If anyone tells you that a person speaks ill of you, don’t make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: ‘He does not know my other faults, or he would not have mentioned only these.’
~ Epictetus
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Quotes
If you do not know
The world will ask you who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.
~ Carl Jung
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Society does not exist
Society exists only as a mental concept; in the real world there are only individuals.
~ Oscar Wilde
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Control
I learned then that even when I felt powerless to control my job or education — or anything else that seemed out of my hands — I always had control over my own mind and how I treated others. Even when I had nothing else, I could still be kind, just, generous, honest, loving and compassionate.
~ Susan Fowler
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Teach them
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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Always pass on good advice
I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself.
~ Oscar Wilde
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The character of your mind
Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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War is not wicked
As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.
~ Oscar Wilde
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Excellence is a habit
We are what we repeatedly do, therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit
~ Aristotle
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Look at that
In outer space you develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
~ Edgar Mitchell
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Think for oneself
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
~ Oscar Wilde
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Hardly seems worth doing
Anything that doesn’t take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing.
~ Cormac McCarthy
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Straight-forward kindness
“Straight forward kindess” works in a world of endless human train wrecks.
~ Hugh MacLeod
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What is a cynic?
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing.
~ Oscar Wilde
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Inward loosening
Martial art is not merely the physical act of filling time and space with precision-like movements. Machines can do that, too. As he matures, a martial artist will realize that his kick or punch is really not so much a tool to conquer his opponent, but a tool to explode through his consciousness, his ego, and all mental obstacles. Indeed, the tools are ultimately a means for penetrating the depth of his being so that he will restore the equilibrium of his inner center of gravity. With this vital inward loosening flows his outward expression of his tools. Behind each physical movement of an accomplished martial artist is this wholeness of being, this all-inclusive attitude.
~ Bruce Lee
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No skin in the game
It’s easy to spot a purist. They’re the ones without any skin in the game.
~ Hugh MacLeod
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Long time dead
Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.
~ Scottish proverb
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Sometimes a king
Our soul is sometimes a king, and sometimes a tyrant. A king, by attending to what is honorable, protects the good health of the body in its care, and gives it no base or sordid command. But an uncontrolled, desire-fueled, over-indulged soul is turned from a king into that most feared and detested thing — a tyrant.
~ Seneca
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Nobody cares
22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.
Everybody is too busy with their own lives to give a damn about your book, painting, screenplay etc, especially if you haven’t sold it yet. And the ones that aren’t, you don’t want in your life anyway.
~ Jason Korman
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.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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