Nothing can bring
you peace but yourself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

peace 2

  

O God, grant us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed;
the courage to change what can be changed;
and the wisdom to know one from the other.

Reinhold Niebuhr

  

Quiet minds cannot be
perplexed or frightened,
but go on in fortune or
misfortune at their own
private pace, like a clock
during a thunderstorm.

Robert Louis Stevenson

 

All our miseries derive
from not being able to
sit in a quiet room alone.

Blaise Pascal

  

Only those to whom God is present in everything
and who employ their reason in the highest degree
and have true enjoyment in it know anything of true peace
and have a real kingdom of heaven.

Meister Eckhart

  
  

James Carroll

We spend most of our time and energy in a kind of horizontal thinking.
We move along the surface of things going from one quick base to another,
often with a frenzy that wears us out. We collect data, things, people, ideas,
"profound experiences," never penetrating any of them. . . .
But there are other times. There are times when we stop.
We lose ourselves in a pile of leaves or its memory.
We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.

  
  

May Sarton

Whatever peace I know rests in the natural world,
in feeling myself a part of it, even in a small way.

  
Philemon F. Sturges

Matthew Arnold counted as the greatest single line in all poetry
that saying of Dante's poetic insight: "In Thy will is our peace."

  

  

Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large
areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and
to reflect it towards others.  And the more peace there is
in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.

Etty Hillesum

  
The most common use of the word peace is as the opposite of war.
This is understandable but unfortunate.  Peace is not just the opposite
of violence or turmoil but has a whole register of meanings all its own.
The peace of a quiet landscape nurtures us.  A calm moment to ourselves
renews our energies. Interior peace energizes us; exterior peace gives us direction.
A gentle sun, a calm ocean, the loving smile of a friend--all of these give us peace.
We are sustained in a sweet aerie of calm.
   The opposite of peace is war, but so are agitation, anxiety, and violence.

Edward J. Lavin, S.J.

  
The surface of life is also in a state of constant flux, with good days and bad, victory and defeat. To maintain, as the ocean does, a deep inner calm, while the storms of misfortune, reverses, fears and worries lash at the surface
of life, is to discover the secret of serenity.
   Years ago, when Thomas Edison's factory burned down, he wasted no time bemoaning his fate. Immediately after the disaster the reporters found a calm, quiet man already at work on plans for a new building.
   When Emerson's home was destroyed by fire and his precious books were being reduced to ashes, Louisa May Alcott came to console him. The great philosopher said, "Yes, yes, Louisa, they are all gone, but let us enjoy the blaze now. Isn't it beautiful!"
   Some people are ocean personalities. In their inner depths they are not defeated by what happens to them.
   The towering waves of circumstances cannot reach us when we go deep within to seek the peace that passes all understanding. While the surface
of life is in turmoil we can find an inner calmness to see us through.

Wilferd A. Peterson

  

Indira Gandhi

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

  

  

Lord, thou madest us for thyself, and we
can find no rest till we find rest in thee.

St. Augustine

All people desire peace; few desire
the things which make for peace.

Anon

  

Calm soul of all things! make it mine
To feel, amid the city's jar,
That there abides a peace of thine,
Man did not make, and cannot mar!

The will to neither strive nor cry,
The power to feel what others give!
Calm, calm me more! nor let me die
Before I have begun to live.

Matthew Arnold

  

Henry van Dyke

To be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work
and to play and to look up to the stars; to be satisfied with your possessions,
but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them;
to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness,
and to fear nothing except cowardice; to be governed by your admirations
rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbors'
except their kindness of heart and gentleness of manners;
to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends
and every day of Christ; and to spend as much time as you can
with body and spirit, in God's out-of-doors--
these are the little guideposts on the footpath of peace.

   

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If you do not find peace in yourself,
you will never find it anywhere else.

Paula A. Bendry

  

Thinking about interior peace destroys interior peace. The patients who constantly feel their pulse are
not getting any better.

Hubert van Zeller

In truth, to attain to interior peace,
one must be willing to pass through
the contrary to peace.

Swami Brahmananda

  
  
There may be those on earth who dress better or eat better,
but those who enjoy the peace of God sleep better.

L. Thomas Holdcroft
  

We have no freer or quieter place to which we may retire
than into our own souls, particularly when we have within us
such thoughts that by looking into them we are immediately
in perfect tranquility. And I affirm that tranquility is nothing else
than the good ordering of the mind.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

 
 

Peace is not something you fight for
With bombs and missiles that kill,
Nor can it be won in a "battle of words"
One fashions by scheming and skill
For those who are greedy and warlike,
Whose avarice for power cannot cease,
Can never contribute in helping
To bring this world nearer to peace
For in seeking peace for all people
There is only one place to begin
And that is in each home and heart--
For the fortress of peace is within!

Helen Steiner Rice

 

No one can get inner peace by pouncing on it, by vigorously willing to have it. 
Peace is a margin of power around our daily need. 
Peace is a consciousness of springs too deep for earthly droughts to dry up. 
Peace is the gift not of volitional struggle but of spiritual hospitality.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

  

Inner peace is not found by staying
on the surface of life, or by attempting
to escape from life through any means.
Inner peace is found by facing life
squarely, solving its problems, and
delving as far beneath the surface as
possible to discover its verities
and realities.

Peace Pilgrim

   

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace.
You will find that deep place of silence right in your room,
your garden or even your bathtub.

Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross

   

Nothing can produce so great a serenity of life as a mind free
from guilt and kept untainted, not only from actions, but purposes
that are wicked.  By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted
but also undisturbed.  The fountain will run clear and unsullied.

Plutarch

   

First keep peace within yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.

Thomas à Kempis

   

  

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