Top 25 Enlightened Quotes of 101

With an open mind, seek and listen to all the highest ideals. Consider the most enlightened thoughts. Then choose your path, person by person, each for oneself.

With an open mind, seek and listen to all the highest ideals. Consider the most enlightened thoughts. Then choose your path, person by person, each for oneself.

Zoroaster

Mind, Path, Enlightened

Do not try to become anything. Do not make yourself into anything. Do not be a meditator. Do not become enlightened. When you sit, let it be. What you walk, let it be. Grasp at nothing. Resist nothing.

Ajahn Chah

Buddhist, Trying, Enlightened

Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.

James Madison

Political, Politics, Enlightened

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1818). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788, by Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Jay: with an Appendix, Containing the Letters of Pacificus and Helvidius, on the Proclamation of Neutrality of 1793; Also, the Original Articles of Confederation, and the Constitution of the United States, with the Amendments Made Thereto”, p.60

Positions are just a social construct that mean nothing to the enlightened man.

Manuel Neuer

Mean, Men, Enlightened

Without the instinct for adventure, any civilization, however enlightened; any state, however well-ordered, will wilt and wither.

Kurt Hahn

Adventure, Civilization, Enlightened

The Art of Peace begins with you.

Morihei Ueshiba

Art, Enlightenment, Enlightened

Morihei Ueshiba, John Stevens (2010). “The Art of Peace”, p.3, Shambhala Publications

Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity.

Shunryu Suzuki

Enlightened, Persons, Activity

We stumble and fall constantly, even when we are most enlightened.

Thomas Merton

Courage, Fall, Enlightened

Thomas Merton (2011). “Thoughts In Solitude”, p.53, Macmillan

How can anybody be enlightened? Truth is after all so poorly lit

Neil Peart

Truth Is, Enlightened, Lit

Reading nurtures the soul, and an enlightened friend brings it solace.

Voltaire

Reading, Soul, Enlightened

Voltaire, Roger Pearson (2006). “Candide and Other Stories”, p.222, OUP Oxford

An Enlightened Master is ideal only if your goal is to become a Benighted Slave.

Robert Anton Wilson

Goal, Slave, Enlightened

Those who are enlightened never stop forging themselves.

Morihei Ueshiba

Enlightened, Forging

Morihei Ueshiba, John Stevens (2010). “The Art of Peace”, p.79, Shambhala Publications

To be learned, add something each day. To be enlightened drop something each day.

Laozi

Add, Each Day, Enlightened

It's possible to be completely enlightened... except with your family.

Chogyam Trungpa

Enlightened, Our Family

I can't think logically about who I am or where I am going. I have been very ecstatic, horribly depressed, shocked, elated, enlightened, and enervated.

Sylvia Plath

Thinking, Who I Am, Enlightened

Sylvia Plath, Aurelia Schober Plath (1975). “Letters home: correspondence, 1950-1963”, HarperCollins Publishers

Enlightened people like Osho are ahead of their times. It is good that more and more young people are now reading his works.

K. R. Narayanan

Reading, People, Enlightened

But, is it possible for princes and ministers to be enlightened, when private individuals are not so?

Jean-Baptiste Say

Enlightened, Individual, Ministers

Jean Baptiste Say (1827). “A treatise on political economy: or, The production, distribution and consumption of wealth”, p.51

There will never be a really free and enlightened state until the state comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived.

Henry David Thoreau

Independent, Politics, Enlightened

Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.211, Graphic Arts Books