"Several years ago, I started collecting meaningful quotes and treatises to pass on to my wonderful daughter. Some of them are my own but most of them are from other authors/sources who have had an impact on my life. As in the tradition of King David and his Book of Proverbs, a originally put them together to hand down to my children. But now, I share them with you. I hope you are blessed and find something meaningful." - Kiwamura / Kevin Village Stone
All-time favorite quote:
"What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know.
It's what we do know for sure, that just ain't so".
Mark Twain
Quick Links: Life | Wisdom | Trials and Mistakes | Love
Sorrow | Inspiration | Existence and Tranquility | Forgiveness | Spirituality
Life
“ God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not a choice. You must take it. The only choice is how”.
Henry Ward Beecher
“Alas poor maiden, alas poor Judge – For rich repiner or household drudge. God pity them both – God pity us all – when vainly the dreams of youth we recall.
For of all the saddest words of tongue or pen the saddest are these, ‘It might have been’”.
John Greenleaf Whitier
“I would rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate”.
George Goble
“Remind me that each days is not always on the swift; that there is more to life than increasing it’s speed. Let me look upward into the towering oak and know that it grew great and strong because it grew slowly and well”.
Orin L. Crain
“It is almost as important to know what is not important as to know what is”.
John Kenneth Galbraith
“Each man’s life represents a road leading to himself”.
Hermann Hess
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live”.
Seneca
“My freedom and independence do not depend on any act of defiance or confrontation. They depend on my own attitudes and feelings. If I am always reacting, then I am never free”.
Al-Anon
“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I placed in God’s hands, that I still possess”.
Martin Luther
“Besides the noble art of getting things done; there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The art of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials”.
Lin Yutang
Never take someone for granted
Hold every person close to your heart
Because you might wake up one day
And realize that you've lost a diamond
While you were too busy collecting stones.
Unknown
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards”.
Soren Kierkegaard
“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, but what direction we are moving”.
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Life is not separate from death. It only looks that way”.
Blackfoot proverb
“The clouds weep and the garden awakens; the infant wails and the mother’s milk will suddenly flow. And so the words of revelation say, ‘Let them cry a lot'”
The Noble Muhammad
I normally don't post poetry because of the length and there are so many good ones.
But this particular one is special to me.
After awhile you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman or man
Not with the grief of a child.
And you learn to build your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
And after awhile you learn
That even sunshine burns if you ask too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn
That you really can endure
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth.
And you learn…
And you learn…
With every failure you learn.
Kara DiGiovanna
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Wisdom
"Better to practice the know than to know the practice".
Kiwamura
“A smart person learns from experience. A wise person learns from the experience of others”.
Benjamin Franklin
“It matters not how slowly you go, as long as you do not stop”.
Confucious
“Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they’re yours”.
Richard Bach
"It is better to live your beliefs in silence than to preach them and be found a hypocrite".
Kiwamura
“Go to your bosom: Knock there and ask your heart what it already knows”.
Shakespeare
“A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other”.
Unknown
“…time will change and even reverse many of your present opinions. Refrain, therefore, for awhile from setting yourself up as a judge of the highest matters”.
Plato
“Change your thoughts and you change your world”.
Norman Vincent Peale
“Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change”.
Dr. Wayne Dyer
“He who fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster”.
Friedrich Nietzsche
“Consider the little mouse, how sagacious an animal it is which never entrusts it’s life to one hole only”.
Plautus
“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree”.
Martin Luther
“The grandfathers and the grandmothers are in the children; teach them well”.
Ojibwa proverb
“In your quest and struggle to be freed from oppression, be careful you do not become the oppressor of your former oppressors and prove you are no better than they”.
Kiwamura
“The problem is not setting your goals too high. It is setting them too low and reaching them”.
Unknown
“Water that is too pure has no fish”
Chinese Proverb
“But flowers distilled though they with winter meet, Leese but their show, their substance still lives sweet”.
William Shakespeare, The Sonnets #5
“Chase two rabbits and you will catch none”.
Japanese Proverb
“The Six Mistakes of Man:
* The illusion that personal gain is made up of crushing others.
* The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected.
* Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it.
* Refusing to set aside trivial preferences.
* Neglecting development and refinement of the mind, and not acquiring the habit of reading and study.
* Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.
Marcus Tillius Cicero (Roman Statesman 106-53 BC)
“Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinions of the things that happen”.
Epictetus (emancipated slave and Greek philosopher 55-135 AD)
"It is better to deserve honors and not get them, than to get them and not deserve them"
Mark Twain
"One good turn usually gets the whole blanket"
E. Joseph Cossman
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Spirituality
“Going to church or reading spiritual books doesn't make you a spiritual person any more than standing in your garage makes you a car”.
Unknown
“The world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles…only by a spiritual journey…by which we arrive at the ground at our feet, and learn to be at home”.
Wendell Berry
“Finding inner strength is looking beyond the visible and focusing life’s search on the unseen”.
Al-Anon
”We ought not to insist on everyone following in our footsteps, nor to take upon ourselves to give instructions in spirituality when, perhaps, we do not even know what it is”.
Teresa of Avila
“I found the secret of the sea in meditation upon a dewdrop”
Kahlil Gibran
“God alone knows the secret plan of the things He will do for the world using my hand”.
Toyohiko Kagawa
“we must alter our lives in order to alter our hearts, for it is impossible to live one way and pray another”.
William Law
“Great Spirit! You lived first, and you are older than all need, older than all prayer. All things belong to you – the two-legged, the four-legged, the wings of the air, and all green things that live…I am sending you a voice, Great Spirit, my Grandfather, forgetting nothing you have made, the stars of the universe, and the grasses of the earth”.
Black Elk, Oglala Sioux
“If you lose the rhythm of the drumbeat of God, you are lost from the peace and rhythm of life”.
Cheyenne proverb
“All man(kind)’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone”.
Blaise Pascal
“All of the universe has become my church - Great Spirit the all-patient guiding pastor, Mother Earth my warm loving sanctuary, all the plants, animals, and winged ones my preachers, teachers, prophets, and family.
Kiwamura/Kevin Village Stone
“Do not believe what you have heard. Do not believe in tradition because it is handed down many generations. Do not believe in anything that has been spoken of many times. Do not believe because the written statements come from some old sage. Do not believe in conjecture. Do not believe in any authority, teachers, or elders. But by careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it”.
Prince Siddhartha Gautama (aka. Buddha – the founder of Buddhism)
“Keep me from the philosophy that does not laugh, the wisdom that does not cry, and the greatness that does not bow before children”.
Kahlil Gibran “Mirrors of the Soul”
“What if you slept?
And what if,
In your sleep
You dreamed?
And what if,
In your dream,
You went to heaven
And there plucked
A strange and
Beautiful flower?
And what if,
When you awoke,
You had the flower in your hand?”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (English poet 1772-1834)
“Wherever you stand, be the soul of that place”.
Rumi
They point the Way all of them, to the Unchanging One. So why do their words turn in a hundred different directions? Their stories are all over the place! Are they talking about the same thing? A prince orders a great tent to be made. One craftsman winds the ropes. Another sharpens pins. Another sews panels. How varied their activities, how united their intention is, and how single the task.”
Rumi
“The man known to Christians as Jesus, to Muslims as Issa, and to his companions as Ye’shua, spoke the ancient Semetic language of Aramaic. In Aramaic, sacred words carry many shades of meaning, the better to reflect the ungraspable nature of divinity. When Jesus says “God”, his Aramaic is “Alaha”. The understandings evoked by Alaha are far more subtle and complex than those of “God”, which comes from the Germanic word for “good”. According to bible scholar Neil Douglas-Klotz, Alaha would have been understood on the streets of Jerusalem as “O Sacred Unity!” or “O Encompassing Oneness” or “All” or “Ultimate Power” or “Ultimate Potential” or “One with No Opposite”.
Michael Green – “One Song”
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Inspiration
“Courage is fear that has said it’s prayers”
Unknown
“Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul”.
Samuel Ullman
“He who would have beautiful roses in his garden must have beautiful roses in his heart”
S.R. Hole
“The problem is not setting your goals too high. It is setting them too low and reaching them”.
Unknown
“Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations”.
George Bernard Shaw
“All glory comes from daring to begin”.
Eugene F. Ware
“It is no longer good enough to cry peace. We must act peace, live peace, and live in peace”.
Shenandoah proverb
“I shall hear in Heaven”.
Ludwig von Beethoven (on his deathbed)
“I like it well. I shall die before my heart is soft or I have said anything unworthy of myself”.
Canonchet, Narragansett (before an English firing squad)
“I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place. Now we are poor but we are free. No white man controls our footsteps. If we must die, we die defending our rights”.
Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Sioux
“A mountain is never so big that it blocks the sun”.
Unknown
“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog”.
Unknown “When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds;
Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world.
Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be”.
Patanjali (author of Yoga Sutras 100-300 BC) “I know of nobody who is purely autistic or purely neurotypical.
Even God had some autistic moments, which is why the planets all spin”.
Jerry Newport
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Trials and Mistakes
“If my problems have brought me to prayer then they have served their purpose”.
Al-Anon
“God seldom delivers…virtues all wrapped in a package and ready for use. Rather he puts us in situations where by His help we can develop those virtues”.
C.R. Findley
“Don’t look where you fell. Look where you slipped”.
Liberian Proverb
“Let me remember that the reason for making amends is to free my own mind of uneasiness”.
Al-Anon
“Remembering that we can only live one day at a time removes the burden of the past, keeps our attention on the present and keeps us from fearing the future”.
Al-Anon
“Experience is not what happens to you, it is what you do with what happens to you”.
Aldous Huxley
“Just for today I will try to live through this day only, and not try to tackle all my problems at once”.
Al-Anon
“Your proper concern is alone the action of duty, and not the fruits of the action. Cast then away all desire and fear of the fruits, and perform your duty [do what is right and leave the outcome to God]".
The Bhagavad Gita
“Sometimes I go about pitying myself and all the while I am carried across the sky by beautiful clouds”
Ojibway Indian Saying
“The sun is warm; the grass is green”. [In spite of trials, existence and universal tranquility continue]
Japanese proverb
“Lord when we are wrong, make us willing to change. When we are right, make us easy to live with”.
Peter Marshall
“That the birds of worry and care fly above your head, this you cannot change. But that they build nests in your hair, this you can prevent”.
Chinese proverb
“Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new end”.
Al-Anon
“A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday”.
Alexander Pope
“We may never have the choices we would have if we were writing the script, but we always have choices”.
Al-Anon
“There are no mistakes, only discovery”
Japanese Proverb
Alas poor maiden, alas poor judge,
For rich repiner and household drudge!
God pity them both. God pity us all!
When vainly the dreams of youth recall;
For of all the saddest words of tongue or pen,
The saddest are these, “It might have been!”
John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892 Quaker poet)
“Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinions of the things that happen”.
Epictetus (emancipated slave and Greek philosopher 55-135 AD)
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Love
“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves and not twist them to fit our own image”.
Thomas Merton
“Oh benefit of ills; now I find true
That better is by evil still made better;
And ruined love, when it is built anew,
Grows fairer than at first, more strong, far greater.
So I return rebuked to my content,
And gain by ills, thrice more than I spent”.
William Shakespeare, the Sonnets #119
“I love someone not because of what I get from them,
but for what I see IN them”.
Kiwamura/Kevin Village Stone
“Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds”.
William Shakespeare, the Sonnets #116
“Treachery darkens the chain of friendship, but truth makes it brighter than ever”.
Conestoga proverb
“It is true that if you want friends, you must first be one. But then, watch to see if it is reciprocated. Friendships should always have a basis in mutual benefit and respect. The challenge is to find balance between sacrificial giving into a relationship or being codependently drained”.
Kiwamura
“…I trust everyone. But each to a different degree”.
Mr. Spock from the TV show, “Star Trek”
“Oh cunning Love, with tears thou keep’st me blind,
Lest well-seeing, thou foul faults should find”.
William Shakespeare, the Sonnets #148
“Detachment [from other people’s drama] is not that you don’t care. It’s that you care MORE for your own serenity”. By maintaining your “ship” of serenity and quality of life, you can help all those God brings to you. But jump on someone else’s sinking ship, you go down with them and won’t be able to help anyone.
Kiwamura/Al-Anon “Draw a circle, not a heart, around the one you love because a heart can break but a circle goes on forever”.
Unknown
A young brave was walking in the forest when the heard the tap-tap of a woodpecker. As he came upon it, it seemed to beckon to him. As the brave came to the tree he noticed the woodpecker had pecked five holes into a hollow branch and then flew away. The young brave broke off the hollow limb and noticed that when he held it to the wind, it played music. He thought, "surely this is a sacred happening".
He took it to a holy man and explained what happened and asked, "What does this mean?".
The holy man said, "This is a gift from the Great Spirit.
Go, play it, and win the heart of the woman who truly hears it."
To this day, a native "courting" flute has the head of a woodpecker carved upon it.
Traditional Native American origin story of the flute
Historical Note: When a Lakota brave had played his love and courting songs and still found himself alone, he would play the "Lonesome Flute" song
and call to a woman who may feel as lonely as himself so that together they could end each other's loneliness.
Never take someone for granted
Hold every person close to your heart
Because you might wake up one day
And realize that you've lost a diamond
While you were too busy collecting stones.
Unknown
I normally don't post poetry because of the length and there are so many good ones.
But this particular one is special to me.
After awhile you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.
And you learn that love doesn’t mean leaning
And company doesn’t mean security.
And you begin to learn that kisses aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises.
And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of a woman or man
Not with the grief of a child.
And you learn to build your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.
And after awhile you learn
That even sunshine burns if you ask too much.
So you plant your own garden and decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn
That you really can endure
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth.
And you learn…
And you learn…
With every failure you learn.
Kara DiGiovanna
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Existence and Tranquility
“As I walk, As I walk, the universe walks with me”
Navajo Rain Dance Ceremony
“The sun is warm; the grass is green”. [In spite of trials, existence and universal tranquility continue]
Japanese proverb
“All man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quiet in a room alone”.
Blaise Pascal
“when you merge with the universe the whole world is attracted to you, discovering through you it’s own security, peace, and good health.
Passing guests may stop by – attracted to your savory food and inspirational music.
But they might leave more enriched than they ever could have anticipated. Because the silent song of Tao is the ultimate music, and the infinite delicacy of Tao is the consummate nourishment”.
Tao Te Ching
“I have been to the end of the earth.
I have been to the end of the waters.
I have been to the end of the sky.
I have been to the end of the mountains.
I have found none that are not my friends”.
Navajo Proverb
“Will you begin to understand the meaning of the very soil beneath your feet? From a grain of sand to a great mountain, all is sacred. Yesterday and tomorrow exist eternally upon this continent. We natives are guardians of this sacred place”.
Peter Blue Cloud, Mohawk
“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth”.
Seathl, Duwamish chief
“When we show our respect for other living things, they respond with respect for us”.
Arapaho proverb
“For the Lakota there was no wilderness. Nature was not dangerous but hospitable, not forbidding but friendly”.
Luther Standing Bear, Lakota Sioux
“Before eating always take a little time to thank the food”.
Arapaho proverb
“We must go beyond the arrogance of human rights. We must go beyond the ignorance of civil rights. We must step into the realm of natural rights because all the natural world has a right to existence. We are only a small part of it”.
John Trudell, Santee Sioux
“All plants are our brothers and sisters. They talk to us and if we listen, we can hear them”.
Arapaho proverb
“Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals. We cannot sell the lives of men or animals. It was put here for us by the Great Spirit and we cannot sell it for it does not belong to us”.
Crowfoot, Blackfoot
“All of the universe has become my church - Great Spirit the all-patient guiding pastor, Mother Earth my warm loving sanctuary, all the plants, animals, and winged ones my preachers, teachers, prophets, and family.
Kiwamura/Kevin Village Stone
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Forgiveness
“Forgiving is not forgetting. It is letting go of the hurt”.
Mary McLeod Bethune
“A part of me wants to cling to old resentments, but I know the more I forgive, the better my life works”.
Al-Anon
“If one throws salt at thee, thou wilt receive no harm unless thou has sore places”.
Latin proverb
"Holding anger and resentment towards someone is liking drinking poison yourself and expecting the OTHER person to die".
Carl Silva
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Sorrow
“Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously completed you daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake”.
Victor Hugo
“Just for today I will be unafraid. Especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful”.
Al-Anon
“The could weeps and the garden awakens; the infant wails and the mother’s milk will suddenly flow. And so the words of revelation say, ‘Let them cry a lot'”
The Noble Muhammad
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