Quotations

"I don't believe in bodybuilders using steroids. If a man doesn't have enough male hormones in his system to create, a nice hard, muscular body, he should take up ping pong."

— Steve Reeves, American bodybuilder and actor, died May 1, 2000

"A painting is complete when it has the shadows of a god."

— Rembrandt, Dutch painter, born July 15, 1606

"Old age is a hindrance to creativity but cannot crush my youthful spirit."

— Rembrandt, Dutch painter, died October 4, 1669

"Perhaps the most important thing we bring to another person is the silence in us, not the sort of silence that is filled with unspoken criticism or hard withdrawal. The sort of silence that is a place of refuge, of rest, of acceptance of someone as they are. We are all hungry for this other silence. It is hard to find. In its presence we can remember something beyond the moment, a strength on which to build a life. Silence is a place of great power and healing."

— Rachel Remen, Integrative medicine pioneer, born 1938

"There are only two kinds of people in the world. Those who are alive and those who are afraid."

— Rachel Remen, Integrative medicine pioneer, born 1938

"Helping, fixing, and serving represent three different ways of seeing life. When you help, you see life as weak. when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. Fixing and helping may be the work of the ego, and service the work of the soul."

— Rachel Remen, Integrative medicine pioneer, born 1938

"It has been said that sometimes we need a story more than food in order to live."

— Rachel Remen, Integrative medicine pioneer, born 1938

"There is a Sufi story about a man who is so good that the angels ask God to give him the gift of miracles. God wisely tells them to ask him if that is what he would wish.

So the angels visit this good man and offer him first the gift of healing by hands, then the gift of conversion of souls, and lastly the gift of virtue. He refuses them all. They insist that he choose a gift or they will choose one for him. "Very well," he replies. "I ask that I may do a great deal of good without ever knowing it." The story ends this way.

The angels were perplexed. They took counsel and resolved upon the following plan: Every time the saint's shadow fell behind him it would have the power to cure disease, soothe pain, and comfort sorrow. As he walked, behind him the shadow made arid paths green, caused withered plants to bloom, gave clear water to dried up brooks, fresh color to pale children, and joy to unhappy men and women. The saint simply went about his daily life diffusing virtue as the stars diffuse light and the flowers scent, without ever being aware of it. The people respecting his humility followed him silently, never speaking to him about his miracles. Soon they even forgot his name and called him the Holy Shadow."

— Rachel Remen, Integrative medicine pioneer, born 1938

"If! If! You can get 'round anything with 'if'."

— Georges Remi, Belgian illustrator, born May 22, 1907

"When a friend speaks to me, whatever he says is interesting."

— Jean Renoir, French director, born September 15, 1894

"I've been 40 years discovering that the queen of all colors was black."

— Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter and sculptor, born February 25, 1841

"One morning, one of us ran out of the black, it was the birth of Impressionism."

— Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French painter, died December 3, 1919

"Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It's our goal in life to find it and keep it lit."

— Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast, born January 24, 1968

"We have forgotten love, and sat lonely beside each other. We have eaten together, lonely behind our plates, we have hidden behind children, we have slept together in a lonely bed. Now my heart turns toward you, awake at last, penitent, lost in the last loneliness. Speak to me. Talk To me. Break the black silence."

— Kenneth Rexroth, American poet, died June 6, 1982