200 Yoga Quotes & Sayings to Inspire Daily Life & Yoga Class
Best Yoga Quotes
“Anybody can breathe, therefore anyone can practice yoga.”—T.K.V. Desikachar, yoga teacher and guru
Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance.”—Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, prenatal yoga pioneer
“All kidding aside, if everyone did yoga, we’d have world peace.”—Rory Freedman, author and health coach
“Yoga is not about touching your toes, it’s about what you learn on the way down.”—Jigar Gor
“Yoga means addition—addition of energy, strength, and beauty to body, mind, and soul.”—Amit Ray, Indian author and spiritualist
“Yoga is essentially a practice for your soul, working through the medium of your body.”—Tara Fraser, yoga teacher and author
“Yoga begins right where I am—not where I was yesterday or where I long to be.”—Linda Sparrowe, yoga writer and teacher
“Yoga does not transform the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.”—B.K.S. Iyengar, founder of the Iyengar style of yoga
“The nature of yoga is to shine the light of awareness into the darkest corners of the body.”—Jason Crandell, yoga and meditation expert
“Yoga is the fountain of youth. You’re only as young as your spine is flexible.”—Bob Harper, celebrity fitness trainer and host of The Biggest Loser
“It doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go—what does matter is who you are when you get there.”—Max Storm, breathing teacher, speaker, and author
“The word ‘yoga’ means skill—skill to live your life, to manage your mind, to deal with your emotions, to be with people, to be in love, and not let that love turn into hatred.”—Sri Chinmoy, Indian spiritual leader and meditation expert
“You spend so much time in your head in life. And what yoga does is, it asks you to allow your head to be quiet, to allow it to be still, just for an hour and a half. Just deal with your body and your breath.”—Colin Farrell, actor
Happy Yoga Quotes on Happiness
Happy Yoga Quotes
“Yoga makes me happy.”
“Takes time to do what makes your soul happy.”
“I want to make myself so happy that others get happy just looking at me.”
“Make yourself so happy so that when others look at you they become happy too.” —Yogi Bhajan
“Yoga began with the first person wanting to be healthy and happy all the time.” —Sri Swami Satchidananda
“Yoga makes you harmonious with nature and teaches you to be joyfully curious about your inner world.” —Debasish Maridha
“Yoga makes you free. It makes you happy. It gets you out of the traps that create human misery. It makes you vibrate faster.” —Frederick Lenz
“Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked.” —Patañjali
“By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard toward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.” —Patanjali
“I was looking for someone to inspire me, motivate me, support me, keep me focused… Someone who would love me, cherish me, make me happy, and I realized all along that I was looking for myself.” —Unknown
Yoga Quotes on Happiness
“Happiness is an inside job.” —William Arthur Ward
“Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment.” —Matthieu Ricard
“Pain and Happiness are the coverings over reality.” —Yogi Vini
“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” —Margaret Lee Runbeck
“Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.” —Matthieu Ricard
“True happiness is when the love that is within us finds expression in external activities.” —Ammachi, the Hugging Saint
“The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” —Buddha
“Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
“Meditation is not what you think it is. It’s a method of accessing unerring wisdom from the superconscious mind so you can experience a happy, healthy and creatively rewarding life.” —Leonard Perlmutter
“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 that has been opened for us.” —Helen Keller
“Through the practices of yoga, we discover that concern for the happiness and well-being of others, including animals, must be an essential part of our own quest for happiness and well-being. The fork can be a powerful weapon of mass destruction or a tool to create peace on Earth.” —Sharon Gannon
“When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” —John Lennon
“Habits allow us to not think about what we’re doing . . . giving us the illusion of ease. When we are under the illusion of ease, not thinking about what we’re doing. Breathing the same old way, moving the same old way, thinking the same old way we check out of the present, out of happiness itself.” —Alex Levin
Funny Yoga Quotes
“Smiling is mouth yoga.” —Thich Nhat Hanh
“Yoga. Because punching people is frowned upon.”
“Keep calm and ommm… nonommm…” —Anonymous
“I do yoga to burn off the crazy”
“The yoga pose you avoid the most you need the most.”
“A day without yoga is like a sundae without sprinkles” —Emma Mildon
“What Yoga really is… Spending an entire hour trying not to fart.”—Anonymous
“Yoga is almost like music in a way; there’s no end to it.” —Sting
“Yoga is not about tightening your ass. It’s about getting your head out of it.” —Eric Paskel
“A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves.” —T. Guillemets
“When I’m under stress, I do yoga. It’s when I’m happiest that I have a problem with junk food.” —Britney Spears
“Some days you eat salad and go do Yoga. Some days you eat cupcakes and refuse to put on pants. This is called balance.”
“Yoga is the unifying art of transforming dharma into action, be it through inspired thought, properly nurturing our children, a painting, a kindness or an act of peace that forever moves humanity forward.” —Micheline Berry
Inspirational Yoga Quotes for Class
“The attitude of gratitude is the highest yoga.” —Yogi Bhajan
“Yoga is not for the flexible. It’s for the willing.” —Anonymous
“Here and now is where yoga begins” —The Yoga Sutras
“Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.” —Sri K. Pattabhi Jois
“The yoga pose you avoid the most you need the most.” —Anonymous
“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” —Sakyong Mipham
“Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked.” —T. K. V. Desikachar
“Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.” —Jason Crandell
“Throw your hair in a bun, downward dog like a boss, and handle it.” —Anonymous
“Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is.” —Richard Freeman
“Yoga is a light, which once lit, will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter the flame.” —B.K.S. Iyengar
“The very heart of yoga practice is ‘abyhasa’ – steady effort in the direction you want to go.” —Sally Kempton
“Change only happens in the present moment. The past is already done. The future is just energy and intention.” —Kino MacGregor
“I think it’s interesting that the opposite of being active in yoga is not being passive. It’s being receptive.” —Cyndi Lee
“Sometimes in yoga I feel like a graceful swan. Other times I feel like a baby giraffe trying to use its legs.” —Anonymous
“Move your joints every day. You have to find your own tricks. Bury your mind deep in your heart, and watch the body move by itself.” —Sri Dharma Mittra
“Yoga is not a religion. It is a science, science of well-being, science of youthfulness, science of integrating body, mind and soul.” —Amit Ray, Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style
“That’s exactly how it is in yoga. The places where you have the most resistance are actually the places that are going to be the areas of the greatest liberation.” —Rodney Yee
“When we push for immediate results and instant healing, we never inhabit the important in-between phase, which is where much of the learning and growth actually happen.” —Bo Forbes, Yoga for Emotional Balance
“…just enjoy yourself. For many years I mistook discipline as ambition. Now I believe it to be more about consistency. Do get on the mat. Practice and life are not that different.” —Judith Hanson Lasater
“I had discovered something; there was a pleasure in becoming something new. You could will yourself into a fresh shape. Now all I had to do was figure out how to do it out there, in my life.” —Claire Dederer
“Yoga is a dance between control and surrender – between pushing and letting go – and when to push and when to let go becomes part of the creative process, part of the open-ended exploration of your being.” —Joel Kramer
“Balancing in yoga and life is a reflection of our inner state. Can we dance with change? Can we fall and try again with playfulness? Do we have the focus, skill, and attunement to find the still point within it all?” —Shiva Rea
“Yoga is not a work-out, it is a work-in. And this is the point of spiritual practice; to make us teachable; to open up our hearts and focus our awareness so that we can know what we already know and be who we already are.” —Rolf Gates
“Learning to be present with yourself and to abide in that which is steady and comfortable does not allow space for self-judgment. When you live this way, you are practicing yoga: you are living fully.” —Judith Hanson Lasater, Living Your Yoga: Finding the Spiritual in Everyday Life
“True yoga is not about the shape of your body, but the shape of your life. Yoga is not to be performed; yoga is to be lived. Yoga doesn’t care about what you have been; yoga cares about the person you are becoming. Yoga is designed for a vast and profound purpose, and for it to be truly called yoga, its essence must be embodied.” —Aadil Palkhivala
“If we practice yoga long enough, the practice changes to suit our needs. It’s important to acknowledge that the practice isn’t meant to be one practice for everybody. The beautiful thing about yoga is that there are so many different approaches. As we go through our life cycles, hopefully we are able to find a practice that suits us. And if you practice yoga long enough, that will change many times. What exactly that looks like is going to be different for each person.” —Tiffany Cruikshank, founder of Yoga Medicine
Yoga and Meditation Quotes
“Our bodies are our gardens—our wills are our gardeners.” —Shakespeare
“The attitude of gratitude is the highest yoga.” —Yogi Bhajan
“You only lose what you cling to.” —Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha
“Don’t waste a good mistake. Learn from it.” —Robert Kiyosaki
“Do not speak unless it improves on silence.” —Buddhist Proverb
“Your problem isn’t the problem. Your reaction is the problem.” —Anonymous
“All progress takes place outside the comfort zone.” —Michael John Bobak
“Do not feel lonely, the entire universe is inside you.” —Rumi
“The part can never be well unless the whole is well.” —Plato
“The quieter you become the more you are able to hear.” —Rumi
“The successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” —Bruce Lee
“You can’t lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself.” —Gene Mauch
“The creation of a thousand forest is in one acorn.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day-in and day-out.” —Robert Collier
“The yoga pose that you avoid the most you need the most.” —Anonymous
“Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.” —Jason Crandell
“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise?” —Oscar Wilde
“Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.” —Jason Crandell
“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” —Deepak Chopra
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” —Jim Ryun
“Yoga is almost like music in a way; there’s no end to it.” —Sting
“Creating space frees the spirit to bring in what it truly desires.” —Deb Reble
“Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul to another.” —George Elliot
“He who has health has hope and he who has hope has everything.” —Arabian Proverb
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.” —Proverb
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” —Buddha
“Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.” —Jim Rohn
“The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.” —G.K. Chesterton
“Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” —The Bhagavad Gita
“Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different from the way they are.” —Allan Lokos
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” —Wayne Dyer
“Yoga has a sly, clever way of short circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety.” —Baxter Bal
“Intelligence comes into being when the mind, the heart and the body are really harmonious.” —J Krishnamurti
“Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self-control. Energy within and energy without.” —Ymber Delecto
“The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this lifetime.” —Sogyal Rinpoche
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I cam changing myself.” —Rumi
“Whenever you see a successful person you only see the public glories, never the private sacrifices to reach them.” —Vaibhav Shah
“Take the time to just do nothing. It will open up a completely new world of insight for you.” —Scott Shaw
“Silence is not silent. Silence speaks. It speaks most eloquently. Silence is not still. Silence leads. It leads most perfectly.” —Sri Chinmoy
“She was unstoppable, not because she did not have failures and doubts, but because she continued on despite of them.” —Beau Toplin
“We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.” —Hermann Hesse
“Don’t move the way fear makes you move. Move the way love makes you move. Move the way joy makes you move.” —Osho
“Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose.” —Eknath Easwaran
“The beauty is that people often come here for the stretch, and leave with a lot more.” —Liza Ciano“The noblest of ideas have always been
“Therefore, it is good advice to slow down a little, steady the course, and focus on the essentials when experiencing adverse conditions.” —Deiter F. Uchtdorf
“Inhale, and God approaches you. Hold the inhalation, and God remains with you. Exhale, and you approach God. Hold the exhalation, and surrender to God.” —Krishnamacharya
“Even if things don’t unfold the way you expected, don’t be disheartened or give up. One who continues to advance will win in the end.” —Daisaku Ikeda
“Meditation is to be aware of every thought and of every feeling, never to say it is right or wrong, but just to watch it and to move with it.” —Krishnamurti
“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.” —Mary Radmacher
“Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.” —Tryon Edwards
Yoga Quotes About Peace
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” —Gautama Buddha
“REAL Peace is always unshakable… Bliss is unchanged by gain or loss.” —Yogi Bhajan
“Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.” —Pema Chodron
“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” —Peace Pilgrim
“That’s why it’s called a practice. We have to practice a practice if it is to be of value.” —Peace Pilgrim
“Better indeed is knowledge than mechanical practice. Better than knowledge is meditation. But better still is surrender of attachment to results, because there follows immediate peace.” —Bhagavad Gita
“The peace of God is with them whose mind and soul are in harmony, who are free from desire and wrath, who know their own soul.” —Hagavad Gita
“Yoga is the unifying art of transforming dharma into action, be it through inspired thought, properly nurturing our children, a painting, a kindness or an act of peace that forever moves humanity forward.” —Micheline Berry
“The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. Standing on your hands is not the goal. The goal is serenity. Balance. Truly finding peace in your own skin.” —Rachel Brathen, Yoga Girl
Yoga Quotes On Love
“The more one judges, the less one loves.” —Honore de Balzac
“I love yoga, but the namaste thing only takes you so far.” —Jillian Michaels
“Love is when you meet someone who tells you something new about yourself.” —Andre Breton
“We all are so deeply interconnected; we have no option but to love all.” —Amit Ray
“If you seek peace, be still. If you seek wisdom, be silent. If you seek love, be yourself.” —Becca Lee
“I’ve always loved yoga because you get to connect to a deep religious truth while stretching your legs.” —Katya Zamolodchikova
“We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.”
“Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.” —Dalai Lama
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built.” —Rumi
“Have only love in your heart for others. The more you see the good in them, the more you will establish good in yourself.” —Paramhansa Yogananda
“In asana practice, we learn to cherish each breath, to cherish every cell in our bodies. The time we spend on the mat is love in action.” —Rolf Gates
“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.” —Gandhi
“May today there be peace within. May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others. May you use the gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content with yourself just the way you are. Let this knowledge settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.” —Saint Terese of Liseaux
Yoga Quotes On Life
“Yoga takes us to the present moment, the only place where life exists.” —Ellen Brenneman
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.” —Henry David Thoreau
“Clinging to life, flowing by its own potency [due to past experience], exists even in the wise.” —Patanjali
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” —Anonymous
“The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this lifetime.” —Sogyal Rinpoche
“Once you’re in touch with the life force around us, it’s natural to want to help keep it around.” —Adi Carter
“The reward for doing yoga well is simple—you get to do a better job at living a fulfilling life.” —Randal Williams
“True meditation is about being fully present with everything that is–including discomfort and challenges. It is not an escape from life.” —Craig Hamilton
“Life is meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities.” —Deepak Chopra
“Yoga is not just repetition of few postures – it is more about the exploration and discovery of the subtle energies of life.” —Amit Ray
“By embracing your mother wound as your yoga, you transform what has been a hindrance in your life into a teacher of the heart.” —Phillip Moffitt
“Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind and the harmony of the soul, create the symphony of life.” —BKS Iyengar
“A person experiences life as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this self-imposed prison, and through compassion, to find the reality of Oneness.” —Albert Einstein
“Yoga does not remove us from the reality or responsibilities of everyday life but rather places our feet firmly and resolutely in the practical ground of experience. We don’t transcend our lives; we return to the life we left behind in the hopes of something better.” —Donna Farhi
“What yoga philosophy and all the great Buddhist teachings tells us is that solidity is a creation of the ordinary mind and that there never was anything permanent to begin with that we could hold on to. Life would be much easier and substantially less painful if we lived with the knowledge of impermanence as the only constant.” —Donna Farhi
“Yoga, as a way of life and a philosophy, can be practiced by anyone with inclination to undertake it, for yoga belongs to humanity as a whole. It is not the property of any one group or any one individual, but can be followed by any and all, in any corner of the globe, regardless of class, creed or religion.” —Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
“The five points of yama, together with the five points of niyama, remind us of the Ten Commandments of the Christtian and Jewish faiths, as well as of the ten virtues of Buddhism. In fact, there is no religion without these moral or ethical codes. All spiritual life should be based on these things. They are the foundation stones without which we can never build anything lasting.” —Swami Satchidananda
“The purpose of life is to watch and experience living. To enjoy living every moment of it. And to live in environments, which are calm, quiet, slow, sophisticated, and elegant. Just to be. Whether you are naked or you have a golden robe on you, that doesn’t make any difference. The ideal purpose of your life is that you are grateful – great and full – that you are alive, and you enjoy it.” —Yogi Bhajan
“Your life is a sacred journey. It is about change, growth, discovery, movement, transformation, continuously expanding your vision of what is possible, stretching your soul, learning to see clearly and deeply, listening to your intuition, taking courageous challenges at every step along the way. You are on the path… exactly where you are meant to be right now… And from here, you can only go forward, shaping your life story into a magnificent tale of triumph, of healing, of courage, of beauty, of wisdom, of power, of dignity, and of love.” —Caroline Adams
Yoga Quotes about Balance
“Yoga Helps You in Maintaining Balance in Life.”
“Balancing in yoga and life is a reflection of our inner state.” —Shiva Rea
“Each morning we are born again, what we do today is what matters most.” —Zen Quote
“You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.”
“The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind.” —Rodney Yee
“For nearly every challenging moment in life, there’s a yoga pose to help you feel better.” —Mandy Ingber
“When I started doing asana, the yoga postures, I had a very strong feeling of many unnecessary things dropping away – especially tension and inadequacy.” —Patricia Sullivan
“The meaning of yoga is connection of mind, body, and spirit. If you have a bad telecommunication system, your body gets sick. Yoga helps fix that.” —Bikram Choudhury
“If I’m losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga.” —T. Guillemets
“Yoga is not about practicing your defined poses. It’s about what your body learns, how nimble and flexible you become, and what experience you gain throughout the process.” —Debasish Mridha MD
“When we push for immediate results and instant healing, we never inhabit the important in-between phase, which is where much of the learning and growth actually happen.” —Bo Forbes, Yoga for Emotional Balance
“The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. Standing on your hands is not the goal. The goal is serenity. Balance. Truly finding peace in your own skin.” —Rachel Brathen, Yoga Girl
“Yoga nidra is the yoga of aware sleep. In this lies the secret of self-healing. Yoga Nidra is a pratyahara technique in which the distractions of the mind are contained and the mind is relaxed.” —Swami Satyananda Saraswati
“Yoga, an ancient but perfect science, deals with the evolution of humanity. This evolution includes all aspects of one’s being, from bodily health to self-realization. Yoga means union – the union of body with consciousness and consciousness with the soul. Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day to day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.” —B.K.S. Iyengar
Yoga Quotes about Strength
“Do not ask for less responsibility to be free and relaxed—ask for more strength.” —Shengyan
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” —Lao Tzu
“Mountain pose is an affirmation. You can conquer anything with your natural boldness and resolute strength. Only you can reach the peak of your success.” —Terri Guillemets
“When you inhale, you are taking the strength from God. When you exhale, it represents the service you are giving to the world.” —B. K. S. Iyengar
“Anyone can practice. Young man can practice. Old man can practice. Very old man can practice. Man who is sick, he can practice. Man who doesn’t have strength can practice. Except lazy people; lazy people can’t practice Ashtanga yoga.” —Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
“Everyone has in him something divine, something his own, a chance of perfection and strength in however small a sphere which God offers him to take or refuse. The task is to find it, develop it & use it. The chief aim of education should be to help the growing soul to draw out that in itself which is best and make it perfect for a noble use.” —Sri Aurobindo
Short Yoga Quotes
“In stillness, all conflict must end.”
“Yoga accepts. Yoga gives.” —April Vallei
“What you think, you become.” —Buddha
“I bend so I don’t break.” —Anonymous
“Make each day your masterpiece.” —John Wooden
“Light tomorrow with today.” —Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“Everything is sorrow for the wise.” —Patañjali
“Inhale the future. Exhale the past.” —Unknown
“Don’t just do something—sit there.” —Unknown Yoga Quote
“You can do anything, but not everything.” —Anonymous
“In the silence of the breath, is peace.”
“Paths are many, Truth is ONE.” —Swami Satchitananda
“Meditation is the soul’s perspective glass.” —Owen Feltham
“Every moment is a fresh beginning.” —T.S. Eliot
“The soul is here for its own joy.” —Rumi
“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.” —Dalai Lama
“The pose begins when you want to leave it.”
“Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind.” —Patanjali
“To perform every action artfully is Yoga.” —Swami Kripalu
“A mind free from all disturbances is Yoga.” —Patanjali
“Yoga is the space where flower blossoms.” —Amit Ray
“Feel good, be good, and do good.” —Yogi Bhajan
“You’re only one yoga class away from a good mood.”—Unknown
“Make the driving force in your life love.” —Dr. Oz
“Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked.” —Desikashar
“Take a Tree Pose in your life.” —Kathryn E. Livingston
“I close my eyes in order to see.” —Paul Gauguin
“Do your practice and all is coming.” —Sri Pattabhi Jois
“Live life as if everything is rigged in your favour.” —Rumi
“The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” —Rumi
“In truth, yoga doesn’t “take time” — it gives time.” —Ganga White
“Tree pose grows confidence. It roots me to this world.” —Terri Guillemets
“Be present and aware of the privilege of living.” —Ann Marie Frohoff
“You are the sky, everything else is just the weather.” —Pema Chodron
“Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.” —Jason Crandell
Yoga Sutra Quotes
“The purification of the mind is very necessary.” —Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
“Yoga is the restraining of the operations of mind born of conditioning.” —Patanjali Yoga Sutras 1:2
“Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved.” —Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
“The period between four and six in the morning is called the Brahmamuhurta, the Brahmic time, or divine period, and is a very sacred time to meditate. ” ― Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
“Yoga says instinct is a trace of an old experience that has been repeated many times and the impressions have sunk down to the bottom of the mental lake. Although they go down, they aren’t completely erased. Don’t think you ever forget anything. All experiences are stored in the chittam; and, when the proper atmosphere is created, they come to the surface again. When we do something several times it forms a habit. Continue with that habit for a long time, and it becomes your character. Continue with that character and eventually, perhaps in another life, it comes up as instinct.” —Sri S. Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
Yoga Quotes On Breath
“Breathe Through the Pain, It Always Gets Easier with Time.” —Dashama Konah Gordon
“In our uniquely human capacity of connect movement with breath and spiritual meaning, yoga is born.” —Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.” —Etty Hittlesum
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” —Maya Angelou
“Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight or flight mode.” —Melanie Haiken
“Fear less, hope more; eat less, chew more; whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more; hate less, love more; and all good things are yours.” —Swedish Proverb
“In asana practice we learn to cherish each breath, to cherish every cell in our bodies. The time we spend on the mat is love in action” — Rolf Gates
“When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath.” —Hatha Yoga Pradipika
“Basketball is an endurance sport, and you have to learn to control your breath; that’s the essence of yoga, too. So, I consciously began using yoga techniques in my practice and playing. I think yoga helped reduce the number and severity of injuries I suffered. As preventative medicine, it’s unequaled.” —Kareem Abdul Jabbar
“The autonomic nervous system is divided into the sympathetic system, which is often identified with the fight-or-flight response, and the parasympathetic, which is identified with what’s been called the relaxation response. When you do yoga – the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus on being present in your body – you initiate a process that turns the fight or flight system off and the relaxation response on. That has a dramatic effect on the body. The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases, blood pressure decreases. The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms.” —Richard Faulds
Quotes On Yoga By Famous Personalities
“Each of us is a lake of love, yet strangely enough, we are all thirsty.” —Swami Kripalu
“Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.” —B.K.S. Iyengar
“The study of asana is not about mastering posture. It’s about using posture to understand and transform yourself.” —B.K.S Iyengar
“Yoga is a light which once lit will never dim, the better your practice the brighter your flame.” —B.K.S. Iyengar
“All this bringing of the mind into a higher state of vibration is included in one word in yoga.” —Swami Vivekananda
“The perennial wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita can teach us how to transform our character, conduct and consciousness to meet the challenges of everyday life.” —Leonard Perlmutter
“The meaning of our self is not to be found in its separateness from God and others, but in the ceaseless realization of yoga, of union.” —Rabindranath Tagore
“The ultimate goal of yoga is to always observe things accurately, and therefore never act in a way that will make us regret our actions later.” —T.K.V. Desikachar
“The success of Yoga does not lie in the ability to perform postures but in how it positively changes the way we live our life and our relationships.” —T.K.V. Desikachar
Yoga Quotes and Sayings
“You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible.” —Deepak Chopra
“Meditation is a way for nourishing and blossoming the divinity within you.” —Amit Ray
“Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.” —Richard Gere
“Mindful meditation has been discovered to foster the ability to inhibit those very quick emotional impulses.” —Daniel Goleman
“No great work has ever been produced except after a long interval of still and musing meditation.” —Walter Bagehot
“One succeeds in all Yogas through energetic practice—even if one is young, old, very old, sick, or weak.” —Svatmarama
“Meditation is defined by not just the mode of thinking, but also the object of thought.” —Chaitanya Charan Das
“Meditation is painful in the beginning but it bestows immortal bliss and supreme joy in the end.” —Swami Sivananda
“When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place.” —Bhagavad Gita
“Enlightenment comes when you understand the language of heart – the language of tree, birds and the nature.” —Amit Ray
“The ultimate essence of yoga is the contact and the union between the individual consciousness and the divine consciousness.” —Raphael, Essence
“You cannot control anything except your thoughts. With yoga, you do not control yourself but you harmonize with nature.” —Debasish Mridha
“Worries are pointless. If there’s a solution, there’s no need to worry. If no solution exists, there’s no point to worry.” —Matthieu Ricard
“Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.” —Svatmarama
“You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you where you are resisting your natural state.” —Sharon Gannon
“Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past, or a pioneer of the future.” —Deepak Chopra
“The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.” —Jimmy Johnson
“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.” —Jack Kornfield
“Yoga is 99 percent practice and one percent theory.” —Sri Pattabhi Jois
“Success is going from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm.” —Winston Churchill
“For those wounded by civilization, yoga is the most healing salve.” —T. Guillemets
“Calming the mind is yoga. Not just standing on the head.” —Swami Satchidananda
“Go from a human being doing yoga to a human being yoga.” —Baron Baptiste
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.” —Willy Wonka
“Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” —Rumi
“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” —Camus
“Most people have no idea how good their body is designed to feel.” —Kevin Trudeau
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” —Lao Tzu
“Before you’ve practiced, the theory is useless. After you’ve practiced, the theory is obvious.” —David Williams
“For me, yoga is not just a workout – it’s about working on yourself.” —Mary Glover
“Hope is not a prediction of the future, it’s a declaration of what is possible.” —Yogi Bhajan
“There is always room for change but you have to be open to that change.” —Kathryn Budig
“The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.” —Geeta Iyengar
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.” —Zen Shin
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.” —Zig Ziglar
“A photographer gets people to pose for him. A yoga instructor gets people to pose for themselves.” —Terri Guillemets
“This world is your body. This world is a great school, This world is your silent teacher.” —Swami Sivananda
“The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being.” —Sri Aurobindo
“Your soul is your best friend. Treat it with care, nurture it with growth, feed it with love.” —Ashourina Yalda
“One of the fundamental principles of yoga: a small action done repeatedly can make an enormous difference.” —Dr. Timothy McCall
“Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are.” —Erich Schiffmann
“Yoga is the cessation of the movements of the mind. Then there is abiding in the Seer’s own form.” —Patañjali
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” —Aldous Huxley
“This calm steadiness of the senses is called yoga. Then one should become watchful, becomes yoga comes and go.” —Katha Upanishad
“Be a lamp to yourself. Be your own confidence. Hold on to the truth within yourself as to the only truth.” —Buddha
“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” —Mother Teresa
“Wisdom is knowing we are all One. Love is what it feels like and Compassion is what it acts like.” —Ethan Walker III
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.” —C.G. Jung
“When you are looking in the mirror, you are looking at the problem. But, remember, you are also looking at the solution.” —Anonymous
“Practicing yoga during the day is a matter of keeping your eyes on the road and one ear turned toward the infinite.” —Erich Schiffmann
“The best thing you could do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire, you are the fire.” —Mama Indigo
“If you hear a voice within you say, “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” —Vincent Van Gogh
“Remember the emphasis on the heart. The mind lives in doubt and the heart lives in trust. When you trust, suddenly you become centered.” —Osho
“The more you meditate, the more helpful you can be to others, and the more deeply you will be in tune with God.” —Paramahansa Yogananda
“Have only love in your heart for others. The more you see the good in them, the more you will establish good in yourself.” —Paramahansa Yogananda
“Penetration of our mind is our goal, but in the beginning to set things in motion, there is no substitute for sweat.” —B. K. S. Iyengar
“Yoga is possible for anybody who really wants it. Yoga is universal…. But don’t approach yoga with a business mind looking for worldly gain.” —Sri Pattabhi Jois
“Exercises are like prose, whereas yoga is the poetry of movements. Once you understand the grammar of yoga; you can write your poetry of movements.” —Amit Ray
“I have been a seeker and I still am, but I stopped asking the books and the stars. I started listening to the teaching of my Soul.” —Rumi
“It is not arrogant or egotistical to feel good inside. You had nothing to do with it. It’s simply the honest response to clearly perceived Reality.” —Erich Schiffman
“There will always be people who can do it better than you, but that’s a good thing! Start to see competition as inspiration — without envy.” —Kathryn Budig
“Close your eyes and imagine the best version of you possible. That’s who you really are. Let go of any part of you that doesn’t believe it.” —C. Assaad
“If I’m losing balance in a pose, I stretch higher and God reaches down to steady me. It works every time, and not just in yoga.” —Terri Guillemets
“The harmonizing of opposing forces is a key aspect of yoga — hot energy is united with cool energy, strong with soft, and masculine with feminine.” —Tara Fraser
“The true miracle lies in our eagerness to allow, appreciate, and honor the uniqueness, and freedom of each sentient being to sing the song of their heart.” —Amit Ray
“This yoga is not possible, for the one who eats too much, or who does not eat at all; who sleeps too much, or who keeps awake.” —Bhagavad Gita
“When you listen to yourself, everything comes naturally. It comes from inside, like a kind of will to do something. Try to be sensitive. That is yoga.” —Petri Räisänen
“Understanding without practice is better than practice without understanding. Understanding with practice is better than understanding without practice. Residing in your true nature is better than understanding or practice.” —Upanishads
“Every waking moment we talk to ourselves about the things we experience. Our self-talk, the thoughts we communicate to ourselves, in turn control the way we feel and act.” —John Lembo
“Mountain pose teaches us, literally, how to stand on our own two feet…. teaching us to root ourselves into the earth…. Our bodies become a connection between heaven and earth.” —Carol Krucoff
“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” —Aristotle
“For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it. For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it.” —Ivan Panin
“My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind and senses, and sink into meditation, contemplating my novel.” —Edward Abbey
“Vogue and Self are putting out the message of yoginis as buff and perfect. If you start doing yoga for those reasons, fine. Most people get beyond that and see that it’s much, much more.” —Patricia Walden
“In meditation and in our daily lives there are three qualities that we can nurture, cultivate, and bring out. We already possess these, but they can be ripened: precision, gentleness, and the ability to let go.” —Pema Chodron
“Crying is one of the highest devotional songs. One who knows crying, knows spiritual practice. If you can cry with a pure heart, nothing else compares to such a prayer. Crying includes all the principles of Yoga.” —Kripalvanandji
“The aim of yoga is to eliminate the control that material nature exerts over the human spirit, to rediscover through introspective practice what the poet T.S. Eliot called ‘the still point of the turning world.” —Barbara Stoler Miller
“Yoga is really trying to liberate us from… shame about our bodies. To love your body is a very important thing — I think the health of your mind depends on your being able to love your body.” —Rodney Yee
“Accepting means you allow yourself to feel whatever it is you are feeling at that moment. It is part of the isness of the Now. You can’t argue with what is. Well, you can, but if you do, you suffer.” —Eckhart Tolle
“Yoga practice can make us more and more sensitive to subtler and subtler sensations in the body. Paying attention to and staying with finer and finer sensations within the body is one of the surest ways to steady the wandering mind.” —Ravi Ravindra
“Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings.” —Rumi
“You either get bitter or get better. It’s that simple. You either take what has been dealt to you or allow it to make you a better person, or you allow it to tear you down. The choice does not belong to fate, it belongs to you.” —Josh Shipp
“Change is not only inevitable, but always happening. When you truly embrace this concept of change being constant, the only thing left to do is grow, detach, venture inwards, touch the spirit and find your source — the one responsible for keeping you grounded through the ever-changing seasons of life.” —Julie Weiland
“The Self in you is the same as the Self Universal. Whatever powers are manifested throughout the world, those powers exist in germ, in latency, in you… If you realize the unity of the Self amid the diversities of the Not-Self, then Yoga Will not seem an impossible thing to you.” —Annie Wood Besant
“Although yoga has its origins in ancient India, its methods and purposes are universal, relying not on cultural background, faith or deity, but simply on the individual. Yoga has become important in the lives of many contemporary Westerners, sometimes as a way of improving health and fitness of the body, but also as a means of personal and spiritual development.” —Tara Fraser
“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all of your thoughts break their bonds. Your mind transcends limitations; your consciousness expands in every direction; and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive and you discover yourself to be a greater person than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” —Patanjali
“All I’m saying is that to liberate the potential of your mind, body and soul, you must first expand your imagination. You see, things are always created twice: first in the workshop of the mind and then, and only then, in reality. I call this process ‘blueprinting’ because anything you create in your outer world began as a simple blueprint in your inner world.” —Robin Sharma
“I was in yoga the other day. I was in full lotus position. My chakras were all aligned. My mind is cleared of all clatter and I’m looking out of my third eye and everything that I’m supposed to be doing. It’s amazing what comes up, when you sit in that silence. Mama keeps whites bright like the sunlight, Mama’s got the magic of Clorox.” —Ellen DeGeneres
“Through practice, I’ve come to see that the deepest source of my misery is not wanting things to be the way they are. Not wanting myself to be the way I am. Not wanting the world to be the way it is. Not wanting others to be the way they are. Whenever I’m suffering, I find this war with reality to be at the heart of the problem.” —Stephen Cope
“You may think that only you are a prisoner, but other people are also prisoners. You are in a small prison, but others are in the big prison outside. When will they be released? Think that you are a yogi and that you are pursuing your sadhana in this particular place and at this particular moment. Immediately you will experience great joy. If you change your understanding, you will be free in a minute.” —Baba Muktananda
“Yoga is about clearing away whatever is in us that prevents our living in the most full and whole way. With yoga, we become aware of how and where we are restricted — in body, mind, and heart — and how gradually to open and release these blockages. As these blockages are cleared, our energy is freed. We start to feel more harmonious, more at one with ourselves. Our lives begin to flow — or we begin to flow more in our lives.” —Cybele Tomlinson
“If you choose to see everything as a miracle, then where you are right now is perfect. There is nowhere to run to; there is nothing else to do except be in this moment and allow what is to be. From that place of radical acceptance, major change can happen. The first step in any transformational experience is acceptance and surrender to the present moment, the way that it is. From that place we have the awareness, humility and power to change what is.” —Mastin Kipp
“Follow your nature. The practice is really about uncovering your own pose; we have great respect for our teachers, but unless we can uncover our own pose in the moment, it’s not practice — it’s mimicry. Rest deeply in Savasana every day. Always enter that pratyahara (withdrawn state) every day. And just enjoy yourself. For many years I mistook discipline as ambition. Now I believe it to be more about consistency. Do get on the mat. Practice and life are not that different.” —Judith Hanson Lasater
“A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘Universe’ — a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separated from the rest— a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” —Albert Einstein
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” —Marianne Williamson