Solitude

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Marcus Aurelius

The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude.
Voltaire

Dalai Lama - Inner Peace and Ultimate Truth

Quotes from the 14th Dalai Lama

World peace begins with inner peace.

I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.

I feel for a successful and happy life much of it depends on our mental outlook. The money, power or even health, I think is secondary. If mental state is calm, at peace, then you really enjoy your life.

From the viewpoint of absolute truth, what we feel and experience in our ordinary daily life is all delusion. Of all the various delusions, the sense of discrimination between oneself and others is the worst form, as it creates nothing but unpleasantness for both sides. If we can realize and meditate on ultimate truth, it will cleanse our impurities of mind and thus eradicate the sense of discrimination. This will help to create true love for one another. The search for ultimate truth is, therefore, vitally important.

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Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.
Baruch (­Benedict de) Spinoza

A person might be an expert in any field of knowledge or a master of many material skills and accomplishments. But without inner cleanliness his brain is a desert waste.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba

Life without Disturbance, Soldiers of Fate

But those occupied with the prognostication of the future and the truth, by gaining a soul free and not enslaved, think slightly of fortune, and do not obstinately persist in hope, and do not fear death, but spend their lives without disturbance by training the soul ahead of time to be confident, and neither rejoice excessively in the case of good nor are depressed in the case of foul, and are content with what is present. And those who are not in love with the impossible carry along that which ordained, and being estranged from all pleasure or flattery, they are established as soldiers of fate.

Vettius Valens