Quotes about realization

A collection of quotes on the topic of realization, people, doing, life.

Robert B. Cialdini quote: “The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”

Suzanne Collins quote: “Once I'm on my feet I realize escape might not be so easy.”

Quotes about realization

“We all have two lives. The second begins when you realize you only have one.”

Tom Hiddleston (1981) English actor, producer and musical performer

“…over time he would realize that the higher he was, the less danger he was in and the more he controlled the ever-ready mass.”

José Baroja book No fue un catorce de febrero y otros cuentos

Time

“The person on foot realizes that there is no misery in cities like Madrid or Barcelona, first world cities that, I think, have lost the heart that Latin Americans still have.”

José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor

Source: https://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/

Personality, Heart, Thinking, World

“Don't believe everything you hear: Real eyes, Realize, Real lies”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

“The goal of the education reform is to realize the potential of Thai people to develop themselves for a better quality of life and to develop the national into peaceful co-existence in the global community.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcrdaen/1/1/1_KJ00006742072/_pdf
Education for Peace

Life, People, Education, Peace

“The learner has to realize that he or she is the one who sets the objective, the learning tasks and the stage for success.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

The Learner

Learning, Success

“Life is a song - sing it.
Life is a game - play it.
Life is a challenge - meet it.
Life is a dream - realize it.
Life is a sacrifice - offer it.
Life is love - enjoy it.”

Sathya Sai Baba (1926–2011) Indian guru

Life, Love, Life, Dreams

“Sometimes you don't realize your own strength
Until you come face to face with
Your greatest weaknesses.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“I never realized that a child is capable of remembering so well and of waiting so patiently”

Janusz Korczak (1878–1942) Polish physician and writer

Source: Loving Every Child: Wisdom for Parents

Waiting

“For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.”

Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–1997) French naval officer, explorer, conservationist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and …

Beauty, Peaceful, History, Nature

“Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime. Teach a man to cycle and he will realize fishing is stupid and boring.”

Desmond Tutu (1931) South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Prize winner

Stupidity, Fish

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII

Success

“Every Muslim, from the moment they realize the distinction in their hearts, hates Americans, hates Jews and hates Christians. For as long as I can remember, I have felt tormented and at war, and have felt hatred and animosity for Americans.”

Osama bin Laden book Messages to the World

As quoted in Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden (2005) by Bruce Lawrence ISBN 1844670457
2000s, 2004

Hate, War, Heart

“Poor and working people in this country are sent to kill poor and working people in other country to make the rich richer. Without racism, soldiers would realize that they have more in common with the Iraqi people than they do with the billionaires who send us to war.”

Michael Prysner (1983) American anti-war political activist

"Our Real Enemies"

War, People, Country

“We stopped looking for monsters under our bed when we realized that they were inside us.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”

Albert Camus book The Myth of Sisyphus

This quotation is from Notebook IV in Notebooks: 1942-1951, not Myth of Sisyphus. The quotation appears in none of Camus books you find in bookstores
The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), An Absurd Reasoning

People, Funny

“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, dissident anti-Nazi

Source: Letters and Papers from Prison

Life, Help, Gratitude

“We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.”

Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist

Source: Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating

Love

“God knows no religion. God belongs to mankind. I realized this while playing at the Balaji temple.”

Bismillah Khan (1916–2006) Indian musician

Quote, Encyclopedia of Bharat Ratnas

God, Religion

“Self-realization is realizing the truth that was already there when you were still unaware of it. Self-help means regaining your full freedom and living according to your desires.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Freedom, Help, Truth

“When You've lost it all…. that's when you realize that Life is Beautiful.”

Nikki Sixx (1958) American musician

Variant: When You've lost it all.... thats when you realize that Life is Beautiful.
Source: The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star

Life, Beauty

“I think you can love a person too much.

You put someone up on a pedestal, and all of a sudden, from that perspective, you notice what's wrong - a hair out of place, a run in a stocking, a broken bone. You spend all your time and energy making it right, and all the while, you are falling apart yourself. You don't even realize what you look like, how far you've deteriorated, because you only have eyes for someone else.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, Thinking, Time, Personality

“We hardly ever realize that we can cut anything out of our lives, anytime, in the blink of an eye.”

Carlos Castaneda book Journey to Ixtlan

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe, (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)

“Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment and merging of races, and we are still far from this blissful realization.”

Nikola Tesla book My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

A Means for Furthering Peace (1905)
Source: My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla
Context: A state of human life vaguely defined by the term "Universal Peace," while a result of cumulative effort through centuries past, might come into existence quickly, not unlike a crystal suddenly forms in a solution which has been slowly prepared. But just as no effect can precede its cause, so this state can never be brought on by any pact between nations, however solemn. Experience is made before the law is formulated, both are related like cause and effect. So long as we are clearly conscious of the expectation, that peace is to result from such a parliamentary decision, so long have we a conclusive evidence that we are not fit for peace. Only then when we shall feel that such international meetings are mere formal procedures, unnecessary except in so far as they might serve to give definite expression to a common desire, will peace be assured.
To judge from current events we must be, as yet, very distant from that blissful goal. It is true that we are proceeding towards it rapidly. There are abundant signs of this progress everywhere. The race enmities and prejudices are decidedly waning.

Peace, Nature, Universe

“When the workers of a single factory or of a single branch of industry engage in struggle against their employer or employers, is this class struggle? No, this is only a weak embryo of it. The struggle of the workers becomes a class struggle only when all the foremost representatives of the entire working class of the whole country are conscious of themselves as a single working class and launch a struggle that is directed, not against individual employers, but against the entire class of capitalists and against the government that supports that class. Only when the individual worker realizes that he is a member of the entire working class, only when he recognises the fact that his petty day-to-day struggle against individual employers and individual government officials is a struggle against the entire bourgeoisie and the entire government, does his struggle become a class struggle.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

Source: On the Foreign Policy of the Soviet State

Support, Country

“When a person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, "Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it's like to be me”

Carl R. Rogers (1902–1987) American psychologist

God, Thinking, Sense, Joy

“Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

Abide as the Self

World

“I was very young at that time, and always I used to tell myself that if ever I could do it, I would try to create a little world — Oh! quite a small one, but still — a small world where people would be able to live without having to be preoccupied by problems of food and lodging and clothing and the imperious necessities of life, to see if all the energies freed by this certainty of an assured material living would spontaneously be turned towards the divine life and inner realization.”

The Mother (1878–1973) spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo

In "Auroville — The City Of Dawn in South India" (27 February 2009)
Sayings

Life, People, World, Food

“I want people to unite behind the science… And that is what we have to realize, that that is what we have to do right now.. I’m not the one who’s saying these things. I’m not the one who we should be listening to. And I say that all the time. I say we need to listen to the scientists.”

Greta Thunberg (2003) Swedish climate change activist

We Are Striking to Disrupt the System: An Hour with 16-Year-Old Climate Activist Greta Thunberg https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/11/greta_thunberg_swedish_activist_climate_crisis, DemocracyNow (11 September 2019) <br class="br">2019

Science, Time, People

“Awakening is realizing that you are the citizen of the universe, rather than identifying yourself as the citizen of your own country or that of the world.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Universe, Country, World

“When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.”

Dian Fossey (1932–1985) American zoologist, gorilla researcher

Life, Past, Future

“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

Art, Study, Learning, Science

“I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Waiting

“there are worse things
than being alone
but it often takes
decades to realize this
and most often when you do
it's too late
and there's nothing worse
than too late”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“Our parents, our children, our spouses, and our friends will continue to press every button we have, until we realize what it is that we don't want to know about ourselves, yet. They will point us to our freedom every time.”

Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer

Source: Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life

Children, Parent, Freedom, Time

“He realized that all his life he had been a nobody to everyone. What he now felt was the fear of his own oblivion. It was as though he did not exist.”

Patrick Süskind (1949) German writer and screenwriter

Source: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Life, Fear

“If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.”

John Von Neumann (1903–1957) Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath

Remark made by von Neumann as keynote speaker at the first national meeting of the Association for Computing Machinery in 1947, as mentioned by Franz L. Alt at the end of "Archaeology of computers: Reminiscences, 1945--1947", Communications of the ACM, volume 15, issue 7, July 1972, special issue: Twenty-fifth anniversary of the Association for Computing Machinery, p. 694.

Life, People, Mathematics

“Black Consciousness is in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together with his brothers around the cause of their oppression.”

Steve Biko (1946–1977) anti-apartheid activist in South Africa

“I had the chance to make every possible mistake and figure out a way to recover from it. Once you realize there is life after mistakes, you gain a self-confidence that never goes away.”

Bob Schieffer (1937) Journalist, Anchor for CBS News

Source: This Just in: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV

Life, Way, Confidence, Chance

“You do realize as you grow older that almost nobody knows what they are talking about.”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

“People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Calvin And Hobbes: Tenth Anniversary Book

People, World, Thinking

“Look, when you realize how fake it all is; the football, the basketball, the Lady Gaga, the Justin Bieber—you know, who gives you these carbon tax messages. They tell your kids they gotta love Justin Biebler [sic], and then Biebler [sic] says "hand in your guns", "pass the Cyber Security Act", and "the police state is good", and then your children are turned into a mindless vassals—who now, they look up to some twit, instead of looking up to Thomas Jefferson, or looking up to Nikola Tesla, or looking up to Magellan; I mean, kids, Magellan is a lot cooler than Justin Bieber! He circumnavigated with one ship the entire planet! He was killed by wild natives before they got back to Portugal! And when they got back there was only like eleven people alive of the two hundred and something crew and the entire ship was rotting down to the waterline! That's destiny! That's will! That's striving! That's being a trailblazer and explore! Going into space! Mathematics! Quantum mechanics! The secrets of the universe! It's all there! Life is fiery with its beauty! Its incredible detail! Tuning into it! They wanna shutter your mind, talking about Justin Bieber! It's pure evil! They're taking your intellect, your soul, and giving you Michael Jordan and Bieber. Unlock your human potential! Defeat the globalists who wanna shutter your mind!—Your doorways to perception!—I wanna see you truly live! I wanna see you truly be who you are!”

Alex Jones (1974) American radio host, author, conspiracy theorist and filmmaker

Alex Jones: The "Justin Biebler" Rant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDMB0KyhPN8, 21 February 2011. <br class="br">2011

Love, Life, Children, People

“The biggest thing has been realizing how much people really do love the early Sabbath music. People have said it in the past but I've never really believed them before. I remember years ago when Metallica opened up for me, I went backstage and they were playing old Black Sabbath albums and I thought they were taking the piss! They said, 'No, we really love Sabbath.' I couldn't see that at the time--because towards the end of my time with Sabbath 20 years ago I thought what we were doing was boring and stupid, because we were boring and stupid, totally sick of what we were doing and totally out of our brains with drink or drugs when we were playing it.”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

Launch.com, November 2, 2000

Love, People, Stupidity, Music

“I'd see the bus pass every day… But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and a white world.”

Rosa Parks (1913–2005) African-American civil rights activist

Quoted in 2008-07-01, The Story Behind the Bus, Rosa Parks Bus, The Henry Ford http://www.thehenryford.org/exhibits/rosaparks/story.asp, (2002)

Life, World, Way

“On the surface it may seem that wars are caused by economic and political questions, but in fact they are caused by our wholesale slaughter of animals. The laws of justice are inexorable, and human beings are going to have to pay with their own blood … We kill animals, but nature is an organic whole, and by killing animals we are, as it were, affecting certain glands in that organism. When this happens, the balance of the organism is disrupted, and it is not surprising that before long war breaks out among men. Yes, human beings have slaughtered millions of animals for their meat, without realizing that on the invisible plane those animals are linked to other human beings, and it is they who will now have to share the fate of the animals. When we slaughter animals we are slaughtering human beings. Everybody agrees that it is time to establish the reign of peace in the world, that there must be no more wars. Yes, but war will go on just as long as we continue to slaughter animals, because by destroying them we are destroying ourselves.”

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov (1900–1986) Bulgarian philosopher

The Yoga of Nutrition, Editions Prosveta, 2012 ebook edition, pp. 24 https://books.google.it/books?id=jnoVCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT24-25.

Men, Fate, War, World

“We must allow every day of our lives to represent healthy closure now! When we live for love, this is most natural because all of our associations will be quality associations in which we share our compassion, determination, and realizations, and receive the same from others. This is the technology of how to celebrate life now and live with proper preparation and detachment, so that we will master the science of dying before dying so as to connect with the should and its home-the spiritual world. After all, death is to remove all that is false and secondary. I am that lowly beggar who is desperately trying to die before dying.”

Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer

?
Books, The Beggar, Volume IV: Die Before Dying (Hari-Nama Press, 2005)

Love, Life, Death, World

“The things that change are not our real life. Within us there is another body, another beauty. It belongs to that ray of light which never changes. We must discover how to mingle with it and become one with that unchanging thing. We must realize and understand this treasure of truth. That is why we have come to the world.”

Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (1900–1986) Sri Lankan Sufi leader

Life, Truth, World, Beauty

“I had never been a violent person in nature, but after building up so much hatred over the years, I realized that I wouldn’t hesitate to kill or even torture my hated enemies if I was given the opportunity.”

Elliot Rodger (1991–2014) American spree killer

My Twisted World (2014), 19-22, UC Santa Barbara, Building to Violence

Hate, Nature, Personality

“The. manager must never be lacking in knowledge of the special profession which is characteristic of the undertaking: the technical profession in industry, commercial in commerce, political in the State, military in the Army, religious in the Church, medical in the hospital, teaching in the school, etc. The technical function has long been given the degree of importance which is its due, and of which we must not deprive it, but the technical function by itself cannot endure the successful running of a business; it needs the help of the other essential functions and particularly of that of administration. This fact is so important from the point of view of the organization and management of a business that I do not mind how often I repeat it in order that it may be fully realized.”

Henri Fayol (1841–1925) Developer of Fayolism

Source: Industrial and General Administration, 1916, p. 68 ; as cited in: Albert Lepawsky (1949), Administration, p. 6-7

School, Business, Knowledge, Success

“There is a saying that a glass is half empty or half full, depending on how you look at it. Well, we all know that one. But we cannot just say, okay so half full is how we should look at things. No. We have to go even further in our observation and realize that the glass is actually 100 percent full: 50 percent with water and 50 percent with air.”

Yoko Ono (1933) Japanese artist, author, and peace activist

Game Is Not Over - 2005 Oxford Union Address http://www.jeclique.com/onoweb/news-oxfordjune2005.html

Water, Dependency

“The Satanist shuns terms such as "hope" and "prayer" as they are indicative of apprehension. If we hope and pray for something to come about, we will not act in a positive way which will make it happen. The Satanist, realizing that anything he gets is of his own doing, takes command of the situation instead of praying to God for it to happen. Positive thinking and positive action add up to results. […] Just as the Satanist does not pray to God for assistance, he does not pray for forgiveness for his wrong doings. The Satanist knows that praying does no good, confessing to another human being, like himself, accomplishes even less - and is, furthermore, degrading.”

Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible

The Satanic Bible (1969)

God, Hope, Way, Forgiveness

“Enquire: 'Who am I?' and you will find the answer. Look at a tree: from one seed arises a huge tree; from it comes numerous seeds, each one of which in its turn grows into a tree. No two fruits are alike. Yet it is one life that throbs in every particle of the tree. So, it is the same Atman everywhere. All creation is That: There is beauty in the birds and in the animals. They too eat and drink like us, mate and multiply; but there is this difference: we can realize our true nature, the Atman. Having been born as human beings, we must not waste this opportunity. At least for a few seconds every day, we must enquire as to who we are. It is no use taking a return ticket over and over again. From birth to death, and death to birth is samsara. But really we have no birth and death. We must realize that.”

Sri Anandamoyi Ma (1896–1982) Hindu saint

Anandamayi Ma, Ananda Varta Quarterly
By herself

Life, Death, Beauty, Birth

“Filipinos don't realize that victory is the child of struggle, that joy blossoms from suffering, and redemption is a product of sacrifice.”

José Rizal (1861–1896) Filipino writer, ophthalmologist, polyglot and nationalist

"Como se gobiernan las Filipinas" (How one governs in the Philippines), published in La Solidaridad (15 December 1890)

Suffering, Victory, Joy

“The meaning of the world is the separation of wish and fact. Wish is a force as applied to thinking beings, to realize something. A fulfilled wish is a union of wish and fact. The meaning of the whole world is the separation and the union of fact and wish.”

Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics

As quoted in The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us (MIT Press) 2013 by Yanofsky, Noson S

World, Thinking

“When Adam and Eve realize they're naked is that same moment they realize the difference between good and evil. What's the relationship between consciousness, knowledge of nakedness, and knowledge of good and evil? When you know that you're vulnerable, and they also developed a knowledge of death so there's deep knowledge of vulnerability, and they get embarrassed about that and they cover themselves up. So that's culture. So it's a very profound shock when they come to recognize that they're naked. It even causes Adam to run and hide from God. Then they develop the knowledge of good and evil. This is about how human beings have this peculiar capacity that no other creatures have. I know how I can be hurt, because I am aware of my own limitations – painfully aware. And now, because I know how I can be hurt, I know how you can be hurt. And I can take advantage of that. And that's how evil enters the world. It gives people another attribute of divinity, knowing the difference between good and evil. The cosmos switches when that self-consciousness manifests itself, and that's when the possibility of evil enters the world.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Other

Death, God, People, World

“It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

The third and fourth sentences are a paraphrase of a sentence by G. K. Chesterton: "I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act." Generally Speaking, "On Holland' (1928).
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: It is time for us to realize that we're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.

Dreams, Time

“The recognition of the law of cause and effect, also known as karma, is a fundamental key to understand how you’ve created your world, with actions of your body, speech, and mind. When you truly understand karma, then you realize you are responsible for everything in your life. It is incredibly empowering to know that your future is in your hands.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

Understanding, Law, Future, World

“You know that you can't go out there and change the world tomorrow morning. It just takes time, and the realization of that does not produce frustration. What produces frustration, is when you expect the world to join with your cause it's so reasonable. It is not reasonable to unreasonable people.”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

World, Time, People, Change

“You are braver and more courageous than you realize; but fail to act or speak out, for fear of displeasing others; the anguish one lives for not acting instinctively, hurts more than if you acted.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1998

Fear, Courage, Hurt

“As one gains wisdom, you will realize that the number of friends is not important as the quality of them. The characteristics of quality friendship include trust, loyalty, respect, and time.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1980

Loyalty, Time, Friendship, Wisdom

“The path ahead is wide open and you feel a sense of emptiness; in the moment, you realize your heart is empty and the one who can make it overflow with joy, never will.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

2014

Heart, Joy, Sense, Making love

“First we thought the PC was a calculator. Then we found out how to turn numbers into letters with ASCII — and we thought it was a typewriter. Then we discovered graphics, and we thought it was a television. With the World Wide Web, we’ve realized it’s a brochure.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

World

“The more difficult the struggle, the more triumphant one is in the end.
An incredible reward is self-realization.
Fulfillment of one's own potential puts one
on a completely different
level.
It is an explosively
prodigious orgasmic experience.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“Rejection doesn't mean that you aren't good enough…
it just means the other person failed to realize what you have to offer.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Personality

“When people concentrate on the idea of beauty, they are, without realizing it, confronted with the darkest thoughts that exist in this world. That, I suppose, is how human beings are made.”

Yukio Mishima book The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

Source: The Temple of the Golden Pavilion

People, World, Beauty, Idea

“Bless you prison, bless you for being in my life. For there, lying upon the rotting prison straw, I came to realize that the object of life is not prosperity as we are made to believe, but the maturity of the human soul.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Source: The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956

Life, Soul, Lying

“Gotta realize that all you are is all you got.”

Sharon G. Flake book The Skin I'm In

Source: The Skin I'm In

“The moment you realize you are not present, you are present. Whenever you are able to observe your mind, you are no longer trapped in it. Another factor has come in, something that is not of the mind: the witnessing presence.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 400

Life, People, Books, Change

“I am alone in the midst of these happy, reasonable voices. All these creatures spend their time explaining, realizing happily that they agree with each other. In Heaven's name, why is it so important to think the same things all together.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Source: Nausea

Thinking, Time, Happiness

“Breathing is hard. When you cry so much, it makes you realize that breathing is hard.”

David Levithan book Love Is the Higher Law

Source: Love Is the Higher Law

Heartbreaking, Depressing, Cry, Sad

“You got to realize; you're the Devil as much as you're God.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

God

“Didn't they realize that the only way to change things was to act?”

Tamora Pierce The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

Source: The Woman Who Rides Like a Man

Way, Change

“First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one's enemies without prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us. It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one's enemies without prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us. It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression. The wrongdoer may request forgiveness. He may come to himself, and, like the prodigal son, move up with some dusty road, his heart palpitating with the desire for forgiveness. But only the injured neighbor, the loving father back home can really pour out the warm waters of forgiveness.

Love, Forgiveness, Evil, Hurt

“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies. If he only shows in his work that he has searched, and re-searched, for the way to put over lies, he would never accomplish anything.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Source: 1920s, "Picasso Speaks" (1923), p. 315.

Truth, Lie, Art, Way

“Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. …Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?”

Thornton Wilder Our Town

"Emily Webb"
Our Town (1938)
Context: I can't. I can't go on. It goes so fast. We don't have time to look at one another. I didn't realize. So all that was going on and we never noticed. Take me back — up the hill — to my grave. But first: Wait! One more look. Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking... and Mama's sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths... and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you.... Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute?... I'm ready to go back... I should have listened to you. That's all human beings are! Just blind people.

Life

“And they are beginning to realize that the world they live in is a place where the right thing is often hard, sometimes dangerous, and frequently unpopular.”

Lois Lowry book Number the Stars

Source: Number the Stars

World

“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.”

Robert B. Cialdini (1945) American social psychologist

Source: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Sad, Heartbreaking, Love, Way

“We are too young to realize that certain things are impossible… So we will do them anyway.”

William Wilberforce (1759–1833) English politician

“It does help to actually realize that however stunning the person who is, you know, fluttering eyelashes at you, she doesn't do anything to match up to your wife.”

Colin Firth (1960) English actor

Help, Personality

“When we realize that words can destroy something good, wonderful, and dear, and that by keeping silent we can avoid causing the least damage or harm, it’s easy to stay silent.”

Robert Walser (1878–1956) Swiss writer

Source: Masquerade and Other Stories

“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Peaceful, Life, Peace

“Melancholy suicide. —This is connected with a general state of extreme depression and exaggerated sadness, causing the patient no longer to realize sanely the bonds which connect him with people and things about him. Pleasures no longer attract;”

Émile Durkheim (1858–1917) French sociologist (1858-1917)

Source: On Suicide: A Study in Sociology

People, Pleasure, Sadness, Suicide

“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.”

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer

Truth, Lie, Art

“To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Hurtful, Life, Change

“EMILY: "Does anyone ever realize life while they live it… every, every minute?"

STAGE MANAGER: "No. Saints and poets maybe… they do some.”

Thornton Wilder Our Town

Source: Our Town

Life

“What a wonderful life I’ve had! I only wish I’d realized it sooner.”

Colette (1873–1954) 1873-1954 French novelist: wrote Gigi

Life

“Good or ill, life is life; you only realize that when you have to risk it.”

Erich Maria Remarque book The Black Obelisk

Source: The Black Obelisk

Life

“On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a joyous energy behind what you do.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Deep, Happy, Cute

“That you will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest (1996)

People, Way, Thinking

“To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”

Anthony Robbins book Unlimited Power

Variant: To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.
Source: Unlimited Power (1986), p. 237

For Team, World, Way, Communication

“Teachings that pointed the way beyond the dysfunction of the human mind, the way out of the collective insanity, were distorted and became themselves part of the insanity.
And so religions, to a large extent, became divisive rather than unifying forces. Instead of bringing about an ending of violence and hatred through a realization of the fundamental oneness of all life, they brought more violence and hatred, more divisions between people as well as between different religions and even within the same religion.”

Eckhart Tolle book A New Earth

A New Earth (2005)

Life, People, Religion, Way