peace 2

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

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

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.

James Carroll

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

May Sarton

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.

You cannot shake hands with a clenched fist.

Indira Gandhi

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

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.

Henry van Dyke

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

Paula A. Bendry

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

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

Each of us seeks peace of mind, but we sometimes fear that it means
giving up excitement and ecstasy.  Peace sounds like contentment,
which sounds like settling, letting the fire go out.  Actually, peace of
mind allows you to go more deeply into the world and consequently
to experience more excitement and ecstasy.  The fire burns brighter,
fueled by awareness instead of anxiety.

Jennifer James