Quotes

A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.

One you can finish

Published October 28, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 28  ·  

The worker must be stronger than his project; loads larger than the bearer must necessarily crush him. Certain careers, moreover, are not so demanding in themselves as they are prolific in begetting a mass of other activities. Enterprises which give rise to new and multifarious activities should be avoided; you must not commit yourself to a task from which there is no free egress. Put your hand to one you can finish or at least hope to finish; leave alone those that expand as you work at them and do not stop where you intended they should.

~ Seneca

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The privilege of a serene and untroubled mind

Published October 25, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 25  ·  

The days of our present come one by one, and each day minute by minute; but all the days of the past will appear at your bidding and allow you to examine them and linger over them at your will. Busy men have no time for this. Excursions into all the parts of its past are the privilege of a serene and untroubled mind; but the minds of the preoccupied cannot turn or look back, as if constricted by a yoke. And so their life vanishes into an abyss.

~ Seneca

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A human being is a finite thing

Published October 22, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 22  ·  

To be sure, a human being is a finite thing, and his freedom is restricted. It is not freedom from conditions, but it is freedom to take a stand toward the conditions. … I also bear witness to the unexpected extant to which man is capable of defying and braving even the worst conditions conceivable.

~ Viktor Frankl

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The value of attentiveness

Published October 19, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 19  ·  

Run through the list of those you knew yourself. Those who worked in vain, who failed to do what they should have—what they should have remained fixed on and found satisfaction in. A key point to bear in mind: The value of attentiveness varies in proportion to its object. You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.

~ Marcus Aurelius

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Suffering

Published October 16, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 16  ·  

Suffering is that moment when you see reality exactly as it is. When you can no longer run away from it, when you can no longer deny it.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Surprised by old age

Published October 13, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 13  ·  

Their minds are still childish when they are surprised by old age, which they reach without preparation and without weapons, for they have stumbled upon it suddenly and unexpectedly without realizing that it was stealing upon them day by day.

~ Seneca

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What you are not doing

Published October 10, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 10  ·  

There is always more to do than you can do, and you can do only one thing at a time. The key is to feel as good about what you’re not doing as about what you are doing at that moment.

~ David Allen

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Thought and reason and law

Published October 7, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 7  ·  

If thought is something we share, then so is reason—what makes us reasoning beings. If so, then the reason that tells us what to do and what not to do is also shared. And if so, we share a common law. And thus, are fellow citizens. And fellow citizens of something. And in that case, our state must be the world. What other entity could all of humanity belong to? And from it—from this state that we share—come thought and reason and law.

~ Marcus Aurelius

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Instead of possibilities, I have realities

Published October 4, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 4  ·  

What will it matter to him if he notices that he is growing old? Has he any reason to envy the young people whom he sees, or wax nostalgic over his own lost youth? What reasons has he to envy a young person? For the possibilities that a young person has, the future which is in store for him? “No, thank you,” he will think. “Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done, and of love loved, but of sufferings bravely suffered. These sufferings are even the things of which I am most proud, though these are things which cannot inspire envy.”

~ Viktor Frankl

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Set a value

Published October 1, 2020  ·  All posts on Oct 1  ·  

They take no notice of it because it has no substance and is not a visible entity, and therefore it is reckoned very cheap, or rather completely valueless. Annuities and bonuses men are very glad to receive, and hire their labor and effort and industry out to obtain them. But upon time no value is set; men use it as carelessly as if it came gratis.

~ Seneca

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Numbered precisely

Published September 25, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 25  ·  

If men could see their future years numbered as precisely as their past, what a flutter there would be among those who saw that their remaining years were few, how sparing of them would they be! With a fixed amount, however small, it is easy to economize; but when you cannot know when what you have will be gone you must husband your store very carefully.

~ Seneca

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Not by logic-chopping

Published September 22, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 22  ·  

Against the passions we must fight by main force, not by logic-chopping; the line must be turned by frontal attack, not by pinpricks. Casuistry will not do, for the adversary must be smashed, not scratched

~ Fabianus

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Do less

Published September 16, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 16  ·  

“If you seek tranquility, do less.” Or (more accurately) do what’s essential—what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: To do less, better. Because most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you’ll have more time, and more tranquility. Ask yourself at every moment, “Is this necessary?”

~ Marcus Aurelius

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The meaning at a given moment

Published September 13, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 13  ·  

What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. To put the question in general terms would be comparable to the question posed to a chess champion: “Tell me, Master, what is the best move in the world?”

~ Viktor Frankl

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Preoccupied with work

Published September 10, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 10  ·  

They are always preoccupied with work so that they may be in position to live better; they spend life in making provision for life. Their plans are designed for the future, but procrastination is the greatest waste of life. It robs us of each day as it comes, and extorts the present from us on promises of the future. Expectancy is the greatest impediment to living: In anticipation of tomorrow it loses today.

~ Seneca

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He who is asked

Published September 7, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 7  ·  

Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by being responsible.

~ Viktor Frankl

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The span we live is small

Published September 4, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 4  ·  

Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. The span we live is small—small as the corner of the Earth in which we live it. Small as even the greatest renown, passed from mouth to mouth by short-lived stick figures, ignorant alike of themselves and those long dead.

~ Marcus Aurelius

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Difficulties to be overcome

Published September 1, 2020  ·  All posts on Sep 1  ·  

Oh, how blessed young men are who have to struggle for a foundation and beginning in life. I shall never cease to be grateful for three and half years of apprenticeship and the difficulties to be overcome, all along the way.

~ John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

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