motivational quotes

[WandererJolie]

I have my journal ready to go, and have been reading "The Art of Pilgrimage", which came into my Camino journey exactly when I needed it. So I've been gleaning powerful phrases and ideas from it and copying into my journal to take with me on the Norte this summer.
Do you have any quotes or phrases or lyrics (or...?) that got you pumped up, inspired, motivated, meditative, .... etc, on your Camino journey?

(I also have glued in a local newspaper clipping about the documentary "Six ways to Santiago" where the movie reviewer says irreverently that walking the Camino "makes you fancy as ^&*#*" - gosh, I laughed so hard.)

 

[WandererJolie]

Thanks, MendiWlker! I'm going to write this on the last page of my journal!

 

[wayfarer]

Life is a Camino. Don't stop walking.

 

[Anniesantiago]

The one on my website is the one I love most:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines -
Sail away from the safe harbor -
Catch the trade winds in your sails -
Explore! Dream! Discover!
Mark Twain

My personal one is "Life is an Adventure! Enjoy every moment!"

 

[Ekelund]

"Just do it"

 

[MKalcolm M]

"Solvitur ambulando" - "It is solved by walking" Apparently said by Saint Agustine.

 

[JulieandPeter]

I hope you find this quote motivational. It is in Brieley's guidebook. I read it to my husband towards the end of our Camino, and it brought tears to my eye because it very much captures the bond one develops with the people one meets along the way.

 

[NualaOC]

There are some good quotes and images here: http://www.roughguides.com/gallery/50-inspirational-travel-quotes/#/36 - including @Anniesantiago 's favourite Mark Twain one. I have that quote as a framed poster in my office!

 

[mspath]

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much...." Ralph Waldo Emerson, Country Life, 1858

 

[CaminoDebrita]

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow. Why then, oh, why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow why, oh, why can't I?

---sung by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz

 

[William Garza]

Git er Done
Larry the Cable guy...

 

[David]

"The moon & sun are eternal travellers. Even the years wander on. A lifetime adrift in a boat, or in old age leading a tired horse into the years, every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

From the earliest times there have always been some who have perished along the road. Still I have always been drawn by windblown clouds into dreams of a lifetime of wandering."

Matsuo Basho (1644-94) Zen Abbot

 

[Darren John]

To the memories wanted to the memories earned to the memories shared, Buen Camino...

 

[miguel_gp]

Within days of starting our pilgrimages we met people of all ages from many different countries. We also found: some had prepared, some hadn't; some carried huge rucksacks, some had almost nothing on their backs; some were shy, some outgoing; some believed in God, some didn't; some were happy, some sad; some had changed their lives, others liked life as it was. We met people who had lost partners, and couples walking with their children; some who had experienced broken hearts, and many who were falling in love with life.

We all walked the same road and when we got to Santiago Cathedral there was a place for each of us. Every one.

 

[CaminoDebrita]

Git er Done
Larry the Cable guy...

Ha ha! @William Garza

 

[jeffnd]

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
--from "If" by Kipling

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
from "Citizenship In A Republic" a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt

Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
Hebrews 13:2

 

[KinkyOne]

I don't know whether this one is really motivational
Walking the Camino you can make yourself miserable or strong. But the amount of walking will be still the same.

 

[CaminoDebrita]

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
--from "If" by Kipling

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
from "Citizenship In A Republic" a speech given by Theodore Roosevelt

Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.
Hebrews 13:2

Jeffnd--I'm going to attach the entire poem, because in this poem--by Rudyard Kipling--the strength of it is based on the repeated conditional sentences: if this, then that, and so on. I really love several of the lines, but I love the line that proposes the somewhat random fickle finger of fate, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster" and then treat both of those "imposters just the same." Too bad the end of the poem tells me, "you'll be a man, my son!" as I'm never, ever going to be a man, and I feel as though Kipling's poem does exclude me, but just a little. I think it's just one of those classics, however, and thanks for quoting from it. Here's the whole darn thing:

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

[VNwalking]

There are many but this David Whyte gem always chokes me up:

Camino
The way forward, the way between things,
the way already walked before you,
the path disappearing and re-appearing even
as the ground gave way beneath you,
the grief apparent only in the moment
of forgetting, then the river, the mountain,
the lifting song of the Sky Lark inviting
you over the rain filled pass when your legs
had given up, and after,
it would be dusk and the half-lit villages
in evening light; other people's homes
glimpsed through lighted windows
and inside, other people's lives; your own home
you had left crowding your memory
as you looked to see a child playing
or a mother moving from one side of
a room to another, your eyes wet
with the keen cold wind of Navarre.

But your loss brought you here to walk
under one name and one name only,
and to find the guise under which all loss can live;
remember you were given that name every day
along the way, remember you were greeted as such,
and you needed no other name, other people
seemed to know you even before you gave up
being a shadow on the road and came into the light,
even before you sat down with them,
broke bread and drank wine,
wiped the wind-tears from your eyes;
pilgrim they called you again. Pilgrim.

 

[CaminoDebrita]

Oh, my....the beauty. I love this.

 

[VNwalking]

Oh, my....the beauty. I love this.

Deb, I had intended to post this in your Poetry on the Camino thread but ended up here instead...sorry...but now will go post something there too!

 

[HuffyCane]

There is a big sign on my refrigerator that says: "Every pound you lose is one less you will carry."

 

[Darren John]

A day will come when we'll all shine together and scare away the darkness

 

[Icacos]

Some dark humour:

It's always darkest before it's pitch black.

 

[KatefromOz]

I hope you find this quote motivational. It is in Brieley's guidebook. I read it to my husband towards the end of our Camino, and it brought tears to my eye because it very much captures the bond one develops with the people one meets along the way.View attachment 18744

YEAH, Brierley moves me to emotional states too. and I ain't met him yet. but would love to chance upon the gent when in Spain somewhere, sometime. what a soulful insightful sharing. more power to him and those who ponder and wander...

 

[jirit]

Maybe not so motivational but interesting in its own way...

"If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."

— Yogi Berra

 

[newfydog]

If I were I'd post my favorite--- a bear catching a leaping salmon
"The longest journey---sometimes ends very poorly"

 

[Icacos]

If I were I'd post my favorite--- a bear catching a leaping salmon
"The longest journey---sometimes ends very poorly"

Oh dear! I'd say that's dark humour too. Is this thread starting to deteriorate?

 

[KinkyOne]

I think I read this one somewhere on the forum:
It's always worse before it gets better.

 

[Icacos]

Then there's the sweaty, exhausted hiker who dragged himself to the mountaintop and asked the yogi there, "What is the secret to happiness?" The response, "Hard work, sacrifice and deprivation."

"Is there anyone else here I could talk to?"



OK, I'll stop now.

 

[Tincatinker]

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be at your back... (rare on the Camino )

 

[jirit]

May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be at your back... (rare on the Camino )

On the camino - this means you are faced with climbing a never ending hill while dealing with last night's pilgrim dinner of beans

 

[Tincatinker]

After cena in Rabanal of chorizo, garbanzos, morcilla and (tinned) espinacacas Carmelo and I 'rocketed' up to the Cruz Ferro...

 

[Icacos]

Well, since we are deteriorating .........

NEWFIE HOOCH

Ralph and Charlie were a couple of Newfie drinking buddies who worked as airplane mechanics in Gander (Newfoundland).

One day the airport was fogged in and they were stuck in the hangar with nothing to do.

Ralph said, "Man, I wish we had something to drink!"

Charlie says "Me too. Y'know, I've heard you can drink jet fuel and get a buzz. You wanna try it?"

So they pour themselves a couple of glasses of high octane hooch and get completely smashed. The next morning Ralph wakes up and is surprised at how good he feels. In fact he feels GREAT! NO hangover! NO bad side effects. Nothing! Then the phone rings... It's Charlie.

Charlie says, "Hey, how do you feel this morning?"

"I feel great. How about you?"

Charlie says, "I feel great, too. You don't have a hangover?"

Ralph says, "Nope, that jet fuel is great stuff; no hangover, nothing. We ought to do this more often."

Charlie says, "Yeah, well there's just one thing.. Have you farted yet?"

"No...."

"Well, don't. I'm in Thunder Bay (Ontario).

 

[jirit]

Trust a moderator to muck things up

 

[WldWil]

My uncle who I hope mI ghtiume have walked with me is famous for his, "No Hill for a climber".

 

[OTH86]

I don't remember where this came from, but it came at the right time:
Everyone is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.

 

[Pelegrin]

Every day on the Camino you should give thanks because you have enough health to do it and y0u found someone to look after your parents (or other relatives).

 

[SThompson]

I have my journal ready to go, and have been reading "The Art of Pilgrimage", which came into my Camino journey exactly when I needed it. So I've been gleaning powerful phrases and ideas from it and copying into my journal to take with me on the Norte this summer.
Do you have any quotes or phrases or lyrics (or...?) that got you pumped up, inspired, motivated, meditative, .... etc, on your Camino journey?

(I also have glued in a local newspaper clipping about the documentary "Six ways to Santiago" where the movie reviewer says irreverently that walking the Camino "makes you fancy as ^&*#*" - gosh, I laughed so hard.)

Get The Pilgrim Soul: Your Journal for the Camino de Santiago from Amazon. It's loaded with motivational and inspirational quotes!

 

[hecate105]

THIS TOO WILL PASS...

 

[KinkyOne]

THIS TOO WILL PASS...

Yeah, something like:
"Everything will be, we won't."
???

 

[jeffnd]

On the camino - this means you are faced with climbing a never ending hill while dealing with last night's pilgrim dinner of beans

I saw a piece of graffiti on a rather hilly stretch that read, "Okay road! You can stop rising up to meet me now!"

 

[WandererJolie]

Hahaha! Thanks for all of your (sometimes not-so-) motivating words! The sense of humour on this forum is right up my alley.

 

[sillydoll]

Take your pick!

 

[Onquest]

Jeffnd--I'm going to attach the entire poem, because in this poem--by Rudyard Kipling--the strength of it is based on the repeated conditional sentences: if this, then that, and so on. I really love several of the lines, but I love the line that proposes the somewhat random fickle finger of fate, "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster" and then treat both of those "imposters just the same." Too bad the end of the poem tells me, "you'll be a man, my son!" as I'm never, ever going to be a man, and I feel as though Kipling's poem does exclude me, but just a little. I think it's just one of those classics, however, and thanks for quoting from it. Here's the whole darn thing:

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Too funny! This poem came up in a discussion with friends last night and we weren't even thinking about the Camino. There are no accidents, right?

 

[hecate105]

'This too will pass' was given to me by a shrink many years ago - it is useful on many levels. When things are awful and you cannot bear it - the words remind you that an end to the suffering will come. But they also stand to remind you that the good times and pleasures in life will also have an end... One size fits all really!
I gave my niece a key-ring with the 4 words engraved on it when she was going thru a particularly trying time - now she intends to get it done as a tattoo. Grandma will be pleased...

 

[Koidream]

One day you will leave the camino, but the camino never leaves you...

 

[KinkyOne]

Another one:
Blisters on your feet does not mean that the road is long, but it was uncomfortable shoes.

Sorry to all those with blister problems!!!

 

[Icacos]

"Okay road! You can stop rising up to meet me now!"

Makes me think of that stretch leading towards Santiago near the airport, if I recall correctly. The hill wasn't very steep, but it seemed to go on forever, and ever, and ever and ..........

 

[rottenad]

"Humble yourself to the Camino or the Camino will humble you." Good words from a wise woman I met on the Camino in June of 2014

 

[Icacos]

"Humble yourself to the Camino or the Camino will humble you."

"Truer words were never spoken."

 

[VNwalking]

What Icacos said!

 

[Icacos]

"Humble yourself to the Camino or the Camino will humble you." Good words from a wise woman I met on the Camino in June of 2014

Just realized, @rottenad, that you are new to the Forum. Welcome!

 

[Koidream]

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop...

 

[freespirit]

Far better it is to dare mighty things,even though checkered with failure,than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much,nor suffer much,but live in that twilight that knows not victory or defeat....(Theodore Roosevelt)

 

[Icacos]

No one knows to what heights you can soar. Even you will not know until you spread your wings. (Anonymous)

 

[freespirit]

Nothing builds self~esteem and self~confidence like accomplishment....(Thomas Carlyle)

 

[Donna Sch]

Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others.
Aristotle

Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens.
Jigoro Kano

Jigoro Kano's Five Principles of Judo:

• 1. Carefully observe oneself and one's situation, carefully observe others, and carefully observe one's environment,
  2. Seize the initiative in whatever you undertake,
  3. Consider fully, act decisively,
  4. Know when to stop,
  5. Keep to the middle.

“Vulnerability is not weakness, and the uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure we face every day are not optional. Our only choice is a question of engagement. Our willingness to own and engage with our vulnerability determines the depth of our courage and the clarity of our purpose; the level to which we protect ourselves from being vulnerable is a measure of our fear and disconnection.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

 

[Darren John]

When you're tired, exhausted and broken. When you feel you're getting no where and you've got nothing left to give......... look out at that view that surrounds you. Take it all in, and know that you've earned that! Its yours! and wherever you go in life you will take that view with you and it will keep your moving.

 

[Kropelka]

"El camino es la vida, la vida es el camino"- Life is an adventure, an adventure is life
"You never walk alone"
"Camino provides"

 

[JennyH94]

Wonderful thread, Wandering Jolie, and fantastic responses everyone -

A very simple quote which I love is by Audrey Hepburn ... here it is :

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, "I'M POSSIBLE".

In a bigger picture sense it's a good one to keep in mind in all sorts of situations, or, when on the Camino, for those days when you think that you just can't walk another step ... it's a wonderful booster.

 

[Darren John]

"Though you start it alone, you'll end it together...." heard this quote today and though I must share as at 1st it was lost on me but once explained meant alot more. Though u start the camino alone and unsure of what to come, you'll meet others along the way all in the same boat and with same goals and same direction U will end the camino together. Amazing

 

[JamieCam]

"Journey Of The Magi - Frank Turner"

Moses was old, a chill in his bones.
Falling apart, he knew in his heart that his time had come.
As he lay in his tent in the hot desert sands,
he smiled at how he would never see his promised land.
He sang "I could have lived and died an Egyptian prince,
I could have played safe,
but in the end the journey's brought joys that outweigh the pain."

Odysseus sat tired and alone.
He'd always held out against all the doubts that he would come home.
But now he was here, his soul felt estranged.
His wife and his dog, his son and his Gods, everything changed.
He sang "I could have stayed and ruled as an Ithican prince,
I could've played safe.
But in the end the journey's brought joys that outweigh the pain."

Balthazar rode for seven long years, eastwards and far,
he followed his star, and it brought him here.
To a stable in ruins in some backwater town,
to a virgin defiled, no king but a child, too small for a crown.
He sang "I could have lived with my Gods as a Persian prince,
I could've played safe,
but in the end the journey's brought joys that outweigh the pain."

Paupers and kings, princes and thieves,
singers of songs, righters of wrongs, be what you believe.
So saddle your horse and shoulder your load,
burst at the seams, be what you dream, and take to the road.