Pema Chodron Quotes

We should never change our minds about where we are going, but always be curious about different ways to get there.

I haven't gotten stuck with something because I just keep going, and I keep doing different things.

If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve.

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every conceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.

I'm someone who is open-minded to new experiences because they teach you new things.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

I think that cynicism is the enemy. Cynicism thinks it knows how things work. "Oh yeah, you know how that works." I think uncertainty is the thing you have to keep embracing. You have to keep saying, I actually don't know, and going out is going to tell me something every time.

When you don't know what to do, try something; if that doesn't work, try something else.

The more times and the more different things you try, the more likely it is that you will succeed.

I was always willing to say, "Let's see what happens," when something came up that looked like it might help me get a little closer to where I wanted to be . . .

It's taken me a long time to learn to accept the risks and just be willing to try it over and over again.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

I'm open for possibilities. I'm open for choices. I always welcome new ideas. I'm always eager to learn. I'm never going to close my mind from learning.

There's so much happenstance, so many accidents - stumbling into something and finding it interesting and living with it over time and building on it. It's okay to work from doubt. You need to be willing to not know.

Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.

It takes 10 million failures to find the right stuff.

I've always embraced everything and been open-minded about what's ahead.

When I'm curious about something, I do it full on and take it as far as I go, but when I feel like I've really explored it, I'm OK with putting it aside and going on to something else.

The true worth of an experimenter consists in his pursuing not only what he seeks in his experiment, but also what he did not seek.

It's important that people are open. Some people say, 'I'm going to be a doctor,' and they're a really good doctor. But for the rest of us, it's a big question mark. Just giving yourself a break, letting yourself try new things, and when something doesn't work out, moving along... it's all we can really do.

When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.

When you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.

Rather than knowing more, I think I've got more open-minded.

I'm more interested in seeing what the material tells me than in imposing my will on it.

I never give up on anything, because you come back around, and suddenly the thing you thought you'd never do is relevant.