We all want to be that “perfect yogi”.
The yogi whose skin glows like a baby and has a smile that’s practically tattooed on herface as she’sneverfelt anyformof anger or frustration.
Despite our desire…It’s been one ofthose days (and yes, we all have them).
You feel so removed from your peaceful yoga state asyour mind isracing around trying to organize the millions of things you “have to”accomplish before the sun sets.
Seeing asthis is a struggle for every yogi,we’ve put together a list of thetop 105 inspirational yoga quotes to help you find your peace.
Although we can’t guarantee these quotes will make you the perfect yogi, we know theycanadd a few rays of sunshine to your cloudy day!
[ninja-popup ID=1194]Bonus:Click here to download a free PDF booklet of all the yoga quotes below! Made to inspire you on the go :)[/ninja-popup]
105 Inspirational Yoga Quotes
The beauty of yoga is that no matter howlong you hold yourheadstand or how deep into the splits you go, you can always push yourself forward.
It’s both a mental and physical practice.
What is our goal? A state of pure bliss, or enlightenment.
Use these inspirational yoga quotesto help guide you on your journey!
Thiscompilationofquotes comesfrom some of the greatest yoga masters, practitioners, and influential poetsfrom around the world! Learn more about each of the quoted authors at the bottom of this post.
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2. “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.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
3.“When you are far away from reality, your fantasy won’t work.”
― YogiBhajan
4.“Expect nothing and appreciate everything”
― Unknown
5. “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.”
― Bhagavad Gita
7.“The very heart of yoga practice is abhyasa – steady effort in the direction you want to go.”
― Sally Kempton
8.“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?”
― Rumi
9. “Yoga is 99% practice and 1% theory.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
10.“It’s not life that matters, it’s the courage you bring to it.”
― YogiBhajan
12. “Body is not stiff. Mind is stiff.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
13. “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.”
― Rumi
14.“Only the minds born of meditation [the artificially created ones] are free from karmic impressions”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
15. “Be inspired but not proud.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
17. “No one who does good work will ever come to a bad end, either here or in the world to come.”
― Bhagavad Gita
18.“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
19. “It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
20. “Yoga is the art work of awareness on the canvas of body, mind, and soul.”
― Amit Ray
22. “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, The Yoga Sutras
23.“The soul is here for its own joy.”
― Rumi
24.“Smiling is mouth yoga.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
25.“Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.”
― Svatmarama
27. “Make yourself so happy so that when others look at you they become happy too.”
― YogiBhajan
28. “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
29. “There is only one reality, but there are many ways that reality can be interpreted.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
30. “The quality of our breath expresses our inner feelings.”
― T.K.V. Desikachar
32. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”
― Rumi
33. “One of the fundamental principles of yoga: a small action done repeatedly can make an enormous difference.”
― Dr. Timothy McCall
34. “Yoga is for internal cleansing, not external exercising. Yoga means true self-knowledge.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
36.“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
37.“Since the desire to live is eternal, impressions are also beginningless”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
38. “Yoga exists in the world because everything is linked.”
― T.K.V. Desikachar
39. “The hardness of a diamond is part of its usefulness, but its true value is in the light that shines through it.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
41.“The path of yoga is the path of self-discovery. As our self-image disintegrates, we contact our true self. Life becomes a great joy.”
― Amrit Desai
42. “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
43. “Yoga is not just repetition of few postures – it is more about the exploration and discovery of the subtle energies of life.”
― Amit Ray
45.“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 Krishna Pattabhi Jois
46.“Open your hands if you want to be held.”
― Rumi
47.“Clinging to life, flowing by its own potency [due to past experience], exists even in the wise.”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
48. “When the breath control is correct, mind control is possible.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
50. “Prayer without heart is a waste to time.”
― YogiBhajan
51.“Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind.”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
52.“Do your practice and all is coming.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
54.“By cultivatingattitudes offriendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregardtoward the wicked, the mind-stuff retains its undisturbed calmness.”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
55. “It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else’s life with perfection.”
― Bhagavad Gita
56. “It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
57.“Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.”
― Bhagavad Gita
59.“Where is the delusion when truth is known? Where is the disease when the mind is clear? Where is death when the Breath is controlled? Therefore surrender to Yoga.”
― T. Krishnamacharya
60. “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
61. “You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”
― Rumi
62. “Yoga teaches us to cure what need not be endured and endure what cannot be cured.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
63.“Creation is ready to serve you, if you just be you.”
― YogiBhajan
64.“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
65.“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”
― Rumi
67. “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
68.“The body is your temple. Keep it pure and clean for the soul to reside in.”
― B.K.S Iyengar
69. “Ignorance, egoism, attachment, hatred and clinging to bodily life are the five obstacles.”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
71.“This yoga should be practiced with firm determination and perseverance, without any mental reservation or doubts.”
― Bhagavad Gita
72.“Any action done with beauty and purity, and in complete harmony of body, mind and soul, is Art.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
73. “What you seek is seeking you.”
― Rumi
74.“Misconception occurs when knowledge of something is not based upon its true form.”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
76.“The art of happiness is to serve all, and all shall serve you.”
― YogiBhajan
77.“It would bea shame to lose the precious jewel of liberation in the mud of ignorant body building.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
78. “Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
― Rumi
80.“An image that arises on hearing mere words without any reality [as its basis] is verbal delusion.”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
81. “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
82.“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built.”
― Rumi
83. “Do not aim low, you will miss the mark. Aim high and you will be on a threshold of bliss.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
85.“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
86. “When ego is lost, limit is lost. You become infinite, kind, beautiful.”
― YogiBhajan
87. “You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind, and soul.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
89.“If your presence doesn’t work, neither will your word.”
― YogiBhajan
90.“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
91.“Hope is not a prediction of the future, it’s a declaration of what is possible.”
― YogiBhajan
92. “The union of nature and soul removes the veil of ignorance that covers our intelligence.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
94.“An object is known or unknown dependent on whether or not the mind gets colored by it”
― Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras
95. “Spirituality is not some external goal that one must seek, but a part of the divine core of each of us, which we must reveal.”
― B.K.S. Iyengar
96.“There is nothing outside of us. It’s all in us.”
― YogiBhajan
97. “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
98.“Where there is love there is no question.”
― YogiBhajan
99. “Let yourself be drawn by the stronger pull of that which you truly love.”
― Rumi
100.“To conquer the unknown you must trust.”
― YogiBhajan
101.“Once you’re in touch with the life force around us, it’s natural to want to help keep it around”
― Adi Carter
102.“The full ashtanga system practiced with devotion leads to freedom within one’s heart.”
― Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois
103. “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, 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.”
― YogiBhajan
104. “Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.”
― Rumi
HighlightedAuthors from the Quotes Above:
Amit Ray is an author and spiritual master. He has written many books on yoga and meditation including: ‘Om Chanting and Meditation‘ and ‘Meditation: Insights and Inspiration‘. Read more about him here.
Amrit Desai is known as “one of the pioneers of the authentic teachings of yoga in the West”. He studied yoga from masters in India and moved to America in 1960. Learn more about his journey here.
B.K.S. Iyengarstarted Iyengar yoga. At 16 he was sent to study yoga under Sri T. Krishnamacharya (known as the father of modern yoga), and in just 2 years wassent to start teaching/preaching yoga! Learn more about this incredible yogi here.
Bhagavad Gita is an ancient Indiantext that has become an extremely influential piece of literature in the Hindu religion. Literally translated, Bhagavad Gita means “The song of the Lord”. Learn more about the Bhagavad Gita here.
Buddhaquoted above is the founder of Buddhist religion, however Buddha actually refers to any beingwho has reacheda personal state of enlightenment. Buddha literally translated means “awakened one”, someone who is able to see things as they really are. Learn more here.
Dalai Lama is a Buddhist monk and spiritual leader of Tibet. The Buddhist believe he isaBodhisattva, which are“enlightened beings who have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth in order to serve humanity”. Learn more about him here.
Deepak Chopra, M.D.is a speaker and author of over 80 books, which focus on alternative medicine and mind-body healing. Hisdoctorate is ininternal medicine and endocrinology. Learn more about him here.
Dr. Timothy McCall is an internal medicine doctor and the medical editor for Yoga Journal. He is an influential/modern day yogi, and spreads the word of yoga by teaching a seminar (with his wife) called Yoga as Medicine. Learn more about him here.
Kripalvanandji was a Kundalini yoga master and extremely religious man. He spent many years traveling across India giving lectures. Read more here.
Osho was an Indian spiritual teacher. Despite the many books “written by” Osho, he actually spoke his word instead of writing it. He didn’t want any of his speeches to be for one person, so he had his speeches transcribed into a written story.
Patanjali, The Yoga Sutras are a staple of the practice of yoga. This text outlines allthe teachings of yoga, in a short sentence structure. It is broken into 4 chapters. Learn more about this important text here.
Rumi was born in1207, and is now claimed by 3 countries as their national poet. He spent most of his life inspired by a holy man names Shams, when Shams passed about Rumi fell into a deep depression and spewed out thousands of poems. These poems have inspired people around the world for decades, learn more here.
Sri Krisna Pattabhi Joisstudied under yoga masterKrishnamcharya, and is known for bringing the Ashtanga Vinyasa systemto life. Learn more about him and Ashtanga here.
Svatmarama is the author of “Hatha Yoga Pradipika”, which is the oldest known text on Hatha yoga (written in the 1400s). Learn more about him and this text here.
T. Krishnamacharya was a yoga master, Ayurvedic healer and teacher tomany yoga masters. He is known as the “father of modern yoga”, and heintroduced a more physically demanding practice to Hatha yoga. Learn more about him here.
T.K.V. Desikacharisthe son and student of T. Krishnamacharya. He taught yoga based on Krishnamacharya’s method, and publish many books on yoga including “The Heart of Yoga“. Learn more about him here.
Thich Nhat Hanhis a spiritual leader and peace activist. His key teaching is that “through mindfulness, we can learn to live happily in the present moment—the only way to truly develop peace, both in one’s self and in the world”. Learn more here.
Yogi Bhajanis known as the master of Kundalini yoga. He lived an inspiringlife, including his journey of 325 miles by foottoguided his entire village of 7,000 people to safety (not to mention he was only 18)! Learn more about him here.
[ninja-popup ID=1194]Bonus:Click here to download a free PDF booklet of all the yoga quotes below! Made to inspire you on the go :)[/ninja-popup]
We hope these yoga quotes helped to inspire you and jump start your day! Let us know in the comments below which quote was your favorite and why!
Intro image courtesy of:Ian Bothwell
