confused by the
fact that these hugecreatures were being held by only a small rope
tied   to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was
obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their
bonds but for some reason, they did not.
   
I saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent
animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” he
said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size
rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they
grow up, they are conditioned  to believe they cannot break
away.  They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never
try to break free.”

I was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their
bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right
where they were.
     
Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a
belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once
before?

– Anon.