It is the disaster of our entire existence that we live thus away from our soul, and stand in such dread of its slightest movement. Did we but allow it to smile frankly in its silence and its radiance, we should be already living an eternal life. We have only to think for an instant how much it succeeds in accomplishing during those rare moments when we knock off its chains — for it is our custom to enchain it as though it were distraught — what it does in love, for instance, for there we do permit it at times to approach the lattices of external life. Maurice Maeterlinck
About This Quote

The Buddha is suggesting that we live in fear of living authentically. By "authentic," he means that we should live authentically to who we are, not who others want us to be or what society demands. He says that the only thing holding us back from living authentically is our fear of what others will think of us.

Source: The Treasure Of The Humble

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best. - Marilyn Monroe
  2. You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth. - William W. Purkey
  3. You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. - Dr. Seuss
  4. A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. - Elbert Hubbard
  5. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. - Unknown
More Quotes By Maurice Maeterlinck
  1. When we lose one we love, our bitterest tears are called forth by the memory of hours when we loved not enough.
  2. For it is our most secret desire that governs and dominates all. If your eyes look for nothing but evil, you will always see evil triumphant; but if you have learned to let your glance rest on sincerity, simpleness, truth, you will ever discover, deep...
  3. Our lives must be spent seeking our God, for God hides; but His artifices, once they be known, seem so simple and smiling! From that moment, the merest nothing reveals His presence, and the greatness of our life depends on so little.
  4. Should we not invariably act in this life as though the God whom our heart desires with its highest desire were watching our every action?
  5. For what are in reality the things we call ‘Wisdom, ’ ‘Virtue, ’ ‘Heroism, ’ ‘sublime hours, ’ and ‘great moments of life, ’ but the moments when we have more or less issued forth from ourselves, and have been able to halt, be it...
Related Topics