Barbara Brown Taylor Quotes
The great wisdom traditions of the world all recognize that the main impediment to living a life of meaning is being self-absorbed.

Quotes to Explore
-
If I am given a formula, and I am ignorant of its meaning, it cannot teach me anything, but if I already know it what does the formula teach me?
-
With age comes common sense and wisdom.
-
The sweetest of all sounds is praise.
-
Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.
-
The democratic system is premised on trust in the masses' wisdom. We believe that the collective is wiser than its parts and that, at the end of the day, it shall make the right choices and take the right decisions.
-
When spirituality is the basis of your life, it gives you the strength, wisdom and courage to surmount the many storms of life that could destroy a weaker person who doesn't have this foundation.
-
Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.
-
The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when it be obeyed.
-
The most important lesson of New Labour is this: Every time we made progress we did it by challenging the conventional wisdom.
-
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
-
O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!
-
Tagliatelle comes from the word tagliare, meaning 'to cut.' Tagliolini are simply thinly cut tagliatelle.
-
Set your course by the stars, not by the lights of every passing ship.
-
Giving opens the way for receiving.
-
Older people are most beautiful when they have what is lacking in the young: poise, erudition, wisdom, phronesis, and this post-heroic absence of agitation.
-
All the mystery and wisdom of the Masters, when it’s out in the daylight, doesn’t amount to so much, you know. Tricks of the trade-wonderful illusions. But people don’t want to know that. They want the illusions, the mysteries. Who can blame them? There’s so little in life that’s beautiful or worthy.
-
This must be our belief when we have a correct knowledge of our own self, and comprehend the true nature of everything; we must be content, and not trouble our mind with seeking a certain final cause for things that have none, or have no other final cause but their own existence, which depends on the Will of God, or, if you prefer, on the Divine Wisdom.
-
You can't worship a spirit in spirit, unless you do it now. Wallowing in the past may be good literature. As wisdom, it's hopeless. Time Regained is Paradise Lost, and Time Lost is Paradise Regained. Let the dead bury their dead. If you want to live at every moment as it presents itself, you've got to die to every other moment.
-
...a good poem contains both meaning and music.
-
New York at times runs me dry because there's so much to do. There's never enough time to do everything. It's nice to have the balance in Moscow.
-
Einstein's theory of relativity does a fantastic job for explaining big things. Quantum mechanics is fantastic for the other end of the spectrum - for small things.
-
Let go of offence. Let go of fear. Let go of revenge. Don't live angry, let go now!
-
What does he plant who plants a tree? He plants the friend of sun and sky; He plants the flag of breezes free; The shaft of beauty, towering high, he plants a home to heaven anigh. For song and mother-croon of bird, in hushed and happy twilight heard - The treble of heaven's harmony. These things he plants who plants a tree.
-
The great wisdom traditions of the world all recognize that the main impediment to living a life of meaning is being self-absorbed.