The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for.  And the most you can do is live inside that hope.  Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof.

Barbara Kingsolver, critically acclaimed author and winner, National Humanities Medal

When we take on the full dimensions of our work – the messiness and the order, the triumphs and the failures – we can transform just about any situation into an opportunity for connection and deepening for both ourselves and the others around us.

Rabbi Irwin Kula, author, Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life

I thank You God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirit of trees and a blue dream of sky; and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.    E.E. Cummings, poet

But still more difficult than getting rid of these exterior noises is the achievement of inner silence, a silence of the heart. It seems that a person who is caught up in all that noise has lost touch with the inner self. The questions that are asked from within remain unanswered…. With Open Hands Henri J.M. Nouwen, spiritual writer, teacher

Love the moment and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.

Sister Corita Kent, artist and activist

Another fundamental part of my spiritual practice is a daily walk. But it isn’t just a walk; it’s a contemplative experience I call the practice of nature. Others call it walking meditation or walking contemplation….. however we name it, what it offers is the same: a communion with nature and the Divine….conveying so much wisdom. I became open to this wisdom by a kind of active receptivity practiced by walking.

A Monk in the World, Brother Wayne Teasdale, monk, mystic, author 

The ability of people to grow beyond their limitations, to become more than who they are, is really not that limited. – Dr. Rachel Naomi Remen, author, from an interview on Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, www.pbs.org/religion

God doesn’t require us to succeed; he only requires that you try.

St. Teresa of Calcutta, humanitarian, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Listen to your life.  See it for the fathomless mystery it is.  In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way into the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all our moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner, Presbyterian minister and author, The Sacred Journey

Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth.  Avoid being narrow minded and bound to present views.  Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge.  Be ready to learn throughout your entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Zen master, teacher and author, Peace Is Every Step