If you can lighten your burden you must do so. There is no straw which lacks the power to break your back.
~ unknown
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Quotes
All comes out even at the end
Weak as I am, I carry on the war to the last moment, I get a hundred pike thrusts, I return two hundred and I laugh. I see near my door Geneva on fire with quarrels over nothing, and I laugh again; And, thank god, I can look upon the world as a farce even when it becomes as tragic as it sometimes does. All comes out even at the end of the day, and all comes out still more even when all the days are over.
~ Voltaire
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Thoughtful, committed citizens
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. It is the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead
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Let the news come
And what better use could you make of that time? A day that could be your last — you want to spend it in worry? In what other area could you make some progress while others might be sitting on the edges of their seat, passively awaiting some fate? Let the news come when it does. Be too busy working to care.
~ Ryan Holiday
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Not in the mood
A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.
~ E. B. White
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Raw material
Just as the nature of rational things has given to each person their rational powers, so it also gives us this power – Just as nature turns to its own purpose any obstacle or any opposition, sets its place in the destined order, and co-ops it, so every rational person can convert any obstacle into the raw material for their own purpose.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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The muse
Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too.
~ Isabel Allende
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True and steadfast judgment
This can be swiftly taught in very few words: Virtue is the only good; There is no certain good without virtue; And virtue resides in our nobler part, which is the rational one. And what can this virtue be? True and steadfast judgment.
~ Seneca
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Get to work
Inspiration is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.
~ Chuck Close
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Never think you’ve got it all
Children teach you that you can still be humbled by life, that you learn something new all the time. That’s the secret to life, really – never stop learning. It’s the secret to career. I’m still working because I learn something new all the time. It’s the secret to relationships. Never think you’ve got it all.
~ Clint Eastwood
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Perspective on life
You can’t just live in a comfortable little suburban neighborhood and get your education from movies and television and have any perspective on life.
~ J. Craig Venter
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Walk only in really pleasant company
Smoke like a chimney, work like a horse, eat without thinking, go for a walk only in really pleasant company.
~ Albert Einstein
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Genius
Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; Genius is like the marksman who hits a target… which others cannot even see.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer
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Our greatest shortcoming
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.
~ Albert Bartlett
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Those defiant words
I am unafraid as I prepare myself for that day when the artifices and disguises will be stripped away and I shall make judgment of myself. Is it just brave talk, or do I mean what I say? Were they for real, those defiant words I spoke against fortune, or were they just theatre – Just acting a part?
~ Seneca
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This greater good you’ve found
Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage – in shrot, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice – I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn to it heart and soul and take full advantage of this greater good you’ve found.
~ Marcus Aurelius
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Only when you breath your last
Lectures and learned seminars and sayings culled from the teachings of philosophers and educated conversation do not reveal the mind’s real strength. For speech is bold even where the speaker is timorous. What you have achieved will be revealed only when you breathe your last.
~ Seneca
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Forgive as well as forget
…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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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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