Inner Belonging Quotes

Ironically, your trust in your inner belonging radically alters your outer belonging. Unless you find belonging in your solitude, your external longing will remain needy and driven. ~ John O'Donohue

Sometimes our spiritual programs take us far away from our inner belonging. We become addicted to the methods and programs of psychology and religion. We become so desperate to learn how to be, that our lives pass, and we neglect the practice of being. ~ John O'Donohue

I have always been a singer, a writer, and a musician, not as a prodigy or as in a trade handed to me by my parents, but because of an inner voice or maybe a command from beyond reality as it is usually defined. ~ Frank Black

You are dead weight. You are always trying to bring me down to your miserable state of mind. I am not going down that path - You are going to travel down that road alone. ~ Charlena E. Jackson

The Warrior of the Light knows that it is impossible to live in a state of complete relaxation.
He has learned from the archer that, in order to shoot his arrow any distance, he must hold the bow taut. He has learned from the stars that only an inner explosion allows them to shine. The Warrior notices that when a horse is about to jump over a fence, it tenses all its muscles.
But he never confuses tension with anxiety. ~ Paulo Coelho

Make no mistake: Satan's specialty is psychological warfare. If he can turn us on God ("It's not fair!"), or turn us on others ("It's their fault!"), or turn us on ourselves ("I'm so stupid!"), we won't turn on him. If we keep fighting within ourselves and losing our own inner battles, we'll never have the strength to stand up and fight our true enemy. ~ Beth Moore

Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and the we'll need no other light. ~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Then at a certain moment they lose heart, and the storm that was outside comes inside -- the storm is within them too. Anguish, death no longer simply circle round, they come inside. And then they turn to Christ and do what we very often do with God: we look at God in time of stress and tragedy, and we are indignant that He is so peaceful. The story in the Gospel underlines it by saying that Christ was sleeping with His head on a pillow- the final insult. They are dying and He is comfortable. This is exactly what we feel about God so often. How dare He be blissful, how dare He be so comfortable when I am in trouble? And the disciples do exactly what we do so very often. Instead of coming to God and saying 'You are peace, you are the Lord, say a word and my servant will be healed, say a word and things will come right', they shake Him out of His sleep and say 'Don't you care that we are perishing?' In other words, 'If you can do nothing, at least don't sleep. If you can do nothing better, then at least die in anguish with us.' Christ reacts, He gets up and says 'Men of little faith!' and brushing them aside, He turns towards the storm and, projecting His inner stillness, His harmony and peace on the storm He says 'Be still, be quiet' and everything is quiet again. ~ Anthony Bloom

Your honesty, Your love, Your compassion should come from your inner being, not from teachings and scriptures. ~ Rajneesh

There's no use in talking about the plan, because of course nothing went the way it was supposed to. Even the passage of time was horribly distorted. At first the ride to the hill seemed endless, with me sneaking looks at my brother, who was increasingly unsteady in his saddle.
The Marquis insisted on riding in front of us the last little distance, where we saw a row of four horse riders waiting--the outer two bearing banners, dripping from the rain, but the flags' green and gold still brilliant, and the inner two riders brawny and cruel faced and very much at ease, wearing the plumed helms of command.
"I just wanted to see if you traitors would dare to face me," Galdran said, his caustic voice making me feel sick inside. Sick--and angry.
The Marquis bowed low over his horse's withers, every line of his body indicative of irony.
Galdran's face flushed dark purple.
"I confess," Shevraeth drawled, "we had a small wager on whether you would have the courage to face us. ~ Sherwood Smith

Today, in a world with instant access to Google, we rely on the electronic web to supply everything we need, from historical facts to word definitions and spellings as well as extended quotations. All of us who use a computer are aware of the shock of inner poverty that we suddenly feel when deprived (by a virus or other disaster) of our mental crutches even just for a day or a week. Plato is right: memory has been stripped from us, and all we possess is an external reminder of what we have lost, enabling us to pretend to a wisdom and an inner life we no longer possess in ourselves.13 ~ Stratford Caldecott

Meaning is invisible, but the invisible is not the contradictory of the visible: the visible itself has an invisible inner framework (membrure), and the in-visible is the secret counterpart of the visible, it appears only within it, it is the Nichturpräsentierbar which is presented to me as such within the world--one cannot see it there and every effort to see it there makes it disappear, but it is in the line of the visible, it is its virtual focus, it is inscribed within it (in filigree). ~ Maurice Merleau-Ponty

I've always been an ironic dreamer, unfaithful to my inner promises.
Like a complete outsider, a casual observer of whom I thought I was,
I've always enjoyed watching my daydreams go down in defeat.
I was never convinced of what I believed in.
I filled my hands with sand, called it gold, and opened them up to let it slide through.
Words were my only truth.
When the right words were said, all was done; the rest was the sand that had always been. ~ Fernando Pessoa

She seemed to be occupied with of inner chamber of ideas and to have slight need for visible objects. ~ Thomas Hardy

Worry causes your precious mental energy and potential to leak, just like air leaking out of an inner tube. ~ Robin S. Sharma

In a culture of technique, we often confuse authority with power, but the two are not the same. Power works from the outside in, but authority works from the inside out ... I am painfully aware of the times in my own teaching when I lose touch with my inner teacher and therefore with my own authority. In those times I try to gain power by barricading myself behind the podium and my status while wielding the threat of grades ... Authority comes as I reclaim my identity and integrity, remembering my selfhood and my sense of vocation. ~ Parker J. Palmer

You are not born with beauty, your beauty is created by who you are. Your inner beauty is more important than how people see you on the outside. ~ Emily Coussons

A Compassionate state of mind brings inner peace, and therefore a healthier body. ~ Dalai Lama

Yoga is the dance of every cell with the music of every breath that creates inner serenity and harmony. ~ Debasish Mridha

People are worried that their inner voice will tell them to leave their husbands or wives - or their jobs. Well, if that's really what your inner guidance is saying, then that is for your highest good and for your spouse's or partner's. There is a plan for everyone. ~ Echo Bodine

Self-courage, Self-confidence, Self-will! ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Christianity has sufficient inner strength to survive and flourish on its own. It does not need state subsidies, nor state privileges, nor state prestige. The more it obtains state support, the greater it curtails human freedom. ~ William O. Douglas

Although I am a typical loner in my daily life, my awareness of belonging to the invisible community of those who strive for truth, beauty, and justice has prevented me from feelings of isolation. ~ Albert Einstein

We can be hindered in our development and our personal growth by political conditions. Outer circumstances can constrain us. Only when we are free to develop our innate abilities can we live as free beings. But we are just as much determined by inner potential and outer opportunities as the Stone Age boy on the Rhine, the lion in Africa, or the apple tree in the garden. ~ Jostein Gaarder

One Day:

One day, you will heal
One day, you will be grateful for the deepest cuts of pain
One day, you will glance at yourself
And see a stronger person through your reflection
One day, you will kiss away your hurt... gently, and with grace
Until then, use it all to propel you forward
Like a white-hot pyre through your star-spangled eyes
A fire to regenerate every shadowy cell
And open your heart to every experience
Knowing that one day
You will search your heart
And understand that love is the only thing to ever hold onto ~ Christine Evangelou

God plants dreams in people's hearts. But many people do not continue all the way to the end in order to follow Him to the fulfillment of that dream. Many get started and quit get started and quit get started and quit. They do not continue because their broken heart overwhelms their hope. They do not have any inner strength to carry them through to the end. Jesus will bind up your wounds and heal your bruises. His Word is the medicine for your soul. ~ Joyce Meyer

Do not worry about tomorrow - He is the God of tomorrow, He sees the end from the beginning. Do not worry about the necessities of life - He is there to supply and provide. A true victorious Christian is one who, in spite of worries, inner conflicts, and tensions, is confident that God is in control and will be victorious in the end. In reliance on the Holy Spirit, we will find that many of our physical and mental ailments will disappear along with many worries, inner conflicts, and tensions. Whatever our difficulties, whatever our circumstances, we must remember, as Corrie ten Boom used to say, "Jesus is victor!" Our Father and our God, I praise Your glorious name for sending Jesus Christ, who is the Victor eternal. He is the mighty One; He is the holy One; He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the Master of my soul and the Guide for my life. And He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah! Praise the name of Jesus! In Him I pray. Amen. ~ Billy Graham

Every great scientist becomes a great scientist because of the inner self-abnegation with which he stands before truth, saying: "Not my will, but thine, be done." What, then, does a man mean by saying, Science displaces religion, when in this deep sense science itself springs from religion? ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

I say the elite looks out of touch because it's kind of saying; look we'll manage all this for you. You know, we know best. We'll sort it all out for you. And then because people believe that doesn't meet their case for change and they want real change, social media and the way the relationship between people can come into a sense of belonging very quickly, that then is itself a revolutionary phenomenon. You see this around the world. ~ Tony Blair

Every day, I wake up and I say, 'Why ... how ... did I end up with 1.7 million Twitter followers?' It's freaky to me, every day, but that tells me that there's an appetite out there that had previously been underserved. There's an inner geek in us all, an inner bit of curiosity that people are discovering, and they like it. ~ Neil DeGrasse Tyson

In a large university, there are as many deans and executive heads as there are schools and departments. Their relations to one another are intricate and periodic; in fact, "galaxy" is too loose a term: it is a planetarium of deans with the President of the University as a central sun. One can see eclipses, inner systems, and oppositions. ~ Jacques Barzun

Once the inner connection is grasped, all theoretical belief in the permanent necessity of existing conditions collapses before their collapse in practice
Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann (July 11, 1868) ~ Karl Marx

No matter who we are, where we live, what we look like, the circumstances of our birth or the situations we face; each of us has gifts within us. Strength, beauty, courage, compassion, hope, joy, talent, imagination, reverence, wisdom, love and faith are among them. They are not like material presents we unwrap and hold in our hands. We can't see these gifts with our eyes. But they are real and powerful. When we open ourselves to them, they can enrich every aspect of our lives. They can help us transform challenges into opportunities and tragedies into triumphs. They can help us make a difference in the world. ~ Charlene Costanzo

Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously, that you might as well not have lived at all. In which case you have failed by default. Failure gave me an inner security that I had never obtained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things that I could not have learned any other way. I discovered I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected. ~ J.K. Rowling

Fuck them," says Susan Falls. This is the first time, in her entire life, that she has employed an extra-cerebral profanity. Though in fantasy she has often used swear words, she has never spoken one. It feels good, and it occurs to Susan that, as stupid as most people sound when they use profanities, as stupid as she must have sounded just now, the feeling of power that just rushed through her, from inner labia to thyroglossal duct, the trace sensations leftover from just now, just now when she said the word fuck, make sounding stupid more than worthwhile.
"Fuck them, then," Carla Ribisi agrees, and it is the hottest motherfucking thing Susan has ever heard. ~ Adam Levin

Still, I know I missed a lot, especially in the beginning, not only because I was an outsider but also because I was constantly overanalyzing things. A buzzing inner monologue would often draw me inward, hindering my ability to remain alert to the heat of life at play right in front of me. It's safer that way. Our ideas allow us to tame social life, to order it according to typologies and theories. As Susan Sontag has warned, this comfort can "deplete the world" and get in the way of seeing. ~ Matthew Desmond

You've forgotten those June nights at the Riviera ... the night I drank Champagne from your slipper - two quarts. It would have been more but you were wearing inner soles. ~ Groucho Marx

Beauty is an inner phenomenon. Beauty is not in objects, not in people, not even in the eyes of the beholder. It lies in the heart of every person ~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

The young men in the inner city are without guidance, robbing and shooting each other with no remorse ... Our system is crazy because we're planning to fail. Everybody needs something to grasp on to. ~ Lamar Odom

Into our inner being
The riches of the senses pour.
The Cosmic Spirit finds itself
Reflected in the human eye,
Which ever must renew its strength
From out that spirit source. ~ Rudolf Steiner

No matter how hard she had tried to keep the girl hidden away and keep her from the finer things a princess should be afforded, the girl's beauty and nature shone through. No rags, no dirt could hide Snow's luminescence. That child was a perfect rose. Now that she was of age, there was no hiding that. ~ Jen Calonita

I want you to have this feeling too - it is my moral responsibility to help you achieve this inner freedom. ~ Dmitri Mendeleev

I think every person should have some faith inside him, in his heart. What matters is not an external display of this faith, but the inner state of the soul. ~ Vladimir Putin

Commitment is what transforms
a dream into reality.

One percent or ninety-nine percent complete are both incomplete.

Wanting is wishing or dreaming. Deciding is the willingness to do whatever it takes to make your wishes and dreams come true.

Pondering on what you are going to do actually sucks up more time and energy than going out there and doing it.

If you're planted in an environment with depleted soil loaded with weeds, your conditions must change in order for you grow and thrive.

As you change your circle of influence, your thinking changes, and ultimately your world changes too.

When you are too busy trying to outshine others, you miss out on your own inner spark.

If your focus is on competing with others, you cannot complete you.

Perfection is a myth, a misconception, and just an opinion.

A well-tailored business suit might look perfect to a banker, but deemed to be dreadful to a heavy metal rocker.

Going out of your comfort zone might be gut-wrenching, but dying with the music still inside is even more painful.

Stagnation drains your energy and slowly sucks the life out of you.

When you declutter your mental space, just like clearing out physical space, you find valuables you had long forgotten about.

Keeping emotional toxin in your head is like fertilizing unwanted weeds.

Positivity is your weed killer.
~ Megan Chan

Our true nature is bliss. That bliss is like the sun that always shines. It remains ever present, but the events in life and clouds of worry and even emotions like happiness may obscure it like storm clouds obscure the sun. ~ Debra Moffitt

When we can see our own self, angry and hurting others, within every villain, then we can love. When we can see our own desperate struggle for belonging in the eyes of every enemy, then we can love. When we can look at the greatest of atrocities and see the opportunity for healing within, then, and only then, can we really love. ~ Vironika Tugaleva

Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library. ~ Haruki Murakami

Why would I like to do this? Will it serve any purpose? Will it make my life easier? Is it essential for life? Does it only imply fulfillment of rather superficial desires? Which feelings move me to achieve this? Can I see a part of life's happiness in it? Will it only improve my image? Does it present an important need in my life? Is my vanity moving me to do this? Does my inner voice support it? What is my responsibility in this matter? Will I be able to achieve it in an easy and carefree way? Will it take me a lot of time and strength to achieve? Is the matter worth the effort? ~ Erhard F. Freitag

Physical training is mental warfare! ~ Tae Yun Kim

Oh my God, does art engender humanity? It awakens your humanity. But humanity has nothing to do with political theory. Political theory is in the interests of one group of humanity, or one ideal for humanity. But humanity-my heavens, that's what proper art renders. We have a paradox. Going into the deepest aspects of inner space connects you with something that is the most vital for the outer realm. ~ Joseph Campbell