A Life in Quotes
by Erik Freeman
by Erik Freeman
Courage: also named Fortitude, Forbearance, Strength, Endurance, and the ability to confront fear. Adventure, Boldness, Confidence, Diligence, Freedom, Fun, Humor, Independence, Security, Self-reliance, Strength, Success, Travel.
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Adventure, Freedom, Independence, Travel, Freedom, Independence, Travel, Fun, Humor
Say Yes to the Universe! Adventure is a commitment made by the entire being, and can search our depths to bring out the best, most human qualities which remain in us. When the pack of cards has not been rigged so we win every time, then the game is real, and we find surprise, imagination, enthusiasm to succeed and the possibility of failure – Bonatti The things you are passionate about are not random, they are your calling. The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, bur in having new eyes. - Proust We must take adventures in order to know where we truly belong. What are you compellingly motivated to avoid? The soul of the journey is liberty. Fernweh (n.): An ache for distant places. A craving to travel. If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. – Michener Travel far enough, you meet yourself. – Mitchell Nowhere might you learn more than in a land unlike your own. I’m in love with cities I’ve never been to and people I’ve never met. My favorite thing is to go where I’ve never been before. - Arbus A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. – Lao Tzu Feel free to feel free. If you want to fly, give up everything that weighs you down. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before. – Dalai Lama I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not defined by another person. – Wilde When people are board, it is primarily with their own selves. – Hoffer The core of a man’s spirit comes from new experiences. It’s about relentlessly lying to yourself about what’s right in front of your eyes. Pulling off those scales is one of the hardest things to do in life. The more choices, the more chance of success. The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page. – St. Augustine Don’t be afraid to give up the good and go for the great. If you haven’t found it yet keep looking. Don’t settle as with all matters of the heart. You’ll know when you find it and, like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. – Jobs I tell you: One must have chaos within oneself, to give birth to a dancing star. – Nietzsche There’s nothing to life but the living of it. – Woodward Forward motion creates balance. As long as you believe in the path you’ve carved for yourself, have nothing to fear. Curiosity is at the heart of authenticity. It is the end of loneliness. – Altucher Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known. – Sagan You know you’re on the right track when you become uninterested in looking back. On a long journey even a straw weighs heavy. Home is not where you live, but where they understand you. – Morgenstern The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it latter. When people undermine your dreams, predict your doom or criticize you, remember they’re telling you their story, not yours. - Occelli To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted. – Bryson Never met a stranger in my life. – Still If everything seems under control then you’re not going fast enough. – Andretti Although you can’t have everything, some very nice anythings await your selection. Many people die at 25 and aren’t buried until they are 75. – Franklin Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. – Keller No surer way to find out whether you like or hate someone than to travel with them. To move, to breathe, to fly, to float; to gain all while you give; to roam the roads of lands remote; to travel is to live. – Anderson Start leaving what you want to leave. Your future is waiting. If you don’t have a plan, you can end up doing some interesting things. Prolonged periods of supine inaction promote defeatism, demoralization and an enervating paralysis. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another. There’s nothing to that. – Hemingway It’s not your life, its life. Life is bigger than you. Life isn’t something that you possess, it’s something that you take part in and you witness. The cure for anything is salt water – sweat, tears or the sea. – Dineson People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing. – Carnegie If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It is lethal. – Coelho Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experience and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. – McCandless Swell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars and see yourself running with them. – Aurelius To travel is to live. I figure you are already pretty badly off if “May you lead an interesting life,” sounds like a curse to you. Live, travel, adventure, bless and don’t be sorry. – Kerouac Don’t fear death. Fear the unlived life. Adventure is the only freedom that only you can take away. Fear no distance. The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land. - Chesterton Be someone you want to be around. Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. – Emerson Most of the problems in your life are due to two reasons: you act without thinking, or think without acting. |
Boldness, Confidence, Success, Diligence, Security, Self-reliance, Strength
Be so bold and daring as to make yourself excruciatingly uncomfortable. I will miss no more opportunities! Don’t be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can’t cross a chasm in two small jumps. – George It is no rest to be idle. – Peel Concentrate on what you want as opposed to what you don’t want. – Ahlquist To be successful in life you need only remember three things. Firstly, know what you want; have a clear idea of your outcome in any situation. Secondly, be alert and keep your senses open so that you notice what you are getting. Thirdly, have flexibility to keep changing what you do until you get what you want. A year from now you may wish you had started today. When you feel like quitting, think about why you started. There is more in you than you know. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from indomitable will. – Nehru A man is not a man until he has accessed the raw untamed energy and taken pleasure in his capacity to fight and defend himself, only then can he transform his blind rage into the power to commit himself, to handle tensions and make difficult decisions. A feeling of inner security also develops, it is based on his realization that whatever happens to go wrong, he can get help from his inner resources. From the basic energies of his aggression. What does not destroy me, makes me stronger. – Nietzsche Outcome Acuity Flexibility Being successful means something different to each person. I like things to happen. And if they don’t happen, I like to make them happen. I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. Eliminate the word “but” from your vocabulary, replace it with “and”. It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. – Woderwouse No matter what your station in life, stride through the world without apology or excuse. Realization, without application is hallucination. – Holmes Believe you can and you’re halfway there. – Roosevelt Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Eighty percent of success is showing up. – Gates If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough. – Sirleaf The question isn’t can you, it’s will you. Whatever I engage in, I must push inordinately. – Carnegie Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but the ability to start over. – Fitzgerald Nothing can substitute experience. It’s important to be hardened to life. – Lamperini A scar does not form on the dying. A scar means, I survived. – Cleave No great thing is suddenly created. – Epictetus Trying times are times for trying. When pain ends, gain ends too. – Browning What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight – it’s the size of the fight in the dog. – Eisenhower If you are going through hell, keep going. – Churchill All things equal, endurance wins. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. - Patton Whatever it takes, create something for yourself. The warrior knows that he is free to choose his desires, and he makes these decisions with courage, detachment and sometimes with just a touch of madness. – Caelho Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg. – Eisenhower Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do. – Lee If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done. - Jefferson Live where you fear to live. – Rumi To live in fear is a life half lived. Doubt can be ended in action alone. Go where you are celebrated, not where you are tolerated. Hard pressed on my right. My center is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am attacking. – Foch Nothing haunts us like the things we don’t say. – Albom Whatever you can do, Or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, Power and magic in it. – Gothe If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done. – Lee Embrace what you don’t know. – Blakely Winners compare their achievements with their goals, while losers compare their achievements with those of other people. – Qubein The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Christie The man on top of the mountain didn’t fall there. – Lombardi We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. – Roosevelt Anything worth doing is worth doing badly, at first. At the end, when your legs are tired and your arms are giving out, get angry. Get angry that you are tired. Then hit it harder. Failure is a bruise, not a tattoo. Living over longevity. Push harder than yesterday if you want a different tomorrow. Damaged people are dangerous. They know they can survive. – Hart Strength is the product of struggle, you must do what others don’t to achieve what others won’t. - Rollins No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and hidden strength. - Kerouac It’s not wanting to win that makes you a winner; it’s refusing to fail. – Manning While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. – Link If we can summon the confidence to follow our hearts and rise to the occasion even when it involves going where it hurts, we can make a lot of wishes – our own and those of others – come true. – Gates Only those who risk going too far find out how are they can go. – Bishop The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Tear off the mask. Your face is glorious. – Rumi There is nothing outside yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside yourself. – Musashi If you really want something you will find a way. If you don’t, you will find an excuse. Without struggle, there is no man. It never gets easier, you just get better. Doing something you hate to do like you love it is good conditioning for someone aspiring towards greatness. It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. – Confucius Everything you want is on the other side of fear. – Canfield To live is the rarest thing in the world, most people exist, that is all. – Wilde Energy and persistence conquers all things. – Franklin Champions don’t do extraordinary things, they do ordinary things, but they do them without thinking, too fast for the other team to react. – Dungy Let the world tremble as it senses all you are about to accomplish. – Camoes If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. – Wilezek Walk on the Earth in a deadening noise. Wake up every morning with the thought that something wonderful is about to happen. The superior man is distressed by the limitations of his ability; he is not distressed by the fact that men do not recognize the ability that he has. - Confucius Every time you train, train with the motivation and purpose that you will be the hardest person someone ever tries to kill. Could you kill a past version of yourself? You're in the fight whether you want to be or not. To succeed you must first improve, to improve you must first practice, to practice you must first learn and to learn you must first fail. Don’t fear failure. In great attempts it is glorious even to fail. – Lee When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t. – Edison The mind always fails first, not the body. The secret is to make your mind work for you, not against you. You can only fight the way you practice. – Musashi The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. – Rand If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you. The path out of darkness begins with those exasperatingly persistent individuals who are constitutionally incapable of capitulation. Fall in love with the process and the results will come. Defeat should motivate you. No responsibility, no plans, no ambition, if you’re not building a future, that’s because you don’t believe there is a future. You’ve given up on yourself. You’re a loser. When life seems dangerous and unmanageable, just remember that it is, and that you can’t survive forever. The key secret to success in an operation is careful planning followed by rapid execution. – Scipio Africanus Opportunity makes the thief. |
Justice: also considered as Fairness, the most extensive and most important virtue.
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Character, Ethics, Honesty, Integrity, Thoughtfulness, Courtesy
If you can’t walk away from a negotiation, then you aren’t negotiating. You’re just working out the terms of your slavery. The intention is everything; the act nothing. Results matter. By setting up a scenario where it’s okay to harbor a severe prejudice against the sight and sound of a word, we’re doing nothing less atrocious then reinforcing the idea that a thing can be obscene merely by being seen or heard. See everything, overlook a great deal; correct a little. – Pope John XXII The height of cleverness is the be able to conceal it. – Rochefoucauld Duty is the sublimest word in our language. – Lee It is only the ignorant who suppose themselves omniscient. – Lee Beware equally of a sudden friend and a slow enemy. – Home Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them. – Hesse Those who bring you the garbage of malicious news are not your friends. – Franco Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Whenever advantages for you mean problems for someone else, refuse them. He who can lead you to believe an absurdity, can lead you to commit an atrocity. – Voltaire Trust everyone, tempt no one. For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root. – Thoreau You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. – Ziglar There comes a time when silence is betrayal. – King It is possible for a single individual to defy the whole might of an unjust empire to save his honor, his religion, his soul and lay the foundation for that empire’s fall or its regeneration. – Gandhi It’s better to walk alone, then with a crowd going in the wrong direction. – Grant Doing what you love makes you feel alive. When you feel alive, other people who are less awake than you are will flock to the spectacle. Honesty is a very expensive gift; don’t expect it from cheap people. You can’t do the other man’s job. - Heinlein Only followers need leaders. Words may lie, but actions will always tell the truth. When we ask for advice, we are usually looking for an accomplice – Grange Your silence gives consent. – Plato Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence. – de Vinvi My right to swing my fist ends at your nose. My right to make noise ought to end at your ear. – Blomberg Strangers present. – Heinlein People aren’t against you; they are for themselves. Be loyal and trustworthy. Do not befriend anyone who is lower than yourself in this regard. – Confucius Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. True friends say good things behind your back and bad things to your face. My memory of you is better than you. – Lao Tzu You can ignore reality, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality. – Rand The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. – Aurelius To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions. – Aurelius Anger is a legitimate emotion in the face of injustice. It is important to remember that passive acceptance of evil is not a virtue. Setting a good example is a far better way to spread ideals than through force of arms. – Paul Good ideas don’t require force. Anyone can revolt. It is more difficult silently to obey our own inner promptings, and to spend our lives finding sincere and fitting means of expression for our temperament and our gifts. – Rouault There is no room for pragmatism in honor. Our values influence our motivation. If we don’t have strongly held values, we have little motivation. A focus on feelings is a reliable hallmark of those with no moral core at their center. He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else. – Franklin He had vision. But in order to execute that vision, he had to be willing to walk away from it all, to be ruthless with his own sentimentality. It may be necessary temporarily to accept a lesser evil, but one must never label a necessary evil as good. Prefer punishment to disgraceful gain; for the one is painful but once, but the other for one’s whole life. – Chilon Choose loss, rather than shameful gain. Phony umbrage and secular piousness are the cheap and easy virtues of a soulless people. Those who do not move, do not notice their chains. – Luxemburg The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. – Nietzsche The just man never harms anyone, since everything he does is for the benefit of all. – Plato Therefore the considerations of the intelligent always include both benefit and harm. – Sun Tzu For your own good is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction. – Frame You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop and what your reinforce. Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth. - Wilde What you have inherited from your forefathers, you must first win for yourself if you are to possess it. – Goethe If you take in a lie, you must take in all that belongs to it. – Emerson Virtue is right conduct in the face of temptation. – Heinlein Morals, all correct moral laws derive from the instinct to survive. Moral behavior is survival behavior above the individual level. – Heinlein The basis of all morality is duty. The aim of ethics is to act in a certain way. For the clause: “if you are willing” takes away all further apprehension. – Socrates The real test for a man is how he lives with himself, alone. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind. – Shakespeare If you're not early, you’re late. Work until you no longer have to introduce yourself. Punctuality is the politeness of kings. – Dumas We don’t see thing as they are, we see them as we are. – Nin The sign of intelligence is that you are constantly wondering. – Vasudev |
Martial Power, Society, Patriotism
Tanstaafl: There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. Neither seek nor shun the fight. He who leaves the fight unfinished is not at peace. The true foundation of Republican government is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and in their management. – Jefferson No lasting gain has ever come from compulsion. – Gompers He who dares not offend cannot be honest. – Paine Equal in law is not equal in nature. – Card The porcupine teaches that you don’t have to be strong enough to defeat a predator to avoid being that predator’s lunch. It suffices to be an expensive meal. – Kennedy The foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people. – Hooker Naked power is quicksilver, lost in a flash. So power rushes to form, which endows power with legitimacy, defines the processes whereby it is acquired, exercised, delegated, transferred. Hiding behind form, power acquires stability. Form is a structure of power but claims legitimacy as a map of reality. Reality is flux, while power, always trying to preserve itself, insists on the permance of forms; so form falls ever more at variance with the changing reality it claims faithfully to reflect. Power clings to form even after forms claim to truth has become manifest travesty. – Wheelis A person in uniform is merely an extension of another person’s will. – Slater Most significant power now is power over people. The ability to win the respect, the belief, the support, the allegiance, the following, the obedience of people – this is power. – Wheelis Speed is find, but accuracy is final. – Jordan Spill enough blood and any secret will die. – Bowden A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. – Goldwater The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant. – Mill Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free. If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the state can shield the people from the political, economic and / or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the state to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the state. – Goebbels All the perplexities, confusions and distress in America arise not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation. – Adams Taxation and slavery are morally equivalent, they differ only in degree. – Bond The ultimate result of shielding man from the efforts of folly is to fill the world with fools. – Spencer What a piece of bread looks like depends on whether you are hungry or not. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. – Socrates There is almost a sensual longing for communion with others who have a large vision. The immense fulfillment of the friendship between those engaged in furthering the evolution of consciousness has a quality impossible to describe. – Chardin It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg. – Jefferson Competition is merely the absence of oppression. – Bastiat The Four Pillars of Power - Militaristic - Economic - Political - Social (Zeitgeist, Media) Violence, the supreme authority from which all others are derived. – Heinlein Violence, more than any other currency, is not a distortion of the free market; it is the ultimate free market. The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. – Hay It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong. – Sowell Hannibal’s Rules: - Fix the enemies attention. - Maximize your resources. - Surprise the enemy. - Use enemy’s strength against them. - Absolutely destroy. The degree of supervision, indeed, is often a more eloquent class indicator than mere income, which suggests that the whole class system is more a recognition of the value of freedom than a proclamation of the value of sheer cash. – Fussell Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as empty, meaningless or dishonest and scorn to use them. No matter how pure their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best. - Heinlein Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny. – Heinlein Almost all of our relationships begin, and most of them continue, as forms of mutual exploitation, a mental or physical barter, to be terminated when one of both parties run out of goods. – Auden Natural laws have no pity. – Heinlein Money is the root of all good. – Wanderone Let him who desires peace prepare for war. – Vegetius Laws are silent in time of war. – Cicero You own property or you are property. Being unheard is the ground floor of giving up. It is through exchange that difference becomes a blessing, not a curse. – Sacks The State is the great fiction through which everyone endeavors to live at the expense of everyone else. – Bastiat Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true. – Balzac There is not equality. Equality does not exist in any real, material, legal or spiritual sense. To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them. – Lee Sometimes it is entirely appropriate to kill a fly with a sledge hammer. – Holdredge Territory is that which defines all else. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. When the axe came into the woods, many of the trees said, "At least the handle is one of us. The triumph of persuasion over force is the sign of a civilized society – Skousen A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government. – Jefferson No human rights exist without property rights. Since material goods are produced by the mind and effort of individual men, and are needed to sustain their lives, if the producer does not own the result of his effort, he does not own his life. – Rand There can be no such thing, in law or in morality, as actions forbidden to an individual, but permitted to a mob. – Rand If goods don’t cross borders, then armies will. – Bastiat The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men. – Plato Information, the first principle of warfare, must form the foundation of all your efforts. Know, of course, thine enemy. But in knowing him do not forget above all to know thyself. The commander who embraces this totality of battle shall win even with the inferior force. The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. – Aristotle Equality is the opposite of quality. – Aurini Private property is redundant. “Public property” is an oxymoron. All legit property is private. If property isn’t private it’s stolen. – Molinari There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. – Rourke Wolves don’t lose sleep over the opinions of sheep. Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little. - Johnson Nothing happens until someone sells something. We are all born slaves. – Locke A man chooses, a slave obeys. Irony being the song of the prisoner who’s come to love his cage. The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those that speak it. – Orwell A human being has no natural rights of any nature. – Heinlein No one conquers who doesn’t fight. Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less. “There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves.” – Austen No matter what kind of structure we create collectively, someone will want to control it. By its very nature, a dagger is meant to be hidden. In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. – Confucius Every time you cut off what you believe to be the worst 10%, a new worst 10% is created. Protect your extremists. Defend them. Cherish them. Because they are your shock troops. They are the ones willing to attack the enemy and take the heat. And if you're going to shoot them in the back, guess what's going to happen to you? “Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.” - Bastiat, Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.” — Lord Acton He who defends everything defends nothing. – Fredrick II It’s amazing how much panic one honest man can spread among a multitude of hypocrites. – Sowell She is supposed to celebrate life with you. That error was the belief that compromising with the unreasonable would promote reason; that compromising with the loud would promote peace; that compromising with the angry would promote calm; that compromising with the stupid would promote intelligence; that compromising with the malevolent would promote virtue; that compromising with the innately dishonest would promote candor; and that compromising with evil would promote the common good. You are not required to set yourself on fire to keep other people warm. |
Prudence: also described as Wisdom, the ability to Judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions.
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Conflict, Growth, Knowledge Progress, Health
I’m a professional when it comes to existential crises. I’ve spent a large portion of my life in “what is the meaning of my life?” mode. I’ve come up with a lot of clever answers. Some of them even felt original. The only one that ever really works is disappointingly simple: do something. The meaning of my life cannot be summed up in a pithy quote or even the most complete philosophy. It is impossible to give yourself a satisfying purpose in the abstract. It is only in the flow of action that life can make sense. There are no abstract ideals there, just life. To whose profit? What is happening right now? Can I be with it? What is really important? Does what I’m doing lead to something that is pleasing? Can you do better? What is? What do I know? Be present. Know the reason why. What a man believes may be ascertained not from his creed, but from the assumptions on which he habitually acts. – Anthony The trouble is, you think you have time. – Buddha Talent is formed in still waters; character in the worlds torrent. – Goethe Free your heart from hatred Free your mind from worries Live simply Give more Expect less. Life is like a game of cards. The hand you are dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will. – Nehru All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward. - Glasgow When you complain, you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation or accept it, all else is madness. – Tolle Time conquers all and we must time obey. What you think about when you have nothing to do reveals what is important to you. Problem is choice. Rule 0318: Delete the toxic people in your life. We must expect reverses, even defeats. They are sent to teach us wisdom and prudence, to call forth greater energies and to prevent our falling into greater disasters. – Lee Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom. – Buddha To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. Make haste slowly. – Augustus There is no such thing as failure, only results. – Seymour Stars can’t shine without darkness. What you will become rests with what you are willing to do. Those who wish to succeed must ask the right preliminary questions. – Aristotle Objection, evasion, joyous distrust and love of irony are signs of health. – Nietzsche The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself. – Rumi Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped. You all laugh because I am different, I laugh because you are all the same. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level. – Lee Life is nothing, if you’re not obsessed. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are? – Paige Always haunted by the idea you’re wasting your life. Only a fool trips on what is behind him. Plato, the figure a thoughtful young man must sooner or later test himself against. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, then grief is the door. As long as it’s closed, it’s a barrier between knowing and not knowing. Walk away from it and it stays closed forever. But open it and walk through it and pain becomes truth. Anger cannot be dishonest. – Aurelius Life is a kind of military service. – Seneca We always compare jobs with jobs, lovers with lovers and wine with wine. Pain is a sign that’s it’s time to change. To invent your own life’s meaning is not easy, but it’s still allowed and I think you’ll be happier for the trouble. – Watterson Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. – Emerson Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Habits change into character. – Ovid The greatest gift you can give to somebody is your own personal development. – Rohn Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Jung If you want to feel your positive memories more intensely, you can simply move them closer to you in your mind’s eye. If you want difficult memories to have less intensity, you can just move them farther away from you. A nemesis is the one who makes you fall in love with yourself. I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone, it’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people that make you feel all alone. – Williams We are unknown, we knowers, ourselves to ourselves: this has its own good reason. We have never searched for ourselves – how should it come to pass, that we should ever find ourselves? Rightly has it been said: “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” – Nietzsche Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. – Hill The light at the end of the tunnel is not an illusion. The tunnel is. No one is more hopelessly enslaved that the person who falsely believes he is free. – Goethe Does this fulfill my purpose? I must conquer my loneliness alone. I must be happy with myself or have nothing to offer. Surround yourself with people that reflect who you want to be and how you want to feel, energies are contagious. – Wolchin Nothing happens in a vacuum. A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. - Bacon It’s being here now that’s important. There’s no past and there’s no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can’t relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don’t know if there is one. – Harrison Before you fall, you have to learn to crawl. You can’t see heaven when you’re standing tall. To get the whole sky on the ground you have to lie. Before you ask which way to go, remember where you’ve been. First, find a simple and obvious cue. Second, clearly define the rewards. – Duhigg Why does distance make us wise? Distance lends perception. Nothing is swifter than our years. – Ovid Change must be earned. To be a man means to seek a truth that satisfies the mind, a virtue that sates the conscience, and a beauty that breaks the heart. Deprive a man of any of these things, and he will find neither happiness nor rest. Be the first, be the best, or be different. – Easton Work or relax. Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous pre-success failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system. That’s a big difference in terms of maintaining your personal energy in the right direction. – Adams The wise does at once what the fool does at last. – Gracian You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. – Rohn The thorn defends the rose and harms only those who would steal the blossom. You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. – Maxwell When it hurts – observe. Life is trying to teach you something. – Krizzan The creative mind plays with the objects it loves. – Jung Everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something and has lost something. Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength. – Freud |
Education, Financial, Reason, Learning, Livelihood
Never be without a primary purpose. Go well on your purpose. Life is for doing, learning and enjoying. Doing allows for more learning. The more we learn, the more we can do. Learn to enjoy the process of learning and doing. Be so good, they can’t ignore you. - Martin Be free. Not cheap. Order has no pattern, is not a blueprint; it comes out of the comprehension of what disorder is. – Krisnamurti The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. – Spencer On the mountain of truth, you never climb in vain. You either reach a higher step today or you exercise your strength in order to climb higher. – Nietzsche We much look upon our irrationality as very important. We must know it, admit it, expose it. For it holds the flow of the river of life. If we are cut off from the irrational, we become pedantic and dead. – Pierrakos How strange it is to be anything at all. Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible. – Feynmen Acting in an orderly way and being aware that life is ceaseless action are giant steps along the road of evolution. – Franco Every question, if it’s a truthful question, can be answered by asking it. – Dylan Only take advice from those who have done what you want to do. Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. - Confucius Seeing much, suffering much and studying much are the three pillars of learning. – Disraeli The growth of wisdom may be gauged accurately by the decline of ill temper. – Nietzsche The map is not the territory it describes. We attend to those aspects of the world that interest us and ignore others. The world is always richer then the ideas we have about it. The filters we put on our perceptions determine what sort of world we live in. – O’ Connor Mistakes are the only certain way to learn. – Heinlein You cannot travel the path before you have become the path itself. – Buddha Never water down your five other senses: humor, style, direction, honor and wonder. A wise person knows that there is something to learn from everyone. We’re all a little mad here. An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions. – Humphrey Spread poverty or wealth. The fundamental flaw: the belief others are as moral. Debt is the slavery of the free. – Syrus If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing. – Franklin Try to learn something about everything and everything about something. – Husley We should be careful of get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it – and stop there, lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stovelid. She will never site down on a hot stovelid again- and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. – Twain Collect moments not things. If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm. – Aurelius A man’s most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe. – Eurpides It does not require many words to speak the truth. – Joseph If it can be destroyed by the truth it deserves to be destroyed by the truth. – Sagan The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. – Fitzgerald Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world. – Buddha Every man I meet is in some way my superior. – Emerson The love of knowledge is a kind of madness. – Lewis True education begins with physical abuse. – Augustine There is no greater evil one can suffer that to hate reasonable discourse. – Plato You can tell how smart people are by what they laugh at. – Fry No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. – Voltaire Those who are awake live in a state of constant amazement. – Buddha When one realized one is asleep, at that point one is already half awake. – Ouspensky Wisdom comes alone through suffering. – Aeschylus Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. – Aurelius Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly. Your thoughts build your life. – Buddha We make a living by what we got, we make a life by what we give. – McFinan As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death. – da Vinci Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work. – Hunt Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out. For what’s especially difficult about being ignorant is that you are content with yourself, even though you’re neither beautiful and good nor intelligent. If you don’t think you need anything, of course you won’t want what you don’t think you need. – Plato Those who don’t build to a concrete ending in reality always flounder and fail, living their lives in at best middling mediocrity, stricken with an acute sense of personal unhappiness. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. – Chesterton The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see. – Trenfor No answer is also an answer. If there is a book you want to read but isn’t written yet, write it. – Silverstein Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. – Shaw Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. – Cicero Wisdom has its excesses, and has no less need of moderation than folly. – Montaigne Men cannot see their reflection in running water, but only in still water. – Chuang Tzu Your environment is built around four core areas: movement, nourishment, recovery and belief. Rhetoric is no substitute for dialectic. Remember that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is not reason not to follow your heart. – Jobs. Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool, a comedy for the rich, a tragedy for the poor. – Aleichem The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. – Socrates Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it. - Syrus The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are. – Jung You can only see as far as you think. Adversity shows whether we have friends, or only the shadows of friends. – Publilius Wealth is not a number of dollars. It is not a number of material possessions. It’s having options and the ability to take on risk. – Lloyd Being wealthy is having the freedom to maximize one’s life experiences. Home, I learned, can be anywhere you make it. Home is also the place to which you come back again and again. – Mead Sunshine all the time makes a desert. When I look back on that year of my life, there’s almost nothing there. We do not rise to the occasion; we fall to our level of training. When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new. – Dalai Lama Reason can’t operate without imagination. Forgive yourself for not knowing what you didn’t know before you learned it. |
Temperance: also known as Restraint, the practice of Self-control, Abstention, and Moderation.
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Balance, Control, Moderation, Possession, Wealth
How would I like to feel? What is a waste? There is moderation in everything - Horace Everything in moderation, including moderation. Invest in experiences, not things. The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. – James Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. – Frankel Sometimes, too, in an eerie, dark reversal, I love something so much that I feel the urge to destroy it, to be free from that attachment and the fear of loss. – Runin Total composure brings amazing results. Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. Moralizing about evil is a good way to succumb to it. – Miller Strangely enough, evil people are often destructive because they are attempting to destroy evil. The problem is that they misplace the locus of evil. Instead of destroying others, they should be destroying the sickness within themselves. – Peck The great epochs of our lives are at the points when we gain courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us. – Nietzsche Measure your wealth by the things you have that no one could buy at any price. Watch your attitude; others are. Insults, like violence, are the last refuge of the incompetent. A thing is not beautiful because it lasts. When trying for a consensus, remember that you’re the only person in the universe who thinks exactly like you do. Familiarity breeds contempt. – Aesop There is enough. – Oriah Men’s natures are alike, it is their habits that separate them. – Confucius Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure. No warning can save people determined to grow suddenly rich. – Overstone Would you have a great empire? Rule over yourself. – Syrus Quiet people have the loudest minds. – Hawking Little minds try to defend everything at once, but sensible people look at the main point only; they parry the worst blows and stand a little hurt if thereby they avoid a greater one. – Frederick Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy. To tolerate everything is to teach nothing. – Kinsman When the passions become masters, they are vices. – Rascal How much time he saves who does not look to see what his neighbor says or does or thinks. – Aurelis Fixation is the way to death, fluidity is the way to life. – Musashi You will find that it is necessary to let things go; simply for the reason that they are heavy. He who knows how to speak, knows also when. – Archidamidas The things you own end up owning you. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. – Morris We are our choices. – Sarte Wealthy people carry their riches within. When you notice yourself out of balance, balance it at once. If you don’t, it will find a reflection outside. If anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nothingness. – St. Exupry More is not what it’s about. It’s about customizing what you like. – McConaughey Toleration is not the opposite of intolerance but the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms: the one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, the other of granting it. – Paine Who begins too much accomplishes little. Sometimes my life doesn’t make very much sense to me and so during those times I try to look at it as an amused observer would. – Hatfield The rich invest in time; the poor invest in money. There is so much you can let go of, without really losing a thing. – Marston If I see grass greener than other people, if I hear sounds that they don’t hear, then the price I pay is in periods of frustration and loneliness. – Graham Cravings are what drive habits. All you need is less. Open your mouth only if what you are going to say is more beautiful than silence. In everything, mindset comes first and creates the results in physical reality. Whatever you can lose, you should reckon of no account. – Publilius When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious. – Chan Complete possession is only proved by giving. All you are unable to give possesses you. – Gide |
Caution, Discipline, Patience
People who talk a lot about themselves seldom want to hear what others have to say. Less talk, more work. – Emmert There is a difference between truly listening and waiting for your turn to talk. – Emerson One of the most sincere forms of respect is actually listening to what another has to say. Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. – Weil Much of the conflict in our lives can be explained by one simple but unhappy fact: We don’t really listen to each other. – Nichols There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing and be nothing. – Aristotle Although criticism is not always directed at us with the noblest intentions, nothing prevents us from looking at it as a gift to be put to good use. – Forni Be awake by being mindful. Depressive states are often creative attempts by the Self to drive us into deeper communication with our wholeness. There are times when we must sink to the bottom of our misery to understand truth; just as we must descent to the bottom of a well to see the stars in broad daylight. – Havel To refrain from imitation is the best revenge. – Aurelius Being healthy is being free. Between saying and doing, the ocean is in between. If what you are about to say isn’t encouraging, complimentary or instructive, don’t say it. You can tell the size of a man by the size of things that bother him. Hard times are often temporary. Harsh words are usually permanent. Remember, there is one thing all people crave – your full attention. Silence is not always tact, and it is tact that is golden, not silence. – Butler Satisfaction found in comfort is often brief. If you walk the glory road, you are certain to find mostly rocks. – Heinlein If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else. - Gaye The power of your example is the most important sermon you’ll ever preach. I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. - Lawrence People respect convictions are more than intellectual honesty. The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried. How much more grievous are the consequences of anger that the causes of it. – Aurelias Under the comb the tangle and the straight path are the same. – Heraclitus Fortunate, indeed, is the man who takes exactly the right measure of himself, and holds a just balance between what he can acquire and what he can use, be it great or be it small. – Latham Never miss a chance to shut up. – Robinson Comfort is the enemy of achievement. It’ll shine when it shines. Things forbidden have a secret charm. – Tactius Do not fall in love with potential. The quieter you become the more you can hear. – Dass Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. – Tzu A mistake repeated more than once is a decision. Self pity earns no credit. Our specific thoughts, actions and feelings consistently produce specific results. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself. – Rumi Madness is a lot like gravity, all it takes is a little push. If you don’t want anyone to find out, don’t do it. A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. – Hugo Don’t mistake activity for production. Effort and want are wasted if not focused and disciplined. – Billick The secret of your success is found in your daily routine. It’s easier to wear slippers than to carpet the world. Great things are done by a series of small things brought together. – van Gogh Take some personal accountability for yourself and your actions and watch your life improve immediately. Every disordered soul punishes itself. – Augustine The high standards you apply to your desires must be applied to yourself. Never regret anything because at one time it was exactly what you wanted. One should never risk one's whole fortune unless supported by one's entire forces. - Machiavelli For it almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favorable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa. – Bastiat |
Hope: expectation of and desire of receiving; refraining from despair and capability of not giving up. Death, Festivity, Happiness, Home, Time.
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Festivity, Happiness, Home
Happiness is a way of travel not a destination. Happiness is a form of courage. In the light, where can shadows hide? – Card I am terrified. I am exhilarated. I am unfettered. Respond to every call that excites your spirit. - Rumi If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve upon it, what comes later will also be better. Most people see the world as a threatening place and because they do, the world turns out indeed to be a threatening place. If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects. - Einstein We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. – Castenda And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. – Nietzsche Lord, grant that I may always desire more than I can accomplish. – Michelangelo Your wealth is measured by the fewness of your wants. Grief changes shape, but it never ends. – Reeves The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it. – Aurelius You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. – Aurelius Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. – Shaw Stop looking for happiness in the same place you lost it. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. – Thoreau You must be the best judge of your own happiness. – Austen Unhurt people are not much good in the world. — Starkie The scariest thing about distance is you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget about you. "Evil is boring. The universe is friendly. Life is on your side. Joy is your birthright. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy. In fact, all of creation wants you to succeed. Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement and illumination. Assume that secret helpers are working behind the scenes to assist you in turning into the gorgeous masterpiece you were born to be. Retrain your senses and intellect so you're able to perceive the fact that life always gives you exactly what you need, exactly when you need it." – Brezny If light is in your heart, you will find your way home. – Rumi Pain is an illusion of the senses. Despair is an illusion of the mind. The world is a poorer place because you aren’t fully in it. You have to live your answer. – Greitens Avoiding unhappiness is not the road to happiness. Notice the people who are happy for your happiness, and sad for your sadness. They’re the ones who deserve special places in your heart. Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. - Aesop |
Death, Time
What pain do you want? If she is not now, she never was. I mistook a cloud of atoms for a person. There aren’t and never were any people. Death only reveals the vacuity that was always there. What we call the living are simply those who have not yet been unmasked. – Lewis Hope is the last refuge of the inert. Despair is the only cure for illusion. – Slater Don’t Die Wondering. Had I not known that I was dead already I would have mourned my loss of life. It’s such a shame to waste time. We always think we have so much of it. I thought about the days I had handed over to a bottle. The nights I couldn’t remember. All that time spent running from myself. Do you remember… - Albom The longer you wait for the future, the shorter it will be. Nobody is too busy, it’s just a matter of priorities. Hope you are quite prepared to die. Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well. – Buddha I felt fear in knowing that the best I could hope for is fear. Every experience you have ever had is over. Every thought you’ve ever had, started and finished. - Carlson The sole equality on Earth is death. – Bailey I hate small talk. I wanna talk about atoms, death, aliens, sex, magic, intellect, the meaning of life, faraway galaxies, music that makes you feel different, memories, the lies you’ve told, your flaws, your favorite scents, your childhood, what keeps you up at night, your insecurities and fears. I like people with depth, who speak with emotion from a twisted mind. I don’t want to know what’s up. We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever; the goal is to create something that will. The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello and goodbye, until we meet again. - Hendrix |
Faith: confidence or trust in a thing, belief that is not based on proof. Belief, Fulfillment, God, Innocence, Life, Peace of mind, Spirituality, Truth.
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Belief, Fulfillment, Innocence, Life
We are what we think. – Anderson Why are you so enchanted by this world, when a mine of gold lies within you? - Rumi Follow your own path and let people talk. - Dante Not the intensity but the duration of high feelings makes high men. – Nietzsche A human thought is an actual existence, and a force and power, capable of acting upon and controlling matter as well as mind. – Pike Everything that you are going through is preparing you for what you asked for. We are life, and life is limitless. – Hanh Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. – Mahler Some people just don’t seem to realize, when they’re moaning about not getting prayers answered, that the answer is no. – White Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart. A human being is incapable of lacking trust. Even doubt is trusting a reality you don’t prefer. As the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want. – Lao Tzu Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know. – Chodron Truth is beautiful, without a doubt; but so are lies. – Emerson Never lose faith in the end of the story. Every third thought shall be my grave. Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. – Dick |
God, Peace of mind, Spirituality, Truth
30,000 days! Burn this heart clean. Know before whom you stand. The more you care for the things of the world, the less you understand your destiny. Only what is best for us happens. The best things in life aren’t things. Thou shalt not disfigure the Soul. The want of logic annoys. Too much logic bores. Life eludes logic, and everything that logic alone constructs remains artificial and forced. You have nothing to lose but your horror. – Capon God never ceases to create. – Kardec People don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t’ want their illusions destroyed. – Nietzsche Nothing counts now except being last, least, lost, little and dead with me. Some would ask, how could a perfect God create a universe filled with so much that is evil. They have missed a greater conundrum: Why would a perfect God create a universe at all? Life is about cause and effect. No suffering is undeserved. No experience in life can take from you without also giving, and no experience can give without taking. Faith in God includes faith in His timing. When a baby is born he falls asleep and dreams the dream of life, when he dies and is buried in his grave he wakes up again to the eternal ecstasy. Truth purchaseth hatred. – Wilson Don’t worry about the haters. They are just angry because the truth you speak contradicts the lie they live. – Maraboli Just as all things desire existence, so too they detest and avoid number and imperfection inasmuch as it is a departure or fall from existence. – Avicenna Why is evil not objecting to my presence? You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. There is no freedom as sweet as knowing you are terrible and accepting it. |
Love/Charity: a supernatural virtue that helps us love God and our neighbors, more than ourselves. Beauty, Creativity, Family, Friends, Forgiveness, Humanity, Humility, Kindness, Service.
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Family, Friends, Forgiveness, Humanity, Humility
Love is wanting to possess the good forever. – Plato If we want the rewards of being loved, we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known. – Lreider Everything we do affects other people. Life is relationship. – Krishnamurti My self is not confined to my body. It extends into all the things I have made and all the things around me. Without these things, I would not be myself. – Jung Feeling good about yourself begins with serving others. Only the conquest of universal love, involving charity in its widest concept, will set the human being free from the chains of flesh and make him happy. – Nobre We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness. – Hanh The only time you should look in your neighbors bowl is to make sure that they have enough. We do, in fact, love or hate our enemies to the same degree that we love or hate ourselves. In the image of the enemy, we will find the mirror in which we may see our own face most clearly. – Keen An insult is like a drink, it affects one only is accepted. – Heinlein Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. – Buddha Learning the difference between people is just as important as learning what makes them the same. – Skinner When someone says I hate you, they really mean you hurt me. One hates you because they want to be just like you. The truth is; everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for. – Marley We don’t know who we are until were connected to someone else. If we’re right we must punish – either ourselves or another. Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. – Nietzsche And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness. Love is never any better than the lover. – Morrison Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else. – daVinci Hence, everything is governed by other factors which in turn are governed by others, and in this way nothing governs itself. – Shantideva Love has nothing to do with order. – Columbanus We are shaped and fashioned by those we love. – Geothe It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not. If the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. – King Your best friends are the people in your life who help you organize your thoughts. Now what is history? It is the centuries of systematic explorations of the riddle of death, with a view to overcoming death. That’s why people discover mathematical infinity and electromagnetic waves, that’s why they write symphonies. Now, you can’t advance in this direction without a certain faith. You can’t make such discoveries without spiritual equipment. And the basic elements of this equipment are in the Gospels. What are they? To begin with, love of one’s neighbor, which is the supreme form of vital energy. Once it fills the heart of man it has to overflow and spend itself. And then the two basic ideals of modern man – Without them he is unthinkable – the idea of free personality and the idea of life as sacrifice. – Pasternak |
Beauty, Creativity, Kindness, Service
Being kind is good for the kind. – Forni Love is like coming home after a long trip. He who has such little knowledge of human value as to seek happiness by changing anything but his disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove. – Johnson All things are one. The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. – Picasso If you intend to attract, it is imperative, first, to know how to love. – Xavier The true mark of maturity is when somebody hurts you and you try to understand their situation instead of trying to hurt them back. Companions the creator seeks, not corpses, not herds and believers. Fellow creators the creator seeks – those who write new values on new tablets. Companions the creator seeks, and fellow harvesters; for everything about him is ripe for the harvest. – Nietzsche When a man is in a healthy state, his life is a constant creative process. He is inundated by feelings of love, of oneness with other human beings. The oneness is the awareness that he is not different from others. He wants to help them; he identifies with them; he senses that anything that is happening to them is happening to himself. A healthy person has a positive direction in his life. He wills his life in a positive direction, and he is successful – in business, in this thinking, in his feelings of contentment with himself. In that state there is little or no sickness and no evil. – Pierrakos Find what you love and let it kill you. Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray. – Rumi Consider what gives you joy. Therein lies your genius. The greatest cruelty is our casual blindness to the despair of others. Ever loved someone so much, you would do anything for them? Make that someone yourself. Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always. – Hippocrates When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears. – Robbins Make every interaction with others a positive one. Always. You are interrupting their time so be good to them. Broken crayons still color. For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery in the world. Quick gifts are double gifts. One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself: What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again? – Carson Practice charity without holding in mind any conceptions about charity, for charity after all is just a word. Kindness has got nothing to do with money and happiness has got nothing to do with rank or race. – Graham Do not mock a pain you haven’t endured. Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. - Plato If you’re ready to give away what’s most precious to you, you may be amazed at what the world gives back. – Anderson You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. Love is success. Not chivalrous relationships, not sex, not money, not glory. Genuine love for life. Find what you love and direct your passions to it. You will know the relationship is right because you both love the direction you and they are going in life. All life is an experiment. Do not choose a path wrong for your soul. I was never insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched. – Poe |
Invictus – Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
*.*
~ No Regrets ~
*.*
*.*
The only time goodbye is painful is when you know you will never say hello again.
It’s okay to walk out of someone’s like if you don’t feel like you belong in it anymore.
When you feel more in love with your memories than with the person standing in front of you.
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what it has to say. – Coelho
When you can tell the story and it doesn’t bring up any pain, you know it is healed. – Vanzant
*.*
The Last Lecture – Pausch
Never make a decision until you have to.
Home something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.
When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.
Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
Time must be explicitly managed, like money.
You can always change your plan, but only if you have one.
Are you spending your time on the right things?
The kind of people I want on my team are those who will help everyone else fee happy to be here.
Inspiration is the ultimate tool for doing good.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I find the best shortcut is the long way.
If you can find your footing between two cultures, sometimes you can have the best of both worlds.
*.*
New Principles of Mind
*.*
The 7 Habits
*.*
Love your life:
*.*
You cannot be strong if you are not humble.
You cannot be humble if you are not charitable.
You cannot be charitable if you are not strong.
*.*
Physiological
Safety
Love
Esteem
Self-Actualization
*.*
Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence
*.*
The Enemy Maker – Keen
Start with an empty canvas
Sketch in broad outline the forms of
men, women, and children.
Dip into the unconscious well of your own
disowned darkness
with a wide brush and
stain the strangers with the sinister hue
of the shadow.
Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed,
hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as
your own.
Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
Erase all hints of myriad loves, hope,
fears that play through the kaleidoscope of
every finite heart.
Twist the smile until it forms the downward
arc of cruelty.
Strip flesh from bone until only the
abstract skeleton of death remains.
Exaggerate each feature until man is
metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect.
Fill in the background with malignant
figures from ancient nightmares–devils,
demons, myrmidons of evil.
When your icon of the enemy is complete
you will be able to kill without guilt, slaughter without shame.
The thing you destroy will have become
merely an enemy of God, an impediment
to the sacred dialectic of history.
*.*
The New Idol – Nietzsche
Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states.
A state? What is that? Well! Open now your ears unto me, for now will I say unto you my word concerning the death of peoples.
A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: "I, the state, am the people."
It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life.
Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them.
Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs.
This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and evil: this its neighbour understandeth not. Its language hath it devised for itself in laws and customs.
But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen.
False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one. False are even its bowels.
Confusion of language of good and evil; this sign I give unto you as the sign of the state. Verily, the will to death, indicateth this sign! Verily, it beckoneth unto the preachers of death!
Many too many are born: for the superfluous ones was the state devised!
See just how it enticeth them to it, the many-too-many! How it swalloweth and cheweth and recheweth them!
"On earth there is nothing greater than I: it is I who am the regulating finger of God."—thus roareth the monster. And not only the long-eared and short-sighted fall upon their knees!
Ah! even in your ears, ye great souls, it whispereth its gloomy lies! Ah! it findeth out the rich hearts which willingly lavish themselves!
Yea, it findeth you out too, ye conquerors of the old God! Weary ye became of the conflict, and now your weariness serveth the new idol!
Heroes and honourable ones, it would fain set up around it, the new idol! Gladly it basketh in the sunshine of good consciences,- the cold monster!
Everything will it give you, if ye worship it, the new idol: thus it purchaseth the lustre of your virtue, and the glance of your proud eyes.
It seeketh to allure by means of you, the many-too-many! Yea, a hellish artifice hath here been devised, a death-horse jingling with the trappings of divine honors!
Yea, a dying for many hath here been devised, which glorifieth itself as life: verily, a hearty service unto all preachers of death!
The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all—is called "life."
*.*
Michael J. Fox
Make sure the first ingredients are the big stuff… the rocks – your family, your work, your career, your passions. The rest is just sand, minutiae. It’s in there. It may even be important. But it’s not your first priority.
Wherever you go, there it is.
Why not?
None of us is entitled to anything. We get what we get, not because we want it or we deserve it or because it’s unfair if we don’t’ get it, but because we earn it, we respect it and only if we share it do we keep it.
My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectation.
Don’t spend a lot of time imagining the worst-case scenario. It rarely goes down as you imagine it will, and if by some fluke it does, you will have lived it twice. When things do go bad, don’t run, don’t hide. Stick it out, and be scrupulous in facing every part of your fear. Try to be still. It will take time, but you’ll find that even the gravest problems are finite – and that your choices are infinite.
Live to learn.
*.*
Did I Tell You?
Did I tell you to love, not with a fairweather love, but with a love that accepts and cherishes unconditionally. Love not with a quick and passing love, but with a love that is quiet peace within your heart.
Did I tell you to be thoughtful. Not to be a martyr or doormat to be trod upon, but to be aware of other people and their needs. To meet others with awareness and within your own framework be able to meet them halfway and on occasion go the other half joyfully.
Did I tell you to be courteous not to display empty manners with no meaning but to live the courtesy born of caring. And to express this caring through the small formalities and customs born of the years.
Did I tell you to be bold. To be not afraid of the unknown, but to live life to the fullest and meet each new experience with joy and anticipation.
And did I tell you to be cautious. To temper your daring and sense of adventure with good judgment and consideration.
Did I tell you to serve other people if only in a small way. There is growth and satisfaction in being part of something larger than yourself and your life will be richer for knowing this.
Did I tell you to maintain a sense of the past. To recall and uphold all that is best and meaningful in our country and in our society. But never be afraid to speak out where you don’t believe or where there is room for improvement. Work for what you believe, but work in a positive way within a structure of order and reason.
Did I tell you to find a part of nature that speaks to you. Then know it intimately and well. For some it is a mountain peak, for some a windswept beach. Find your own and in it find your restoration.
Did I tell you to laugh, to dance, to sing. There is a lot in life that is hard, but take it as it comes and find the good… and make time to dance.
Did I tell you to be creative to explore the seed within you. Find your creative spirit and let it grow.
And did I tell you the challenge of being a man – the challenge of balancing your worlds – the need to achieve and the need to nurture – the need to be strong and the need to be tender – the need to meet the tests that life brings yet always keep love at the center – letting it be the star by which you set your sail
I hope it will be a good life.
*.*
Harsh Truths
If you’re not actively involved in getting what you want, you don’t really want it.
*.*
Fear
The fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow.
Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.
If you knew you could handle anything that came your way, what would you possibly have to fear?
From this moment on, every time you feel afraid, remind yourself that it is simply because you are not feeling good enough about yourself
Taking responsibility means never blaming anyone else for anything you are being, doing, having or feeling. Taking responsibility means not blaming yourself. Taking responsibility means being aware of where and when you are not taking responsibility so that you can eventually change. Taking responsibility means being aware of the payoffs that keep you stuck.
There are many inner clues that help you know when it is time to correct. The two most obvious are confusion and dissatisfaction. Anger is your clue that you are not taking responsibility. The biggest pitfall as you make your way through life is impatience.
Don’t wait for it to take! Take it!
*.*
Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius
If God exists, whence comes evil? Yet whence comes good, if He exists not?
Why, then, ye children of mortality, seek ye from without that happiness whose seat is only within us?
It is plain that Fortune cannot aspire to bestow happiness by reason of its instability.
In true friends thou hast found the most precious of all riches.
There is in Virtue a dignity of her own which she forthwith passes over to those to whom she is united.
Him whom good fortune has made a friend, ill fortune will make an enemy. And what plague is more effectual to do hurt than a foe of one’s own household?
For many have won a great name through the mistake beliefs of the multitude – and what can be imagined more shameful than that?
All things, then, desire to be one.
The carrying out of any human action depends upon two things – to wit, will and power; if either be wanting, nothing can be accomplished.
Since every fortune, welcome and unwelcome alike, has for its object the reward or trial of the good, and the punishing or amending of the bad, every fortune must be good, since it is either just or useful.
Indeed, can any creature be rational, unless he be endowed with free will.
*.*
C. S. Lewis:
You would not call a man humane for ceasing to set mousetraps if he did so because he believed there were no mice in the house.
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.
One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up.
A promise must be about things that I can do, about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way.
That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.
Pride leads to every other vice.
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.
Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.
You must have a capacity to receive, or even omnipotence can’t give.
Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.
We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
With those who follow a different Way it is useless to take counsel.
*.*
Robert Capon:
If you take the view that one of the chief objects in life is to remain in loving relationships with other people, straight line power becomes useless.
In heaven, there are only forgiven sinners.
We delude ourselves into thinking that our own salvation can be achieved by keeping books on others.
You have nothing to lose but your horror.
The trouble with uniqueness, though, is that practically no one can see it as anything but craziness.
Creation is about God having a good time and just itching to share it.
We will never be free until we are dead to the whole business of justifying ourselves.
Reply in anger and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
God wills above all to celebrate.
*.*
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
*.*
Nothing Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
*.*
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
Blesses are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3-10
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, your will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. – Matthew 7:1-3
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. – Matthew 7:7-8
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is Gods. – Matthew 22:21
Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. – Matthew 26:52
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” – Luke 22:36
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. – Luke 6:26-27
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. – Romans 12:16
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. – Galations 6:7
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. – Philippians 4:8
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you. – I Thessalonians 4:11
And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and everyone else. – I Thessalonians 5:14-15
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” – II Thessalonians 3:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. – I Timothy 6:10
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. – James 3:13
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. – I Peter 2:15-16
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. – Psalm 139:23-24
Wisdom is justified by her children. – Luke 7:35
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is no more hope for a fool than for him. – Proverbs 26:12
Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down. – Proverbs 26:20
I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. – Acts 24:15
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. – I John 2:15
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. – I John 3:18
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. – II Timothy 1:7
They show that in their hearts they know right from wrong. They demonstrate that God’s law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right. – Romans 2:14-15
Indeed I have all and about. – Philippians 4:18
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. – Romans 10:4
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
*.*
- Have the courage to life a life true to yourself.
- Don’t work too hard.
- Have the courage to express your feelings.
- Stay in touch with friends.
- Let yourself be happy.
~ No Regrets ~
*.*
- Don’t hurt yourself and don’t hurt others.
- Take care of yourself so you can help take care of others.
- Use everything for your upliftment, learning and growth.
*.*
The only time goodbye is painful is when you know you will never say hello again.
It’s okay to walk out of someone’s like if you don’t feel like you belong in it anymore.
When you feel more in love with your memories than with the person standing in front of you.
You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it is better to listen to what it has to say. – Coelho
When you can tell the story and it doesn’t bring up any pain, you know it is healed. – Vanzant
*.*
The Last Lecture – Pausch
Never make a decision until you have to.
Home something to bring to the table, because that will make you more welcome.
When you’re screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they’ve given up on you.
Brick walls are there for a reason. They give us a chance to show how badly we want something.
Time must be explicitly managed, like money.
You can always change your plan, but only if you have one.
Are you spending your time on the right things?
The kind of people I want on my team are those who will help everyone else fee happy to be here.
Inspiration is the ultimate tool for doing good.
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
I find the best shortcut is the long way.
If you can find your footing between two cultures, sometimes you can have the best of both worlds.
*.*
New Principles of Mind
- The map is not the territory.
- Experience has a structure.
- If one person can do something, anyone can learn to do it.
- When there is a physical or environmental limit, the world of experience will let you know about it.
- The mind and body are parts of the same system.
- People already have all the resources they need.
- You cannot not communicate.
- The meaning of your communication is the response you get.
- Underlying every behavior is a positive intention.
- People are always making the best choice available to them.
- If what you are doing isn’t working, do something else, do anything else.
- Toward first, away from second.
*.*
The 7 Habits
- Be Proactive
- Begin with the End in Mind
- Put First Things First
- Think Win-Win
- Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
- Synergize
- Sharpen the Saw
*.*
Love your life:
- Don’t try to make others like you.
- Love your friends, yet don’t rely on them.
- Answer: at the moment.
- Know your own philosophy.
- Embrace impermanence.
- Interpret what you perceive.
- Live in the moment, dream of the future.
*.*
You cannot be strong if you are not humble.
You cannot be humble if you are not charitable.
You cannot be charitable if you are not strong.
*.*
Physiological
Safety
Love
Esteem
Self-Actualization
*.*
Unconscious Incompetence
Conscious Incompetence
Conscious Competence
Unconscious Competence
*.*
The Enemy Maker – Keen
Start with an empty canvas
Sketch in broad outline the forms of
men, women, and children.
Dip into the unconscious well of your own
disowned darkness
with a wide brush and
stain the strangers with the sinister hue
of the shadow.
Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed,
hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as
your own.
Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
Erase all hints of myriad loves, hope,
fears that play through the kaleidoscope of
every finite heart.
Twist the smile until it forms the downward
arc of cruelty.
Strip flesh from bone until only the
abstract skeleton of death remains.
Exaggerate each feature until man is
metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect.
Fill in the background with malignant
figures from ancient nightmares–devils,
demons, myrmidons of evil.
When your icon of the enemy is complete
you will be able to kill without guilt, slaughter without shame.
The thing you destroy will have become
merely an enemy of God, an impediment
to the sacred dialectic of history.
*.*
The New Idol – Nietzsche
Somewhere there are still peoples and herds, but not with us, my brethren: here there are states.
A state? What is that? Well! Open now your ears unto me, for now will I say unto you my word concerning the death of peoples.
A state, is called the coldest of all cold monsters. Coldly lieth it also; and this lie creepeth from its mouth: "I, the state, am the people."
It is a lie! Creators were they who created peoples, and hung a faith and a love over them: thus they served life.
Destroyers, are they who lay snares for many, and call it the state: they hang a sword and a hundred cravings over them.
Where there is still a people, there the state is not understood, but hated as the evil eye, and as sin against laws and customs.
This sign I give unto you: every people speaketh its language of good and evil: this its neighbour understandeth not. Its language hath it devised for itself in laws and customs.
But the state lieth in all languages of good and evil; and whatever it saith it lieth; and whatever it hath it hath stolen.
False is everything in it; with stolen teeth it biteth, the biting one. False are even its bowels.
Confusion of language of good and evil; this sign I give unto you as the sign of the state. Verily, the will to death, indicateth this sign! Verily, it beckoneth unto the preachers of death!
Many too many are born: for the superfluous ones was the state devised!
See just how it enticeth them to it, the many-too-many! How it swalloweth and cheweth and recheweth them!
"On earth there is nothing greater than I: it is I who am the regulating finger of God."—thus roareth the monster. And not only the long-eared and short-sighted fall upon their knees!
Ah! even in your ears, ye great souls, it whispereth its gloomy lies! Ah! it findeth out the rich hearts which willingly lavish themselves!
Yea, it findeth you out too, ye conquerors of the old God! Weary ye became of the conflict, and now your weariness serveth the new idol!
Heroes and honourable ones, it would fain set up around it, the new idol! Gladly it basketh in the sunshine of good consciences,- the cold monster!
Everything will it give you, if ye worship it, the new idol: thus it purchaseth the lustre of your virtue, and the glance of your proud eyes.
It seeketh to allure by means of you, the many-too-many! Yea, a hellish artifice hath here been devised, a death-horse jingling with the trappings of divine honors!
Yea, a dying for many hath here been devised, which glorifieth itself as life: verily, a hearty service unto all preachers of death!
The state, I call it, where all are poison-drinkers, the good and the bad: the state, where all lose themselves, the good and the bad: the state, where the slow suicide of all—is called "life."
*.*
Michael J. Fox
Make sure the first ingredients are the big stuff… the rocks – your family, your work, your career, your passions. The rest is just sand, minutiae. It’s in there. It may even be important. But it’s not your first priority.
Wherever you go, there it is.
Why not?
None of us is entitled to anything. We get what we get, not because we want it or we deserve it or because it’s unfair if we don’t’ get it, but because we earn it, we respect it and only if we share it do we keep it.
My happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance, and in inverse proportion to my expectation.
Don’t spend a lot of time imagining the worst-case scenario. It rarely goes down as you imagine it will, and if by some fluke it does, you will have lived it twice. When things do go bad, don’t run, don’t hide. Stick it out, and be scrupulous in facing every part of your fear. Try to be still. It will take time, but you’ll find that even the gravest problems are finite – and that your choices are infinite.
Live to learn.
*.*
Did I Tell You?
Did I tell you to love, not with a fairweather love, but with a love that accepts and cherishes unconditionally. Love not with a quick and passing love, but with a love that is quiet peace within your heart.
Did I tell you to be thoughtful. Not to be a martyr or doormat to be trod upon, but to be aware of other people and their needs. To meet others with awareness and within your own framework be able to meet them halfway and on occasion go the other half joyfully.
Did I tell you to be courteous not to display empty manners with no meaning but to live the courtesy born of caring. And to express this caring through the small formalities and customs born of the years.
Did I tell you to be bold. To be not afraid of the unknown, but to live life to the fullest and meet each new experience with joy and anticipation.
And did I tell you to be cautious. To temper your daring and sense of adventure with good judgment and consideration.
Did I tell you to serve other people if only in a small way. There is growth and satisfaction in being part of something larger than yourself and your life will be richer for knowing this.
Did I tell you to maintain a sense of the past. To recall and uphold all that is best and meaningful in our country and in our society. But never be afraid to speak out where you don’t believe or where there is room for improvement. Work for what you believe, but work in a positive way within a structure of order and reason.
Did I tell you to find a part of nature that speaks to you. Then know it intimately and well. For some it is a mountain peak, for some a windswept beach. Find your own and in it find your restoration.
Did I tell you to laugh, to dance, to sing. There is a lot in life that is hard, but take it as it comes and find the good… and make time to dance.
Did I tell you to be creative to explore the seed within you. Find your creative spirit and let it grow.
And did I tell you the challenge of being a man – the challenge of balancing your worlds – the need to achieve and the need to nurture – the need to be strong and the need to be tender – the need to meet the tests that life brings yet always keep love at the center – letting it be the star by which you set your sail
I hope it will be a good life.
*.*
Harsh Truths
- The world only cares about what it can get from you.
- What your produce does not have to make money, but it does have to benefit people.
- You hate yourself because you don’t do anything.
If you’re not actively involved in getting what you want, you don’t really want it.
- What you are inside only matters because of what it makes you do.
- Everything inside you will fight improvement.
*.*
Fear
The fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow.
Pushing through fear is less frightening than living with the underlying fear that comes from a feeling of helplessness.
If you knew you could handle anything that came your way, what would you possibly have to fear?
From this moment on, every time you feel afraid, remind yourself that it is simply because you are not feeling good enough about yourself
Taking responsibility means never blaming anyone else for anything you are being, doing, having or feeling. Taking responsibility means not blaming yourself. Taking responsibility means being aware of where and when you are not taking responsibility so that you can eventually change. Taking responsibility means being aware of the payoffs that keep you stuck.
There are many inner clues that help you know when it is time to correct. The two most obvious are confusion and dissatisfaction. Anger is your clue that you are not taking responsibility. The biggest pitfall as you make your way through life is impatience.
Don’t wait for it to take! Take it!
*.*
Consolation of Philosophy - Boethius
If God exists, whence comes evil? Yet whence comes good, if He exists not?
Why, then, ye children of mortality, seek ye from without that happiness whose seat is only within us?
It is plain that Fortune cannot aspire to bestow happiness by reason of its instability.
In true friends thou hast found the most precious of all riches.
There is in Virtue a dignity of her own which she forthwith passes over to those to whom she is united.
Him whom good fortune has made a friend, ill fortune will make an enemy. And what plague is more effectual to do hurt than a foe of one’s own household?
For many have won a great name through the mistake beliefs of the multitude – and what can be imagined more shameful than that?
All things, then, desire to be one.
The carrying out of any human action depends upon two things – to wit, will and power; if either be wanting, nothing can be accomplished.
Since every fortune, welcome and unwelcome alike, has for its object the reward or trial of the good, and the punishing or amending of the bad, every fortune must be good, since it is either just or useful.
Indeed, can any creature be rational, unless he be endowed with free will.
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C. S. Lewis:
You would not call a man humane for ceasing to set mousetraps if he did so because he believed there were no mice in the house.
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.
One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up.
A promise must be about things that I can do, about actions: no one can promise to go on feeling in a certain way.
That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not.
Pride leads to every other vice.
Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.
Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief.
You must have a capacity to receive, or even omnipotence can’t give.
Without the aid of trained emotions the intellect is powerless against the animal organism.
We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.
With those who follow a different Way it is useless to take counsel.
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Robert Capon:
If you take the view that one of the chief objects in life is to remain in loving relationships with other people, straight line power becomes useless.
In heaven, there are only forgiven sinners.
We delude ourselves into thinking that our own salvation can be achieved by keeping books on others.
You have nothing to lose but your horror.
The trouble with uniqueness, though, is that practically no one can see it as anything but craziness.
Creation is about God having a good time and just itching to share it.
We will never be free until we are dead to the whole business of justifying ourselves.
Reply in anger and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.
God wills above all to celebrate.
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Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
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Nothing Gold Can Stay - Robert Frost
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
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Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
Blesses are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3-10
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, your will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye. – Matthew 7:1-3
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. – Matthew 7:7-8
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is Gods. – Matthew 22:21
Put your sword back in its place, Jesus said to him, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. – Matthew 26:52
He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.” – Luke 22:36
Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. – Luke 6:26-27
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. – Romans 12:16
Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. – Galations 6:7
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. – Philippians 4:8
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you. – I Thessalonians 4:11
And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and everyone else. – I Thessalonians 5:14-15
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.” – II Thessalonians 3:10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. – I Timothy 6:10
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. – James 3:13
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. – I Peter 2:15-16
Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. – Psalm 139:23-24
Wisdom is justified by her children. – Luke 7:35
Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is no more hope for a fool than for him. – Proverbs 26:12
Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down. – Proverbs 26:20
I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. – Acts 24:15
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. – I John 2:15
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. – I John 3:18
For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. – II Timothy 1:7
They show that in their hearts they know right from wrong. They demonstrate that God’s law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right. – Romans 2:14-15
Indeed I have all and about. – Philippians 4:18
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. – Romans 10:4
