Quotations

"Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts."

— Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian yogi, born 1893

"I am a spark from the Infinite. I am not flesh and bones. I am light."

— Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian yogi and guru, died March 7, 1952

"Do not fight the darkness, let the light in and the darkness will disappear."

— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, born 1917

"If you're too busy to meditate twice a day, you're just too busy."

— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, born 1917

"We must take situations as they are. We must only change our mental attitudes towards them."

— Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian guru, born 1918

"Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood."

— Jane Yolen, American author, born 1939

"Without returning... O my feelings In this gathering darkness of spring, And against my koto My tangled, tangled hair."

— Akiko Yosano, Japanese Tanka poet, born 1878

"Gently, I open the door to eternal mystery, the flowers of my breasts cupped, offered with both my hands."

— Akiko Yosano, Japanese Tanka poet, born 1878

"Darkness, Darkness, be my pillow. Take my head and let me sleep in the coolness of your shadow, in the silence of your deep."

— Jesse Colin Young, American singer, born 1941

"Once I had asked God for one or two extra inches in height, but instead he made me as tall as the sky, so high that I could not measure myself."

— Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist, born 1997

"If one man can destroy everything, why can't one girl change it?"

— Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist, born 1997

"One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world."

— Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist, born 1997

"Human life and objects and trees vibrate with mysterious meanings, which can be deciphered like cuneiform writing. There exists a meaning, hidden from day to day, but accessible in moments of greatest attentiveness, in those moments when consciousness loves the world."

— Adam Zagajewski, Polish poet, born 1945

"Once in a while it vanishes - in the sense that I become deaf to beauty for a week or two or three. This coming and going of the inner life - because this is what it is - is a curse and a blessing. I don't need to explain why it's a curse. A blessing because it brings about a movement, an energy which, when it peaks, creates a poem. Or a moment of happiness."

— Adam Zagajewski, Polish poet, born 1945