We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all.
The wise distrust the unknown.
Everyone has his faults which he continually repeats; neither fear nor shame can cure them.
We rarely ever perceive others as sensible, except for those who agree with us.
Men would not live long in society were they not the dupes of each other.
We are so accustomed to disguising ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves
We concern ourselves less with becoming happy than making others believe we are.
Nothing prevents our being natural as much as our desire to seem so.
If we take the liberty to dwell on their faults, we cannot long preserve the feelings we should hold towards our friends and benefactors.
As in friendship so in love, we are often happier from ignorance than from knowledge.
It is as easy to unknowingly deceive yourself as to deceive others.
Self love is more cunning than the most cunning man in the world.
A man often believes himself leader when he is led; as his mind endeavors to reach one goal, his heart insensibly drags him towards another.
The head cannot play the part of the heart for long.
Most things are praised or condemned only because it is fashionable to praise or condemn them.
Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily.
Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us. Envy, on the other hand, is a fury that cannot endure the happiness of others.
It is sometimes necessary to play the fool in order to avoid being deceived by cunning men.
One reason why we find so few people who are rational and agreeable in conversation is that there is harldly anyone who does not think more about what he wants to say than about responding to what is said.
Numberless acts appear foolish whose secret motives are most wise and weighty.
However deceitful hope may be, yet she carries us on pleasantly to the end of life.
The desire to appear clever often prevents our being so.
Intrepidity is an extraordinary strength of soul that raises it above the troubles, disorders, and emotions that the sight of great perils can arouse in it. By this strength, heroes maintain a calm aspect and preserve their reason and liberty in the most surprising and terrible predicaments.
Lucky people are often bad hands at correcting their faults; they believe that they are right when luck backs up their vice or folly.
It is great folly to wish only to be wise.
We often bore others when we think we cannot possibly bore them.
There is at least as much eloquence in the voice, eyes, and air of a speaker as in his choice of words.
It is much easier to know men than it is to know a man.
It is more necessary to study men than books.
In great matters we should not try so much to create opportunities as to utilize those that offer themselves.
We should earnestly desire but few things if we clearly knew what we desired.
It is most difficult to speak when we are ashamed of being silent.
A man who no one is pleasing is much unhappier than a man who pleases nobody.
The mind attaches itself by idleness and habit to whatever is easy or pleasant. This habit always places bounds to our knowledge, and no one has ever yet taken the pains to enlarge and expand his mind to the full extent of its capacities.
Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you’re in control, they’re in control.
When the water rises, the fish eat the ants; when the water falls, the ants eat the fish.
If you would take, you must first give—this is the beginning of intelligence.
Fame or the self: which is more important? Money or the self: which is more valuable? Success of failure: which is more dangerous?
A wrong perspective leads to loss. Obsession with wealth leads to a lack of security.
Filling the hall with gold and jewels will result in less safety. Wealth and approval are slavery.
When work is accomplished, a person walks away: Heaven’s tao.
The Great tao is very simple, but people are fond of side paths.
When the palace is very splendid, the fields are very weedy and the granaries very empty.
Take [preventive] action before things happen. Establish order before disorder has begun.
The tree that fills the arms grows from a small sprout. The tower of nine levels starts with a heap of dirt. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
The average person is full of artificial desires, desires that have been suggested by what other people possess or require.
Happiness, however, is not the result of any one single cause. It is the result of many ideal states of being grouped together into one harmonious whole. …
There are occasions that seem worthless, and the average person thinks he is wasting time while he is passing through such states, but no matter how worthless the occasion may seem to be the one who makes the best use of it while he is in it will get something of real value out of it; in addition, the experience will have exceptional worth, because whenever we try to turn an occasion to good account we turn everything in ourselves to good account.
There is no disputing about tastes.
We are born; we die.
While we live, let us live.
You teach the dolphin to swim.
He who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
The hatred of knaves is preferable to their company.
Many will hate you if you love yourself.
Attempt nothing beyond your strength.
He puts up with small annoyances to gain great results.
Every advantage has its disadvantage.
Advice is not a popular thing to give.
Times change, and we change with them.
The gods sell all things to hard labor.
You may drive Nature out with a pitchfork, but she will inevitably return.
A joke should not be carried too far.
Never descend to vulgarity, even in joking.
Every virtue is but half way between two vices.
If you be a jester, keep your wit till you have use for it.
The good hate to sin from love of virtue; the bad hate to sin from fear of punishment.
Some things are better praised by silence than remark.
It is necessary to risk something.
Danger can never be overcome without taking risks.
It is better to be always prepared than to suffer once.
If you desire peace, be ever prepared for war.
He who seeks a reason for everything subverts reason.
The office shows the man.
No matter how much you eat, save some seeds for sowing.
If the fool has a hump, no one notices it; if the wise man has a pimple, everybody talks about it. (Livonian)
Beware of him who hates the laugh of a child.
Say not you know another entirely, till you have divided an inheritance with him.
He who has not forgiven an enemy has not yet tasted one of the most sublime enjoyments of life.
He knows very little of mankind who expects, by any facts or reasoning, to convince a determined party-man.
Act well at the moment, and you have performed a good action to all eternity.
Love overlooks defects; hatred magnifies them.
The person who knew you when you were young will seldom respect you as an adult.
Some men build a wine cellar after only finding one grape.
When you return from a trip, bring back something for your family—even if it is only a stone.
If anyone is not willing to accept your point of view, try to see his point of view.
Lower your voice and strengthen your argument.
I am not responsible for your assumption.
The mystery of life is not a problem to be solved; it is a reality to be experienced.
Almost anything carried to a logical extreme becomes depressing.
Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.
Do not positively affirm what you have doubts about; and [when you have no doubts], do not let what you say appear [simply] as your own view.
The practice of right living is deemed the highest, the practice of any other art lower. Complete virtue takes first place; the doing of anything else whatsoever is subordinate.
Worthies can be familiar with others and yet respect them; can stand in awe of others and yet love them. They love others and yet acknowledge the evil that is in them. They accumulate [wealth], yet can part with it. They rest in what gives them satisfaction, yet can seek satisfaction elsewhere [when it is desirable to do so].
What others consider right and wrong can never serve as a standard for me.
Once people’s minds have been given over to received opinions and moral principles… What else can there be but phony people speaking phony words, doing phony things, and writing phony writings? And when the people become phonies, everything becomes phony. And then is someone speaks phony talk to the phonies, the phonies are pleased; if one does phony things like the phonies do, the phonies are pleased; and if one discourses with the phonies through phony writings, the phonies are pleased. Everything is phony, and everybody is pleased.
Do not look where you fell; look where you slipped.
Gossiping about the enemy can result in a war.
Every head must do its own thinking.
Each trip gives you its own uniqueness.
If everyone thought the same way, no goods would ever be sold.
The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. This is why so much of social life is exhausting.
Only in growth, reform, and change—paradoxically enough—is true security to be found.
If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we shall find in each man’s life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while other judge us by what we have already done.
What we see depends mainly on what we look for.