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Would you know others? Read yourself… and learn!
No man can see over his own height. Let me explain what I mean. You cannot see in another man any more than you have in yourself. Your own level strictly determines the extent to which he comes within your understanding. If your intelligence is unawakened, mental qualities in another, even though they be of the highest kind, will have no effect on you at all… his higher mental qualities will no more exist for you than colors exist for those who cannot see.
The greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depends upon the future. We let go of the present, which we have in our power, and look forward to that which depends upon chance — and so relinquish a certainty for an uncertainty.
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
Life is not happening to you, it unfolds as it does… for you.
The real problem we have with others is what we don’t yet understand about ourselves.
Great minds are like eagles, and build their nests in some lofty solitude.
It is very necessary that a man should be appraised early in life that it is a masquerade in which he finds himself, for otherwise, there are many things which he will fail to understand.
Your friends will tell you that they are sincere; your enemies are really so. Let your enemies’ criticism be like a bitter medicine, to be used as a means of self-knowledge.
If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity… you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge — a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it should be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.
You will see that in dealing with fools and blockheads, there is only one way of showing your intelligence — by having nothing to do with them. That means of course, that when you go into society, you may now and then feel like a good dancer who gets an invitation to a ball, and on arriving, finds that everyone is lame — with whom is he to dance?
The mind is the master over every kind of fortune; it acts in both ways, being the cause of its own happiness and its own misery.
A happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted and steadfast, beyond the influence of fear or desire.
Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.
The best time — in fact, the only time — to make a real change in your life is in the moment of seeing the need for it. He who hesitates always gets lost in the hundred reasons why tomorrow is a better day to get started!
We are often wiser than we fancy ourselves to be… In the great moments of life, when a man decides upon an important step, his action is directed not so much by any clear knowledge of the right thing to do, as by an inner impulse — you may almost call it intuition — proceeding from the deepest foundations of his being.
Take another example: a room full of guests in full dress, being received with great ceremony. You could almost believe that this is a noble and distinguished company; but, as a matter of fact, it is compulsion, pain and boredom who are the real guests. For where many are invited, it is a rabble — even if they all wear stars. Really good society is everywhere of necessity very small. In brilliant festivals and noisy entertainments, there is always, at bottom, a sense of emptiness prevalent. A false tone is there.
The mason employed on the building of a house may be quite ignorant of its general design, or, at any rate, he may not keep it constantly in mind. So it is with man: in working through the days and hours of his life, he takes little thought of its character as a whole… It is only when we come to view our life as a connected whole that our character and capacities show themselves in their true light; that we see how, in particular instances, some happy inspiration, as it were, led us to choose the only true path out of a thousand which might have brought us to ruin.
The wish to be cured is part of the cure.
The greatest man is he who chooses right with the most invincible resolution.
