[Think] of an experience from your childhood. Something you remember clearly, something you can see, feel, maybe even smell, as if you were really there. After all, you really were there at the time, weren't you? How else would you remember it? But here is the bombshell: you weren't there. Not a single atom that is in your body today was there when that event took place . . . Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Whatever you are, therefore, you are not the stuff of which you are made. If that doesn't make the hair stand up on the back of your neck, read it again until it does, because it is important.

Steve Grand, Creation: Life and How to Make It

The Supreme prayer of my heart is not to be learned, rich, famous, powerful or even good, but simply to be radiant. I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage and good-will. I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural, clean in mind and clean in body, unaffected — to say “I do not know,” if it be so, and to meet all men on an absolute equality, to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid. I wish others to live their lives, too, up to their highest, fullest, and best. To that end I pray that I may never meddle, interfere, dictate, give advice that is not wanted, or assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people, I’ll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves and if I can uplift of inspire, let it be by example, inference and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation. That is to say, I desire to be Radiant — to Radiate Life.

Elbert Hubbard

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.

Ghandi

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory.

Ghandi

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

Ghandi

Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. Just put forth a clear enough request, and everything your heart desires must come to you.

Ghandi

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. Let our lives be open books for all to study.

Ghandi

It is the quality of our work which will please God and not the quantity.

Ghandi

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us it's in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Marianne Williamson RETURN TO LOVE: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles

A decent man will behave decently even if he thinks that he has been treated unjustly or wrongly. But many people in such circumstances show a side of their nature which otherwise they would never show. And at times it is a necessary means for exposing a man's nature. So long as you are good to a man he is good to you. But what will he be like if you scratch him a little?

Gurdjieff

I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.

Aristotle

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Ghandi

Compassion means to lay a bridge over to the other without knowing whether he wants to be reached. Henri Nouwen Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.

Mother Teresa

You have no enemies, you say?

Alas, my friend, the boast is poor

He who has mingled in the fray

Of duty, that the brave endure,

Must have made foes! If you have none,

Small is the work that you have done.

You've hit no traitor on the hip,

You've dashed no cup from perjured lip,

You've never turned the wrong to right,

You've been a coward in the fight.

Charles MacKay (l814-l889)

When you see the world in yourself, there are no more outward obstacles to happiness. The inner and outer worlds are mirrors of each other. They change according to your level of consciousness. If you are vibrating at the level of fear, your inner world of thoughts and emotions and your outer world of events and relationships will reflect that. Similarly, if your consciousness vibrates at the level of love, then love will be present in both your inner and outer worlds. A flow of happiness and abundance will manifest when you have reached the deepest level of yourself.

By Deepak Chopra and Annie Bond

You learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to work by working and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves.

Saint Francis de Sales

The dangers is that every religion, including the Catholic one, says “I have the ultimate truth.” Then you start to rely on the priest, the mullah, the rabbi, or whoever, to be responsible for your acts. In fact, you are the only one who is responsible.

Paulo Coelho

You can have anything you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.

Zig Ziglar

You cannot change anything in your life with intention alone, which can become a watered-down, occasional hope that you'll get to tomorrow. Intention without action is useless.

Caroline Myss

You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need.

Jerry Gillies

When you are free from all attachments, when you are indifferent to success and failure, then you experience inner serenity.

The Bhagavad Gita

Buddha’s first sermon includes the Fourth Noble Truth, called The Eightfold path:

The Wisdom Path (Prajna)

Right View: The right way to think about life is to see the world through the eyes of the Buddha with wisdom and compassion.

Right Thought, or Intention: We are what we think. Clear and kind thoughts build good, strong characters.

The Ethical Conduct Path (Sila)

Right Speech: By speaking kind and helpful words, we are respected and trusted by everyone.

Right Action, or Conduct: No matter what we say, others know us from the way we behave. Before we criticize others, we should first see what we do ourselves.

Right Livelihood: Do not earn your living by harming others. Do not seek happiness by making others unhappy.

The Mental Discipline Path (Samadhi)

Right Effort: A worthwhile life means doing our best at all times and having good will toward others. This also means not wasting effort on things that harm ourselves and others.

Right Mindfulness: This means being aware of our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Right Concentration: Focus on one thought or object at a time. By doing this, we can be quiet and attain true peace of mind.

Buddha

It's not the honors and the prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls. It's the knowing that we can be trusted, that we never have to fear the truth, that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.

Fred Rogers

Life is real! Life is Earnest!

And the grave is not its goal

Dust thou art, to dust returneth,

Was not spoken of the soul.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Example of an authentic spiritual religion:
The Cathars were a Christian religious group who first appeared in Europe around the 11th century. They believed that they represented the true Christian faith that had become corrupted elsewhere. Their origins were somewhat unclear, but they spread from the Balkans and became the prominent religion in the Languedoc region of France. The Catholic Church initially had difficulty deciding whether they were heretics.

Cathar practices and theology did not include priests and church buildings. They believed in reincarnation, they regarded men and women as equal, and they took seriously biblical teachings on vows of poverty, not lying or killing, and not swearing oaths.

Sadly, the Cathars and the Catholic Church became openly contemptuous of each other. The Catholic Church eventually decided that the Cathars were a threat and declared them heretics, then led a genocidal crusade against them. The last of Cathars were burned alive by the Inquisition at Montsegur, Languedoc, France in 1244 AD.

The Cathars left behind a prophesy for a "New Church" of the Aquarian age. I included this prophesy in full as a quote below because their vision is an excellent blend of authentic religion and spiritually. It is as relevant today as it was 800 years ago:

It has no fabric, only understanding.

It has no membership, save those who know they belong. It has no rivals, because it is non-competitive.

It has no ambition, it seeks only to serve.

It knows no boundaries, for nationalisms are unloving.

It is not of itself, because it seeks to enrich all groups and religions.

It has no secret, no arcanum, no initiation save that of true understanding of the power of love and that, if we want it to be so, the world will change, but only if we change ourselves first.

It acknowledges all great teachers of all ages who have shown the truth of love.

Its participants will practise the truth of love in all their being.

It seeks not to teach but to be, and in being, to enrich.

It recognises the whole planet as a Being of which we are all a part.

It recognises that the time has come for the supreme transmutation, the ultimate alchemical act of conscious change of the world-ego into a voluntary return to the Whole.

It does not proclaim itself with a loud voice, but in the subtle realms of loving.

It salutes all those in the past who have blazed the path and have paid the price.

Its members shall know each other by their deeds and being, and by their eyes, and by no other outward sign save the fraternal embrace.

Its members will dedicate their lives to the silent loving of their neighbour and environment and the planet, while carrying out their task, however exalted or humble.

It recognises the supremacy of the Great Idea which may only be accomplished if the human race practises love.

It has no reward to offer either here or in the hereafter save that of the ineffable joy of being and loving.

Its members shall seek to advance the cause of understanding, doing good by stealth, and teaching only by example.

Its members shall heal their neighbours, their community and our planet.

Its members shall know no fear and feel no shame, and their knowledge shall prevail over all odds. All those who belong, belong to the church of love.