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This thread is for inspirational quotations, poems and short stories. If there is something that has touched your soul, led you to a higher path or given you strength in a time of adversity, then please add it here.
If it has inspired you, the chances are it will inspire others too and to help each other along is the duty of every soul.
Into the light!

All this talk of religion, but it's how you live your life that is the all-important thing.
If you set out each day to do all the goodness and kindness that you can, and to do no harm to man or beast, then you are walking the highest path.
And when your time is up, if you can leave the earth a better place than you found it, then yours will have been a life well lived.

Invictus
by
William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud,
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Is there anyone upon the Earth who is glad that you have lived?
(From 'The Shining Paths' by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki.)

I like that last one very much.

"Come to the edge" he said
"we are afraid" they said
They came to the edge,he pushed them, they flew.
So many of us are afraid to come to the edge, yet we all have the potential to fly"

Not a coincidence that that is my user name

Message From The Stars:
I stood at eventime. The never-ending plain
All empty looked and void. Yet, as I gazed again
An army bivouacked. Unnumbered points of light
Bespoke a force Supreme - invincible for right
- Henry Morley

Man is the gardener of his own soul. The Great Spirit has provided him with all that is necessary for it to grow in wisdom, grace and beauty. The implements are there, he has but to use them wisely and well - Silver Birch

Help wherever you can and know that you are fulfilling yourself, which is the reason for your being on earth - Silver Birch

The growth of the soul is only increased by service, for as you forget self in the service of others, so your own soul grows in stature and strength - Silver Birch

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A simple philosophy for life - do your best and be kind.

Everything is worthy of kindness. Pain is still pain, suffering is still suffering, regardless of whoever, or whatever, is the victim.

A well-known author and poet was working and vacationing on the southern coast of Spain. One morning very early, he was walking along the beach; the sun was just rising. While enjoying the beauty about him, he glanced down the beach and saw a lone figure dancing about.
Fascinated by this other person celebrating the day that was about to dawn, he moved closer. As he came nearer, he realized that the young man was not dancing, but in one graceful movement was picking objects up from the beach and was tossing them out into the sea. As he approached the young man, he saw that the objects were starfish.
"Why in the world are you throwing starfish into the water?"
"If the starfish are still on the beach when the tide goes out and the sun rises higher in the sky, they will die", replied the young man, as he continued tossing them out to the sea.
"That's ridiculous! There are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. You can't believe that what you are doing could possibly make a difference!"
The young man picked up another starfish, paused thoughtfully and remarked as he tossed it out into the waves, "It makes a difference to this one."
- It Makes A Difference by Loren Eisley

No kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted - Aesop

Trying too hard IS resisting.

Can't remember who said this, but it always helps me when I'm getting in a tangle over things I wish were within my control.

great idea this thread thankyou.

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere.
Walk peacefully.
Walk happily.

Thich Nhat Hanh (from Walking Meditation)

Here we are, here and now, this is our big moment in time. So let us try and do something - something good, something beautiful - with the precious years allotted to us.

Roses In Your Heart:
Harry Wheatcroft, probably the most celebrated rose grower alive, says, "He who would grow good roses must have roses in his heart." And he is a pacifist. "I deplore beyond all measure the thousands of millions spent to create implements to destroy mankind. With all that money everybody could grow roses. The world could be made so beautiful, if only people..."
Yes, if only people had roses in their hearts, there would be no more wars, no more misery, just beauty and goodness
- Al Koran (From 'Bring Out The Magic In Your Mind' 1964)

One does not need to be a psychic to see God in the petal of a rose - Peggy Mason

Flower Power:

When people you know suddenly ignore you, or when they try to pick a quarrel, don't tell them off or send a nasty letter. Send flowers. Flowers bring harmony and peace. They have a power all their own and you can 'say it with flowers' - Al Koran

A flower is beauty itself. You see that it is a lovely colour, that it emantes sweet scent, and that it is soft to the touch. It influences you to be gentle. Surround yourself with flowers and watch the results. Flowers are vibrationary and give off radiations of a positive kind - Al Koran

What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness? - Jean Jacques Rousseau

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions and the roots spring up and make new trees.
The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves - Amelia Earhart

The Human Family: All people are brothers and sisters, irrespective of colour, race or creed. Therefore, if anyone, anywhere in the world, is suffering or in distress, it concerns you, it concerns me, it concerns us all.

The world is my country.

To do good is my religion.

LOVE is the great keyword of life. Love expressed in the emotional sense as COMPASSION and expressed in the physical sense as SERVICE.

Remember, my brother, that the coin which you drop into the withered hand stretching toward you is the only golden chain that binds your rich heart to the loving heart of God
- Kahlil Gibran

It is not the magnitude of our actions, but the amount of love that is put into them that matters - Mother Teresa