Contentment Quotes - Page 16

• I think instead [of happiness] we should be working for contentment... an inner sense of fulfillment that's relatively independent of external circumstances.

  Andrew Weil

  Independent, Thinking, Should

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• In whatever area in life one may meet the challenges of courage, whatever may be the sacrifices he faces if he follows his conscience - the loss of his friends, his fortune, his contentment, even the esteem of his fellow men - each man must decide for himself the course he will follow. The stories of past courage can define that ingredient - they can teach, they can offer hope, they can provide inspiration. But they cannot supply courage itself. For this each man must look into his own soul.

  John F. Kennedy

  Courage, Inspiration, Loss

  Selected Quotations from John F. Kennedy's Book "Profiles in Courage", www.jfklibrary.org. 1957.

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• When a thoughtful human being has overcome incentives to vice and is aware of having done his bitter duty, he finds himself in a state that could be called happiness, a state of contentment and peace of mind in which virtue is its own reward.

  Immanuel Kant

  Happiness, Thoughtful, Mind

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• The world is so constructed, that if you wish to enjoy its pleasures, you also must endure its pains.

  Swami Brahmananda

  Pain, Worry, Wish

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• When you're experiencing peace, it's coming from within you; you're 'doing' peace and this is true of anything else you might be looking for. Love, happiness, contentment, well-being come from within. Nothing external needs to change for you to have what you want.....If you want to be happier - be happier. If you want to be more relaxed - relax. If you want more friends - be friendly. Sounds simple. It is.

  Cheri Huber

  Yoga, Simple, Friendly

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• Pray Meditate Be aware.Stay awake Bow Practise yoga Feel Chant and sing Breathe and smile Relax.Enjoy.Laugh.Play Create.Envision Let Go/Forgive.Accept Walk.Exercise.Move Work.Serve.Contribute Listen/Learn.Enquire Consider.Reflect Cultivate oneself.Enhance competencies Cultivate contentment Cultivate flexibility Cultivate friendship and collaboration Lighten up Celebrate and appreciate Dream Give thanks Evolve Love Share.Give.Receive Walk softly.Live gently Expand.Radiate.Dissolve Simplify Surrender.Trust Be born anew

  Surya Das

  Letting Go, Dream, Buddhist

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• We could become quite satisfied with ourselves because we are sitting in meditation and are endeavoring to practice the spiritual path. Such satisfaction with ourselves is not the same as contentment. Contentment is necessary, self-satisfaction is detrimental. To be content has to include knowing we are in the right place at the right time to facilitate our own growth. But to be self-satisfied means that we no longer realize the need for growth. All these aspects are important parts of our commitment and makes us into one whole being with a one-pointed direction.

  Ayya Khema

  Spiritual, Buddhist, Mean

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• The voice of the special rebels and prophets, recommending discontent, should, as I have said, sound now and then suddenly, like a trumpet. But the voices of the saints and sages, recommending contentment, should sound unceasingly, like the sea.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Sea, Voice, Special

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• My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.

  Joseph Brotherton

  Happiness, Attitude, Simple

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• Our modern Western culture only recognises the first of these, freedom of desires. It then worships such a freedom by enshrining it at the forefront of national constituitions and bills of human rights. One can say that the underlying creed of most Western democracies is to protect their people's freedom to realise their desires, as far as this is possible. It is remarkable that in such countries people do not feel very free. The second kind of freedom, freedom from desires, is celebrated only in some religious communities. It celebrates contentment, peace that is free from desires.

  Ajahn Brahm

  Country, Religious, Buddhist

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• Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but efficiency (virtue in the Renaissance sense, virtu , virtue free of moral acid).

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  War, Renaissance, Acid

  Friedrich Nietzsche “Writings of Nietzsche: Volume 1”, Lulu.com

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• Without love a man is just a body, an empty temple without the deity. With love the deity arrives, the temple is no more empty. That's why love gives such fullness, such deep contentment, such tremendously overflowing joy. Remain in love and let love be the door to the divine.

  Rajneesh

  Love, Men, Doors

  Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Osho (1984). “You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet: Initiation Talks Between Master and Disciple”, Osho International Foundation

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• The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.

  Zhuangzi

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

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• Temperance puts wood on the fire, meal in the barrel, flour in the tub, money in the purse, credit in the country, contentment in the house, clothes on the back, and vigor in the body.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Country, Fire, Clothes

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• We have to cultivate contentment with what we have. We really don't need much. When you know this, the mind settles down. Cultivate generosity. Delight in giving. Learn to live lightly. In this way, we can begin to transform what is negative into what is positive. This is how we start to grow up.

  Tenzin Palmo

  Growing Up, Giving, Generosity

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• To his sister-in-law: What a contrast between us! You live a warm and glowing life, surrounded by loved ones whom you care for and who care for you; you are anchored in contentment. I drift about without rudder or compass, a wreck on the sea of life; I have no memories to cheer me, no pleasant illusions of the future to comfort me, or about me to satisfy my vanity. I have no family to furnish the only kind of survival that concerns us, no friends for the wholesome development of my affections, or enemies for my malice.

  Alfred Nobel

  Sister, Cheer, Memories

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• People, fearing their own extinction, are willing to accept and perpetuate hand-me-down answers to the meaning of life and death; and, fearing a weakening of the tribal structures that sustain them, reinforce with their tales the conventional notions of justice, freedom, law and order, nature, family, etc. The writer, lone rider, has the power, if not always the skills, wisdom, or desire, to disturb this false contentment.

  Robert Coover

  Hands, Order, Law

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• It has not yet been recorded that any human being has gained a very large or permanent contentment from meditation upon the fact that he is better off than others.

  Sinclair Lewis

  Meditation, Facts, Humans

  Sinclair Lewis (1995). “Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott”, p.237, Penguin

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• If we observe genuinely happy people, we shall find that they do not just sit around being contented. They make things happen. They pursue new understandings, seek new achievements, and control their thoughts and feelings. In sum, our intentional, effortful activities have a powerful effect on how happy we are, over and above the effects of our set points and the circumstances in which we find themselves. If an unhappy person wants to experience interest, enthusiasm, contentment, peace, and joy, he or she can make it happen by learning the habits of a happy person.

  Sonja Lyubomirsky

  Happiness, Powerful, Unhappy Person

  Sonja Lyubomirsky (2007). “The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want”, p.62, Penguin

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• One interesting thing about greed is that although the underlying motive is to seek satisfaction, the irony is that even after obtaining the object of your desire you are still not satisfied. The true antidote of greed is contentment.

  Dalai Lama

  Buddhism, Interesting, Greed

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• I love to go and see all the things I am happy without.

  Socrates

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• Moderation, which consists in indifference about little things, and in a prudent and well-proportioned zeal about things of importance, can proceed from nothing but true knowledge, which has its foundation in self-acquaintance.

  Plato

  Self, Foundation, Littles

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• Contentment: The smother of invention.

  Ethel Mumford

  Design, Invention

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• At each level of gratitude our soul's capacity deepens, starting with contentment to meaningfulness, and finally, to pure joy.

  M. J. Ryan

  Gratitude, Joy, Soul

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• There is nothing like wine for conjuring up feelings of contentment and goodwill. It is less of a drink than an experience, an evocation, a spirit. It produces sensations that defy description.

  Thomas Conklin

  Wine, Feelings, Spirit

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