"Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them." ― Marcus Aurelius
There is a Hindu saying which is something like this: "Many men dig many shallow wells and then complain that there is no such thing as water." It context it refers to spiritual seekers who flit from one religion and one practice to another rather than embrace one religion or practice and follow it to the source.
Invictus By William Ernest Henley Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tears Looms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51642/invictus
“I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.” ― Henry David Thoreau
The ancient Indian story of a blind beggar and a crippled beggar.... retold by Osho There were once two beggars, in the village - the one was blind and another one was crippled. They both lived outside the village in the forest. Of course, they were competitors to each other, enemies ¯ begging is a business. But one day the forest was on fire. The cripple had no way to escape because he could not move on his own. He had eyes to see which way they could get out of the fire, but what use is that if you don't have legs? The blind man had legs, could move fast and get out of the fire, but how was he going to find the place where the fire had not reached yet? Both were going to die in the forest, burned alive. It was such an emergency that they forgot about their competition. They immediately dropped their antagonism ¯ that was the only way to survive. The blind man took the cripple on his shoulders, they found the way out of the fire. One was seeing, and the other was moving accordingly. Something like this has to happen within you ¯ of course, in reverse order. The head has the eyes, the heart has the guts to move into anything. You have to make a synthesis between the two. And the synthesis, I have to emphasize, should be that the heart remains the master, and the head becomes the servant. You have as a servant a great asset ¯ your reasoning. You cannot be befooled, you cannot be cheated and exploited. The heart has all feminine qualities: love, beauty, grace. The head is barbarous. The heart is far more civilized, far more innocent. A conscious man uses his head as a servant, and his heart as the master ¯ just the opposite of the story I told you
"Non-accomplishment resides in your perpetual postponement. And, having the power to postpone, you also have the power to accomplish - to perpetually accomplish; realize this truth, and you shall be today, and everyday, the ideal man of who you dreamed." - J Allen
“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” - Art Williams