Quotes by Dan Millman

56 quotes     Show as list

Wisdom is the use of knowledge
Freedom from mental distraction equals power.
Better never begin; once begun, better finish.
Dream big. Start small and then connect the dots.
In life, stress happens when you resist what arises.
To be authentic literally means to be your own author.
If we agree on everything, only one of us is necessary.
You have to lose your mind in order to regain your senses.
We discover our character through decisions under pressure.
The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination.
Before you can see the Light, you have to deal with the darkness.
Choice means saying no to one thing so you can say yes to another.
While some of us act without thinking, too many of us think without acting.
If you face just one opponent, and you doubt yourself, you're out-numbered.
Choice means giving up something you want for something else you want more.
You're a prisoner of your own illusions - about yourself and about the world.
If you want peace of mind I suggest you resign as general manager of the universe.
Life is not a private affair. A story and its lessons are only made useful if shared.
Conscious evolution begins as we take responsibility for clearing our own obstructions.
You don't have to control your thoughts; you just have to stop letting them control you.
Unless someone truly has the power to say no, they never truly have the power to say yes.
Life comes at us in waves. We can't predict or control those waves, but we can learn to surf.
Meditation is a valuable exercise, but eventually you have to open up your eyes and look around.
When you release your expectations that the world should fulfill you, your disappointments vanish.
The hours of your life are the most valuable currency you will ever have. How will you spend them?
Your fears are not walls, but hurdles. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of it.
It may be true that the unexamined life is not worth living-but neither is the unlived life worth examining.
To rid yourself of old patterns, focus all your energy not on struggling with the old, but on building the new.
The secret of change consists in concentrating one's energy to create the new, and not to fight against the old.
Everyone tells you what's good for you. they don't want you to find your own answers. they want you to believe theirs.
Allow rather than resist what arises in the present moment-inside or out. Let it be interesting rather than good or bad.
Life is a series of moments. The quality of attention and action that we bring to each moment determines the quality of our lives.
Willpower is the key to success. Successful people strive no matter what they feel by applying their will to overcome apathy, doubt or fear.
Carry your groceries, garden, and do other activities that keep you moving. You will add more years to your life and more life to your years.
Thoughts naturally arise. The point of meditation is not to banish thoughts but to make peace with them by realizing their lack of substance.
Money is neither my god nor my devil. It is a form of energy that tends to make us more of who we already are, whether it's greedy or loving.
There is no path to Happiness. Happiness is the path. There is no path to Love. Love is the path. There is no path to Peace. Peace is the path.
You are a dynamic whole greater than the sum of your parts. By integrating your body, mind, and emotions through training, you reshape your life.
If you desire to dig a well to reach water, your efforts are more fruitful if you dig one 100-foot-deep hole than if you dig ten holes each 10 feet deep.
The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for.
There are times to let things happen, and times to make things happen. Now is that time. You will either make things happen, watch what happens, or wonder what happened.
Sports and sex and movies are not inherently bad - But for you they're addictions, not enjoyments. You use them to distract you from what you know you should do. Break free!
You can change your life with a simple shift of attention. But to make that simple shift, you have to find your heart. It's the only way. Accept yourself, then transcend yourself.
I have an almost religious zeal... not for technology per se, but for the Internet which is for me, the nervous system of mother Earth, which I see as a living creature, linking up.
If you don't get what you want, you suffer; if you get what you don't want, you suffer; even when you get exactly what you want, you still suffer because you can't hold on to it forever.
Like this gas tank, you are overflowing with preconceptions, full of useless knowledge. You hold many facts and opinions, yet know little of yourself. Before you can learn, you'll have to first empty your tank.
It's better to make a mistake with the full force of your being than to timidly avoid mistakes with a trembling spirit. Responsibility means recognizing both pleasure and price, action and consequence, then making a choice.
Ultimately, fear of failure generates a vicious circle that creates what is most feared. To break this cycle, you need to make peace with failure. It isn't enough to merely tolerate it; you need to appreciate the failure and use it ...
Energy follows thought; we move toward, but not beyond, what we can imagine. What we assume, expect, or believe creates and colors our experience. By expanding our deepest beliefs about what is possible, we change our experience of life.
If babies held the same tendency toward self-criticism as adults, they might never learn to walk or talk. Can you imagine infants stomping, 'Aarggh! Screwed up again!' Fortunately, babies are free of self-criticism. They just keep practicing.
You are rich if you have enough money to satisfy all your desires. So there are two ways to be rich: you earn, inherit, borrow, beg, or steal enough money to meet all your desires; or you cultivate a simple lifestyle of few desires; that way you always have enough money.
Every positive change - every jump to a higher level of energy and awareness - involves a rite of passage. Each time to ascend to a higher rung on the ladder of personal evolution, we must go through a period of discomfort, of initiation. I have never found an exception.
It is better for you to take responsibility for your life as it is, instead of blaming others, or circumstances, for your predicament. As your eyes open, you'll see that your state of health, happiness, and every circumstance of your life has been, in large part, arranged by you - consciously or unconsciously.
Pain is a relatively objective, physical phenomenon; suffering is our psychological resistance to what happens. Events may create physical pain, but they do not in themselves create suffering. Resistance creates suffering. Stress happens when your mind resists what is... The only problem in your life is your mind's resistance to life as it unfolds.
I'd always believed that a life of quality, enjoyment, and wisdom were my human birthright and would be automatically bestowed upon me as time passed. I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live - that there were specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple, happy, uncomplicated life.
Moderation? It's mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It's the devil's dilemma. It's neither doing nor not doing. It's the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It's for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die. Moderation...is lukewarm tea, the devil's own brew.
56 quotes     Show as list