A Little Book of Forgiveness, by D. Patrick Miller

To accelerate forgiveness, practice gratefulness.

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Resentment is blinding. It limits our perception of what is real (or changing) in the present and shuts down our capacity to envision a happier future. . . . We all change together . . . Anyone can initiate the changes we all need by opening up new territories within his or her mind. . .

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I’m attempting to help others become attuned to the frequency of forgiveness: a clear tone of sane guidance in a world filled with the harsh static of fear, confusion and vengeance.

. . . At different times in my life I've tried to change the way that others thought and behaved . . . Only forgiveness has substantially changed me for the better - by making me less angry and self-absorbed . . .

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Any person, group, change, accident, or phenomenon of nature that seems to have control over you is a momentary stand-in for God.

. . . The beginning of forgiveness is alertness to false ideas. . . . Only that which is false needs to be released. . . . Then a new life, less limited by habits and prejudices, can surface within you.

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The change happens within you, but comes from beyond you. . . Forgiveness will never rob you of what you truly need.

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Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens

The really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great.

~ Mark Twain

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great. 

~ Mark Twain

“A habit cannot be tossed out the window; it must be coaxed down the stairs a step at a time.”

~ Mark Twain


"A lie can travel around the world while the truth is just putting on its shoes."
~ Mark Twain

“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.”
~ Mark Twain

If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.

~ Mark Twain

A dog is "der Hund"; a woman is "die Frau"; a horse is "das Pferd"; now you put that dog in the genitive case, and is he the same dog he was before? No, sir; he is "des Hundes"; put him in the dative case and what is he? Why, he is "dem Hund." Now you snatch him into the accusative case and how is it with him? Why, he is "den Hunden." But suppose he happens to be twins and you have to pluralize him- what then? Why, they'll swat that twin dog around through the 4 cases until he'll think he's an entire international dog-show all in is own person. 

I don't like dogs, but I wouldn't treat a dog like that- I wouldn't even treat a borrowed dog that way. 

Well, it's just the same with a cat. They start her in at the nominative singular in good health and fair to look upon, and they sweat her through all the 4 cases and the 16 the's and when she limps out through the accusative plural you wouldn't recognize her for the same being. 

Yes, sir, once the German language gets hold of a cat, it's goodbye cat. That's about the amount of it.

~ Mark Twain

A house without a cat, and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat, may be a perfect house, perhaps — but how can it prove its title? 

~ Samuel Langhorn Clemens (Mark Twain)

The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book- a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day. 

~ Mark Twain

I urged that kings were dangerous. He said, then have cats. He was sure that a royal family of cats would answer every purpose. They would be as useful as any other royal family, they would know as much, they would have the same virtues and the same treacheries, the same disposition to get up shindies with other royal cats, they would be laughably vain and absurd and never know it, they would be wholly inexpensive, finally, they would have as sound a divine right as any other royal house. ... The worship of royalty being founded in unreason, these graceful and harmless cats would easily become as sacred as any other royalties, and indeed more so, because it would presently be noticed that they hanged nobody, beheaded nobody, imprisoned nobody, inflicted no cruelties or injustices of any sort, and so must be worthy of a deeper love and reverence than the customary human king, and would certainly get it.

~ from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain

Miscellaneous

Choose Love over Fear

“I believe that every single event in life that happens is an opportunity to choose love over fear.” 

~Oprah Winfrey

We do not know where death awaits us:

So let us wait for it everywhere.

To practice death is to practice freedom.

A man who has learned how to die

Has unlearned how to be a slave.

~ Michel de Montaigne

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself?  There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions.  You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light. 

 ~ Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams 

The belief that you will be happy if you only get what you want—is an illusion. It's something that allows you to release responsibility for being happy right now, because “someday” everything will line up just right. That day may never come. Happiness isn't getting everything you want. It's appreciating what you have and staying open to the limitless possibilities before you.

~ Lori Deschene, Tiny Buddha

“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems -- not people; to focus your energies on answers -- not excuses.” 

~ William Arthur Ward 
"You should think only how best to serve the community, having no fear of poverty.  As long as your mind is not limited, you naturally will received unlimited fortune.

~ Dogen, Instructions for the Cook

Cease practice based
On intellectual understanding,
Pursuing words and
Following after speech.
Learn the backward
Step that turns
Your light inward
To illuminate within.
Body and mind of themselves
Will drop away
And your original face will be manifest. 

~ Dogen


What is or what should be the goal of our life and work?

This is a fearful question and it ought to be fearfully answered.

Probably it should not be answered for anybody in particular by anybody else in particular.

But the ancient norm or ideal seems to have been a life in which you perceived your calling, faithfully followed it, and did your work with satisfaction. . .

~ from The Way of Ignorance,  by Wendell Berry

There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good.

  ~Edwin Denby

What will this day be like? I wonder

What will my future be? I wonder

It could be so exciting

to be out in the world, to be free

My heart should be wildly rejoicing

Oh, what's the matter with me?

I've always longed for adventure

To do the things I've never dared

And here I'm facing adventure

Then why am I so scared?

Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries

If I don't I just know I'll turn back

I must dream of the things I am seeking

I am seeking the courage I lack

The courage to serve them with reliance

Face my mistakes without defiance

Show them I'm worthy

And while I show them 

I'll show me

So, let them bring on all their problems

I'll do better than my best

I have confidence they'll put me to the test

But I'll make them see I have confidence in me

With each step I am more certain

Everything will turn out fine

I have confidence the world can all be mine

They'll have to agree I have confidence in me

I have confidence in sunshine

I have confidence in rain

I have confidence that spring will come again

Besides which you see I have confidence in me

It tells me all I trust I lead my heart to

All I trust becomes my own

I have confidence in confidence alone

Besides which you see I have confidence in me!

~ from "The Sound of Music", Rodgers & Hammerstein

The doctrine of non-resistance if ever referred to is treated with derision and scorn. At its best the doctrine can only be held by dreamers and theorists, and can have no place in daily life. Every government on earth furnishes proof that there is nothing practical or vital in its teachings. Every government on earth is the personification of violence and force, and yet the doctrine of non-resistance is as old as human thought — even more than this, the instinct is as old as life upon the earth. 

The doctrine of non-resistance to evil does not rest upon the words of Christ alone. Buddha, Confucius, Plato, Socrates, show the evil and destruction of war, of conquest, of violence, and of hatred, and have taught the beneficence of peace, of forgiveness, of non-resistance to evil. 

But modern thought is not content to rest the conduct of life upon the theories of moralists. The rules of life that govern men and states must today be in keeping with science and conform to the highest reason and judgment of man. It is here that non-resistance seems to have failed to make any practical progress in the world. That men should "turn the other cheek," should "love their enemies," should "resist not evil," has ever seemed fine to teach to children, to preach on Sundays, to round a period in a senseless oratorical flight; but it has been taken for granted that these sentiments cannot furnish the real foundation for strong characters or great states. 

~ Clarence Darrow, The Nature of the State

Take what is given, and make it over your way. My aim in life has always been to hold my own with whatever's going.  Not against: with.

~ Robert Frost

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” 

~ Thomas Jefferson


Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?

~ Tao Te ching

Gautama Buddha

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.

~ Buddha

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings be free from disease and the causes of disease.
May all beings be free from hunger and the causes of hunger.
May all beings be free from violence and the causes of violence.
May all beings be free from fear and the causes of fear.
May all beings be free from worry and the causes of worry.
May all beings be free from sadness and the causes of sadness.
May all beings be free from pride and the causes of pride.
May all beings be free from anger and the causes of anger.
May all beings be free from ignorance and the causes of ignorance.
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings have peace and the causes of peace.
May all beings realize loving kindness and the causes of loving kindness.

~ Buddha

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful.

~ Buddha

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.
~ Gautama Buddha

Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. 

~ Buddha

The Four Reliances 
First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words; 
Second, rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher; 
Third, rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation; 

And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions.

~ Buddha

The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows.


~ Buddha

“The thought manifests as the word; 
the word manifests as the deed; 
the deed develops into habit; and habit hardens into character. 
So watch the thought and its ways with care, 
and let it spring from love
born out of concern for all beings.”

~ Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.


~ Buddha

In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. 


~ Buddha 

If You See Yourself In Others, Then Whom Can You Harm?

~ Buddha

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart.


~ Buddha

Mohandas Gandhi

Who wants to be a Mahatma?

The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.

~ Mohandas Gandhi

“There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”

~ Mohandas Gandhi

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator”.

~ Mohandas Gandhi

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

~ Mohandas Gandhi

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.

~ Mohandas Gandhi

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

~ Mohandas Gandhi

“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”

~ Mohandas Gandhi

Infinite striving to be the best is man's duty, it is it's own reward. Everything else is in God's hands. 


~ Mahatma Gandhi

Life is governed by a multitude of forces. It would be smooth sailing if one could determine the course of one's actions only by one general principle whose application at a given moment was too obvious to need even a moment's reflection. But I cannot recall a single act which could be so easily determined.


~ Mohandas Gandhi,  My Participation In War

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.


~ Mohandas Gandhi

“Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:

- I shall not fear anyone on Earth. 
- I shall fear only God. 
- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone. 
- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone. 
- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.”

~ Mahatma Gandhi

It is the action, not the fruit of the action, that is important.  It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there will be any fruit, but that doesn't mean that you stop doing the right thing.  

You may never know what results from your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result.

~ Mohandas Gandhi

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Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi, one of the most influential figures in modern social and political activism, considered these traits to be the most spiritually perilous to humanity.

- Wealth without Work
- Pleasure without Conscience
- Science without Humanity
- Knowledge without Character
- Politics without Principle
- Commerce without Morality
- Worship without Sacrifice

Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins

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Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

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“Each person’s task in life is to become an increasingly better person.”

~ Leo Tolstoy

I cannot fathom God's whole design, for the sake of which the universe exists and lives ; but the Divine work which is being accomplished in this world and in which I participate by living is comprehensible to me.

This work is the annihilation of discord and strife among men and among all creatures, and the establishment of the highest unity and concord and love.

It is the fulfillment of the promises of the Hebrew prophet who foretold a time when all men should be taught by truth, when spears should be turned into reaping-hooks, swords be beaten to ploughshares, and the lion lie down with the lamb. So that a man of Christian intelligence not only knows what he has to do, but he also understands the work he is doing.

He has to act so as to co-operate towards the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth. For this a man must obey his intuition of God's will, i.e., must act lovingly towards others, as he would that others should act towards him. 

~ Leo Tolstoy

You can't imagine what a pleasure this complete laziness is to me: not a thought in my brain- you might send a ball rolling through it!”

~ Leo Tolstoy

Doris Lessing

The Golden Notebook

The Marriages Between Zones Three, Four, and Five