Whilst we converse with what is above us, we do not grow old, but grow young.
~ R. W. Emerson
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
Leave a trail
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Character
People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The blast of a trumpet
Make your own bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Magnanimity
Instead, Will redefined success for himself as winning in such a way that others are satisfied with his success. This implies not only excellence but also magnanimity. It’s like when opposing crowds would give Michael Jordan standing ovations. Or when fellow golfers would congratulate Tiger Woods on his shots. Or, you know, when conceding politicians used to say nice things about their opponents.
~ Mark Manson from, https://markmanson.net/3-life-lessons-from-will-smith
I’m reminded of zero-sum games, versus synergy. My definition of success precludes my participation in zero-sum games. I find that Mahatma Gandhi’s, “an eye-for-an-eye just leaves the whole world blind,” brings clarity when I’m uncertain. I often joke, “chaos? disorder?! …my work here is done.” Joking aside, and truth be told, I like to imagine leaving a wake of joy and improvement as I move through the world. I’m also reminded of…
To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children […] to leave the world a bit better […] to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Unfolding
All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.
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Dreary and repellant
All violence, all that is dreary and repels, is not power, but the absence of power.
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Success
To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children […] to leave the world a bit better […] to know even one life has breathed easier because you lived. This is to have succeeded
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The triumph of principles
A political victory, a rise in rents, the recovery of your sick, or return of your absent friend, or some other quite external event, raises your spirits, and you think good days are preparing for you. Do not believe it. Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace by the triumph of principles.
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Arrive at the conviction
There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.
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Sixty seconds of happiness
For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
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Peace
Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.
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Death of fear
Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.
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