Sofia > Sofia's Quotes

“When mouths close, it’s because there’s something important to be said.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“Even the most carefully defined philosophical or mathematical concept, which we are sure does not contain more than we have put into it, is nevertheless more than we assume. It is a psychic event and as such partly unknowable. The very numbers you use in counting are more than you take them to be. They are at the same time mythological elements (for the Pythagoreans, they were even divine); but you are certainly unaware of this when you use numbers for a practical purpose.”
― C.G. Jung, Man and His Symbols

“The enemy of memory isn’t time; it’s other memories.”
― David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You

“He who travels far will often see things Far removed from what he believed was Truth. When he talks about it in the fields at home, He is often accused of lying, For the obdurate people will not believe What they do not see and distinctly feel. Inexperience, I believe, Will give little credence to my song.”
― Hermann Hesse, The Journey to the East: A Novel

“No one is having an experience of the objective reality that really exists; each creature perceives only what it has evolved to perceive.”
― David Eagleman, The Brain: The Story of You

“Collective madness is called sanity ..”
― Paulo Coelho, Veronika Decides to Die

“You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

“Your soul is the whole world.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“The opposite of every truth is just as true.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.”
― J. Krishnamurti

“The description is not the described; I can describe the mountain, but the description is not the mountain, and if you are caught up in the description, as most people are, then you will never see the mountain”
― Jiddu Krishnamurti

“The day you teach the child the name of the bird, the child will never see that bird again.”
― Krishnamurti

“For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“No argument, no reasoning, no blame, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“We have millions of ways to lose this precious time—we turn on the TV, or pick up the telephone, or start the car and go somewhere. We are not used to being with ourselves, and we act as if we don’t like ourselves and are trying to escape from ourselves. Meditation”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“The most basic precept of all is to be aware of what we do, what we are, each minute . Every other precept will follow from that.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace

“There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“It is when we lose control that we repress the emotions, not when we are in control.”
― Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“Gossiping has become the main form of communication in human society. It has become the way we feel close to each other, because it makes us feel better to see someone else feel as badly as we do.”
― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“Under any circumstance, always do your best, no more and no less. But keep in mind that your best is never going to be the same from one moment to the next.”
― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“In your whole life nobody has ever abused you more than you have abused yourself.”
― Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom

“Humans have a need to explain and justify everything; we have a need for knowledge, and we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know.”
― Miguel Ruiz, The Fifth Agreement: A Practical Guide to Self-Mastery

“The only path by which another person can upset you is through your own thought.”
― Joseph Murphy, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“Two people can see the same thing, disagree, and yet both be right. It's not logical; it's psychological.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“It's not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“How you treat the one reveals how you
regard the many, because everyone is ultimately a one.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

“I am responsible for holding you accountable in a respectful and productive way. I’m not responsible for your emotional reaction to that accountability”
― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience

“Comparison is the crush of conformity from one side and competition from the other—it’s trying to simultaneously fit in and stand out. Comparison says, “Be like everyone else, but better.”
― Brené Brown, Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience