Enlightenment is not about knowing as much as it is about unknowing; it is not so much learning as unlearning. It is about surrendering and letting go rather than achieving and possessing. It’s more about entering the mystery than arriving at a mental certitude.”

— Richard Rohr
On the Threshold of Transformation (p. 38)

To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong.”

— Joseph Chilton Pearce

I tell you, sir,” he whispered, “it is the end of the world. Never were known such excesses of the scholars: it is the cursed inventions of the age that ruin everything: artillery, serpentines, bombards, and above all, printing, that other pestilence from Germany. No more manuscripts! No more books! Printing is cutting up the bookselling trade. The end of the world is certainly at hand!”

— Victor Hugo
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, p. 11
Originally published in 1831

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.”

— Phillips Brooks
U.S. Episcopal bishop (1835–1893)

A soul that is close to despair doesn’t know that it’s already standing on the brink, beyond which there lies a new path.”

— Elder Barsanuphius of Optina

If we stop learning today, we stop teaching tomorrow.”

— Howard Hendricks

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide you’re not going to stay where you are.”

— John Pierpont Morgan

Life is like riding a bicycle, in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

— Albert Einstein

I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

— Winston Churchill

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”

— George Orwell