My Favourite Quotes About Meditation And Life
Each week on social media, I share a meditation quote. It might be a quote from a fellow Vedic Meditator, or from someone that practices a different form of meditation. The reason I share them each Monday is because they resonate for me, or because they convey a message that’s aligned with my teaching here at MindMojo.
In this blog post, I want to share some of my long-time favourite quotes. These I have collected since school days. Sometimes they just jump off the page, because the content rings true at that very moment. And if a quote is pithy and holds a kernel of eternal wisdom it will stand the test of time.
Recently, author Matt Haig shared on Twitter:
“I love an inspirational quote. People get snobby about them but I don't know why. When I had deep depression I couldn't read novels, but I could read lines from my old Collins book of quotations. A succinct line of optimism is literary Prozac. It can reframe your perspective.”
And it is with that sentiment, that I am sharing these. Quotes not just about meditation, but about life. After all, as I find myself saying often, meditation isn’t just about your two 20-minute daily practices – it’s about the other 23 hours of the day.
Quotes on Meditation & Life
“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Mhatma Gandhi
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.” – Anais Nin
“Being normal is the perfect aspiration for the unsuccessful.” – Karl Jung
“ln times of difficulty take refuge in compassion and truth.” – The Buddha
“You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough.” – Joe Lewis
“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.” – Marie Curie
“Everyone thinks of changing the world. No one thinks of changing himself.” – Leo Tolstoy
“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.” – Bruce Lee
“Give less than we think we can, give more than we fear we can.” – Anon
Gandhi's Seven Blunders
And finally, we come back around to one of the most quotable figures of all time: Gandhi.
These are known as ‘Gandhi's Seven Blunders’ or the ‘Seven Social Sins’. Gandhi published the list in his weekly newspaper Young India in1925. He wrote that a "fair friend" had sent the list and provided the following commentary:
“Naturally, the friend does not want the readers to know these things merely through the intellect but to know them through the heart so as to avoid them.”
These seven blunders are:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without principles.
Later, his grandson Arun Gandhi added:
Rights without responsibilities.
I wanted to close on these, as they are principles that I find myself coming back to again and again as I reflect on the world – both inside and outside my meditation.
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