Serenity Quotes - Page 8

• Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity and kindness is for losers. The best reason for committing loathsome and detestable acts – and let’s face it, I am considered something of an expert in this field – is purely for their own sake. Monetary gain is all very well, but it dilutes the taste of wickedness to a lower level that is obtainable by almost anyone with an overdeveloped sense of avarice. True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good.

  Jasper Fforde

  Kindness, Evil, Experts

  "The Eyre Affair". Book by Jasper Fforde, July 19, 2001.

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• Take my love, take my land Take me where I cannot stand I don't care, I'm still free You can't take the sky from me Take me out to the black Tell them I ain't comin' back Burn the land and boil the sea You can't take the sky from me There's no place I can be Since I found Serenity But you can't take the sky from me.

  Joss Whedon

  Firefly, Sea, Land

  "Firefly". Opening Theme song, www.imdb.com. 2002 - 2003.

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• Of course my moods change, but the average is serenity. I have a firm faith in art, a firm confidence in its being a powerful stream which carries a man to a harbor, though he himself must do his bit too; at all events, I think it such a great blessing when a man has found his work that I cannot count myself among the unfortunate. I mean, I may be in certain relatively great difficulties, and there may be gloomy days in my life, but I shouldn't like to be counted among the unfortunate, nor would it be correct if I were.

  Vincent Van Gogh

  Art, Powerful, Mean

  Vincent van Gogh (1971). “Van Gogh's "diary"; the artist's life in his own words and art”

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• God grant me to SERENITY to accept what I cannot change the TENACITY to change what I may and the GOOD LUCK not to f*** up too often

  Stephen King

  Good Luck, May, Tenacity

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• The best thing in the world [is] a strong house held in serenity where man and wife agree.

  Homer

  Strong, Men, Wife

  Homer, William Shakespeare (2015). “Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems”, p.62, Delphi Classics

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• Our civilization has fallen out of touch with night. With lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea; the little villages, the crossroads even, will have none of it. Are modern folk, perhaps, afraid of night? Do they fear that vast serenity, the mystery of infinite space, the austerity of stars?

  Henry Beston

  Stars, Fear, Night

  Henry Beston, Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth (2001). “The Best of Beston: A Selection from the Natural World of Henry Beston from Cape Cod to the St. Lawrence”, p.28, David R. Godine Publisher

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• One wonders that there can be found a man courageous enough to occupy the post. It is a matter of meditation. Having given it a few minutes I come to the conclusion in the serenity of my heart and the peace of my conscience that he must be either an extreme megalomaniac or an utterly unconscious being.

  Joseph Conrad

  Heart, Men, Meditation

  Joseph Conrad (2015). “Greatest Works of Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, The Duel, Lord Jim, Victory, The Shadow-Line, The Arrow of Gold, The Secret Agent, The Nigger of the Narcissus & Under Western Eyes: Classics of World Literature from One of the Greatest English Novelists (Including Author’s Memoirs, Letters & Critical Essays)”, p.2410, e-artnow

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• A slightly modified version of the Serenity Prayer: Lord, grant me the serenity to ignore the assholes I cannot avoid; The luck to avoid the ones I can; And the self-awareness not to be one myself

  Kelly Williams Brown

  Prayer, Self, Luck

  Kelly Williams Brown (2013). “Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps”, p.63, Hachette UK

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• This pause in time, within time ... When did I first experience the exquisite sense of surrender that is only possible with another person? The peace of mind one experiences on one's own, one's certainty of self in the serenity of solitude, are nothing in comparison to the release and openness and fluency one shares with another, in close companionship.

  Muriel Barbery

  Self, Solitude, Mind

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

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• The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S's: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity.

  Emily Post

  Simplicity, Four, May

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• At every stage of life, our inner self requires the nurturance of loving people attuned to our feelings and responsive to our needs who can foster our inner resources of personal power, lovability, and serenity. Those who love us understand us and are available to us with an attention, appreciation, acceptance, and affection we can feel. They make room for us to be who we are.

  David Richo

  Appreciation, Acceptance, Self

  David Richo (2002). “How to Be an Adult in Relationships: The Five Keys to Mindful Loving”, p.12, Shambhala Publications

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• Living as a couple never means that each gets half. You must take turns at giving more than getting. It’s not the same as a bow to the other whether to dine out rather than in, or which one gets massaged that evening with oil of calendula; there are seasons in the life of a couple that function, I think, a little like a night watch. One stands guard, often for a long time, providing the serenity in which the other can work at something. Usually that something is sinewy and full of spines. One goes inside the dark place while the other one stays outside, holding up the moon.

  Marlena De Blasi

  Couple, Mean, Dark

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• This one isn’t just any old horse. There’s a nobility in his eye, a regal serenity about him. Does he not personify all that men try to be and never can be? I tell you, my friend, there’s divinity in a horse, and specially in a horse like this. God got it right the day he created them. And to find a horse like this in the middle of this filthy abomination of a war, is for me like finding a butterfly on a dung heap. We don’t belong in the same universe as a creature like this.

  Michael Morpurgo

  Horse, War, Butterfly

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• She looked much younger than her age, indeed, which is almost always the case with women who retain serenity of spirit, sensitiveness and pure sincere warmth of heart to old age.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Heart, Age, Spirit

  Fyodor Dostoevsky, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (2014). “The 10 Greatest Books of All Time”, p.201, Google Publishing

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• So many people have tried to get happiness and serenity from outside things; it's pretty much common knowledge that is a road to nowhere. I've never heard anybody say, 'Fame made me the complete person I am.' Well, I'm sure people have said it, but nobody I respect.

  Jared Leto

  People, Common, Fame

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• You never truly need what you want. That is the main and thoroughgoing key to serenity.

  Albert Ellis

  Acceptance, Keys, Needs

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• No, my son, do not aspire for wealth and labor not only to be rich. Strive instead for happiness, to be loved and to love, and most important to acquire peace of mind and serenity.

  Og Mandino

  Son, Mind, Important

  Og Mandino (2011). “The Greatest Salesman in the World”, p.23, Bantam

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• Christians know how to face difficulties, trials and defeat with serenity and hope in the Lord.

  Pope Francis

  Christian, Trials, Faces

  Pope Francis‏ @Pontifex, twitter.com. October 31, 2013.

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• I believe in the pursuit of happiness. Not its attainment, nor its final definition, but its pursuit. I believe in the journey, not the arrival; in conversation, not monologues; in multiple questions rather than any single answer. I believe in the struggle to remake ourselves and challenge each other in the spirit of eternal forgiveness, in the awareness that none of us knows for sure what happiness truly is, but each of us knows the imperative to keep searching. I believe in the possibility of surprising joy, of serenity through pain, of homecoming through exile.

  Andrew Sullivan

  Pain, Believe, Struggle

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• Can we who have had the joy of knowing that we are not orphans, that we have a Father, be indifferent to this city which asks of us, perhaps even unwittingly, without being aware of it, a hope that will help it look to the future with greater confidence and serenity? We cannot remain indifferent. . . . Words without witness are hot air. Words do not suffice. It must be the true witness that Paul speaks of.

  Pope Francis

  Father, Air, Cities

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• To him whom contemplates a trait of natural beauty, no harm nor despair can come. The doctrines of despair, spiritual or political servitude, were never taught by those who shared the serenity of Nature. For each phase of Nature, though not invisible, is yet not too distinct or obtrusive. It is there to be found when we look for it, but not too demanding of our attention.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Spiritual, Nature, Political

  Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Thoreau on Nature: Sage Words on Finding Harmony with the Natural World”, p.20, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Punctuality or the lack thereof oftentimes is the only introduction one will ever have to new groups and friends. Serenity and poise are not the companions of those who lack the courtesy and judgment to be on time.

  Marvin J. Ashton

  Groups, Judgment, Punctuality

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• Nothing can temper the spirit of a warrior as much as the challenge of dealing with impossible people in positions of power. Only under those conditions can warriors acquire the sobriety and serenity to withstand the pressure of the unknowable.

  Carlos Castaneda

  Warrior, Power, People

  Carlos Castaneda (2017). “The Fire From Within”, p.24, Simon and Schuster

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• And it would be a spare life he would be certain to lead as a schoolteacher in some urban location. But he had a serenity that came with the choice of the life he wanted to live. And this serenity and certainty I have seen only among those who have the armour of books close by.

  Michael Ondaatje

  Book, Choices, Would Be

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• If you separate from . . . everything you have done in the past, everything that disturbs you about the future . . . and apply yourself to living the life that you are living-that is to say, the present-you can live all the time that remains to you until your death in calm, benevolence, and serenity.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Live Life, Past, Done

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