And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. ››If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were. ››Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. ››Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. ››Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They came through you but not from you and though they are with you yet they belong not to you. ››I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art. ››Truth is a deep kindness that teaches us to be content in our everyday life and share with the people the same happiness. ››Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself. ››Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do. ››Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand. ››When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ››Hallow the body as a temple to comeliness and sanctify the heart as a sacrifice to love; love recompenses the adorers. ››Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy. ››Love one another, but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. ››Advance, and never halt, for advancing is perfection. Advance and do not fear the thorns in the path, for they draw only corrupt blood. ››Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children. ››When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison? ››You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. ››March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path. ››To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to. ››I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires. ››When love beckons to you, follow him, Though his ways are hard and steep. And when his wings enfold you yield to him, Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you. ››Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. ››The person you consider ignorant and insignificant is the one who came from God, that he might learn bliss from grief and knowledge from gloom. ››The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind. ››Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know my self, to know it completely, to know its minutiae, its characteristics, its subtleties, and its very atoms. ››
