Whit Stillman Quotes

Your body is not who you are. The mind and spirit transcend the body.

We grow neither better or worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.

I know you think that when you're 35, 45, 55, you'll be different. But I'm going to let you in on a bit of a secret. You're going to look different, and your life is going to be different, but in your head you'll always be that 16-year-old girl.

In my definition of consciousness, consciousness is the same thing as life. What wisdom traditions also call spirit.

The old man, of whom we know how he has become what he is, is more of an individual than the young man; for it is only in the course of an eventful life that men are differentiated into full individuality.

As long as you think of your real self as the person you are, then of course you're going to be fearful of death. But what is a person? A person is a pattern of behavior, of a larger awareness. You know, the two-year-old dies before the three-year-old shows up, the three-year-old dies before the teenager shows up.

I don't think people change. I think they definitely mature. But I think the essence of what I am today is the same as when I was five years old. It's just maturity. I've become a healthier, fuller expression of that essence.

The final goal of all human endeavor is the development of the human soul.

You don't have a soul; you are your own soul. In other words, you are not this book, your social security card, your body, or your mind. You are you.

As we grow old, the beauty steals inward.

The feelings we all have as 50-year-olds are different than the feelings we all have as 30-year-olds. That informs everything we do.

We do not gain or surrender our personhood as we age. We live one life from conception to death.

You see that who you are isn't moving in time. Time is describing the incarnations, the packing changes.

For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.

You are not what happens in your life. You are the space in which it happens, which is consciousness itself.

The child is born with a Self but not with an ego. The child develops the ego. As he becomes more and more social and related, ego develops. This ego is just on your periphery where you are related with others - just on the boundary of your being. So ego is the periphery of your being, and Self is the center. The child is born with a Self, but unaware. He is a Self, but he is not conscious of the Self.

The more you make your thoughts and beliefs into your identity, the more cut off you are from the spiritual dimension within yourself.

Life in its highest state is understanding.

For every seeing soul, there are two absorbing facts - I, and the abyss.

The only truth is that I live. Sincerely, I live. Who am I? Well, that's a bit much.

Life is not outside of you. You are life.

But if you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I think I am living for.

You exist in time, but you belong to eternity- You are a penetration of eternity into the world of time-You are deathless, living in a body of death- Your consciousness knows no death, no birth- It is only your body that is born and dies-But you are not aware of your consciousness-You are not conscious of your consciousness-And that is the whole art of meditation;Becoming conscious of consciousness itself.

I'm not always what I think I am, but I am what I think.

The only real change in life comes with the consciousness of old age.