Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.
- Terry Pratchett
The trouble with having an open mind, of course,
is that people will insist on coming along
and trying to put things in it.
- Terry Pratchett
The presence of those seeking the truth
is infinitely to be preferred
to the presence of those who think they've found it.
- Terry Pratchett
There are only two or three human stories,
and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely
as if they had never happened before.
- Willa Cather 
Our stories are the window to our emotions.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The world just IS, and we all have our stories about it.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I am merely a bit player in your stories,
as you are merely a bit player in mine.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The most erroneous stories are those
we think we know best -
and therefore never scrutinize or question.
- Stephen Jay Gould
I forgive myself completely for having created stories of suffering.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The "stories" we choose to tell about our past
are never what a video camera would have recorded.
We can tell a sad story or a happy story,
and neither story is either
more accurate or "better" than the other story.
The difference is that one story causes us to suffer,
while the other brings us joy. I choose joy.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We tell the real truth of our life
by the stories we repeatedly tell.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
If you follow the trail of your own
enthusiastically repeated stories,
you will begin to rediscover the things
that invigorate and enliven you.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
If you have an emotional reaction in the presence of someone,
your heart is telling you that you have
not resolved your issues with them.
In other words, you have not truly forgiven that person.
All of this begs the question, how do we forgive?
First, cease lying to yourself and stop telling yourself stories
about why you behave the way you do.
Stop blaming your behavior on other people
and take responsibility for your emotional reactions.
If you could forgive all the people in your life
who have hurt or wounded you
it would be possible to be in control of your behavior
instead of being in reaction to other people all of the time.
Imagine living life without experiencing
a constant emotional roller-coaster of pain, anger, and jealousy!
That would be bliss!
-Sheri Rosenthal
I forgive myself completely
for having created stories of suffering.
I forgive myself for all
my angers, resentments, jealousies,
and all the other emotions of suffering.
I have unbounded compassion for myself
at all times and under all circumstances.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
I confessed recently to an old friend,
"I realized I was looking at you,
in your visit, through old glasses.
Speaking old words.
Telling old stories.
I realize that in my life I've made so many
physical changes and I need to give my spirit time to catch up."
Time for my spirit to look at my friend
through the new glasses of current life experiences.
Old friends are precious.
They become even more treasured when they are wrapped
in the currentness of life experiences
and not relegated to the past in which they once lived.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
The only thing to do with good advice is to pass it on.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde
Life is like jumping out of an airplane without a parachute -
only the last couple seconds are fatal,
but most people are scared to death the whole way down.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all
is the person who argues with him.
- Stanislaw Jerszy Lec
I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage
is being able to make a right turn on a red light.
- the Woody Allen movie Annie Hall
One good reason to only maintain a small circle of friends
is that three out of four murders
are committed by people who know the victim.
- George Carlin
You ask me if I keep a notebook
to record my great ideas.
I've only ever had one.
- Albert Einstein
Oh, if only God would give me some sign.
If He would just speak to me once. Anything.
One sentence. Two words. If He would just cough.
- the movie Love and Death
Money is better than poverty,
if only for financial reasons.
- Woody Allen
I only wish that ordinary people
had an unlimited capacity for doing harm;
then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
- Socrates
Human beings are the only creatures on the planet
who tell time and think they have to earn a living.
- Buckminster Fuller
If you want total security, go to prison.
There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on.
The only thing lacking... is freedom.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I've developed a new philosophy...
I only dread one day at a time.
- the character Charlie Brown in Charles M. Schulz' Peanuts comic
The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper
is that your guests are so pleased
to feel how very much better they are.
- Eleanor Roosevelt
It is only the poor who pay cash,
and that not from virtue,
but because they are refused credit.
- Anatole France
Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former.
- Albert Einstein
Love is only a dirty trick played on us
to achieve continuation of the species.
- W. Somerset Maugham
Life only
appears to be
rushing toward us
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.
- African Proverb
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely
only after they have exhausted all other alternatives.
- Abba Eban
The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.
- Albert Einstein
The reason I talk to myself is because
I'm the only one whose answers I accept.
- George Carlin
Only dead fish swim with the stream.
- Anonymous
The only true love is love at first sight;
second sight dispels it.
- Israel Zangwill
Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous.
In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.
- Winston Churchill
The attempt to combine wisdom and power
has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while.
- Albert Einstein
The physician can bury his mistakes,
but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines -
so they should go as far as possible from home
to build their first buildings.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
Magic is natural to Wizards,
and only a little harder for the rest of us.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The only good thing ever to come out of religion was the music.
- George Carlin
There is no such thing as public opinion.
There is only published opinion.
- Winston Churchill
Advertisements contain the only truths
to be relied on in a newspaper.
- Thomas Jefferson
Things may come to those who wait,
but only the things left by those who hustle.
- Abraham Lincoln
Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition,
is not only a waste of energy
but the worst habit you could possibly have.
- Dale Carnegie
I never make stupid mistakes.
Only very, very clever ones.
- John Peel
There are three hundred and sixty-four days
when you might get un-birthday presents,
and only one for birthday presents, you know.
- Lewis Carroll
Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born
at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
- Mark Twain
Less is only more where more is no good.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
The essence of all religions is one.
Only their approaches are different.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
I believe totally in a Capitalist System,
I only wish that someone would try it.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because
he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong
only because he has remained silent.
- Winston Churchill
The claim "I was only following orders" has been used
to justify too many tragedies in our history.
- Captain Picard of the television series
STAR TREK: The Next Generation
Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn't matter
if only we could prevent girls from being girls.
- Anne Frank
A doctor can bury his mistakes
but an architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.
- Frank Lloyd Wright
I always pass on good advice.
It is the only thing to do with it.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde
There is only one thing about which I am certain,
and that is that there is very little
about which one can be certain.
- W. Somerset Maugham
You are only young once,
but you can stay immature indefinitely.
- Anonymous
Nothing in life is to be feared.
It is only to be understood.
- Marie Curie
Life is an adventure.
I can only wonder what treasure
awaits at the top of the path.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand -
and melting like a snowflake.
- Marie B. Ray
Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
People only see what they are prepared to see.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Play with life, laugh with life,
dance lightly with life,
and smile at the riddles of life,
knowing that life's only true lessons
are writ small in the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hate is never conquered by hate,
Hate is only conquered by love.
- The Buddha
You're only here for a short visit.
Don't hurry. Don't worry.
And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
- Walter Hagen
If the only prayer you said in your whole life was,
Thank you, that would suffice.
- Meister Eckhart
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
- Robert F. Kennedy
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May the world be kind to you,
and may your own thoughts be gentle upon yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
All materials & writings are copyright © Jonathan Lockwood Huie, except for quotes and other specifically identified material which belong to their respective copyright holders if applicable.