Stephen Mitchell Quotes & Sayings

Children understand that 'once upon a time' refers not only
not even primarily
to the past, but to the impalpable regions of the present, the deeper places inside us where princes and dragons, wizards and talking birds, impassable roads, impossible tasks, and happy endings have always existed, alive and bursting with psychic power. — Stephen Mitchell

It is better to do your own duty badly than to perfectly do an others; when you do your duty, you are naturally free from sin. — Stephen Mitchell

The audience will remember what it didn't expect to see. — Stephen Mitchell

Even the purest of teachers will face bitter criticism from those who feel threatened by him. — Stephen Mitchell

True mastery can be gained by letting things go their own way. — Stephen Mitchell

Love softens everything except our sense of integrity. — Stephen Mitchell

The change of language is a change in reality. — Stephen Mitchell

When there's no way out, you just follow the way in front of you. — Stephen Mitchell

The Frog was the only one who could retrieve the golden ball because he was the only one who could descend into the well. He was the only one who could descend into the well because the art of diving was still unknown in Europe at this time. The art of diving was still unknown in Europe because it had not yet been imported from India. Therefore the Frog was the only one who could retrieve the golden ball. Q.E.D. — Stephen Mitchell

What is the gospel according to Jesus? Simply this: that the love we all long for in our innermost heart is already present, beyond longing. — Stephen Mitchell

Wishes are like magnifying glasses they enlarge and focus an intention that is already inside us. — Stephen Mitchell

But self-abasement is just inverted egoism. Anyone who acts with genuine humility will be as far from humiliation as from arrogance. — Stephen Mitchell

He doesn't hear but sees the Voice. — Stephen Mitchell

What people love about life is its miraculous beauty; what they hate about death is the loss and decay around it. Yet losing is not losing, and decay turns into beauty, as beauty turns back into decay. We are breathed in, breathed out. Therefore all you need is to understand the one breath that makes up the world. — Stephen Mitchell

I am speechless: what can I answer?
I put hand on my mouth.
I have said too much already;
now I will speak no more. — Stephen Mitchell

When he makes you a promise, he is assuring you that however the world changes, his word will not change. Thus, he is creating the future inside the present. Even more: he is creating the present inside the present. He is establishing on stationary point amid the infinite flux of events. — Stephen Mitchell

Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself. — Stephen Mitchell

In a cookie factory, different cookies are baked in the shape of animals, cars, people, and airplanes. They all have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same dough, and they all taste the same. — Stephen Mitchell

What we are tempted to call a disaster is sometimes the first, painful stage of a blessing. — Stephen Mitchell

The river rises, flows over its banks
and carries us all away, like mayflies
floating downstream: they stare at the sun,
then all at once there is nothing. — Stephen Mitchell

What may appear to be proud ungrateful and headstrong fron the outside may from the inside express an unshakable integrity of character. Pride, if it doesn't step over the line into arrogance, is simply an unprejudiced self-esteem. Ingratitude is the appropriate response to a kindness that has hooks on it. Headstrong is another word for trusting your own heart. — Stephen Mitchell

There are two kinds of women: those who marry princes and those who marry frogs. The frogs never become princes, but it is an acknowledged fact that a prince may very well, in the course of an ordinary marrige, gradually, at first almost imperceptibly, turn into a frog. Happy the woman who after twenty-five years still wakes up beside the prince she fell in love with. — Stephen Mitchell

Happily ever after doesn't begin with Once upon a time: it begins with Now. — Stephen Mitchell

Just as the sun by itself
illuminates the entire world,
so the field owner illumines
everything in the field. — Stephen Mitchell

When speech comes from a quiet heart, it has the strength of the orchid, and the fragrance of rock. — Stephen Mitchell

So actions themselves are not good and not bad; only the intention is important. — Stephen Mitchell

Whatever thought grips the mind at the time of death is the one which will propel it and decide for it the nature of its future birth. Thus if one wants to attain god after death, one has to think of him steadfastly ... This is not as simple as it sounds, for at the time of death the mind automatically flies to the thought of an object (i.e. money, love) which has possessed it during its sojourn in the world. Thus one must think of god constantly. — Stephen Mitchell

If you listen to the traffic with a clear mind, without any concepts, it is not noisy, it is only what it is. — Stephen Mitchell

Hmm,' said the King. 'I must write that down in my book of aphorisms. I don't know if it is deep, but it sounds deep. — Stephen Mitchell

Education is no longer thought of as a preparation for adult life, but as a continuing process of growth and development from birth until death. — Stephen Mitchell

Creativity, not normality, has become the paradigm of mental health. — Stephen Mitchell

[Jesus] teaches that just as the sun gives light to both wicked and good, and the rain brings nourishment to righteous and unrighteous, God's compassion embraces all people. There are no pre-conditions for it, nothing we need to do first, nothing we have to believe. When we are ready to receive it, it is already there. And the more we live in its presence, the more effortlessly if flows through us, until we find that we no longer need external rules or Bibles or Messiahs. — Stephen Mitchell

They say you can fool some of the people all of the time. Accordingly, I think we should concentrate on this group initially. We can move on to the people you can only fool some of the time at a later date if we deem it necessary. — Stephen Mitchell

If good happens, good; if bad happens, good. — Stephen Mitchell