Arianna Huffington Quotes

And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, “This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!” And each day, it’s up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, “No. This is what’s important.” — IAIN THOMAS

We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.

Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow,

What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace. — PAULO COELHO

A New Blueprint: Time to Renovate the Architecture of Our Lives

As in our own lives, the story’s outward form must track the inner journey of the hero. When we disconnect from our inner selves and identify exclusively with our ego, that’s when we lose our connection with life’s meaning and purpose and are left facing a void that we try to fill with more money, more sex, more power, more fame. And as we see in all modern literature, when the ego separates itself from the self, the end is always frustration and destruction — whether in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick or Stendhal’s The Red and the Black. We can use the power of story, and our primal need for it, to redefine our own narrative. We’re all on a journey, a voyage, a quest to slay the monster, free the princess, and return home. But too often the goals we seek — those that the conventional notions of success tell us we should be seeking — take us down dead ends, searching for the meaning of our lives in all the wrong places. Mindfulness helps us become aware of our own story.

I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. — RABINDRANATH TAGORE

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health showed a 23 percent decrease in mortality in people who meditated versus those who did not,

We are not on this earth to accumulate victories, things, and experiences, but to be whittled and sandpapered until what’s left is who we truly are.

I can change nearly everything about myself. I can run from my children and trade in my spouse, move to another country and raise green rabbits for a living, but unless I care for my soul, I will not have changed who I am.

¿Dónde está la vida que hemos perdido viviendo? ¿Dónde está la sabiduría que hemos perdido en el conocimiento? ¿Dónde está el conocimiento que hemos perdido en la información? T. S. ELIOT

Those who can sit in a chair, undistracted for hours, mastering subjects and creating things will rule the world — while the rest of us frantically and futilely try to keep up with texts, tweets, and other incessant interruptions.

Robert F. Kennedy in 1968: Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product … if we judge America by that … counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage.… Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

The economic game is not supposed to be rigged like some shady ring toss on a carnival midway.

Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.