“Wouldn’t it be great to stop, if only for a minute on a regular basis, and reflect on how wonderful everything is?”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Carlos Castaneda said, “We can make ourselves miserable, or we can make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Treat every living being, including yourself, with kindness, and the world will immediately be a better place.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“By being so focused on how things “could be,” we are under-appreciating how great things already are.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“You never know when a random act of kindness could literally save a person’s life.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“The past will let go of you if you let go of the past.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Sometimes life isn’t about anything new that we have to learn, but about what we have to UNlearn instead.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. —E. James Rohn”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Isn’t it refreshing to know that just because we’ve always been a certain way, it doesn’t mean we have to stay that way forever?”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“If we always do what we’ve always done, we will always be who we’ve always been. —Anonymous”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“we don’t just eat with our mouths; we eat with our eyes and ears too. So if we watch or listen to poisonous negativity, violence, gossip, and pretty much anything that is not conducive to our growth or maturity as adults, then it’s no different than eating only refined sugars, fried foods and saturated fats; we’re bound to get sick. That sickness, however, takes the form of fear, paranoia, anxiety, greed, insecurity, a lack of trust in our fellow brothers and sisters, and discontentment with life altogether.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Never underestimate the healing power of love. It is just as important for our survival as the food we eat, yet it’s free and available in unlimited supply. Love is the strongest medicine.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“The sentiment behind the golden rule is great (treating others the way we wish to be treated ourselves). But nowadays we don’t even treat ourselves very well! We knowingly consume things that are bad for us, continue working at jobs we hate, and don’t spend half as much time relaxing as we do stressing. Come to think of it, we ARE treating others the way we treat ourselves: poorly! We feed our children junk food, opt for cheap instead of quality even when it matters, rarely give anyone our undivided attention, and demand a lot more from others than what is reasonable or even possible. Let’s try something new: let’s treat everybody as if we just found out they’re about to die. Why? Because it seems that’s the ONLY time we slow down enough to get a new perspective on life—either then or when we have a near-death experience ourselves. Be gentle, patient, kind and understanding. We’re all headed in the same direction, so let’s start treating each other better along the way!”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“You don’t have to agree with, only learn to peacefully live with, other people’s freedom of choice. This includes (but is not limited to) political views, religious beliefs, dietary restrictions, matters of the heart, career paths, and mental afflictions. Our opinions and beliefs tend to change depending on time, place, and circumstance. And since we all experience life differently, there are multiple theories on what’s best, what’s moral, what’s right, and what’s wrong. It is important to remember that other people’s perspective on reality is as valid as your own.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. —Frederick Douglass”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Instead of spending so much time thinking about what’s missing from your life, remind yourself (if only for twenty minutes a day), of everything you already have: from a comfortable bed to sleep on, to a roof over your head, to clean air, drinking water, food, clothes, friends, functioning lungs, and a beating heart.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“So go ahead, surround yourself with like-minded people for comfort and support, but don't forget to honor those who push your buttons just as much if not more, for they're the ones who provide the opportunity to grow and mature beyond having buttons that can be pushed.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“I am another you, and you are another me. And the journey continues. Namaste.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection. —The Buddha”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“All the happiness in the world stems from wanting others to be happy, and all the suffering in the world stems from wanting the self to be happy. —Shantideva”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Buddhism teaches us to be tolerant and accepting, but tolerance does NOT mean accepting what is harmful.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“It is very possible (and perfectly okay) for someone who is Catholic, Muslim, Atheist or Jewish, for example, to still find the Buddha’s teachings inspirational. You can love Jesus, repeat a Hindu mantra, and still go to temple after morning meditation. Buddhism is not a threat to any religion, it actually strengthens your existing faith by expanding your love to include all beings.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Our beliefs inevitably solidify to be the only truth and reality that we know, which puts a greater distance between us and anyone whose beliefs are different.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Our beliefs are merely stories in our minds that we ourselves wrote long ago. Knowing that, don’t you feel empowered to rewrite them if they no longer serve you?”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Apologizing doesn’t always mean that you’re wrong and the other person is right. It just means that you value your relationship more than your ego. —Anonymous”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Our beliefs are merely stories in our minds that we ourselves wrote long ago. Knowing that, don’t you feel empowered to rewrite them if they no longer serve you? Scan your mind for viruses called fears, anxieties, judgments, doubts, hatred and despair, and put a little note next to them that says “Outdated; no longer valid.” I’ve learned so much from my mistakes, I think I’m gonna go out there and make some more! —Anonymous”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunlight in a cave facing north. —Tibetan saying”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“We have a tremendous personal responsibility for the way our life has turned out, and an equally important role of steering it into the future. Although we constantly make decisions, we’re not always mindful of their far-reaching consequences.”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“Practice listening to other people talk about their beliefs without interrupting them. Listen to Catholics, Jews, Buddhists, Mormons, Anarchists, Republicans, KKK members, Heterosexuals, Homosexuals, Meat Eaters, Vegans, Scientists, Scientologists, and so on . . . Develop the ability to listen to ANYTHING without losing your temper. The first principle here at Buddhist Boot Camp is that the opposite of what you know is also true. Accept that other people’s perspectives on reality are as valid as your own (even if they go against everything you believe in), and honor the fact that someone else’s truth is as real to them as yours is to you. Then (and this is where it gets even more difficult), bow to them and say, “Namaste,” which means the divinity within you not only acknowledges the divinity within others, but honors it as well. Compassion is the only thing that can break down political, dogmatic, ideological, and religious boundaries. May we all harmoniously live in peace. You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger. —The Buddha”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“You’re not stuck in traffic; you ARE traffic. We blame society, but we ARE society. —Anonymous”
― Timber Hawkeye, quote from Buddhist Boot Camp
“But maybe every life looked wonderful if all you saw was the photo albums.”
― Liane Moriarty, quote from What Alice Forgot
“The pathway to hell was paved with good intentions, but what about the wrongs committed for the right reasons? Were they included as well? Life had taught him that anything that starts wrong, ends wrong. In this case, he supposed that only time and its unpredictable mercies would tell. - Percy”
― Leila Meacham, quote from Roses
“This new concept of the "finest, highest achievement of art" had no sooner entered my mind than it located the imperfect enjoyment I had had at the theater, and added to it a little of what it lacked; this made such a heady mixture that I exclaimed, "What a great artiste she is!" It may be thought I was not altogether sincere. Think, however, of so many writers who, in a moment of dissatisfaction with a piece they have just written, may read a eulogy of the genius of Chateaubriand, or who may think of some other great artist whom they have dreamed of equaling, who hum to themselves a phrase of Beethoven for instance, comparing the sadness of it to the mood they have tried to capture in their prose, and are then so carried away by the perception of genius that they let it affect the way they read their own piece, no longer seeing it as they first saw it, but going so far as to hazard an act of faith in the value of it, by telling themselves "It's not bad you know!" without realizing that the sum total which determines their ultimate satisfaction includes the memory of Chateaubriand's brilliant pages, which they have assimilated to their own, but which, of course, they did not write. Think of all the men who go on believing in the love of a mistress in whom nothing is more flagrant than her infidelities; of all those torn between the hope of something beyond this life (such as the bereft widower who remembers a beloved wife, or the artist who indulges in dreams of posthumous fame, each of them looking forward to an afterlife which he knows is inconceivable) and the desire for a reassuring oblivion, when their better judgement reminds them of the faults they might otherwise have to expiate after death; or think of the travelers who are uplifted by the general beauty of a journey they have just completed, although during it their main impression, day after day, was that it was a chore--think of them before deciding whether, given the promiscuity of the ideas that lurk within us, a single one of those that affords us our greatest happiness has not begun life by parasitically attaching itself to a foreign idea with which it happened to come into contact, and by drawing from it much of the power of pleasing which it once lacked.”
― Marcel Proust, quote from In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
“First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from I Shall Wear Midnight
“There's no way around grief and loss: you can dodge all you want, but sooner or later you just have to go into it, through it, and, hopefully, come out the other side. The world you find there will never be the same as the world you left.”
― Johnny Cash, quote from Cash
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.