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Explore all of the quotations in our Living Book…
One by one (bright gifts from Heaven)
Joys are sent thee here below;
Take them readily when given,
Ready too to let them go…
One by one thy griefs shall meet thee,
Do not fear an armed band;
One will fade as others greet thee;
Shadows passing through the land.
One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements. One who does not know the enemy but knows himself will sometimes be victorious, sometimes meet with defeat. One who knows neither the enemy nor himself will invariably be defeated in every engagement.
When all limitations are transcended, nothing remains but the One Will that is ‘I.’
We endeavor to conceal our vices under the disguises of the opposite virtues.
Why should you want? Behold, the earth hath roots;
Within this mile break forth a hundred springs;
The oaks bear mast, the biers scarlet hips:
The bounteous housewife, nature, on each bush
Lays her full mess before you. Want! why want?
A philosopher’s school is a hospital. You should feel discomfort, not pleasure, in it, for on entering, no one is well and whole. One has a disjointed shoulder, another a wound, a third suffers from a cut, and a fourth has a headache. Am I then to sit down and give you a treat of pretty words and empty sentiments, so you may applaud me and depart, with neither shoulder nor wound, cut, nor headache any better for your visit?
Make not a close friend of a melancholy, sad person. He will be sure to increase your adversity and decrease your good fortune. He goes always heavily loaded, and you must bear half.
Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
Thine own life’s means!
It’s the great mystery of human life that old grief passes gradually into quiet tender joy.
The decrease of the general cause of suffering — illusion — is the only pleasant work which lies before a man, and gives him that true happiness in which his life consists.
Happiness is your nature. It is not wrong to desire it. What is wrong is seeking it outside when it is inside.
Fear must be entirely banished. The purified soul will fear nothing.
I call that mind free which resists bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeat itself and copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, which does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what is behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.
Die before you die.
It is in your power to be free from all compulsions, and to remain in the greatest tranquillity of mind, even if all the world cries out against you as much as it chooses.
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
This simplicity expands itself little by little to outer things.
We may be pretty certain that persons whom all the world treats ill deserve entirely the treatment they get. The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly, kind companion.
Wisdom is needed to recognize a wise person, the sort of wisdom that illuminates the face of the inner person.
Nature, what things there are
Most abject in regard, and dear in use!
What things again most dear in the esteem,
And poor in worth!
