Quotes
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact.
Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and...
you will find strength."
"It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people,
but care more about their opinions than our own."
"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts."
"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is...
to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."
"The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority,
but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."
"The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value
if none of them know anything about the subject."
"Think of all the years passed by in which you said to yourself "I'll do it tomorrow," and how the gods have again and again granted you periods of grace of which you have not availed yourself. It is time to realize that you are a member of the Universe, that you are born of Nature itself, and to know that a limit has been set to your time. Use every moment wisely, to perceive your inner refulgence, or 'twill be gone and nevermore within your reach."
"If you are distressed by anything external,
the pain is not due to the thing itself,
but to your estimate of it;
and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."
"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
"The things you think about determine the quality of your mind.
Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts."
"You always own the option of having no opinion.
There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can't control.
These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone."
"Say to yourself in the early morning:
I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men.
All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill...
I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong,
nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him;
for we have come into the world to work together."
"Whenever you are about to find fault with someone,
ask yourself the following question:
What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize?"
"Do not be wise in words - be wise in deeds."
"Why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice?"
"Both happiness and unhappiness depend on perception."
"The inner master, when confronted with an obstacle, uses it as fuel,
like a fire which consumes things that are thrown into it.
A small lamp would be snuffed out,
but a big fire will engulf what is thrown at it and burn hotter;
it consumes the obstacle and uses it to reach a higher level."
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."
"The best revenge is not to be like your enemy."
"The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others;
the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control;
but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts."
"Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back."
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear...
"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."
"Do not indulge in dreams of having what you have not,
but reckon up the chief of the blessings you do possess,
and then thankfully remember how you would crave for them if they were not yours."
"A man's true greatness lies in the consciousness of an honest purpose in life,
founded on a just estimate of himself and everything else,
on frequent self-examinations, and a steady obedience to the rule which he knows to be right,
without troubling himself about what others may think or say,
or whether they do or do not that which he thinks and says and does."
