“When the worst student hears about the Way, he laughs out loud. If he did not laugh, it would be unworthy of being the Way.”       Lao Tzu

Prayer is naught else but a yearning of soul...when it is practised with the whole heart, it has great power.
Mechthild of Magdeburg

God aspires us into Himself in contemplation, and then we must be wholly His; but afterwards the Spirit of God expires us without, for the practice of love and good works.-- Jan Van Ruysbroek

To pray is to work, to work is to pray.
-- Ancient motto of the Benedictine Order 

O God, Founder of the universe, help me that I may pray aright, that I may act as one worthy to be heard by you and, finally, set me free.
-- St. Augustine, The Soliloquies

As for prayer, don't burden yourself with making considerations; neither your mind or mine is good at that. Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord sincerely, lovingly, confidently and simply, as your heart dictates.
-- Jane de Chantal, Francis de Sales, Jane de Chantal: Letters of Spiritual Direction

 If the only prayer you say in your whole life is "thank you," that would suffice
-- Meister Eckart

In this temple of God, in this divine dwelling place, God alone rejoices with the soul in the deepest silence. There is no reason for the intellect to stir or seek anything, for the Lord who created it wishes to give it repose here.
-- Teresa of Avila, "The Seventh Dwelling Place," The Interior Castle

Those who would storm the heavenly heights by fireceness and ascetic practices deceive themselves badly. Such people carry grim hearts within themselves; they lack true humility which alone leads to the soul of God.
-- Mechthild of Magdeburg

Therefore we pray to him urgently that he may do what is pleasing to him, as if he were to say: "How could you please me more than by entreating me, urgently, wisely and sincerely, to do the thing that I want to have done?" And so the soul by prayer is made of one accord with God.
-- Julian of Norwich, Showings

O God, Founder of the universe, help me that I may pray aright, that I may act as one worthy to be heard by you and, finally, set me free.
-- St. Augustine, The Soliloquies

The key to a Christian conception of studies is the realization that prayer consists of attention. It is the orientation of all the attention of which the soul is capable toward God. The quality of attention counts much in the quality of the prayer. Warmth of heart cannot make up for it.
-- Simone Well, Waiting For God

Short prayer pierces heaven
-- The Cloud of Unknowing

I am never alone. Christ is always present, always praying in me and I pray in him.
-- Elizabeth of the Trinity

“Beyond the service of God nothing is of value.  That’s a deep truth.”
       Yeshayahu Leibowitz

“The more you have, the more you are occupied, the less you give.  But the less you have, the more free you are.”       Mother Teresa

“For, each soul enters with a mission . . . we all have a mission to perform.”        Edgar Cayce

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth wve you.  If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”        Jesus

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
       Albert Einstein

“Consciousness equals energy = love = awareness = light = wisdom = beauty = truth = purity.  It’s all the same trip.”         Ram Dass

“Love makes labour light.  Love alone gives value to all things.”       St. Teresa of Avila

“He who never thinks of anything as ‘mine’ does not feel the lack of anything: he is never worried by a sense of loss.”       Buddha

“Detachment is the beginning of mastery.“
       Sri Aurobindo

“Absolute, unquestioning faith in God is the greatest method of instantaneous healing. An unceasing effort to arouse that faith is man’s highest and most rewarding duty.“
       Paramahansa Yogananda

“Through love all that is bitter will be sweet.“
       Jalaluddin Rumi

“The great enemy of morality has always been indifference.”
       Albert Schweitzer

“. . . courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions.”
       C.S. Lewis

“Therefore, it is forbidden to say anything to anyone that might cause animosity between any two people.”
       Chofetz Chaim

“Each man is a part of the Creator, or Cosmic Man; he has a heavenly body as well as one of earth.”
       Sri Yukteswar

“. . . every entity loses perfection as long as it is not fulfilling its purpose.”
       Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto

“Study, therefore, to withdraw the love of your soul from all things that are visible, and turn it to things that are invisible.”
       Thomas à Kempis

“Every breath drawn by an individual who truly serves God will elicit a responsive chord from the universe around him.”
       Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch

“The spiritual life is not a special career, involving abstraction from the world of things. It is a part of every man’s life; and until he has realised it he is not a complete human being.”
       Evelyn Underhill

“Do work of all kinds with a mind that is void and to the voidness surrender all of the fruits.”
       Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

"It is a presumption on the part of man when he demands in words an explanation of God."
       Pir-o-Murshid Inayat Khan

"Live in the present.  Do the things that need to be done. Do all the good you can each day.  The future will unfold."  
       Peace Pilgrim

“I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.”
   Leo Tolstoy

 “Love is the answer and you know that for sure.”
   John Lennon 

“If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all.”
   Fyodor Dostoevski