Dan Millman Quotes

If you want a kinder world, then behave with kindness; if you want a peaceful world, make peace within.

Avoid fragmentation: Find your focus and seek simplicity. Purposeful living calls for elegant efficiency and economy of effort-expanding the minimum time and energy necessary to achieve desired goals.

The seasons do not push one another; neither do clouds race the wind across the sky. All things happen in their own good time.

The secret of change consists in concentrating one's energy to create the new, and not to fight against the old.

You haven't yet opened your heart fully, to life, to each moment. The peaceful warrior's way is not about invulnerability, but absolute vulnerability
to the world, to life, and to the Presence you felt. All along I've shown you by example that a warrior's life is not about imagined perfection or victory; it is about love. Love is a warrior's sword; wherever it cuts, it gives life, not death.

Stay present. You'll always have time to worry later on if you want to.

It's better to make a mistake with the full force of your being than to timidly avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit. Responsibility means recognizing both pleasure and price, action and consequence, then making a choice.

When in haste, rest in the present. Take a deep breath and come back to here and now.

I don't even know if the sun will rise or whether I'll wake up in the morning. I don't know if God will grant me my next breath. So I choose to live on faith rather than knowledge - and accept whatever comes, welcome or not, bitter or sweet - all of it, a gift from God.

Conscious evolution begins as we take responsibility for clearing our own obstructions.

Have shown you the way of the peaceful warrior, not the way to the peaceful warrior. As long as you tread the way, you are a warrior.

Peace comes not from the absence of conflict, but from the ability to cope with it. Anonymous

As we stop monitoring others' opinions, we connect with our heart's wisdom.

Masters of one art have mastered all because they have mastered themselves. With dominion over both mind and muscle, they demonstrate power, serenity, and spirit. They not only have talent for their sport, they have an expanded capacity for life. The experts shine in the competitive arena; the masters shine everywhere.

Learning is a process of refining errors to the point where they no longer prevent our desired goal.

Be gentle with yourself. Think less and feel more. Be as happy as you can. You only have this moment.

Knowledge is not the same as wisdom. Wisdom is doing it.

People love miracle stories and dramatic moments of transcendence or transformation, and may then pursue their own dramatic "awakenings."

Ships are safe in harbor, but that's not what ships are for. So set sail on the stormy sea of love. You're going to get soaked at times, but at least you'll know you're alive.

Everyone everywhere live[s] a confused, bitter search. Reality never matched their dreams; happiness was just around the corner - a corner they never turned. And the source of it all [is] the human mind.

You get no more and no less than what you believe you deserve.

We all know that life has ups and downs; you've experienced both. And though you can't always control what happens outside you, you can choose how you will respond. You can treat life as a dance rather than a wrestling match. You can become an active participant rather than a victim of circumstance.

When you resist what happens, your mind begins to race; the same thoughts that impinge upon you are actually created by you.

Freedom from mental distraction equals power.

Faith does not rely on knowing anything with certainty. It requires only the courage to accept that whatever happens is for the highest good.

People from all walks of life share an innate drive for meaning, direction, and purpose. This drive to understand our life purpose seems as important to our psychological growth as eating is to our biological survival.

Stop being so proud of mediocrity; show some spirit!

Meditation is a valuable exercise, but eventually you have to open up your eyes and look around.

Consciousness is not in the body; the body is in consciousness. And you are that consciousness.

I'd always believed that a life of quality, enjoyment and wisdom were my human birthright and would be automatically bestowed upon me as time passed. I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live
that there were specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple, happy, uncomplicated life.

Never fear the weapon, only the man wielding it. Focus on your opponent while he focuses on his knife or saber or pistol. He invests his power in the weapon but forgets the rest of his body.

Never struggle with anyone or anything. When you're pushed, pull; when you're pulled, push.

Everyone tells you what's good for you. they don't want you to find your own answers. they want you to believe theirs.

Knowing what to do is not usually the problem; the elusive goal becomes translating intentions into action and resolutions into results.

Someday, in the moment of death, your whole life will pass before you. In a few fractions of a second-because time no longer applies-you will see many incidents from your life in order to learn. You will review your life with two questions in your consciousness: Could I have shown a little more courage in these moments? Could I have shown a little more love? You will see where you let fear stop you from expressing who you are, how you feel, or what you need. You will see whether you were able to expand into these moments, just a little, to show love, or whether you contracted.

The quality of your moments produces the quality of your life. So, as thoughts come and go and the waves of mind rush on, Carpe punctum-Seize this moment. It deserves your full attention, for it will not pass your way again.

Book ideas are like planes, lined up to approach the runway. Some never leave the gate, but others move quickly to the front of the line. It was like that with The Four Purposes. Honestly, I cannot remember the moment I had the idea for the book; perhaps because it emerged like a green shoot emerging from the soil of my subconscious. But it seemed important enough to begin the flow of words that eventually shaped themselves into this new book.

You can change your life with a simple shift of attention. But to make that simple shift, you have to find your heart. It's the only way. Accept yourself, then transcend yourself.

Life is not a private affair. A story and its lessons are only made useful if shared.

Unless someone truly has the power to say no, they never truly have the power to say yes.

In the real world, those of us who are most productive, successful, and satisfied focus not on fixing feelings or manipulating thoughts, but on what needs to be done-and then doing it-no matter what thoughts or feelings arise.

Your body is malleable; you can sculpt it over time with daily habits of diet and exercise. The law of accommodation reminds us that the body may change slowly, but it will change.

Looking back we see with great clarity, and what once appeared as difficulties now reveal themselves as blessings.

The movements of the highest warriors are relaxed and expansive because they fight for a cause larger than themselves. Only by surrendering to God's will does one find victory in battle and serenity in life. Serafim started pacing again, as he did

Better to live Until You die.

A fool is 'happy' when his cravings are satisfied. A warrior is happy without reason. That's what makes happiness the ultimate discipline

Better never begin; once begun, better finish.

Although motivation comes and goes, you can always rely on your will.

Choice means saying no to one thing so you can say yes to another.

Don't wait until you die to learn the warrior's way. Do it now, each night, just before you drift off to sleep. As you review your day, consider these two questions of courage and love. Learn from each day, so that each day you can show a little more courage and a little more love. Then, as incidents occur, you may rise to the occasion and look back at the end of your life and feel good about the way you lived.

As a peaceful warrior, I would choose when, where and how I would behave. With that commitment, I began to live the life of a warrior.

There are no ordinary moments.

Only the supremely wise and the ignorant do not alter.' Saying

When you release your expectations that the world should fulfill you, your disappointments vanish.

Use whatever knowledge you have but see its limitations. Knowledge alone does not suffice; it has no heart. No amount of knowledge will nourish or sustain your spirit; it can never bring you ultimate happiness or peace. Life requires more than knowledge; it requires intense feeling and constant energy. Life demands right action if knowledge is to come alive.

Stable happiness doesn't come from getting everything we want, because we never will; true happiness comes from wanting whatever we get.

The birth of the mind is the death of the senses

Life comes at us in waves. We can't predict or control those waves, but we can learn to surf

Personal and collective awakening are one and the same - when a raindrop joins the sea, the sea also merges with the raindrop.

You have tried to be superior in an ordinary realm. Now you must learn to be ordinary in a superior realm.

My mind is like a pond without ripples. Your mind is full of waves because you feel separated from, and often threatened by, an unplanned, unwelcome occurrence. Your mind is like a pond into which someone has just dropped a boulder!

As you manage your money, you manage your life.

There are times, you know, it's said in the Spiritual Tradition, just a glimpse at an enlightened personage can convey immense information at the sub-conscious level that sprouts later, that we don't even know.

Bad people don't go to hell, they are already there.

Every choice eventually leads to wisdom.

Sometimes sorrow, sometimes joy. But beneath it all remember the innate perfection of your life unfolding. That is the secret of unreasonable happiness.

Only then do I realize that the jewel had always been with in me, even then and that the light had always shinned, only my eyes were closed

lofty dreams in the distant future are a difficult burden to carry. The best goals may be those you can handle in the next week, the next day, the next hour, or the next step; create a process that yields many small successes." "Many

Stress happens when the mind resists what is. Most of us tend to either push or resist the river of our lives, to fight circumstance rather than make use of things as they are. Resistance creates turbulence, which you feel as physical, mental, and emotional tension. Tension is a subtle pain, which - like any pain - signals that something is amiss. When we are out of natural balance, we create tension; by listening to our body, we can take responsibility for releasing it.

When you become fully responisble for your life, you can become fully human; once you become human, you may discover what it mens to be a warrior.

If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever.

I learned that we can do anything, but we can't do everything ... at least not at the same time. So think of your priorities not in terms of what activities you do, but when you do them. Timing is everything.

Action is stronger than subjectivity. No matter what you feel or think, you can still act.

Faith is our direct link to universal wisdom, reminding us that we know more than we have heard or read or studied that we have only to look, listen, and trust the love and wisdom of the Universal Spirit working through us all.

The warrior is Here, Now.

Just handle what is in front of you now and the future will take care of itself. Otherwise, you'll spend most of your life wondering which foot you'll use to step off the curb when you're still only halfway to the corner.

There is no need to search; achievement leads to nowhere. It makes no difference at all, so just be happy now! Love is the only reality of the world, because it is all One, you see. And the only laws are paradox, humor and change. There is no problem, never was, and never will be. Release your struggle, let go of your mind, throw away your concerns, and relax into the world. No need to resist life, just do your best. Open your eyes and see that you are far more than you imagine. You are the world, you are the universe; you are yourself and everyone else, too! It's all the marvelous Play of God. Wake up, regain your humor. Don't worry, just be happy. You are already free!

Think of death as a transformation - a bit more radical than puberty, but nothing to get particularly upset about.

I kind of got more interested in writing after I turned in my last college essay and nobody was going to tell me what kind of academic papers to write anymore. I could write whatever I wanted, and I realized that I actually liked it when I could choose what I would write.

Energy follows thought; we move toward, but not beyond, what we can imagine. What we assume, expect, or believe creates and colors our experience. By expanding our deepest beliefs about what is possible, we change our experience of life.

And so I awoke to reality, free of any meaning or any search. What could there possibly be to search for? All of Soc's words had come alive with my death. This was the paradox of it all, the humor of it all, and the great change. All searches, all achievements, all goals, were equally enjoyable, and equally unnecessary.

Action always happens in the present, because it is an expression of the body, which can only exist in the here and now. But the mind is like a phantom that lives only in the past or future. It's only power over you is to draw your attention our of the present.

If you face just one opponent, and you doubt yourself, you're out-numbered

Act happy, feel happy, be happy, without a reason in the world. Then you can love, and do what you will.

Life is about refinement, not perfection. And you still have refining to do.

Do you have the courage for it? Do you have the love? If you have enough of one, you will develop the other.

you have to 'lose your mind' before you can come to your senses.

A little bit of something beats a lot of nothing. Break the largest of difficult tasks into the smallest of steps and it can be done.

Sports and sex and movies are not inherently bad - But for you they're addictions, not enjoyments. You use them to distract you from what you know you should do. Break free!

Remember that life develops what it demands - the toughest path creates the
strongest warrior. Pray not for a lighter load, but for stronger
shoulders.

Process transforms any journey into a series of small steps, taken one by one, to reach any goal. Process transcends time, teaches patience, rests on a solid foundation of careful preparation, and embodies trust in our unfolding potential.

Our practices - our most spiritual practices - are hanging laundry on the line, raising children, building strong relationships, practicing kindness as much as we can, striving for excellence in the workplace, and developing deeper self-knowledge. I wrote The Four Purposes of Life to assist in these endeavors.

The light will disturb us when we're comfortable, and comfort us when we're disturbed. We turn to spirit for help when our foundations are shaking only to find out that it is spirit who is shaking them!

We all have the archetype inside us of the enlightened being.

It is better for you to take responsibility for your life as it is, instead of blaming others, or circumstances, for your predicament. As your eyes open, you'll see that your state of health, happiness, and every circumstance of your life has been, in large part, arranged by you - consciously or unconsciously.

A warrior does not give up what he loves, he finds the love in what he does

Peaceful warriors have the patience to wait until the mud settles and the water clears. They remain unmoving until the right time, so the right action arises by itself. They do not seek fulfillment, but wait with open arms to welcome all things.

I had lost my mind and fallen into my heart.

Life is not suffering; it's just that you will suffer it, rather than enjoy it, until you let go of your mind's attachments and just go for the ride freely, no matter what happens.

We're immersed in the spirit of God all the time. We just don't notice.