"How come every time I go searching for inner peace I get aggravated?"

"It's your perspective that makes it your reality." - Fred Fornicola

"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.
All that I desire to point out is the general principle that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.
Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known. Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.
An excellent man; he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them; rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.
Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future." - Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde

"To depend on others is to be unstable." - The Sutta Nipata

"Most people fail because they never get started." - Fred Fornicola

"The basic lesson of Zen is: "Forget yourself." - Robert Aitken

"Zazen is not a difficult task. It is a way to lead you to your long-lost home." - Shaku Soen Zenji

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is
pleased." - Katharine Hepburn

"The way down and the way up are one and the same." - Herakleitos

"I destroy my enemy when I make him my friend." - Abraham Lincoln

"When I repress my emotion my stomach keeps score." - John Enoch Powell

"Man has no greater enemy than himself." - Francesco Petrarch

"If decisions are a choice . . . and our thinking dictates our decisions, then we are where we are because of our thinking." — President Harry S. Truman

"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you." - Arnold Palmer

"If you're too fat and out of shape to catch the ice cream truck you probably shouldn't be trying to catch it." - Fred Fornicola

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress." - Thomas A. Edison

"The great end of life is not knowledge but action." - Thomas Henry Huxley

"Storms make the oak grow deeper roots." - George Herbert

There was a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always there for her. She told her boyfriend, 'If I could only see the world, I will marry you.'

One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages came off, she was able to see everything, including her boyfriend.

He asked her,'Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?' The girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn't expected that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life led her to refuse to marry him.

Her boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her saying: 'Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before they were yours, they were mine.'

"A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for thedesire of the end will point out the means." - William Hazlitt

"One must look for one thing only, to find many." - Cesare Pavese

"Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive." - Elbert Hubbard

"Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend's forehead." - Chinese Proverb

"Like the sky, you lean on nothing." - Zen Saying

"Everyday life confronts us with new problems to be solved whichforce us to adjust our old programs accordingly." - Dr. Ann Faraday

"Be master of yourself everywhere. All you do proves true." - Zen Saying

"To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is tobe ridiculous." - Chinese Proverb

"In a certain sense Zen is to feel life instead of feeling something about life." - Alan Watts

"The first and the best victory is to conquer self." - Plato

"All of the significant battles are waged within the self." - Sheldon Kopp

"A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world." - Joseph Addison

"I cannot divine how it happens that the man who knows the least is the most argumentative." - Giovani della Casa

"Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth." – Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Courage comes from wanting to do it well. Security comes from knowing you can do it well. Confidence comes from having done it well." - Author Unknown

"The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach." - Yutang Lin

"If you look into your own heart, you find nothing wrong there,
what is there to fear?" - Confucius

"I look upon it that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else." - Samuel Johnson

"It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question." - Eugene Ionesco

"Without consistency there is no moral strength." - Author Unknown

"Sometimes, I feel the fear of uncertainty stinging clear
And I can't help but ask myself how much I let the fear
Take the wheel and steer
It's driven me before
And it seems to have a vague, haunting mass appeal
But lately I'm beginning to find that I
Should be the one behind the wheel

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be there

So if I decide to waiver my chance to be one of the hive
Will I choose water over wine and hold my own and drive?
It's driven me before
And it seems to be the way that everyone else gets around
But lately I'm beginning to find that
When I drive myself my light is found

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be there

Would you choose water over wine
Hold the wheel and drive

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
With open arms and open eyes yeah

Whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there
I'll be there" - Incubus

"When religion grows in age, faith turns into dogma, and experience is replaced by book-knowledge, virtue by adherence to rules, devotion by ritual, meditation by metaphysical speculation. The time is then ripe for a rediscovery of truth and a fresh attempt to give it expression in life." - Lama Govinda

"Discretion is the better part of valor, and that is something the ego needs to understand." - Fred Fornicola

"You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind." - Timothy Leary

"The aim of living is life itself." - Goethe

"The greatest single cause of a poor self-image is the absence of unconditional love." - Zig Ziglar

"You'll never achieve your dreams if they don't become goals." - Anonymous

"To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous." - Chinese Proverb

"See without looking, hear without listening, breathe without asking." - W.H. Auden

“What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul.” - Jesus

Letting Go

Once upon a time there lived a farmer in the three kingdoms of China.
This farmer had a son who worked the farm with the help of a horse.
The horse ran away one day.
The local farmers came and said, "How unlucky, your horse ran away."
The farmer said, "Perhaps."
The next day, the horse came back, but was followed by a whole herd.
When the local farmers found out, they said, "You have great luck."
Again, the farmer said, "Perhaps."
Another day passes, and the farmer's son broke his leg while riding some of the new horses.
The local farmers again came, and this time they said, "What bad luck, your son broke his leg."
The farmer repeated, "Perhaps."
On the fourth day, the emperor's army were recruiting for the army and because of the son's broken leg, did not recruit him.
The local farmers this time said, "What great luck, your son did not get recruited."
The farmer again, repeated, "Perhaps."