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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Controlling the mind →
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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