The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Quotes
A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.
Half twist
Continual awareness of all time and space, of the size and life span of the things around us. A grape seed in infinite space. A half twist of a corkscrew against eternity.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Spiritless men
Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks.
~ Baldwin
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Thinking
If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.
~ George S. Patton
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Who has authority?
Suppose he had passed his judgement upon a hypothetical proposition, and declared, ‘I judge the proposition, “if it be day, there is light,” to be false,’ what would have happened to the proposition? Who is being judged here? Who has been condemned? The proposition, or he who is utterly mistaken about it? So who on Earth is this man who has authority to pass such judgement on you?
~ Epictetus
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Enthralled
When one is enthralled with the beauty on the surface of the ocean, the immensity of its depths can never be discerned.
~ Wu Hsin
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Actions and perceptions
Operatics, combat and confusion. Sloth and servility. Every day they blot out those sacred principles of yours—which you day-dream thoughtlessly about, or just let slide. Your actions and perceptions need to aim: at accomplishing practical ends; at the exercise of thought; at maintaining a confidence founded on understanding. An unobtrusive confidence—hidden in plain sight.
~ Marcus Aurelius
When will you let yourself enjoy straightforwardness? Seriousness? Or understanding individual things—their nature and substance, their place in the world, their life span, their composition, who can possess them, whose they are to give and to receive?
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The future
The future is here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.
~ William Gibson
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Epithets
Epithets for yourself: Upright. modest. Straightforward. Sane. Cooperative. Disinterested.
~ Marcus Aurelius
Try not to exchange them for others. And if you should forfeit them, set about getting them back. Keep in mind that “sanity” means understanding things—each individual thing—for what they are. And not losing the thread. And “cooperation” means accepting what nature assignes you—accepting it willingly. And “disinterest” means that the intelligence should rise above the movements of the flesh—the rough and the smooth alike. Should rise above fame, above death, and everything like them.
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Controlling the mind
Controlling the mind doesn’t take one to freedom. Controlling the mind adds another link to one’s shackles.
~ Wu Hsin
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Get a move on
Do what nature demands. Get a move on—if you have it in you—and don’t worry whether anyone will give you credit for it. And don’t go expecting Plato’s Republic; be satisfied with even the smallest progress, and treat the outcome of it all as unimportant.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Where the world is
As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be—it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be.
~ Saul Alinsky
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The view from above
To see them from above: The thousands of animal herds, the rituals, the voyages on calm or stormy seas, the different ways we come into the world, share it with one another, and leave it. Consider the lives led once by others, long ago, the lives to be led by others after you, the lives led even now, in foreign lands. How many people don’t even know your name. How many will soon have forgotten it. How many offer you praise now—and tomorrow, perhaps, contempt.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Solitude
Solitude is not a condition of the body. Instead, it is a condition of the mind. Solitude may be found in the busy market, or may be elusive in the forest.
~ Wu Hsin
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Imagine
What their minds are like. What they work at. What evokes their love and admiration. Imagine their souls stripped bare. And their vanity. To suppose that their disdain could harm anyone—or their praise help them.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Your time is limited
… death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new … your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
~ Steve Jobs
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Willing acceptance
To do harm is to do yourself harm. To do an injustice is to do yourself an injustice—it degrades you.
And you can also commit injustice by doing nothing.
Objective judgement, now, at this very moment. Unselfish action, now, at this very moment. Willing acceptance—now, at this very moment—of all external events.
That’s all you need.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Final step
For many, the first step on a spiritual journey is to become lost. The final step is losing one’s self.
~ Wu Hsin
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The existence of evil
The existence of evil does not harm the world. And an individual act of evil does not harm the victim. Only one person is harmed by it—and he can stop being harmed as soon as he decides to.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Avoiding unrighteousness
The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; For that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they too go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; And I must abide by my award—let them abide by theirs.
~ Socrates
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