Celtic Wisdom Quotes

“An old Celtic proverb boldly places death right at the center of life. ‘Death is the middle of a long life,’ they used to say. Ancient people did things like that; they put death at the center instead of casting it out of sight and leaving such an important subject until the last possible moment. Of course, they lived close to nature and couldn’t help but see how the forest grew from fallen trees and how death seemed to replenish life from fallen members. Only the unwise and the overly fearful think that death is the blind enemy of life.”
― Michael Meade

“Three things which inspire the poet:An eye to see the world clearly A heart which feels sincerely And courage to render faithfully Little Book of Celtic Wisdom compiled by Giuletta Wood”
― Colette Ni Reamonn Ioannidou

“Trees don't simply maintain the conditions necessary for human and most animal life on earth, trees created these conditions through the community of forests. Trees paved the way for the human family. The debt we owe them is too big to ever repay.”
― Diana Beresford-Kroeger, To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

“The truth was right there, so simple, a child could grasp it. Trees were responsible for the most basic necessity of life, the air we breathe.”
― Diana Beresford-Kroeger, To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

“When you are in rhythm with your nature, nothing destructive can touch you. Providence is at one with you; it minds you and brings you to new horizons. To be spiritual is to be in rhythm.”
― John O'Donohue

“O’ Cernunnos, with antler crown,
you rid us all of the ungrateful kind with new
life sown, amongst the moss, we’ve lain down
to weep, diolch for the peace of mind,
the pain you have (for centuries) known,
hir yw pob ymaros, in wake and sleep,
we knew you’d return to us!”
― Lavinia Valeriana, Adrift in Acheron

“...I took a deep breath and a first step, and both eventually led me to the knowledge that I was capable of things bigger than I had imagined. I think every child should have an experience like the field experiment, something that thrusts them down a road they don't think they can ever reach the end of, for love of themselves and other people and the world. When they eventually come to their destination they will realise, as I did, that even the impossible can be accomplished if you're willing to take the first step and give it everything you've got, and then, like me, they will know they can do anything.”
― Diana Beresford-Kroeger, To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

“The truth was right there, so simple, a child could grasp it. Trees were responsible for the most basic necessity of life, the air we breathe...cutting down trees was a suicidal act.”
― Diana Beresford-Kroeger, To Speak for the Trees: My Life's Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

“The Celtic Sufi, Sonnet

Oh, you take the fancy road,
I'll take the lowly road,
and I'll be in heartland,
while you charge your phone,

where me and my true heart
never ever part ways,
where me and my backbone,
never bend in dismay,

where me and my scruples
never give in to convenience,
where me and my fervent dream
succumb to no pride of the dead,

if you alight from your high horse,
with a gleaming heart I wait for thee,
join me one day for a cup of tea,
on the bonnie loch of liberty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Brit Actually: Nursery Rhymes of Reparations

“We are not meant to rise endlessly, nor to hold on forever. There is wisdom in allowing ourselves to fall, when it is time to fall—whether into silence, into rest, into the arms of another, or into the unknown mystery that asks us to trust. Such falling need not be met with regret. It can be embraced with reverence, knowing that what falls into the earth does not vanish, but becomes the ground of something new.”
― Alma Camino