“Things take the time they take. Don’t worry”
~ Mary Oliver
Mark Twain on Being Good
“To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.”
~ Mark Twain
Buddha on Lies
“In the same way, Rahula,” the Buddha continued, “when anyone feels no shame in telling a deliberate lie, there is no evil, I tell you, they will not do.”
~ Buddha
Kurt Vonnegut on Foma
“Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”
~ Kurt Vonnegut
Hunter Thompson on Life
“Life has improved immeasurably since I have been forced to stop taking it seriously.”
~ Hunter S. Thompson
Seneca on Entropy
“It would be some consolation for the feebleness of our selves and our works, if all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is, increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid.”
~ Seneca
Barry Pepper on Decency
“Decency wins.”
~ Barry Pepper
Shakespeare on Reputation
“Reputation, reputation, reputation! O, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself, and what remains is bestial. My reputation, Iago, my reputation!”
~ William Shakespeare
Seneca on Straying
“No one who goes astray affects himself alone, but rather will be the cause and instigator of someone else going astray.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Direction
“As long as we wander at large, having no guide and following only the din and jarring cries of men calling us in different directions, our life will be spent in making errors, a life of little enough span even if we should work night and day for a sound understanding.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Conformity
“Let us enquire what is the best, not what is the most customary, thing to do, and what establishes our claim to unending happiness, not what the rabble, that worst of truth’s exponents, has set its stamp of approval on.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Weakness
“Every impulse to cruelty is born from weakness.”
~ Seneca
Seneca on Subservience
“I do not call anyone wise who is subservient to anything.”
~ Seneca
Leonardo on Connectedness
“Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
~ Leonardo da Vinci
Richard Feynman on Problem Solving
i) write down the problem;
ii) think very hard;
iii) write down the answer.
~ Richard Feynman
Seneca on Endurance
“We ought to know that what makes us struggle is the fault, not of our locations, but of ourselves: we are weak when anything has to be endured, and unable to bear toil or pleasure or ourselves or anything for any length of time.”
~ Seneca
Samuel Beckett on the Grass Being Greener
“In me there have always been two fools, among others, one asking nothing better than to stay where he is and the other imagining that life might be slightly less horrible a little further on.”
~ Samuel Beckett
Dick Winters on Dark Memories
“The dark memories do not recede; you live with them and they become a part of you.”
Winters, Major Dick. Beyond Band of Brothers (p. 3). Ebury Publishing.
Warren Buffet on Superstition
“I’m not big on superstition — that can be expensive.”
~ Warren Buffet
Prenta Ljucovic on Work
“You never think of problems when you work. If I had my nephews here, I would put them to work. They wouldn’t get in trouble. Work is the best medicine for everything.”
~ Prenta Ljucovic
Paula Pant on Being Yourself
“You are who you are. Find ways to work with your nature rather than constantly battling against it.”
~ Paula Pant
Ellis on Retribution
“Ellis:
Well all the time you spend trying to get back what’s been took from you, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it.”
~ Ellis / No Country For Old Men
Musonius Rufus on Work
“If you accomplish something good with hard work, the labour passes quickly, but the good endures; if you do something shameful in pursuit of pleasure, the pleasure passes quickly, but the shame endures.”
~ Musonius Rufus.
Don Malarkey on the Errors of youth
” … but when you’re young, sometimes you do stupid things.”
~ Don Malarkey
Jan Morris on the Soul
“I believe in the soul and the spirit more than the body.”
~Jan Morris
Jan Morris on Art
“It is Art, which is infinite in itself, which can be creative or comforting, active or passive, which comes from nowhere, which goes everywhere, which is omniscient, which is laughter and pity and puzzle and beauty, which is equally available to all of us, practitioners or recipients, and which can satisfy all our senses while the going is good.”
~ Jan Morris
Ranulph Fiennes on Ageing
“You realise that if you’d reached the ripe old age of, shall we say, over 50 without some dreadful sickness or disease or accident or something like that, and you’ve never wanted for food other than through your own fault, and you’ve never suffered from war other than your own fault, you’re incredibly lucky and therefore you shouldn’t allow negative thoughts [about ageing].”
~ Ranulph Fiennes
Epictetus on Strengths
“The possession of a particular talent is instinctively sensed by its owner”
Epictetus
Dick Winters on Perseverance
“Hang Tough!–Never, ever, give up.”
~ Dick Winters
Winston Churchill on Work
“Continuous effort — not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential.”
~ Winston Churchill
Albert Einstein on Work, Play and Silence
“If A is success in life, then
A = x + y + z.
Work is x, play is y and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
~ Albert Einstein
Epictetus on Desires
“To (children) who put their hand into a narrow necked earthen vessel and bring out figs and nuts, this happens; if they fill the hand, they cannot take it out, and then they cry. Drop a few of them and you will draw things out. And do you part with your desires: do not desire many things and you will have what you want. ”
Epictetus, Discourses