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There is only the
moment. The now. Only what you are experiencing at this
second is real.
This does not mean you live for the
moment. It means you live in the moment.
-Leo Buscaglia
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On
Arturo Toscanini's eightieth birthday, someone asked his son, Walter,
what his father ranked as his most important achievement.
The son replied, "For him there can be no such thing.
Whatever he happens to be doing at the moment is the biggest thing in
his life--
whether it is conducting a symphony or peeling an orange."
-Ardis
Whitman
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| Life
is not lost by dying; life is lost minute
by minute, day
by day, in all
the thousand small, uncaring ways.
-Stephen Saint Vincent Benet |
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The
only time that any of us have to grow or change or feel or learn
anything
is in the present moment. But we're continually
missing
our present moments,
almost willfully, by not paying
attention. -Jon
Kabat-Zinn
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| Each moment is magical,
precious and complete and will never exist again.
We forget that
now is the moment we are in, that the next one isn't guaranteed.
And if we are blessed with another moment, any joy, creativity or
wisdom
it brings will ensue from the way we live in the present one.
-Susan L.
Taylor |
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| It is privilege of living to be . . .
acutely, agonizingly conscious
of the moment that
is
always
present and always passing.
-Marya Mannes |
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| A
single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So
our
prospects brighten
on the influx of greater thoughts. We
should
be blessed if we lived in the present always,
and took
advantage of
every accident that befell us, like the grass which
confesses
the
influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and
did not spend our
time in atoning
for the neglect of past opportunities,
which we call
doing our duty. We loiter in winter
while it is already spring.
-Henry
David Thoreau |
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| If
we really want to live, we'd better start at once to try;
If we don't, it doesn't matter, we'd better start to die.
-Wystan
Hugh Auden |
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| Do we
need to make a special effort to enjoy the beauty of the blue sky?
Do we have to practice to be able to enjoy it? No, we just enjoy
it.
Each second, each minute of our lives can be like this.
Wherever we are, any time, we have the capacity to enjoy the sunshine,
the presence of each other, even the sensation of our breathing.
We don't need to go
to China to enjoy the blue sky.
We don't have to travel into the
future to enjoy our breathing.
We can be in touch with these
things right now. -Thich Nhat Hanh |
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| This--this was what
made life: a moment of quiet,
the water falling in the
fountain, the girl's voice. . .
a moment of captured
beauty.
Those who are truly wise will never
permit such
moments to escape. -Louis L'Amour |
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| We
have only this moment, sparkling like a star
in our hand.
. . and melting like a snowflake.
Let us use it
before it is too late. -Marie Beynon Ray |
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| I live
now and only now, and I will do what I want to do this
moment
and not what I decided was best for me yesterday.
-Hugh Prather |
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| To
be reborn hourly and daily in this life, we need to die--to give of
ourselves wholly
to the demands of the moment, so that we utterly
"disappear."
Thoughts of past, present, or future, of
life and death, of this world and the next,
are transcended in the
superabundance of the now. Time and timelessness coalesce:
this is the moment of eternity. Thus our every act is a matter
either
of giving life or taking it away. If we perform each act
with total absorption,
we give life to our life. If we do things
half-heartedly, we kill that life.
-Philip
Kapleau |
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| My philosophy is that not
only are you responsible
for your life, but doing your
best at this
moment
puts you in the best place
for the next moment. -Oprah Winfrey |
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| Every
person's life lies within the present,
for the past is spent and done
with,
and the future is uncertain.
-Marcus
Antonius |
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| To finish the moment, to find the
journey's end
in every step of the road, to live the
greatest number of good hours, is wisdom.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson |
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| What we are talking about is learning to
live in the present moment, in the now.
When you
aren't distracted by your own negative thinking, when you
don't
allow yourself to get lost in moments that are gone
or yet to come,
you are left with this moment. This
moment--now--truly is the only moment you have.
It
is beautiful and special. Life is simply a series
of such moments to be experienced
one right after another.
If you attend to the moment you are in
and stay
connected to your soul and remain happy,
you will find
that your heart is filled with positive feelings.
-Sydney Banks |
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| Life is a succession of
moments.
To live each one is to succeed. -Corita Kent |
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The past
is gone, and I don't know what's coming in the future. It's obvious
that if I want my life to be whole, to
resonate with feeling and integrity
and value and health,
there's only one way I can influence the future: by
owning the present. If I can relate to this
moment with integrity,
and then this moment with
integrity, and then this moment with integrity,
wakefully,
then the sum of that is going to be very different over
time,
over mind moments that stretch out into what we
call a life, than a life
that is lived mostly on
automatic pilot, where we are reacting
and being
mechanical and are therefore somewhat numb.
-Jon
Kabat-Zinn
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Every second is of infinite value.
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe |
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But what
minutes! Count them by sensation,
and not by calendars,
and each moment is a day. -Benjamin Disraeli |
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No
longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
John
Greenleaf Whittier |
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The
passing moment is all we can be sure of;
it is only
common sense to extract its utmost value from it.
-W. Somerset Maugham |
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Hold to the now, the here,
through which all future plunges to the past.
-James Joyce |
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Our latest moment is always our
supreme moment. Five minutes delay
in dinner now
is more
important
than a great sorrow
ten years gone. -Samuel Butler |
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Love
the moment and the energy of the moment
will spread
beyond all boundaries. -Corita Kent |
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I have the happiness of the
passing moment,
and what more can mortal ask?
-George R. Gissing |
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Our
latest moment is always
our supreme moment.
-Samuel
Butler
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People who are “being” are fully present.
They are totally engaged in the moment.
This engagement includes an easy appreciation and sense
of connection with
whomever or whatever they are relating to
at the time. These
people are aware
of a job well done or a difficulty surmounted
and will respect and often acknowledge
the person who has
accomplished it. “Being” is a state of heart and mind
that is receptive
and able to listen carefully.
-Sallirae Henderson
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My
advice to you is not to inquire why or whither,
but just to enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.
-Thornton Wilder
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Above
all, we cannot afford not to live in the
present. They are blessed over all mortals who
lose no moment of the passing life in remembering the
past. -Henry
David Thoreau
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Our
main business is not to see what lies dimly at a
distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
-Thomas
Carlyle
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To live with God is to live always in
the present,
with him who is the eternal Now.
-John A.T. Robinson
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I realized that living in the present is not an
idea. It’s
reality.
It’s
like taking one step at a time. Sounds good. Good philosophy,
right?
Then it occurred
to me, Have you ever taken two steps
at a time?
We
can’t. It’s
as simple as that: we
can’t. It’s the
same with
living in the present.
Our thoughts
may wander to the past or the future.
Yet, our thoughts
are just thoughts.
Our bodies are in the present.
We are
in the present.
That’s just the way it is.
-Anne Wilson Schaef
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The
present moment is always full of infinite treasure. It
contains far more
than you can possibly grasp. Faith is the measure of its
riches: what
you find in the present moment is according to the measure of
your faith.
Love also is the measure: the more the heart loves, the
more it rejoices in
what God provides. The will of God presents itself at
each moment like
an immense ocean that the desire of your heart cannot empty;
yet you will drink from that ocean according to your faith and
love. -Jean-Pierre
de Caussade
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Step into this moment, because it is the only one
you have right now. It
is not
wasted or thrown away.
The divine opportunity could be stolen unless you tell
yourself it is here right now; available to you this moment,
to make of it anything
you choose.
Why not choose this moment, right now, to be available
to
yourself by declaring, I AM GOOD! . . . . The richness of
the present is here.
The
fullness of now is present.
If you are not here now, it means you could be
missing
the love, joy, peace and brand-new ideas that are here right now.
-Iyanla Vanzant
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If we take care of the moments, the years will
take care of themselves. -Maria Edgeworth
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If
we know that we are now at the point where we have always
wanted to be, we will be there. . . because we are never
there but always here, now!
-Paul
Twitchell
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The
present is passed over in the race for the future;
the here is neglected in favor of the there.
Enjoy the moment, even if it means
merely a walk in the country.
-Anne
Morrow Lindbergh
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I
can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future,
but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in
the present
moment is a major component of mental wellness.
-Abraham
Maslow
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Live in the present. Do the things that need to be done.
Do all the good you can each day. The future will unfold.
-Peace Pilgrim
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We
are within a mystery, a dream of the moment, and the
epitome of life is to live ever present within it. Our
past
illusions and fantasies are not relative to the present
moment.
Here and now is where all the mystery lies hidden.
-unattributed
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Don't
think about the future. Just be here now.
Don't think about the past. Just be here now.
-Ram
Dass
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Every moment is a golden one to those
who have the visions to recognize it as such.
-Henry Miller
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Hold every moment sacred. Give each
clarity and meaning, each the weight of your awareness,
each its true and due fulfillment.
-Thomas Mann
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Not
living in the present is a form of denial. It's
easier to live in the past or future because then you
don't have to be responsible for the present.
-Jane
Hendrix
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Those
who think to reach God by running away from the world,
when and where do they expect to meet him? We are
reaching
him here in this very spot, now at this very moment.
-Rabindranath
Tagore
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We
hurry through the so-called boring things in order to attend
to that which we deem more important, interesting.
Perhaps the final
freedom will be a recognition that every thing in every moment
is 'essential' and that nothing at all is
"important." -Helen
M. Luke
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Each
second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe,
a moment that never was before and never will be again.
-Pau Casals
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| I
was regretting the past and fearing the future.
Suddenly God was speaking. "My name is 'I
Am.'" I waited. God continued.
"When
you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there. My name is not
'I was.'
"When
you live in the future, with its problems and fears,
it is hard. I am not there. My name is not
'I will be.'
"When
you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am
here. My name is 'I Am.'"
Helen
Mellicost
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Be
here in the moment, as an artist is here with focused
attention,
whether you are cooking, cleaning, praying, playing, or
reading. Be here
in the moment, as an athlete is here in that sweet spot of
time when
everything is effortless, fluid, and free. The banquet
is spread before us,
and it is the wish of the Divine Host that we partake of the
present moment
without regrets for the past or fears of the future.
Pledge yourself to the moment
and let it teach you. Surrender yourself to the moment
and let it preach you.
-Frederic and
Mary Ann Brussat
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I've
stopped thinking all the time of
what happened
yesterday. And
stopped asking myself what's going
to happen tomorrow. What's
happening
today,
this minute, that's what I care
about. I say: What
are you doing
at this moment, Zorba? . . . I'm kissing
a woman. Well, kiss her well, Zorba!
And forget
all the rest while
you're doing it; there's nothing else
on
earth, only you and her! -Nikos
Kazantzakis
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How wonderful are islands! Islands in
space, like this one I have come to,
ringed about by miles of water, linked by no bridges, no
cables,
no telephones. An island from the world and the world's
life. Islands in time,
like this short vacation of mine. The past and the
future are cut off; only the
present remains. Existence in the present gives island
living an extreme vividness
and purity. One lives like a child or a saint in the
immediacy of here and now.
Every day, every act, is an island, washed by time and space,
and has
an island's completion. People, too, become like islands
in such an atmosphere,
self-contained, whole and serene; respecting other people's
solitude, not intruding
on their shores, standing back in reverence before the miracle
of another individual. -Anne Morrow Lindbergh
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| Look at life through the windshield,
not the rearview mirror.
My sister Barbara tried to teach me this lesson
more than twenty years ago. At the time, she was
planning her wedding under what I can only describe as
bittersweet circumstances. On the one hand, my
sister was about to realize a life-long dream:
at age thirty-eight, she was about to marry the man
she had been in love with since they were
teenagers. On the other, she had just been
diagnosed with colon cancer. . . .
"What good would it do to be angry,
Patsy?" she said gently. "I can't
change the past and I can't control the future.
I can, however, make the most of the present.
Shot and I are together now. At this
moment. And, if you think about it, this moment
is all any of us really has."
The ability to live fully in the moment--in the
time and place we are right now--is one of the
greatest secrets I know of living joyfully.
Because once you grasp it, freedom is very
close. You stop worrying about the past and
stressing out about the future. Enjoying
life--not agonizing about what happened yesterday or
what might happen tomorrow--becomes your
priority. Your days become a gift, not a grind.
-Patti LaBelle
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