Quotes from the writings of Bernard Berenson, William Blake, Goethe, Eckhart Tolle, Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Constantin Brancusi, Leonardo da Vinci, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rumi, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Walt Whitman, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj, Joel Goldsmith, P.D. Ouspensky and others.

 

 

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​(Alphabetical)

 

SELECTED QUOTES

 

 

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Bernard Berenson

 

 

We experience an exhilarating sense as we increase our capacity to observe.”

 

“I have always thought of the power of seeing everything today as if it had never been seen before, as the most precious of all talents. Nothing so horrifies me as the thought that some day I may lose it.”

 

“We really do not look but think we see.”

 

“I suddenly realize that at last after more than seventy years of looking I see things as they are. What a phrase, ‘'as they are’' and not, as in all past years, wrapped in words, for example, man, woman, flower, and trees.”

 

 

 

The Bible

 

 

“The Kingdom is spread out upon the Earth, but men do not see it.”

 

 

“…...And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

 

 

“One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”

 

 

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

 

 

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

 

 

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

 

 

“For this people’'s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.”

 

 

“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light...”

 

“...…whether in the body, or out of the body, I could not tell.”

 

 

“Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than we believed.”

 

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

 

“The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.”

 

 

“...…when I awake, I am still with Thee.”

 

 

“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

 

 

“…...the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

 

 

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us…”

 

“But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth.”

 

 

 

William Blake

 

 

“As a man is, so he sees.”

 

 

“A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees.”

 

 

“These are the visions of eternity, but we see only as it were, the hem of their garments, when with our vegetative eyes we view these wondrous visions.”

 

 

“This life’'s five windows of the soul

Distorts the heavens from pole to pole,

And leads you to believe a lie

When you see with, not thro', the eye.”

 

 

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro’' the chinks of his cavern.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constantin Brancusi

 

 

To see far is one thing, to go there is another.”

 

“Everything— - animate or inanimate— - has a spirit.”

 

“The journey is really within oneself.”

 

“There is a purpose in all things. To reach it, one must be detached from oneself.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Course in Miracles

 

 

"To learn to separate out this single second, and to experience it as timeless, is to begin to experience yourself as not separate."    

 

“You have no conception of the limits you have placed on your perception, and no idea of all the loveliness that you could see.”

 

 

“Reality is changeless. This is that which makes it real, and keeps it separate from all appearances. It must transcend form to be itself. It cannot change.”

 

 

“Everything the body’'s eyes can see is a mistake, an error in perception, a distorted fragment of the whole without the meaning that the whole would give.”

 

 

“You do not seem to doubt the world you see. You do not really question what is shown you through the body'’s eyes. Nor do you ask why you believe it, even though you learned a long while since your senses do deceive. That you believe them to the last detail which they report is even stranger, when you pause to recollect how frequently they have been faulty witnesses indeed!”

 

 

“You live by symbols. You have made up names for everything you see. Each one becomes a separate entity, identified by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity. By this you designate its special attributes, and set it off from other things by emphasizing space surrounding it…This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world’'s perception is achieved. You see something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, between all things and you.”

 

 

“See how the body’'s eyes rest on externals and cannot go beyond. Watch how they stop at nothingness, unable to go beyond the form to meaning. Nothing is so blinding as perception of form.”

 

 

“All things you see are images, because you look on them as through a barrier that dims your sight and warps your vision, so that you behold nothing with clarity. The light is kept from everything you see. At most, you glimpse a shadow of what lies beyond.”

 

 

“When you have seen one thing differently, you will see all things differently. The light you will see in any one of them is the same light you will see in them all.”

 

 

“This day I will experience the peace of true perception.”

 

 

“We are trying to join with what we see, rather than keeping it apart from us. That is the fundamental difference between vision and the way you see.”

 

 

“The smallest leaf becomes a thing of wonder, and a blade of grass a sign of God'’s perfection.”

 

 

“In the present are all things that are eternal and they are one.”

 

 

“It is in the reality of Now, without past or future that the beginning of the appreciation of Eternity lies.”

 

 

“You think your fingers touch reality, and close upon the truth.”

 

 

“Real vision is not only unlimited by space and distance, but it does not depend on the body'’s eyes at all.”

 

 

“To perceive truly is to be aware of all reality through the awareness of your own.”

 

 

“Consciousness has levels and awareness can shift quite dramatically, but it cannot transcend the perceptual realm. At its highest it becomes aware of the real world, and can be trained to do so increasingly.”

 

 

“This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the truth. The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross, that you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity, beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you, and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection.”