Three Quotes That Blew My Socks Off And Lit Me Up
Inspiration from Krishnamurti, Charlie Chaplin, and Matt Licata.
Here are three quotes from three very different people to lift you up, put a smile on your face and gently remind you there’s nothing more powerful than love and kindness.
The wisdom of Krishnamurti.
Krishnamurti, a philosopher, speaker, and author, was born in 1895 in a small city in Southern India. As a child, he was proclaimed to be a world teacher by the leaders of the Theosophical Society, but in 1929 rejected these claims and started a life of speaking and inspiring people to better human beings.
Here’s a wonderful quote from him.
“Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is to not ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something. And it is only such love that can know freedom.”
— Krishnamurti
I feel better each time I read it.
The line, “not even to feel that you are giving something,” is the one that nails it for me.
That’s pure love, like a parent's love for a child. Parents give, even when the child is kicking and screaming. They don’t realize they are giving. It’s all primal instinct to love and protect part of themselves.
To love without any expectation.
I find it more challenging to do with full-grown humans. For example, sometimes, it’s easy for me to love my wife unconditionally. Sometimes it’s not.
My ability to love is directly related to how much my ego is running the show or not.
Less ego, more love. More love, more freedom to be who I am because I’ve tapped into my higher self. My higher self is the source of love and the source of my freedom.
Bingo.
Exactly what Krishnamurti is talking about. When you’re filled with love, and it’s flowing out of you, you’re free because you don’t care if you get anything back or not. Your needs are already met. The feeling of giving something to someone else doesn’t exist in that space.
That’s pure magic. Oh, higher power, show me the way to that place.
The eloquence of Charlie Chaplin.
Charles Spencer Chaplin, born in England in 1889, and dying in 1977, was a British actor, director, composer, screenwriter, producer, and publisher. Chaplin was one of the actors of the silent film era, well-known for his use of mime and slapstick comedy, starring in many films, including The Immigrant, City Lights, Modern Time, The Gold Rush, The Circus, and The Great Dictator.
He was an iconic figure in the entertainment business in the early twentieth century, and in addition to his acting has provided us with many wonderful, pithy quotes. Here is one of my favorites from The Great Dictator.
“Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in.
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery, we need humanity.
More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.”
— Charlie Chaplin
I read this just a few weeks ago when the invasion of Ukraine began, and although it might seem contemporary, he wrote it in the late 1930s as the world was erupting into World War II.
It’s eloquently poetic, stunningly visual, and like a sharp knife, it cuts through worldly madness to the raw truth — we’ve drifted off course, and we need to reclaim our humanity.
How appropriate, how timely, and how deeply true.
Chaplin tells us that it’s not how smart we are that counts — it’s how big our heart is. He urges us to feed our souls to be in touch with what makes us human — our ability to love and feel.
”We think too much and feel too little” — a powerhouse line. There are times when part of me screams silently to stop thinking, stop the endless replays, the churn, the projections, and fear. Thinking can be painful, tiresome, sterile, and devoid of life. No wonder we numb ourselves up so much.
But to feel my essence, my higher consciousness, to feel the spiritual electricity that gives me life and healing — this is what I deeply crave. This is living. This is being alive.
The magic of Matt Licata.
Matt Licata is a psychotherapist and author of A Healing Space: Befriending Ourselves in Difficult Times and The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You.
He says,
“Perhaps our “life’s purpose” has nothing to do with what job we will find, what new thing we will manifest or attract for ourselves, or what mythical awakening journey we will complete.
Perhaps the purpose of our life is to fully live, finally, to touch each here and now moment with our presence and with the gift of our one, wild heart.
And to do whatever we can to help others, to hold them when they are hurting, to listen carefully to their stories and the ways they are attempting to make sense of a world that has gone a bit mad.
To speak kind words and not forget the erupting miracle of the other as it appears in front of us. Perhaps this is the most radical gift that we can all give.”
— Matt Licata
Pure brilliance. He’s deconstructing and simplifying what we can make so complex and burdensome — finding our elusive purpose in life or questioning our progress on the spiritual path.
I’ve read this quote over ten times, and each time I do, I feel better, more at peace, feeling his message resonate with my inner sage.
To live fully in the moment, in touch with not just our heart but our “wild heart.” I love that. I don’t know about you, but whatever it means to live from a wild heart, I want that. Maybe a wild heart is a free heart, a heart that reaches out to embrace life fully, not afraid to wander, get lost, and learn.
To listen to others without judging, knowing they may be battling their own demons, and be kind — how gracious and fulfilling is that when we do it.
Surely we need more kindness in a world that often buries the innate goodness of life under its tough veneer.
Have a wonderful day. Thanks for reading. — Don
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