Words of Wisdom

~ COMMUNICATION & RELATIONSHIPS ~

Compiled by Peter Shepherd

“Communication is the solvent of all problems, therefore communication skills are the foundation for personal development.” —Peter Shepherd

“Go and love someone exactly as they are. And then watch how quickly they transform into the greatest, truest version of themselves. When one feels seen and appreciated in their own essence, one is instantly empowered.” —Wes Angelozzi

“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he knows something.” —Wilson Mizner

“Nothing lowers the level of conversation more than raising the voice.” —Stanley Horowitz

“Like anything else worthwhile in life, a happy relationship takes some skill.” —Laura Doyle

“You cannot wake someone up who is pretending to be asleep.” —Zen koan

“What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined... to strengthen each other... to be at one with each other in silent unspeakable memories.” —George Eliot

“Love is like the truth, sometimes it prevails, and sometimes it hurts.” —Victor M. Garcia Jr.

“To love leaves us open to loss. But we do it to ourselves because it is worth it.” —from Lark Rise to Candleford (BBC drama)

“An open ear is the only believable sign of an open heart.” —David Augsburger

“At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.” —Plato

“People who do not understand you will never settle for any proof, and people who appreciate you do not need any proof. “ —Seth (Jane Roberts)

“It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.” —Benjamin Disraeli

“Love can make a summer fly, or a night seem like a lifetime.” —Andrew Lloyd Webber

“Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.” —Les Brown

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” —Carl Jung

“What is most beautiful in virile men is something feminine; what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine.” —Susan Sontag

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“Have the courage to be sincere, clear and honest. This opens the door to deeper communication all around. It creates self-empowerment and the kind of connections with others we all want in life. Speaking from the heart frees us from the secrets that burden us. These secrets are what make us sick or fearful. Speaking truth helps you get clarity on your real heart directives.” —Sara Paddison

“Balance Within Chaos” by Laurie Bain

“If we center ourselves within the heart chakra and control our thoughts, we can find the balance and harmony in every situation.” —Laurie Bain

“Abilities wither under faultfinding, blossom with encouragement.” —Donald A. Laird

“Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are - chaff and grain together - certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.” —Dinah Craik

“When you like someone, you like them in spite of their faults. When you love someone, you love them with their faults.” —Elizabeth Cameron

“People change and forget to tell each other.” —Lillian Hellman

“If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don’t, they never were.” —Kahlil Gibran

“Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” —Mahatma Gandhi

“Love and concern for all are not things some of us are born with and others are not. Rather, they are results of what we do with our minds: We can choose to transform our minds so that they embody love, or we can allow them to develop habits and false concepts of separation.” —Sharon Salzbert

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.” —Plato

“Good friendships are fragile things and require as much care as any other fragile and precious thing.” —Randolph S. Bourne

“The result of our people-judgments is that we often throw away someone’s ideas because they are voiced by the wrong person or because we don’t agree with all of their ideas.” —Thayer White

“A friend hears the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” —Unknown

“The people who matter will recognize who you are.” —Alan Cohen

“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” —African proverb

“With the gift of listening comes the gift of healing.” —Catherine de Hueck

“Love is touching souls.” —Joni Mitchell

“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.” —William Shakespeare

“Criticism is something we can avoid easily —by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.” —Aristotle

“Real love takes work. You have to be willing to make the effort.” —Rabbi Weinberg

“There is harmony in the tension of opposites, as in the case of the bow and lyre.” —Heraclitus

“Life has taught us that love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“The happiness of life is made up of the little charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment.” —Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“What most people need to learn in life is how to love people and use things instead of using people and loving things.”

“The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.” —Oscar Wilde

“The wise stand out because they see themselves as part of the Whole. They shine because they don’t want to impress. They achieve great things because they don’t look for recognition. Their wisdom is contained in what they are, not their opinions. They refuse to argue, so no-one argues with them.” —Lao Tzu

“The judgement of others does not change who I am. Quite the opposite is true. It reveals who they are.” —Terry McPhearson

“Speaking with kindness creates confidence, thinking with kindness creates profoundness, giving with kindness creates love.” —Lao Tseu

“A friend is a person with whom I may be honest. Before him, I may think aloud.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.” —Euripedes

“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” —Mark Twain

“A friend is someone who knows the song of your soul and sings it back to you when you’ve forgotten the words.”

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”

“We would not have to forgive people if we didn’t judge them in the first place.” —Barry Neil Kaufman

“Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver, the other gold.”

“To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” —Elbert Hubbard

“When someone’s character seems impossible to fathom, observe his friends.” —Japanese proverb

“A true friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future and accepts you today, just the way you are.”

“The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.” —Oscar Wilde

“If someone does not smile at you, be generous and offer your own smile. Nobody needs a smile more than the one that cannot smile to others.” —Dalai Lama

“If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.” —Noam Chomsky

“No act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted.” —Aesop

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” —Maya Angelou

“The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe.” —Deepak Chopra

“Don’t rob a friend, a partner, family member or the world of someone that could have been a real companion, and someone that could make a difference. Don’t ever give up being special!” —Willy Conradie

“That’s what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is. Most people love you for who you pretend to be. To keep their love, you keep pretending - performing. You get to love your pretence. It’s true, we’re locked in an image, an act - and the sad thing is, people get so used to their image, they grow attached to their masks. They love their chains. They forget all about who they really are. And if you try to remind them, they hate you for it, they feel like you’re trying to steal their most precious possession.” —Jim Morrison

“In the midst of great joy, do not promise anyone anything. In the midst of great anger, do not answer anyone’s letter.” —Chinese proverb

“Deal with the faults of others as gently as with your own.” —Chinese proverb

“We would not have to forgive people if we didn’t judge them in the first place.” —Barry Neil Kaufman

“Sentimentality - that’s what we call the sentiment we don’t share.” —Graham Green

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distance continues to exist, a wonderful living side-by-side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole and against a wide sky.” —Rainer Maria Rilke

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.”