Virginia Woolf Quotes

The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring. And that is not happiness.

Without desire there is stillness, and the world settles by itself.

Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame.

Welcome anything that comes to you, but do not long for anything else.

If I could learn to treat triumph and disaster the same, then I would find bliss.

Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.

Be content to be what you are, and prefer nothing to it, and do not fear or wish for your last day.

You can't ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option: You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire and aversion.

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.

Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it.

We experience happiness as a series of pleasing moments. They come and go like clouds, unpredictable, fleeting, and without responsibility to our desires. Through honest self-work, reflection, and meditation, we begin to string more of these moments together, creating a web-like design of happiness that drapes around our lives.

Today I am altogether without ambition. Where did I get such wisdom?

So the unwanting soul sees what's hidden, and the ever-wanting soul sees only what it wants.

When you learn not to want things so badly, life comes to you.

It has not yet been recorded that any human being has gained a very large or permanent contentment from meditation upon the fact that he is better off than others.

Mindfulness needs to not be judgmental to really be mindfulness, which means it needs a basis of loving kindness.

As meditation goes deep you will feel less and less desires, more and more contentment with whatsoever you have. There will be less and less desire for that which you don't have, and more and more contentment with whatsoever you have. As meditation goes deeper, a very contented consciousness evolves. Ultimately there is no desire, only contentment.

To the person who desires nothing and does not get entangled in desires, the manifold changes of nature are one panorama of beauty and sublimity.

One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.

Peace is when time doesn't matter as it passes by.

I am a spiritual person in an eastern religion kind of way. I learned that happiness for all of us is a switch that you flick in your brain. It doesn't have anything to do with getting a new house, a new car, a new girlfriend, or a new pair of shoes. Our culture is very much about that; we are never happy with what we have today.

The Dalai Lama was once asked for his favorite chant, and he said it was better not to have a favorite anything, which I think is a great thought.

Happiness is rarely absent; it is we that know not of its presence.

Vipassana taught me how to maintain equanimity in all situations of life.

Happiness can only be found if you can free yourself of all other distractions.