The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.
If my neighbor is happy, my own work will go easier, too.
…When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content…
The dread of ridicule extinguishes originality in its birth.
There are subjects upon which we cannot reason, we can only feel.
Mind control is not one’s birthright. The successful few owe their success to their perseverance.
While the sun is shining, bask in it!
If you are too shy to ask, you might lose your way.
When you go away, the conversation changes.
If you plant grass, you won’t get rice
No matter how big the whale is, a tiny harpoon can kill him.
To truly love your wife, leave her alone every once in a while.
No matter how many house chores you complete, there are always more to be done.
If the rabbit is your enemy, admit he can sprint fast.
To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.
He who thinks about his own grief forgets about the grief of others.
The law is not made for the rich.
Enjoy yourself, for there is nothing in the world we can call our own.
Unless you are prepared yourself to profit by your chance, the opportunity will only make you ridiculous. A great occasion is valuable to you in proportion as you have educated yourself to make use of it.
…Most people’s gaze is fixed upon something beyond, something to come. They are not really settled today, do not really live in the now, but they are sure they will live tomorrow or next year when business is better, their fortune greater, when they move into their new house, get their new furnishings, their new automobile, get rid of things that now annoy, and have everything around them to make them comfortable. Then they will be happy.
The trouble with us is that we expect too much from the great happenings, the unusual things, and we overlook the common flowers on the path of life, from which we might abstract sweets, comforts, delights.
Real happiness is so simple that most people do not recognize it. It is derived from the simplest, the quietest, the most unpretentious things in the world.
If we get the good that belongs to us here and now, we must extract the sweetness of each passing minute while it is ours. That is the real art of living in the today.
Play is as necessary to the perfect development of a child as sunshine is to the perfect development of a plant.
One of the saddest things in life is to see men and women who started out with high hopes and proud ambitions settle down in mediocre positions, half satisfied just merely to get a living, to plod along indifferently.
Do you know that nothing is more demoralizing to the life, weakening to the character, than to be constantly wishing and dreaming of the great things we are going to do without a corresponding effort to actualize our dreams? Wishing without a corresponding effort to realize degenerates the mind, destroys initiative.
Everywhere we see people starving for love, famishing for affection, for some one to appreciate them.
How many completely exhaust themselves in needless worrying and bickering over things which are not worth while! How many burn up their life force in giving way to a hot temper, in quibbling over trifles, in bargain hunting, in systemless work, in a hundred ways, when a little thought and attention to the delicate human instrument on which they are playing would prevent all this attrition and keep the instrument in splendid tune!
The passion for conquest, for power, the love of achievement, is one of the most dominant and persistent characteristics of human nature.
We have an instinctive feeling that we have been set in motion by a Higher Power; that there is an invisible spring within us—the imperious must—which impels us to weave the pattern given us in the Mount of Transfiguration of our highest moment, to make our life-vision real. A divine impulse constantly urges us to reach our highest ideal. There is something back of our supreme ambition deeper than a mere personal gratification. There is a vital connection between it and the great plan of creation, the progress, the final goal, of the race. …
Be sure that he who speaks evil of us does not wish us well.
Only when someone does not do [certain] things will he be capable of [properly] doing [great] things.
Friendship should be maintained without any presumption on the ground of a person’s age, station, or relatives. Friendship with someone is friendship with his qualities, and does not admit other assumptions.
There was Meng Hsien Tzu, chief of a hundred chariots. He had five friends... With those five men, Men Hsien Tzu maintained a friendship, treating them as if he did not possess high rank, and them likewise acting as if he did not have that high rank. If his rank had been taken into consideration, they would not have [truly] been friends.
There are many methods of teaching. Refusing to teach [a corrupt person] is to thereby teach.
The Great Person never loses his child’s heart.
Good/kindly/humane words do not enter so deeply into people as does a reputation for [doing] goodness/kindness. …
Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for “finding himself.” If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.
If the internal griefs of every man could be read, written on his forehead, how many who now excite envy would appear to be the objects of pity?
In my whole life I have only known ten or twelve persons with whom it was pleasant to speak—i.e., who keep to the subject, do not repeat themselves, and do not talk of themselves; men who do not listen to their own voice, who are cultivated enough not to lose themselves in commonplaces, and, lastly, who possess tact and good taste enough not to elevate their own persons above their subjects.
The rat who only knows about one hole will soon be caught by the cat.
Since excuses were invented, no one is ever in the wrong. *
He who speaks too much is tiresome; he who speaks to little is boring.
He who lingers around will hear bad things spoken about him.
He who follows his own advice must take the consequences.
If you want to live in peace, you mustn’t tell everything you know, or judge everything you see.
If you don’t honor your wife, you are dishonoring yourself.
[His motto:] I am still learning
In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.
If people knew how hard I had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.
I do like to write but I also like to get and out and play.
If we really want liberty—if we really want liberty—then we need to go out and get it, we need to take it, because nobody is going to give it to us. And we need to do it now.
I followed my heart and figured that if I tried and failed, at least I’d know that I tried.
It is very well to say that everything that happens to us is destiny; but man also has free will. He uses this free will and wisdom to figure out things. Then adding form and creativity to his decisions, he performs a work of art. Only in this way can a human being feel happy and fulfilled.
Your natural self-expression cannot be selfish if you have a clear understanding of your relative position with your fellowman, society, God, and the Divine Universal Plan. Life is Art. Man’s life is a struggle to overcome his limitations. Art is not an escape. It is a constructive and positive step forward.
It is necessary to use emotion to develop a finer emotion—that is, to use it as material for your highest expression. Govern your emotion. Do not let your emotion govern you. Make your emotion into an art.
Approach your situations without preconceptions. There is no true joy of creation when we simply stereotype a former action. There is joy of life when we are inspired to add a new creative touch and do things differently.
When an expression has individuality it has value. When it has not, it has no value worthy of art. Art remains uncreated if we only feel it in our hearts or hold it in imagination. Nothing can be art until it is expressed.
We live together with many people, and we owe much to people everywhere. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, and even the thoughts we think—it is surprising how much we owe to others! Yet the real meaning behind our saying that “human life is relative” is that each man should aim at self-expression on his highest level. He should aspire to such self-expression as no one else has ever attained.
Effacement of ego means “One with God.”
Those only are happy who have their minds fixed on some object other than their own happiness; on the happiness of others, on the improvement of mankind, even on some art or pursuit, followed not as a means, but as itself an ideal end. Aiming thus at something else, they find happiness by the way.
The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
You probably wouldn’t worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do.
The end of learning is to know God, and out of that knowledge to love Him and imitate Him
Even foul water will put out a fire.
It is easier to catch an escaped horse than to take back an escaped word.
Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.
Souls that are regular and strong of themselves are rare
I find no quality so easy to counterfeit as devotion
Men as often commend as undervalue me beyond reason
Greatness of soul consists not so much in soaring high and in pressing forward, as in knowing how to adapt and limit oneself.
There is nothing that Nature seems to have inclined us to as much as society.
The most universal quality is diversity.
Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as there is between us and others.
You should speak with your mind—your inmost self. If it is sympathetic with others, you can become one with God and automatically know the truth of the Universe.
God is formless. If you think He is big, He is infinite; and if you think he is small, his is infinitesimal.
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
Even good opinions are worth very little unless we hold them in the broad, intelligent, and spacious way.
Exaggerated self-importance is deemed an individual fault, but a racial virtue.
You will find most books worth reading are worth reading twice.
There is really nothing more to say except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.
If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.
Observe moderation in all you do, and if that is not possible, try to be near moderation.
Good thoughts are a part of worship.
The person who gives life to learning does not die.
The higher self argues possibilities and power for us greater than men and women now possess and enjoy. The lower self says we can only live and exist as men and women have lived and existed before us.
Life as a whole is a ceaseless change… There is no sign of a physical limit yet.
Follow my example, but go beyond me.
Don’t use up your arrows before you go to battle.
Sparrows who mimic peacocks are likely to break a thigh.
If you really want honesty, don’t ask questions you don’t really want answers to.