“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
where knowledge is free;
where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
where words come out from the depth of truth;
where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
where the mind is led forward into ever-widening thought and action – into that heaven of freedom, let my country awake.”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 – 1941), Bengali poet and the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1913)

“When I open my eyes to the outer world, I feel myself as a drop in the sea. But when I close my eyes and look within, I see the whole universe as a bubble raised in the ocean of my heart.”
Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882 – 1927), teacher of Universal Sufism, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“These are a few of my favourite life lessons that I learned as a result of walking on the Moon and the preparation that took us there—the guiding principles that have helped keep me going since returning to Earth. • The sky is not the limit … there are footprints on the Moon! • Keep your mind open to possibilities. • Show me your friends, and I will show you your future. • Second comes right after first. • Write your own epitaph. • Maintain your spirit of adventure. • Failure is always an option. • Practice respect for all people. • Do what you believe is right even when others choose otherwise. • Trust your gut … and your instruments. • Laugh … a lot! • Keep a young mind-set at every age. • Help others go beyond where you have gone. I hope these lessons will be as helpful to you as they have been to me. Take it from a man who has walked on the Moon: Be careful what you dream—it just might come to pass, so be prepared. Apollo is the story of people at their best, working together for a common goal. We started with a dream, and we can do these kinds of things again. With a united effort and a great team, you too can achieve great things. I know, because I am living proof that no dream is too high!”

Buzz Aldrin, who landed on the moon with Neil Armstrong on this day in 1969

“We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of Nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.”
Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630), who on this day in 1595 had an epiphany and developed his theory of the geometrical basis of the universe.

“There is only one breath. All are made of the same clay. Light within all is the same.”
Guru Gobind Singh, tenth Guru of Sikhism, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection

“To give is to receive. To receive is to give.
To teach is to learn. To learn is to teach.
To love is to be loved. To be loved is to love.
In this world, there cannot be any person or place or thing or even a moment in time that only receives or only gives.
And if there is, it is for us to heal.
And then, we will be healed.”
Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

“Three things cannot be retrieved:
The arrow once sped from the bow
The word spoken in haste
The missed opportunity.”
Ali the Lion, Caliph of Islam, son-in-law of Muhammad the Prophet (peace be upon him), quoted in Caravan of Dreams by Idries Shah

“The reality of Divinity is like an endless ocean. Revelation may be likened to the rain. Can you imagine the cessation of rain? Ever on the face of the earth somewhere rain is pouring down.”
Abdu’l Baha (1844 – 1921), head of the Baha’i faith from 1892 to 1921

From The Celtic Spirit: Meditations for the Turning Year by Caitlin Matthews, 
“The Language of the Birds
“Birds now represent the continued presence of the past, evoked by the singing, whistling and calling that fell into millions of ancestral ears and there left images that we all inherit.” Jacquetta Hawkes, A Land
The Celtic peoples held birds in high esteem, as the mouthpieces of Spirit. Their flight and calls were widely used in divination. The term “language of the birds” is used to mean the secret knowledge that runs beneath the web of words; it implies an almost magical intelligence that does not depend upon the help of any kind of human communication system. It is innate, subtle, coded knowledge that we can somehow understand.
The idea of the unchanging song of the birds singing in our ears as well as the ears of our ancestors conjures a potent image of the continuation of life – an inheritance so subtle that we must immerse ourselves in the sound of birdcall in order to enter its richness. The oracular calling of birds speaks directly to our hearts, bypassing our minds; it is a mode of divination that both we and our ancestors had to learn – an unchanging language of meaning.
The little songbirds who make the sweetest song, the crows and ravens whose raucous call is most vocal, the estuary and marsh birds with their lonesome sound, the hawks and owls shrieking and signalling, all have their own language and special symbolism, essential elements of our living world.
If we wish to understand the flight and calling of birds, we must listen, near dawn or in the late afternoon, to their song; and listening, enter a place of stillness within in order to comprehend their message to us.
Listen to the singing of birds today, at dawn or twilight. Meditate with a clear mind and listen to what you are told.”

“Life is a gift which we have not earned and for which we cannot pay. There is no necessity that there be a universe, no inevitability about a world moving towards life and then self-awareness. There might have been … nothing at all. Since we have not earned J. S. Bach – or friends or crocuses – the best we can do is to express our gratitude for the undeserved gifts, and do our share of the work of creation.”

Robert R. Walsh (1937 – 2016), Unitarian Universalist minister, quoted in Fragments of Holiness for Daily Reflection