Imre Bartis

“Adversity, illness, and death are real and inevitable. We chose whether to add to these unavoidable facts of life with the suffering that we create in our own minds and hearts... the chosen suffering. The more we make a different choice, to heal our own suffering, the more we can turn to others and help to address their suffering with the laughter-filled, tear-stained eyes of the heart. And the more we turn away from our self-regard to wipe the tears from the eyes of another, the more- incredibly- we are able to hear, to heal, and to transcend our own suffering. This is the true secret to joy.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“There are going to be frustrations in life. The question is not: How do I escape? It is: How can I use this as something positive?”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World

“The first step is developing an open and critical mind, taking the doctrines that are standard and questioning them. Is the United Stated dedicated to democracy? Is Iran the greatest threat to world peace? Do we have a market system? Does the public relations industry try to promote choices or to restrict them? Anything you look at, every one of these things, you have to ask yourself: Is this true? A pretty good criterion is that if some doctrine is widely accepted without qualification, it's probably flawed.”
― Noam Chomsky, Global Discontents: Conversations on the Rising Threats to Democracy

“Marriages, even the best ones—perhaps especially the best ones—are an ongoing process of spoken and unspoken forgiveness. •”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World