Smoke like a chimney, work like a horse, eat without thinking, go for a walk only in really pleasant company.
~ Albert Einstein
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Quotes
A long long time ago I began collecting inspirational quotes and aphorisms which became my collection of quotes.
One who acts naturally
One who tries to stand on tiptoe cannot stand still. One who stretches his legs too far cannot walk. One who advertises himself too much is ignored. One who is too insistent on his own view finds few to agree with him. One who claims too much credit does not get even what he deserves. One who is too proud is soon humiliated. These are condemned as extremes of greediness and self-destructive activity. Therefore, one who acts naturally avoids such extremems.
~ Book of Tao
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Except by a steady, long continued process
Some day, in the years to come, you will be wrestling with the great temptation, or trembling under the great sorrow of your life. But the real struggle is here, now … NOW it is being decided whether in the day of your supreme sorrow or temptation, you shall miserably fail or gloriously conquer. Character cannot be made except by a steady, long continued process.
~ Phillips Brooks
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Instead we spend our time watching TV
Most of our mental development and study discipline comes through formal education. But as soon as we leave the external discipline of school, many of us let our minds atrophy. We don’t do any more serious reading, we don’t explore new subjects in any real depth outside our action fields, we don’t think analytically, we don’t write — at least not critically or in a way that tests our ability to express ourselves in distilled, clear, and concise language. Instead we spend our time watching TV.
~ Stephen Covey
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Do not reserve a plot for weeds
You cannot play with the animal in you without becoming wholly animal, play with falsehood without forfeiting your right to truth, play with cruelty without losing your sensitivity of mind. He who wants to keep his garden tidy does not reserve a plot for weeds.
~ Dag Hammarskjöld
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If you can’t write clearly
If you can’t write clearly, you probably don’t think nearly as well as you think you do.
~ Kurt Vonnegut
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Neutral
Neutral is a state where you are not jumping ahead too quickly or moving too slowly. Neutral does not mean being inactive, complacent, or passive. It’s about a calm poise that allows for new information and new possibilities to emerge before taking further action. When in neutral you actually increase your sensitivity and intuitive intelligence. Neutral is fertile ground for new possibilities to grow from.
~ Doc Childre
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Willpower
The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
~ Vince Lombardi
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Perspective
“The appearance of the bull changes when you enter the ring.” The matador’s point of view is different from the spectator’s.
~ Mexican proverb
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Level of consciousness
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
~ Albert Einstein
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Realize you do not understand
To realize that you do not understand is a virtue; Not to realize that you do not understand is a defect.
~ Lao Tzu
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Living virtuously
Ambition means tying your well-being to what other people say or do.
~ Marcus Aurelius
Self-indulgence means tying it to the things that happen to you.
Sanity means tying it to your own actions.
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Then do patriots flourish
When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish.
~ Lao Tzu
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Heart
Before you embark on any path ask the question, does this path have a heart? If the answer is no, you will know it and then you must choose another path. The trouble is that nobody asks the question. And when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart the path is ready to kill him.
~ Carlos Castaneda
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I must die
I must die. If instantly, I will die instantly; If in a short time, I will dine first, since the hour for dining is here, and when the time comes, then I will die. How? As becomes a person who is giving back what is not his own.
~ Epictetus
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Courage, part 2
Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace.
~ Amelia Earhart
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Relationships
They who wanted to do each other good are now handling one another in an imperious and intolerant manner, and in the struggle somehow to get out of their untenable and unbearable state of confusion, they commit the greatest fault that can happen to human relationships: they become impatient.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
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Genius
To see things in the seed, that is genius.
~ Lao Tzu
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Discipline
If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception it is a prevailing attitude.
~ Colin Powell
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Man’s enemies
Man’s enemies are not demons, but human beings like himself.
~ Lao Tzu
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