A Lotus Grows in Brooklyn

A bit of rain has fallen into my life lately, and I find comfort and inspiration in the following quotes I’ve compiled that speak of love, acceptance, hardship, forgiveness, and moving forward. I hope you find them thought provoking as well.

Photos are by my brother Steven. Please see more of his photography over at his blog, Passing Perception.

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.” 
                                —Epictetus, Greek Stoic philosopher

“Love is the flower of life, and blossoms unexpectedly and without law, and must be plucked where it is found, and enjoyed for the brief hour of its duration.” 
                                —D.H. Lawrence, English author

“We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.” 
                                 —John Newton, English Anglican clergyman

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” 
                                —Mahatma Gandhi, Indian political and spiritual leader

“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
                                 —Ralph Waldo Emerson, American transcendentalist

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue, a wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.” 
                                —Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet

“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved—loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” 
                                —Victor Hugo, French novelist

“The willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life is the source from which self-respect springs.” 
                                —Joan Didion, American author

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.” 
                                —George MacDonald, Scottish poet

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” 
                                — Marcus Aelius Aurelius, Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher