35 Quotes by Madeleine Ryan

People are so attracted to what harms them. Being infatuated, and obsessed, and jealous, and tormented, and competitive, and longing for things, and wanting to possess people, and dying and killing for love, is deemed to be romantic, and sensual, and liberated. Yuck.

Prayers aren't reserved for those who regularly go to church, or to a synagogue, or to a mosque, or wherever. Prayers are for everyone. Even spells and curses aren't just for those who own cauldrons, or broomsticks, or crystal balls. We're all saying prayers and casting spells with our words, and our thoughts, and where we point our fingers.

Because everyone has such an individualized relationship with words, and with labels. No matter how "conventional" or "traditional" or "widely accepted" we might perceive our choice of words or labels to be, our interpretations are subjective.

People think that seeing is blaming. They assume that through articulating what's happening that they're being judged, and ridiculed, when they're actually just being seen. I don't mean to condemn. A scientist doesn't judge the organisms in a petri dish. Scientific experiments aren't about making the organisms right or wrong for doing what they're doing. It's about watching how they work, and getting to know how they behave and interact.

I'm standing outside and so far I have nothing to say to anyone, and I like it that way because it makes me seem more interesting. It's amazing what not speaking can do for other people in terms of levels of interest.

I find that I have a much deeper appreciation for my fellow human beings when their mouths are shut.

Yet death unites us in the same way that birth does. It's something that we all have in common. It's a part of us. It's a doorway, and just because we don't understand what's in the next room, it doesn't mean that there isn't a next room, or that the next room is something to be scared of. It just means that we haven't been into it before. Or maybe we have, and we just can't remember.

It's important to resist the urge to put things we can't comprehend into cages and to try to make them dance for us.

It's so funny how we can go without food or water for days, and we can hold our breath for minutes at a time, and yet we can't go without experiencing ourselves for a millisecond. There's no way of escaping our inner world. Information keeps rolling in, and rolling out. It's constantly being sensed, and felt, and observed, and assessed. It's endless.