…if you can forgive as well as forget, if you can keep from growing sour, surly, bitter and cynical… You’ve got it half-licked.
~ Henry Miller
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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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Explore yourself
A good teacher can never be fixed in a routine. Each moment requires a sensitive mind that is constantly changing and adapting. A teacher must never impose this student to fit his favorite pattern. A good teacher protects his pupils from his own influence. A teacher is never a giver of truth; He is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. I am not teaching you anything. I just help you to explore yourself.
~ Bruce Lee
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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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The fountain of content
The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happines by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.
~ Samuel Johnson
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Show us you have learned
Eat like a human being, drink like a human being, dress up, marry, have children, get politically active — suffer abuse, bear with a headstrong brother, father, son, neighbor, or companion. Show us these things so we can see that you truly have learned from the philosophers.
~ Epictetus
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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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Circumstances
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.
~ George Bernard Shaw
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Plans
Plans get you into things, but you’ve got to work your way out.
~ Will Rogers
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A man of thought
Think like a man of action. Act like a man of thought.
~ Henri Bergson
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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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Inaction
Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
~ Dale Carnegie
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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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Courage, part 3
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
~ Erica Jong
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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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