Yoga is a holistic system of physical, mental, and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India. The word “yoga” comes from the Sanskrit word “yuj” which means to unite, join, or yoke. Yoga aims to unite and harmonize the body, mind, and spirit, and is often practiced as a means of attaining physical health, mental well-being, and spiritual awareness. It involves various practices such as physical postures (asanas), breath control (pranayama), meditation (dhyana), ethical principles (yamas and niyamas), and philosophical teachings. Yoga is often used as a form of exercise, relaxation, stress management, and self-care, and it has been found to have numerous physical and mental health benefits.
Yoga Quotes
1. “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
2. “Yoga is not about touching your toes, it’s about what you learn on the way down.”
— Jigar Gor
3. “Yoga is the ultimate practice. It simultaneously stimulates our inner light and quiets our overactive minds. It is both energy and rest. Yin and Yang. We feel the burn and find our bliss.”
— Elise Joan
4. “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
5. “Yoga begins with listening. When we listen, we are giving space to what is.”
— Richard Freeman
6. “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
7. “Yoga means addition – addition of energy, strength and beauty to body, mind and soul.”
— Amit Ray
8. “Calming the mind is yoga. Not just standing on the head.”
— Swami Satchidananda
9. “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
10. “If you seek peace, be still. If you seek wisdom, be silent. If you seek love, be yourself.”
— Becca Lee
11. “There is always room for change, but you have to be open to that change.”
— Kathryn Budig
12. “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
13. “Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.”
— The Bhagavad Gita
14. “To the degree that we look clearly and compassionately at ourselves, we feel confident and fearless about looking into someone else’s eyes.”
— Pema Chödrön
15. “Yoga is a way of moving into stillness in order to experience the truth of who you are.”
— Erich Schiffmann
16. “The attitude of gratitude is the highest yoga.”
— Yogi Bhajan
17. “Yoga is the stilling of the changing states of the mind.”
— Patañjali
18. “The very heart of yoga practice is abhyasa – steady effort in the direction you want to go.”
— Sally Kempton
19. “If you fall over, you fall over. If you have to stop, you stop. But you start again. Just like life itself, you start again.”
— Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
20. “It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
21. “Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.”
— Etty Hillesum
22. “At this moment, you are seamlessly flowing with the cosmos. There is no difference between your breathing and the breathing of the rain forest, between your bloodstream and the world’s rivers, between your bones and the chalk cliffs of Dover.”
— Deepak Chopra
23. “All kidding aside, if everyone did yoga, we would have world peace.”
— Rory Freedman
24. “Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.”
— Svātmārāma
25. “That’s why it’s called a practice. We have to practice a practice if it is to be of value.”
— Peace Pilgrim
26. “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
27. “What you think, you become.”
— Buddha
28. “Yoga teaches you how to listen to your body.”
— Mariel Hemingway
29. “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
30. “It is indeed true that by practicing yoga we gradually improve our ability to concentrate and to be independent. We improve our health, our relationships, and everything we do.”
— T.K.V. Desikachar
31. “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
32. “You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.”
— Wayne Dyer
33. “Go from a human being doing yoga to a human being yoga.”
— Baron Baptiste
34. “Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in this world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar
35. “Yoga begins right where I am – not where I was yesterday or where I long to be.”
— Linda Sparrowe
36. “People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing. That’s why we recommend it daily.”
— Zig Ziglar
37. “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
38. “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
39. “Yoga does not always cure stress. It neutralizes it through increasing awareness and by changing self-perception.”
— Debasish Mridha
40. “The nature of yoga is to shine the light of awareness into the darkest corners of the body.”
— Jason Crandell
41. “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
42. “Take care of your body, it’s the only place you have to live.”
— Jim Rohn
43. “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.”
— Tiffany Cruikshank
44. “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
45. “The most important pieces of equipment you need for doing yoga are your body and your mind.”
— Rodney Yee
46. “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 Schiffmann
47. “The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace. With each step, the wind blows. With each step, a flower blooms.”
— Thich Nhat Hanh
48. “Yoga allows you to find an inner peace that is not ruffled and riled by the endless stresses and struggles of life.” — B.K.S. Iyengar
49. “Remember, it doesn’t matter how deep into a posture you go – what does matter is who you are when you get there.”
— Max Strom
50. “When you are self-conscious you are really showing symptoms that you don’t know who you are. Your very self-consciousness indicates that you have not come home yet.”
— Osho
51. “If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things – that’s when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.”
— Walter Isaacson
52. “Most people have no idea how good their body is designed to feel.”
— Kevin Trudeau
53. “You may not be able to control the whole world, but you may learn to control your inner world through yoga.”
— Debasish Mridha
54. “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
55. “Spiritual awareness must be brought into our daily life if we are to become receptive to the radiance of that Consciousness that is pulsing with divine vibrations.”
— Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
56. “True meditation is about being fully present with everything that is–including discomfort and challenges. It is not an escape from life.”
— Craig Hamilton
57. “The problem with introspection is that it has no end.”
— Philip K. Dick
58. “Yoga is a light, which once lit will never dim. The better your practice, the brighter your flame.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar
59. “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
60. “Doing anything with attention to how you feel is doing yoga.”
— Jean Couch
61. “The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.”
— Sakyong Mipham
62. “Stretching your body and mind is essential to avoid rigidity.”
— Haresh Sippy
63. “Change only happens in the present moment. The past is already done. The future is just energy and intention.”
— Kino MacGregor
64. “Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.”
— Charlotte Eriksson
65. “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
66. “To perform every action artfully is yoga.”
— Swami Kripa
67. “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.”
— Caroline Adams
68. “True success is achieved by stretching oneself, learning to feel comfortable being uncomfortable.”
— Ken Poirot
69. “I am never alone wherever I am. The air itself supplies me with a century of love. When I breathe in, I am breathing in the laughter, tears, victories, passions, thoughts, memories, existence, joys, moments, and the hues of the sunlight on many tones of skin; I am breathing in the same air that was exhaled by many before me. The air that bore them life. And so how can I ever say that I am alone?”
— C. JoyBell C.
70. “Yoga does not transform the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.”
— B.K.S. Iyengar
71. “The keys to health and weight-loss: stress reduction, sleep, deep breathing, clean water, complete nutrition, sunshine, walking, stretching, meditation, love, community, laughter, dreams, perseverance, purpose, humility, action.”
— Bryant McGill
72. “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
73. “Yoga becomes one lifelong journey to internal revelation.”
— Aadil Palkhivala
74. “When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.”
— Peace Pilgrim
75. “Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.”
— Pema Chödrön
76. “Certainly work is not always required of a man. There is such a thing as a sacred idleness, the cultivation of which is now fearfully neglected.”
— George MacDonald
77. “Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are.”
— Jason Crandell
78. “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
— Amit Ray
79. “…what is essential in the practice of yoga is the breath because each pose, each movement, originates from there.”
— T.K.V. Desikacha
80. “Once you’re in touch with the life force around us, it’s natural to want to help keep it around.”
— Adi Carter
81. “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
82. “The pose begins when you want to get out of it.”
— Baron Baptiste
83. “Yoga is the fountain of youth. You’re only as young as your spine is flexible.”
— Bob Harper
84. “To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
85. “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
86. “Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.”
— Amit Ray
87. “Yoga reveals to you the beauty of mindfulness and takes you into the essence of an endless present moment.”
— Debasish Mridha
88. “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
89. “It feels good pulling on these muscles, it feels better than worrying about who is watching.”
— Alain Bremond-Torrent
90. “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
91. “I think it’s interesting that the opposite of being active in yoga is not being passive. It’s being receptive.”
— Cyndi Lee
92. “Through sustained focus and meditation on our patterns, habits, and conditioning, we gain knowledge and understanding of our past and how we can change the patterns that aren’t serving us to live more freely and fully.”
— Patañjali
93. “Let your practice be a celebration of life.”
— Seido Lee deBarros
94. “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
95. “Yoga is invigoration in relaxation. Freedom in routine. Confidence through self-control. Energy within and energy without.”
— Ymber Delecto
96. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
— Socrates
97. “Yoga is not about self-improvement. It’s about self-acceptance.”
— Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa
98. “A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.”
— Zen Shin
99. “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
100. “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
