APPRECIATION

Related States & Conditions | Syntonic | Dystonic

Reflection is the business of humankind; a sense of their state is the first duty: but who remembereth themselves in joy? Is it not in mercy then that sorrow is allotted unto us?
Khemetic Saying
Temt Tchaas: Egyptian Proverbs , Muata Ashaya Ashby, ed.

When you drink the water, remember the spring.
Chinese Saying

A man dies before we appreciate him.
Jabo (Liberia) Saying

This is the day which the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
The Bible
c. 367 CE, Christian Sacred Text
Psalm 119:24

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down the dulcimer. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.
Rumi
1207-1273, Afghani-Turkish Sufi Mystic, Poet
Open Secret: Versions of Rumi , John Moyne and Coleman Barks, trs., 1984

When eating fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.
Vietnamese Saying

Wise men appreciate all men, for they see the good in each and know how hard it is to make anything good.
Baltasar Gracian
1601-1685, Spanish Jesuit, Writer, Philosopher

Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools.
Richard Steele
1672-1729, Irish-English Writer, Dramatist, Politician

By appreciation, we make excellence in others our own property.
Voltaire
1694-1778, French Philosopher, Dramatist, Poet, Historian, Writer, Critic

He who is carried on another's back does not appreciate how far the town is.
African Saying

Praise the bridge that carried you over.
George Colman, The Younger
1762-1836, English Dramatist

Only a just appreciation of things will enable us to possess them in tranquility, or console ourselves for their loss.
Madame Swetchine
1782-1857, Russian Writer
The Writings of Madame Swetchine

Reflect on your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.
Charles Dickens
1812-1870, English Writer

Don't be chary of appreciation. Hearts are unconsciously hungry for it.
Phillips Brooks
1835-1893, American Episcopal Cleric

Bak no nuo wa shot du fi i tel i tier aaf.
The back does not know what the shirt does for it until it is torn off.
Jamaican Saying

I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.
Elbert Hubbard
1856-1915, American Editor, Publisher, Writer

Once I was invited to a dinner. The hostess asked me to say grace. I said, "I will say grace to you, madam. My grace and thanks are to you."
Vivekananda
1863-1902, Indian Guru, Writer
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 1984-1987 , 8:132

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
William Davies
1871-1940, Welsh Poet, Writer, Tramp
"Leisure," The Collected Poems of William H. Davies

What a wonderful life I've had! I only wish I'd realized it sooner.
Colette
1873-1954, French Writer

The aim of life is appreciation; there is no sense in not appreciating things; and there is no sense in having more of them if you have less appreciation of them.
G. K Chesterton
1874-1936, English Writer, Poet, Critic
Autobiography

Unless we learn the lesson of self-appreciation and practice it, we shall spend our lives imitating other people and deprecating ourselves.
Aida Walker
1880-1914, African-American Singer, Dancer

The faculty of appreciation makes one light. Life is just like the ocean. When there is no appreciation, no receptivity, man sinks like a piece of iron to the bottom of the sea. He cannot float like the boat which is hollow, which is receptive.
Hazrat Khan
1882-1927, Indian Sufi Master, Musician
The Mysticism of Sound and Music , 1991

There is so much to love and to admire in this life that it is an act of ingratitude not to be happy and content in this existence.
Lin Yutang
1895-1976, Chinese Writer, Dramatist, Translator
The Pleasures of a Nonconformist

So much of human life and happiness is subjective that we should be fools not to take advantage of this subjectivity unashamedly and learn to cultivate the seeing eye and the perceptive soul for the beauties that lie around us, and be grateful for it. Of all human vices, the greatest is ingratitude, and we must conclude that the world looks sick because the soul looking on is sick … If life is all subjective, why not be subjectively happy rather than subjectively sad?
Lin
On the Wisdom of America

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
Thornton Wilder
1897-1975, American Dramatist
The Woman of Andros

"Grumbles" … the widespread tendency to undervalue one's already achieved need-gratifications, or even to devalue them and throw them away. Self-actualizing persons are relatively exempted from this profound source of human unhappiness. In a word, they are capable of "gratitude." The blessedness of their blessings remains conscious. Miracles remain miracles even though occurring again and again. The awareness of undeserved good luck, of gratuitous grace, guarantees for them that life remains precious and never grows stale.
Abraham Maslow
1908-1970, American Psychologist, Educator
Motivation and Personality

If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
Albet Camus
1913-1960, Algerian-French Writer, Essayist, Dramatist, 1957 Nobel Laureate

We humans think we are smart, but an orchid, for example, knows how to produce noble, symmetrical flowers, and a snail knows how to make a beautiful, well-proportioned shell. Compared with their knowledge, ours is not worth much at all. We should bow deeply before the orchid and the snail and join our palms reverently before the monarch butterfly and the magnolia tree. The feeling of respect for all species will help us recognize the noblest nature in ourselves.
Thich Nhat Hanh
1926-, Vietnamese Buddhist Master, Poet, Writer, Activist
The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation , Arnold Kotler, ed., 1988

The roots of all goodness lie in the soil of appreciation for goodness.
Dalai Lama
1935-, Tibetan Leader, 14th Dalai Lama, Teacher, Writer

Stop and listen to the heart, the wind outside, to one another, to the changing patterns of this mysterious life. It comes moment after moment, out of nothing, and disappears into nothing. Live with less grasping and more appreciation and caring.
Jack Kornfield
1945-, American Psychologist, Teacher, Writer

The direct experience of the consciousness of love is gratitude. Gratitude is the process of recognizing what is true. Gratitude is an act of awareness. Without awareness, there is no recognition of anything and, therefore, no love of anything.
Tae Yun Kim
1946-, Korean Martial Artist, Founder of Jung SuWon
Seven Steps to Inner Power , 1991

Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth.
- George W. Crane

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think … I can't believe I'm here. This is so wonderful.
- Leslie Darin
Historian

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Wisdom for The Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing, © 2004