I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; Had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes.
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay
Elsewhere, this is 4a613. — slipbox
On advice →
Not fortuitous →
If [the gods] had made philosophic knowledge also a common attribute and we were all born wise, then wisdom would have forfeited its principal quality, which is that it is not fortuitous. What is precious and magnificent about it is that it does not merely happen to people but that the individual is himself responsible for it and cannot obtain it from others.
~ Seneca
Elsewhere, this is 4a584. — slipbox
How to tip ourselves →
From now on I hope always to stay alert, to educate myself as best I can. But, lacking this in future I will relaxedly turn back to my secrete mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
~ Ray Bradbury
Elsewhere, this is 4a612. — slipbox
The resources of others →
The great charm of conversation consists less in the display of one’s own wit and intelligence, than in the power to draw forth the resources of others. […] The true man of genius will delicately make all who come in contact with him feel the exquisite satisfaction of knowing that they have appeared to advantage.
~ La Bruyère
Elsewhere, this is 4a611. — slipbox
Be your own prosecutor →
You must catch yourself. Some people boast of their failings; Do you suppose a man who counts his vices as virtues can take thought for remedying them? So far as you can, then, be your own prosecutor, investigate yourself, function first as accuser, then as judge, and only in the end as advocate. And sometimes you must overrule the advocate.
~ Seneca
Elsewhere, this is 4a578. — slipbox
Temper one another →
Another reprehensible pair is the man who is never at ease and the man who is always at ease. Bustle is not briskness but the agitation of a turbulent mind. And disdaining all activity as a nuisance is not ease but enervation and inertia. … The two attitudes should temper one another: the easy going man should act, the active man take it easy. Consult nature: she will tell you that she created both day and night.
~ Seneca
Elsewhere, this is 4a575. — slipbox
I must communicate →
I learned that the best projects grow organically at their own pace, and how terribly important all partnerships are. I have always had a ton of ideas, more than I could ever follow upon or make happen. So much of my dreaming and visioning was all in my own heart and mind. It was not that easy to share it. I have finally learned that I must communicate, (try that when you can’t talk.)
~ Jeff Lowe
Elsewhere, this is 4a609. — slipbox
Adverse fortune →
No one is crushed by adverse Fortune who has not first been beguiled by her smile. Only those who become enamored of her gifts as if they were their own forever, and expect deference because of them are prostrated by grief when the deceitful and ephemeral baubles abandon empty and childish minds ignorant of every abiding satisfaction.
~ Seneca
Elsewhere, this is 4a367. — slipbox
Begrudge every moment →
Students today should begrudge every moment of time. This dewlike life fades away; Time speeds swiftly. In this short life of ours, avoid involvement in superfluous things and just study the Way.
~ Zenji Dōgen
Elsewhere, this is 4a608. — slipbox
Uneasy pleasures →
Why are their pleasures uneasy? Because the motives upon which they are founded are not stable and they totter with the frivolity which gave them birth. … Laboriously they attain what they desire, anxiously they hold what they have attained, and in the meanwhile irrecoverable time is not taken into consideration.
~ Seneca
Elsewhere, this is 4a373. — slipbox