Words can be one of the most beautiful ways to express spiritual sentiments and find inspiration. From religious texts to worldly philosophers, you can find words all over the place to uplift and brighten your spirit.

Reading the spiritual notions and beliefs of others has the potential to help remind you of your own path or give you ideas to alter or enhance your personal practice. Your spirituality may be linked to religion, or it may be more of a secular or healing guide for you. Whatever it means to you, consuming spiritual language often provides great support.

If you are feeling melancholy or uninspired, or if you feel you need the guidance of others’ words who live or have lived a spiritual path, may the following quotes and sayings bring some light into your life and awaken your inner self.

1. “Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not.” — Deepak Chopra

2. “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” — Rumi

3. “Within each of us is a light, awake, encoded in the fibers of our existence. Divine ecstasy is the totality of this marvelous creation experienced in the hearts of humanity.” — Tony Samara

4. “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are.” — Carl Jung

5. “Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.” — Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

6. “Part of spiritual and emotional maturity is recognizing that it’s not like you’re going to try to fix yourself and become a different person. You remain the same person, but you become awakened.” — Jack Kornfield

7. “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

8. “When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.” — Marcus Aurelius

9. “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.” — Helen Keller

10. “Spiritual growth is not like fast food. It takes time for its roots to grow, and that requires us to be receptive and patient.” — Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

11. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.” — Eckhart Tolle

12. “Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know” — Pema Chödrön

13.  “Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.” — Mahatma Gandhi

14.  “But grace is to the soul what the cell is to the body—each serves as the key component of life. As physical life is dependent on the cell, so grace is the essence of spiritual life.” — Gordon Kainer

15.  “The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love.” — Marianne Williamson

16. “You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.” — Swami Vivekananda

17. “Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives.” — Brené Brown

18. “The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears.” — Native American Proverb

19. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

20.  “You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha

21. “It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters.” — Amit Ray

22. “Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” — Denis Waitley

23. “Wisdom tells me I am nothing. Love tells me I am everything. Between the two my life flows.” — Nisargadatta Maharaj

24. “Know what sparks the light in you so that you, in your own way, can illuminate the world.” — Oprah Winfrey

25. “Sometimes I think there are only two instructions we need to follow to develop and deepen our spiritual life: slow down and let go.” – Oriah Mountain Dreamer

26. “Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” — Wayne Dyer

27.  “The spiritual life is not a life before, after, or beyond our everyday existence. No, the spiritual life can only be real when it is lived in the midst of the pains and joys of the here and now.” — Henri Nouwen

28.  “Simplify your life. You don’t grow spiritual, you shrink spiritual.” — Steve Maraboli

29.  “It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” — Confucius

30.  “You must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure make you forget that you have been created for greater things: to love and to be loved.” — Mother Teresa

31.  “Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity, and you are the mirror.” — Kahlil Gibran

32.  “Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist.” — Stephen Hawking

33.  “Spirituality is not an extraterrestrial thing—it is the essence of human existence.” — Sadhguru

34.  “Today I choose self-acceptance. Today I choose to walk in the direction of simply what feels good to me. Today I believe my spirit instead of my thoughts. Today I am free.” — Jodi Livon

35.  “And above all, remember that the meaning of life is to build a life as if it were a work of art.” — Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel