Kim Lim - 1,001 Pearls of Spiritual Wisdom

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation. www.skyhorsepublishing.com 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file. ISBN: 978-1-62873-624-3 Printed in China Contents INTRODUCTION Ironically, to begin an introduction to a quote book on spirituality, I am tempted to use a quote. The reason is simplespiritual things are beyond the body, and therefore beyond the grasp of language, which comes from the body. And yet, mankind has attempted throughout history to tie the soaring spirit down with words. We struggle to contain it within the confines of language, we dance with it in song, we force it into novels, wrestle it into poetry, and posit it in essays.

As I gathered quotes for this book, I noticed that when fewer words were used to express the spirit, its meaning became more poignant. This makes sense. After all, how much more effective is a three-hundred page novel compared to a single line of poetry if both come to the same, inevitable conclusion that the spirit will always escape language? Perhaps the quote is the best medium to communicate spiritual wisdoms, epiphanies, and experiences. It is astonishing to see the spectrum of people who supply the spiritual wisdoms in this little book. Not even half of the quotes here are attributed to religious leaders. I have quoted from eminent physicists, Hollywood heartthrobs, science-fiction authors, disgruntled philosophers, hard rockers, converted sportsmen, martyred politicians, hit TV shows, and church signboards.

I quote from antiquity to modern day, from the Dalai Lama to Jesus Christ, from Sappho to Lauryn Hill. In our contemporary enlightened mindset, where science is regarded as incompatible with spirituality, we often forget that spirituality cannot be restricted to black and whites or human decision. The spirit exists in the infinite form of a god, in a blade of grass, in the geometry of equations, within oneself, and even, or perhaps especially, among a people. To deny spirituality as wishful thinking is to forget centuries of human engagement with the world, knowledge, art, love, the self, and the community. Even if you do not believe in the spiritual being, the involuntary human capacity to doubt is revealing in itself. Some dismiss spiritual fancy as the unnecessary, even unethical, submission of the self to a greater power.

Which begs the question: why should we be afraid of throwing ourselves headlong into mystery? As Graham Greene said, it is like falling in love; and who wouldnt want to be in love? Kim Lim TO BEGIN One must go further, one must go further. This impulse to go further is an ancient thing in the world. Sren Kierkegaard We have the hunger for eternity in our souls, the thought of eternity in our hearts, the destination for eternity written on our inmost being. Alexander Maclaren What makes the desert beautiful, said the little prince, is that somewhere it hides a well Antoine de Saint-Exupry, The Little Prince The root of spirit is the Latin spirare, to breathe. Whatever lives on the breath, then, must have its spiritual dimension. Jane Hirshfield It was the movement of the air that provided the image of spirituality, since the spirit borrows its name from the breath of wind Sigmund Freud The human soul is like a bird that is born in a cage.

Nothing can deprive it of its natural longings, or obliterate the mysterious remembrance of its heritage. Epes Sargent I believe the universe created uswe are an audience for miracles. Ray Bradbury Its a basic fact about being human that sometimes the self seems to just melt away. Jonathan Haidt The created world is but a small parenthesis in eternity. Thomas Browne In the beginning was the myth. God, in his search for self-expression, invested the souls of Hindus, Greeks, and Germans with poetic shapes and continues to invest each childs soul with poetry every day.

Herman Hesse We are all writing Gods poem. Anne Sexton I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Thch Nht Hnh Ive caught belief like a disease. Ive fallen into belief like I fell in love. Graham Greene I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. S. S.

Lewis I believe in everything until its disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. Whos to say that dreams and nightmares arent as real as the here and now? John Lennon God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. Dag Hammarskjld A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all. No man can serve two masters. Thomas Merton Great men are they who see that spiritual is stronger than any material forcethat thoughts rule the world.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Spirituality is a domain of awareness. Deepak Chopra We dont have to change what we see. Only the way we see. Ann Voskamp The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes Marcel Proust A spiritual man is happy with the whole existence. He says yes to the whole existence. Swami Dhyan Giten We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter, or clothing.

Ernest Holmes People know they are lacking something, they are constantly wanting some kind of spiritual guidance. Douglas Hurd There is nothing besides a spiritual world Franz Kafka Rivers, ponds, lakes and streamsthey all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions dothey all contain truths. Muhammad Ali We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other except through faith. Stephen King, Danse Macabre The authentic self is the soul made visible. Sarah Ban Breathnach Lifea spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay.

Ambrose Bierce Man chooses either life or death, but he chooses; everything he does, from going to the toilet to mathematical speculation, is an act of religious worship, either of God or of himself. W. H. Auden Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. Mahatma Gandhi If they drive God from the earth, we shall shelter Him underground. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov To believe in a God means to see that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter.