inspiring quote cards

Print, cut, enjoy!

Display a new one each day, or choose one at random from the collection.

www.heartwideopen.ca

PRINTING HINTS:

Print the cards on a medium or heavy weight card stock.

Depending on your printer settings, you may want to ask for “borderless” printing,

or turn off the “shrink to fit” setting, so that the grey cutting lines run as close as

possible to the edge of each sheet.

STAND:

Print the stand on a heavy weight card stock, cut it out and fold it in half.

Depending on the paper weight of your cards, the stand will hold approx 18 - 27 cards.

“It isn’t the things that happen to us

in our lives that cause us to suffer,

it’s how we relate

to the things that happen to us

that causes us to suffer.”

— Pema Chödrön

“And the day came when the risk

to remain in a tight bud was more painful

than the risk it took to blossom.”

— Anaïs Nin

“Deep listening can help relieve

the suffering of another person.

You listen with only one purpose:

to help him or her to empty his heart.

Listening like that, you give

that person a chance to suffer less.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

“Darkness cannot

drive out darkness;

only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate;

only love can do that.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

“Instead of seeking success

we should look for fulfillment.

And fulfillment is giving total attention

to the process of living.”

— Satish Kumar

“Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth,

‘You owe me.’

Look what happens with

a love like that.

It lights the whole sky.”

— Hafiz

“If we can still our minds

and look within we can

find what’s always been there.

Happiness is more of a discovery

than a creation.”

— Chad Foreman

“You were wild once,

don’t let them tame you.”

— Isadora Duncan

“The world is changing because

we are changing it.”

— Carl Safina

“Understanding is the fruit of meditation.

When we practice deep looking

directed toward the heart of reality,

we receive help, we receive understanding,

we receive the wisdom that makes us free.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

“Let us all bring

our power of imagination and

create a new world.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

“Should you feel that with this pain

your heart might break, remember that

the heart that breaks open

can hold the whole universe.

Your heart is that large. Trust it.

Keep breathing.”

— Joanna Macy

“The wise walk on,

clinging to nothing.

They are neither elated by happiness

nor cast down by sorrow.”

— The Dhammapada

“Working on ourselves

and becoming more conscious about our

own minds and emotions

may be the only way for us to find solutions

that address the welfare of all beings and

the survival of the earth itself. ”

— Pema Chödrön

“Those wise ones who see that the

consciousness within themselves is the

same consciousness within all conscious

beings, attain eternal peace.”

— The Upanishads

“How do we

change

the world?

Change the story.”

— Charles Eisenstein

“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us

what we need to know.”

— Pema Chödrön

“The one shift that now matters most

is the shift of the heart.”

— Otto Scharmer

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth

with your feet.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

“Practice not-doing,

and everything

will fall into place.”

— Lao-tzu

“Seek freedom not in the

humanmade world but in the depth

of the universe and offer reverence to the

divinity inherent in fire, water and trees,

in everything moving and growing.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

“Each day we’re given many opportunities

to open up or shut down.

The most precious opportunity

presents itself when we come to the place

where we think we can’t handle

whatever is happening.”

— Pema Chödrön

“The best and most beautiful things

in this world cannot be seen or even heard,

but must be felt with the heart.”

— Helen Keller

“If you want others to be happy,

practice compassion.

If you want to be happy,

practice compassion.”

— The Dalai Lama

“This sky, this sky

where we live

Is no place

to lose your wings

So love, love, love.”

— Hafiz

“They always say

time changes things,

but you actually have to

change them yourself.”

— Andy Warhol

“Being mindful

of the people around you means

witnessing their experiences,

their emotions, their words…

without becoming reactive.”

— Kathryn Hogan

“Being deeply loved

by someone gives you strength,

while loving someone deeply

gives you courage.”

— Lao Tzu

“The butterfly

counts not months

but moments,

and has time enough.”

— Rabindranath Tagore

“There is more to life

than increasing its speed.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“Seek to know one another

in those things which are eternal.”

— George Fox

“We don’t set out to save the world;

we set out to wonder how

other people are doing and to reflect on

how our actions affect other

people’s hearts.”

— Pema Chödrön

“Could there, perhaps, be another way

of seeing this?…

Asking this simple question

allows me access to my inner knowing,

and lets it shine into my life.”

— Peter Russel

“Only when we know

our own darkness well can we be present

with the darkness of others.

Compassion becomes real

when we recognize our shared humanity.”

— Pema Chödrön

“How beautiful can life be?

We hardly dare imagine it.”

— Charles Eisenstein

“Stop asking:

am I good enough?

Ask only:

am I showing up

with love?”

— Julia Fehrenbacher

“Healthy friendships require verbs:

hugging, laughing,

cooking, sweeping, listening.”

— Kristina Cerise

“In the end, just three things matter:

How well we have lived

How well we have loved

How well we have learned to let go.”

— Jack Kornfield

“There is a crack in everything.

That’s how the light gets in.”

— Leonard Cohen

“If we want there to be peace in the world, we

have to be brave enough to soften

what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot

and stay with it. We have to have that kind

of courage and take that kind of responsibility.

That’s the true practice of peace.“

— Pema Chödrön

“Ultimately, work on self is inseparable

from work in the world.

Each mirrors the other; each is a vehicle

for the other. When we change ourselves,

our values and actions change as well.”

— Charles Eisenstein

Don’t turn away.

Keep your gaze on the bandaged place.

That’s where the light enters you.”

— Rumi

“You can’t be an activist and a pessimist,

as a pessimist gives up.

A true spiritual activist is an optimist.

The world is sustained and saved by love.

There is no other way to save the world.”

— Satish Kumar

“There is a voice that doesn’t use words.

Listen.“

— Rumi

“When we protect ourselves

so we won’t feel pain, that protection

becomes like armor,

like armor that imprisons

the softness of the heart.”

— Pema Chödrön

“I believe that your tragedies, your losses,

your sorrows, your hurt happened for you,

not to you. And I bless the thing

that broke you down and cracked you open

because the world needs you open.”

— Rebecca Campbell

“What I want in my life is compassion,

a flow between myself and others based on

a mutual giving from the heart.”

— Marshall Rosenberg

“Joy is being willing

for things to be as they are.”

— Charlotte Joko Beck

“When we answer the call of our own heart,

we help awaken the heart of the world.”

— Marianne Williamson

“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness

of the world. All things break.

And all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly,

unconditionally. The broken world waits

in darkness for the light that is you.“

— L.R. Knost

“I have become my own version

of an optimist. If I can’t make it through

one door, I’ll go through another door — or

I’ll make a door. Something terrific

will come no matter how dark the present.”

— Satish Kumar

“Only when we know

our own darkness well can we be present

with the darkness of others.

Compassion becomes real

when we recognize our shared humanity.”

— Pema Chödrön

“Our humanity is bound up in one another,

and any tear in the fabric of connection

between us must be repaired

for us all to be made whole.

This interconnectedness is the very root

of who we are.”

— Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu

“In the end, she became

more than what she expected.

She became the journey, and

like all journeys, she did not end,

she just simply changed directions

and kept going.”

— R.M. Drake

“Chanting is a way of getting in touch with

yourself. It’s an opening of the heart and

letting go of the mind and thoughts. It

deepens the channel of grace, and

it’s a way of being present in the moment.“

— Krishna Das

“The best hope for an

endangered humanity is a

grassroots revolution of love-in-action…

nothing less will galvanize

the devastated heart of humanity.”

— Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox

“Our world needs

nothing less than an inner revolution.

We need to question everything:

our personal assumptions, social and political

institutions, ways of relating to one another

and the earth, spiritual beliefs, healing

modalities, the way we think and more.”

— Beth Green

“It is time for the spiritual people

to get active and the activist people

to get spiritual so that we can have a total

revolution of the human spirit.”

— Pancho Ramos-Stierle

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk

curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any

experience that reveals the human spirit.”

— e.e. cummings

“In forgiving ourselves,

we open the door to forgiving others,

and in forgiveness, we create the possibility

for widespread social change.

The very idea of forgiveness always implies

that change is possible.“

— Jeremy Adam Smith

“We aren’t as alone as we think we are —

each of us locked away in some

soul-walnut. I believe that consciousness is

only occasionally restricted

to one person’s mind. Most of the time,

it lies somewhere between us.”

— George Boeree

“Be still. The quieter you become,

the more you can hear.”

— Ram Dass

“Forgiveness opens the door to peace

between people and opens the space for

peace within each person.”

— Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu

“The most important aspect of love

is not in giving or the receiving:

it’s in the being.”

— Ram Dass

“What matters most

is how well you walk through the fire.”

— Charles Bukowski

“In every community,

there is work to be done.

In every nation, there are wounds to heal.

In every heart,

there is the power to do it.”

— Marianne Williamson

“Stress is basically a disconnection

from the earth, a forgetting of the breath.

It believes that everything is an emergency.

Nothing is that important. Just lie down.”

— Natalie Goldberg

“Without momentum,

we wouldn’t know about the sacred healing

that lives within a pause.”

— danielle doby

“And we need to take care

what we’re exposing ourselves to because

too much exposure to the opposite

of love makes us into

very hostile and angry people.”

— Alain De Botton

“In one sheet of paper,

we see everything else, the cloud,

the forest, the logger.

I am, therefore you are.

You are, therefore I am.

That is the meaning of the word ‘interbeing.’

We interare.”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

“What we speak

becomes the house we live in.”

— Hafiz

“If you go deeper and deeper

into your own heart, you’ll be living

in a world with

less fear, isolation and loneliness.”

— Sharon Salzberg

“The most important decision we make is

whether we believe

we live in a friendly or hostile universe.”

— Albert Einstein

“Compassion is based on a keen awareness

of the interdependence of all

these living beings, which are all

part of one another,

and all involved in one another.”

— Thomas Merton

“Intellect is the power tool

of our separateness.

The intuitive, compassionate heart

is the doorway to our unity.”

— Ram Dass

“Let go of your mind and then be mindful.

Close your ears and listen.”

— Rumi

“Friendship is the only glue to hold

humanity together.

Through the philosophy of friendship

we deeply realise that we are all connected,

we are all related,

we are all interdependent.”

— Satish Kumar

“There is strength in your softness.

Divine beauty in your humanness.

A gentle intensity to your fire. Do not shrink

your voice. Do not dim down your light.

Quit apologizing and pushing aside your power.

Your tender heart-force is our future.”

— Danielle Doby

“Listen to the inner light; it will guide you.

Listen to inner peace; it will feed you.

Listen to inner love; it will transform you…”

— Sri Chinmoy

“Love

is the total acceptance of the other

as the other is”.

— Satish Kumar

“How did the rose

ever open its heart and give to this world

all its beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light

against its being, otherwise, we all remain

too frightened.”

— Hafiz

“Don’t cry because it’s over,

smile because it happened.”

— Dr. Seuss

“When you begin to understand,

you begin to see that all things

are exactly as they are.

And even when you do NOT understand —

things are STILL exactly as they are.”

— Ajahn Chah

“When you talk,

you are only repeating what you already know.

But if you listen,

you may learn something new.”

— The Dalai Lama

“I believe that to cherish

what remains of the earth and

to foster its renewal

is our only legitimate hope for survival.”

— Wendell Berry

“My favourite thing about you

is your smell.

You smell like earth, herbs, gardens,

a little more human

than the rest of us.”

— Rupi Kaur

“Transformation begins with heart.

Messy, soft, broken open heart.”

— Danielle Doby

“I can’t understand

why people are frightened

of new ideas.

I’m frightened of the old ones.”

— John Cage

“People are just as wonderful as

sunsets if you let them be.

When I look at a sunset,

I don’t find myself saying,

‘Soften the orange a bit on the right hand corner.’

I don’t try to control a sunset.

I watch with awe as it unfolds.”

— Carl R. Rogers

“A ship is safe in harbor,

but that’s not what ships are for.”

— John Augustus Shedd

“A purpose of human life,

no matter who is controlling it, is to love

whoever is around to be loved.”

— Kurt Vonnegut

“Quiet people have the loudest minds.”

— Stephen Hawking

“You need to let the little things

that would ordinarily bore you,

suddenly thrill you.”

— Andy Warhol

“When love breathes life

through dry branches,

new leaves begin to grow.”

— Rumi

“Accessing wisdom requires little more than

the confidence in knowing that when

you quiet your mind, it isn’t turned off.

Just like a back burner slowly cooking a pot

of delicious home-made soup,

your mind often works best when it’s not

operating at high speed.”

— Richard Carlson

“Moments of suffering are merely the spaces in

between moments of happiness.”

— Ajahn Brahm

“You are beautiful because

you let yourself feel,

and that is a brave thing indeed.”

— Shinji Moon

“An awake heart is like a sky that pours light.”

— Hafiz

“Every one of us is losing

something precious to us.

Lost opportunities, lost possibilities,

feelings we can never get back again.

That’s part of what it means to be alive.”

— Haruki Murakami

“If you love someone,

the greatest gift you can give them

is your presence.”

—Thich Nhat Hanh

“Keep some room in your heart

for the unimaginable.”

— Mary Oliver

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so

much in being able to remake the world as in

being able to remake ourselves.”

— Mahatma Gandhi

“I wish I could show you,

when you are lonely or in darkness,

the astonishing light of your own being.”

— Hafiz

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience,

can never go back to its old dimensions.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Do not try to use

what you learn from Buddhism

to be a Buddhist;

use it to be a better

whatever-you-already-are.”

— The Dalai Lama

“In today’s rush, we all think too much —

seek too much — want too much

— and forget about the joy of just being.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“The best way to restore a broken system

is not to fight against it,

but to embody an alternative vision.”

— Laura Ward

“There is nothing in a caterpillar

that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”

— R. Buckminster Fuller