Aegina, Greece - 2007
1. "A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?"
2. ”A link
Between this world and the hereafter;
A pool of sweet water for the thirsty;
A tree planted
On the banks of the river of beauty,
Bearing ripe fruits for hungry hearts to seek.
A singing bird
Hopping along the branches of speech,
Trilling melodies to fill all bodies with sweetness
and tenderness.
A white cloud in the sky at even,
Rising and expanding to fill the heavens,
And then pour out its bounty upon the flowers of
the fields of Life.
An angel
Sent by the gods to teach man the ways of gods.
A shining light unconquered by the dark,
Unhidden by the bushel
Astarte did fill with oil;
And lighted by Apollo.
Alone,
He is clothed in simplicity
And nourished by tenderness;
He sits in Nature's lap learning to create,
And is awake in the stillness of night
In wait of the spirit's descent.
A husbandman who sows the seeds of his heart in
the garden of feeling,
Where they bring forth yield
To sustain those that garner.
This is the Poet that is unheeded of men in his days,
And is known by them on his quitting the world to
return to his heavenly abode.
This is he who seeks no thing of men save a little
smile;
Whose breath rises and fills the firmament with living
visions of beauty.
Yet do the people withhold from him sustenance
and refuge.
Until when, 0 Man,
Until when, 0 Existence,
Will you build houses of honor
To them that knead the earth with blood
And shun those who give you peace and repose?
Until when will you exalt killing
And those who make bend the neck beneath the
yoke of oppression?
And forget them that pour into the blackness of
night
The light of their eyes to show you the day's
splendor?
Those whose lives are passed in misery
That happiness and delight might not pass you by.
And you, 0 Poets,
Life of this life:
You have conquered the ages
Despite their tyranny,
And gained for you a laurel crown
In the face of delusion's thorns.
You are sovereign over hearts,
And your kingdom is without end.”
3. "A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle."
4. "All our words are but crumbs that fall down from the feast of the mind."
5. "All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things. In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence."
6. “A man can be free without being great, but no man can be great without being free.”
7. "Among intelligent people the surest basis for marriage is friendship - the sharing of real interests-the ability to fight out ideas together and understand each other's thoughts and dreams."
8. “And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
9. "An exaggeration is a truth that has lost its temper."
10. “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
11. “And ever has it been known that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
12. "Yes, there is a Nirvanah; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem."
13. "And think not you can guide the course of love. For love, if it finds you worthy, shall guide your course."
14. “An expression of that sacred desire to find this world and behold it naked; and that is the soul of the poetry of Life. Poets are not merely those who write poetry, but those whose hearts are full of the spirit of life.”
15. "A poet is a bird of unearthly excellence, who escapes from his celestial realm arrives in this world warbling. If we do not cherish him, he spreads his wings and flies back into his homeland."
16. “All things in this creation exist within you and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things, from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things.”
17. “Art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manefestation of nature agree to find new shapes.”
18. “A true hermit goes to the wilderness to find - not to lose himself.”
19. “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.”
20. "Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."
21. "Death most resembles a prophet who is without honor in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people."
22. “Do not say, "I follow the one true path of the Spirit," but rather, "I have found the Spirit walking on my path," for the Spirit walks on all paths.”
23. “During my youth, Love will be my teacher; in middle age, my help; and in old age, my delight.”
24. "During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk. When once the risk has really been taken, then the greatest danger is to risk too much."
25. “Each and every one of us, dear Mary, must have a resting place somewhere. The resting place of my soul is a beautiful grove where my knowledge of you lives.”
26. "Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation."
27. “Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.”
28. “Follow your heart. Your heart is the right guide in everything big. Mine is so limited. What you want to do is determined by that divine element that is in each of us.”
29. ”Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.”
30. ”For a person to know if he is really in love, he should try for a while the acid test of separation.”
31. “For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning. Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.”
32. "For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?"
33. ”Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”
34. “Here I sit between my brother the mountain and my sister the sea. We three are one in loneliness, and the love that binds us together is deep and strong and strange.”
35. “He who does not see the angels and devils in the beauty and malice of life will be far removed from knowledge, and his spirit will be empty of affection.”
36. ”He who stares at the small and near images will have difficulty in seeing and distinguishing those that are great and remote.”
37. “I existed from all eternity and, behold, I am here; and I shall exist till the end of time, for my being has no end.”
38. “If I accept the sunshine and warmth I must also accept the thunder and lightning.”
39. “If I can open a new corner in a man’s own heart to him I have not lived in vain. Life itself is the thing, not joy or pain or happiness or unhappiness. To hate is as good as to love - an enemy may be as good as a friend. Live for yourself - live your life. Then you are most truly the friend of man. - I am different every day - and when I am eighty, I shall still be experimenting and changing. Work that I have done no longer concerns me - it is past. I have too much on hand in life itself.”
40. “If I could take your troubles
I would toss them into the sea,
But all these things I'm finding
Are impossible for me.
I cannot build a mountain
Or catch a rainbow fair,
But let me be what I know best,
A friend that is always there.”
41. “If indeed you must be candid, be candid beautifully.”
42. ” ...if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love 's threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.”
43. “If it's a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.”
44. “If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work.”
45. “I have never agreed with my other self wholly. The truth of the matter seems to lie between us.”
46. “In battling evil, excess is good; for he who is moderate in announcing the truth is presenting half-truth. He conceals the other half out of fear of the people's wrath.”
47. “In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.”
48. “In the depth of my soul there is a wordless song.”
49. ”In time of separation, love becomes a "longing" and a "hope" that inspires the anticipation of unification in the near future.”
50. “I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires.”
51. ”It is well go give when asked but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.”
52. "It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations."
53. “I was,
And I am.
So shall I be to the end of time,
For I am without end.”
54. “If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.”
55. “I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.”
56. “Imagination sees the complete reality, - it is where past, present and future meet... Imagination is limited neither to the reality which is apparent - nor to one place. It lives everywhere. It is at a centre and feels the vibrations of all the circles within which
east and west are virtually included. Imagination is the life of mental freedom. It realizes what everything is in its many aspects ... Imagination does not uplift: we don’t want to be uplifted, we want to be more completely aware.”
57. “I often picture myself living on a mountain top, in the most stormy country (not the coldest) in the world. Is there such a place ? If there is I shall go to it someday and turn my heart into pictures and poems.”
58. "I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires."
59. “It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it will not be created for years or even generations.”
60. “I want to do a great deal of walking in the open country. Just think, Mary, of being caught by thunder storms! Is there a sight more wonderful than that of seeing the elements producing life through pure motion?”
61. “I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.”
62. "Keep me from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh, and the greatness which does not bow before children."
63. “Knowledge cultivates your seeds and does not sow in you seeds.”
64. “Knowledge is life with wings.”
65. “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.”
66. “Let me, O let me bathe my soul in colours; let me swallow the sunset and drink the rainbow.”
67. “Let there be spaces in your togetherness.”
68. "Life is indeed darkness save when there is urge, and all urge is blind save when there is knowledge, and all knowledge is vain save when there is work, and all work is empty save when there is love."
69. “Life without love is like a tree without blossoms or fruit.”
70. "Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love."
71. “Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself. But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires: To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. To be wounded by your own understanding of love; And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy; To return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise on your lips.“
72. “Love is a magic ray / emitted from the burning core / of the soul / and illuminating the surrounding earth. // It enables us / to perceive life / as a beautiful dream / between one awakening / and another.”
73. ”Love is not something that you fall in love with. Love is an internal spiritual condition that permeates our whole being.“
74. “Love is stronger than death because love is a gift from God. And God himself is eternal.”
75. “Love is trembling happiness.”
76. ”Love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”
77. "Love one another but make not a bond of love, let there be a moving seabetween the shores of your souls. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone."
78. “Love outlives the biological death.”
79. "Love possesses not nor will it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love."
80. “Love that does not renew itself every day becomes a habit and in turn a slavery.”
81. “Love that is cleansed by tears will remain eternally pure and beautiful.”
82. “Lovers embrace that which is between them rather than each other.”
83. ”Luxury: The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.”
84. "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."
85. “Mary, what is there in a storm that moves me so ? Why am I so much better and stronger and more certain of life when a storm is passing ? I do not know, and yet I love a storm more, far more, than anything in nature.”
86. "No lower can a man descend than to interpret his dreams into gold and silver."
87. “No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.”
88. "Nor shall derision prove powerful against those who listen to humanity or those who follow in the footsteps of divinity, for they shall live forever. Forever."
89. “Oh, heart, if one should say to you that the soul perishes like the body, answer that the flower withers, but the seed remains.”
90. "One may not reach the dawn save by the path of the night."
91. "Only the dumb envy the talkative.”
92. "Opportunities are never lost; someone will take the one you miss."
93. "Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge."
94. “Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”
95. ”Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak,arid desert.”
96. “Sadness is but a wall between two gardens.”
97. ”Say not, "I have found the truth," but rather, "I have found a truth." Say not, "I have found the path of the soul." Say rather, "I have met the soul walking upon my path." For the soul walks upon all paths. The soul walks not upon a line, neither does it grow like a reed. The soul unfolds itself, like a lotus of countless petals.”
98. ”Silence is one of the mysteries of love.”
99. “Sometimes you have not even begun to speak - and I am at the end of what you are saying.”
100. "Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolutions."
101. “That deepest thing, that recognition, that knowledge, that sense of kinship began the first time I saw you, and it is the same now - only a thousand times deeper and tenderer. I shall love you to eternity. I loved you long before we met in this flesh. I knew that when I first saw you. It was destiny. We are together like this and nothing can shake us apart.”
102. “The chemist who can extract from his heart's elements, compassion, respect, longing, patience, regret, surprise, and forgiveness and compound them into one can create that atom which is called love.”
103. "The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is."
104. "The greatest pain that comes from love is loving someone you can never have"
105. "The light of stars that were extinguished centuries ago still reaches us. So it is with the great, who died centuries ago, but still reach us with the radiations of their personalities."
106. “The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master.”
107. ”The magic of love binds the soul to the forces of heaven and earth, the bond that unites all things alive and well.
You dwell in the prism of light that shines from the heart of the universe, blind to the eye who sees only the temporary.
Recall the past before time touched your memory when you knew the connectedness of your being to that of its Maker and its twin, itself, one being.
This is pure desire, to become in one flawless moment, an individual in the nature of all things. The promise of what we are is not forgotten, it is written in our longing and passion. You are the Star, my God, my Blessed One, Who guides my slow steps to the stairway to heaven.
Then, in my time, may it be that You open my eyes once again to see You and, in this Love, perfect and divine, the only fulfillment of this exalted child, your son, your daughter, the jewel of Your heart, meet in the canyons of the stars.
I love like this grand music that sings in my heart and my skin. With Your Love let me light the rest of my days. God help me love You as You love me that I may love the world.”
108. “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.”
109. "The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply."
110. “The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious to the rose.”
111. "The reality of the other person lies not in what he reveals to you but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather to what he does not say."
112. “There was the Door to which I found no Key:
There was the Veil through which I could not see:
Some little talk awhile of Me and Thee
There was - and then no more of Thee and Me.”
113. "The timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness; and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream."
114. “The trees were budding, the birds were singing - the grass was wet - the whole earth was shining. And suddenly I was the trees and the flowers and the birds and the grass - and there was no I at all.”
115. “Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:
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.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.
Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.”
116. “They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression. He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty.”
117. “Time has been transformed, and we have changed; it has advanced and set us in motion; it has unveiled its face, inspiring us with bewilderment and exhilaration.”
118. “Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.”
119. “Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.”
120. "Verily the kindness that gazes upon itself in a mirror turns to stone, and a good deed that calls itself by tender names becomes the parent to a curse."
121. “We are expression of earth, and of life - not separate individuals only. We cannot get enough away from the earth to see the earth and ourselves as separates. We move with its great movements and our growth is part of its great growth.”
122. "We fear death, yet we long for slumber and beautiful dreams."
123. “We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.”
124. “We were a silent, hidden thought in the folds of oblivion, and we have become a voice that causes the heavens to tremble.”
125. “What difference does it make, whether you live in a big city or in a community of homes? The real life is within.”
126. “What difference is there between us, save a restless dream that follows my soul but fears to come near you?”
127. “What is poetry ? "An extension of vision - and music is an extension of hearing." “
128. “What the soul knows is often unknown to the man who has a soul. We are infinitely more than we think.”
129. “What-to-Love is a fundamental human problem. And if we have this solution - Love what may Be- we see that this is the way Reality loves - and that there is no other loving that lasts or understands.”
130. “When I am a stranger in a large city I like to sleep in different rooms, eat in different places, walk through unknown streets, and watch the unknown people who pass. I love to be the solitary traveler!”
131. “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.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.
Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire,
that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.
All these things shall love do unto you that you may know
the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge
become a fragment of Life's heart.”
132. “When the hand of Life is heavy and night songless, it is the time for love and trust. And how light the hand life becomes and how songful the night, when one is loving and trusting all.”
133. "When we turn to one another for counsel we reduce the number of our enemies."
134. “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.”
135. ”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.”
136. “When you reach the heart of life you shall find beauty in all things, even in the eyes that are blind to beauty.”
137. “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?”
138. "When you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born. And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life, And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret."
139. “Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too self-ful to seek other than itself.”
140. "With you, Mary," he said today, "I want to be just like a blade of grass, that moves as the air moves it -to talk just according to the impulse of the moment. And I do."
141. "Work is love made visible. And if you can't 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 the people who work with joy."
142. "Yes, there is Nirvana; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem."
143. “Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness, and knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.”
144. ”You are free before the sun of the day and free before the stars of the night...you are even free when you close your eyes upon all there is. But you are a slave to him whom you love because you love him, and a slave to him who loves you because he loves you.”
145. “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.”
146. ”You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?”
147. "You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."
148. “You have helped me in my work and in myself. And I have helped you in your work and in yourself. And I am grateful to heaven for this you-and-me.”
149. “You listen to so much more than I can say. You hear consciousness. You go with me where the words I say can’t carry you.”
150. "You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept."
151. "Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself. They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, and yet they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not your thoughts. for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward, not tarries with yesterday."
152. “Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.”
153. "Your hearts know in silence the secrets of the days and the nights."
154. “Your life is an island separated from all other islands and continents. Regardless of how many boats you send to other shores or how many ships arrive upon your shores, you yourself are an island separated by its own pains, secluded in its happiness and far away in its compassion and hidden in its secrets and mysteries.”
155. “Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. 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.”
156. “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”
157. “You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore . . . but let there be spaces in your togetherness. And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.”
