We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
—Khalil Gibran (Lebanese-born American Philosopher)
This body, full of faults, has yet one great quality: whatever it encounters in this temporal life depends upon one’s actions.
—Nagarjuna (Indian Buddhist Philosopher)
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
—Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American Industrialist, Philanthropist)
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird–that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace–making the complicated simple, awesomely simple–that’s creativity.
—Charles Mingus
The abundant life does not come to those who have had a lot of obstacles removed from their path by others. It develops from within and is rooted in strong mental and moral fiber.
—William Mather Lewis
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
—Aristotle (Ancient Greek Philosopher)
There is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out.
—Russian Proverb
All that is real in me is God; all that is real in God is I. The gulf between God and me is thus bridged. Thus by knowing God, we find that the kingdom of heaven is within us.
—Swami Vivekananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)
The secret to success is to know something nobody else knows.
—Aristotle Onassis (Greek Businessperson)
Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, they will never cease to be amused.
—Unknown
I think it’s generally a mistake to assume that rationality is going to be perfect even in very able people. I think hubris contributes to it.
—Charlie Munger