Collected Wisdom

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

If what one has to say is not better than silence, then one should keep silent.

Don't be a football of other people's opinions.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally.

The world will ask you who you are, and if you don't know, the world will tell you.

We tend to take every precaution to safeguard our material possessions because we know what they cost. But at the same time we neglect things which are much more precious because they don't come with price tags attached.

The way someone else perceives what you do is a result of their own experiences, their own preferences, and their own expectations. If your choices don't match their expectations that is their concern, not yours.

We must all either wear out or rust out, every one of us. My choice is to wear out.

There is good in everything, if only we look for it.

Character is fate.

If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.

Every man I meet is my master in some point, and in that I learn of him.

This is not your responsibility but it is your problem.

You are only entitled to the action, never to its fruits.

Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth.

Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.

Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.

Space I can recover. Time, never.

You never know who's swimming naked until the tide goes out.

Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

The world was not big enough for Alexander the Great, but a coffin was.

To improve is to change, so to be perfect is to have changed often.

Judge not, lest you be judged.

Time and patience are the strongest warriors.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may.

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.

When a man can't find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you say and think.

The best revenge is not to be like that.

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Choose not to be harmed and you won't feel harmed. Don't feel harmed and you haven't been.

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

What stands in the way becomes the way.

It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinions than our own.

If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone.

The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.

Don't set your mind on things you don't possess, but count the blessings you do possess & think how much you would desire them if they weren't yours.

Pain is neither unbearable nor unending, as long as you keep in mind its limits and don't magnify them in your imagination.

And why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice!

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

It's not things that upset us but our judgments about things.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.

It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united.

If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.

Being poor is not having too little, it is wanting more.

The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately.

True happiness is… to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you.

Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.

Everything hangs on one's thinking... A man is as unhappy as he has convinced himself he is.

If you feed your mind as often as you feed your stomach, then you'll never have to worry about feeding your stomach or a roof over your head or clothes on your back.

Your actions are a consequence of your thoughts. Your thoughts are a consequence of what you consume. Choose better inputs. Get better outputs.

Your attitude, not aptitude, determines your altitude.

Don't over-improve your weaknesses. If you're not good at something, work on it until it no longer prevents your progress, but the bulk of your time is better spent maximizing your strengths.

Short-term results come from intensity. Long-term results come from consistency.

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.