No sooner is it a little calmer with me than it is almost too calm, as though I have the true feeling of myself only when I am unbearably unhappy.
Do you think that, by bearing with insulting persons, I shall fall into dishonor?
Though at the height of fame, you ought in the watches of the night to lay your hand on your breast and ask yourself, "Have I cause of shame or not?"
Men can never acquire respect by benevolence alone…
It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more “manhood” to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul & spirit, not in muscles & an immature mind.
Saving the mustard seeds in your hand might cause you to miss out on getting a watermelon.
For every hundred lashes needed by the foolish, only one word is needed by the wise.
If a man’s beard is on fire, there are bound to be plenty of people who will want to warm their hands on its heat.
[When well united and synergized,] One plus one equals eleven.
The healthy person experiences a healthy world.
The message spoken to the daughter is often aimed at the daughter-in-law.
The innocent often pay for the acts of the guilty.
I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and [just] because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.
Many people have the wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Habit is overcome by habit.
Love the moment and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries.
The enemy you know is better than the one you do not know.
Reason is a gift given to us like any other faculty of mind, like imagination. But it is a part of mind: if it becomes all the mind, it spoils it all.
A responsible person is worth more than a thousand men who labor.
Overlook the greatest fault of another, but do not partake of it in the smallest degree.
Every soul has a definite task, and the fulfillment of each individual purpose can alone lead man aright; illumination comes to him through the medium of his own talent. *
One single moment of a sincere life is worth more than a thousand years of a life of falsehood.
Reality itself is its own evidence.
The more a man explores himself, the more power he finds within.
He is an unbeliever who cannot believe in himself.
The first birth is the birth of man; the second birth is the birth of God.
Life confuses man so much that there is hardly one among a thousand who really knows what he wants; and perhaps there is one among a million who knows why he wants it; and even among millions you will not find one with the knowledge of why he should want it, and why he should not want it.
My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.” “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply. “We’re raising boys”
People who have a stake in their society protect that society—but when they don’t have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it.
Discipline and concentration are a matter of being interested.
You can concede to an opponent something he hasn’t earned. It’s one thing to underestimate an opponent. But maybe the worst thing is to overestimate. You always play your strengths. But that doesn’t mean you become predictable. *
Anyone who goes hungry for three days will be inclined to steal.
Put something off for one day, and ten days will pass.
Even if the sky falls on you, there is a hole you can escape from.
There was no one Confucius could not learn from, yet there was no one who was his only teacher.
Be swift if you are a hammer; be patient if you are an anvil.
A good companion shortens the longest road.
You are as wise as your mind, not your years.
Dealing with yourself is harder than dealing with the rest of the world.
Search yourself, and you will find God.
The satiated do not understand the concern of the hungry.
To the person who takes, six is not enough; to the person who gives, five is too much.
One who is extremely intelligent might turn crazy.