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
Without proper breathing, the yoga postures are nothing more than calisthenics. – Rachel Schaeffer
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, 2002
Yoga is not about self-improvement, it’s about self-acceptance. – Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success. – Svatmarama
Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. – Patañjali
Yoga is the study of balance, and balance is the aim of all living creatures: it is our home. – Rolf Gates
Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are. – Jason Crandell, quoted in Yoga Journal, November 2005
Yoga is difficult for the one whose mind is not subdued. – Bhagavad Gita
Yoga is essentially a practice for your soul, working through the medium of your body. – Tara Fraser
Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety. – Baxter Bell, quoted in “Worry Thwarts,” Yoga Journal, March 2006
Concentrating on poses clears the mind, while focusing on the breath helps the body shift out of fight-or-flight mode. – Melanie Haiken, “Worry Thwarts,” Yoga Journal, March 2006
The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being. – Sri Aurobindo
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
The ultimate essence of yoga is the contact and the union between the individual consciousness and the divine consciousness. – Raphael, Essence and Purpose of Yoga: The Initiatory Pathways to the Transcenden
Practicing yoga during the day is a matter of keeping your eyes on the road and one ear turned toward the infinite. – Erich Schiffmann
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
Hatha is the sanctuary for those suffering every type of pain. It is the foundation for those practicing every type of Yoga. – Svatmarama, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated from Sanskrit by Brian Dana Ake
One succeeds in all Yogas through energetic practice—even if one is young, old, very old, sick, or weak. – Svatmarama, The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated from Sanskrit by Brian Dana Ake
