Archives for February 2019

We choose to eat meat and have therefore built slaughter houses for the animals and hospitals for us.
—Akbarali H. Jetha (Indian Author)

In me past, present, future meet—to hold long chiding conference. My lusts usurp the present tense— and strangle reason in his seat.
—Siegfried Sassoon (English Poet, Writer, Soldier)

Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
—The Bhagavad Gita (Hindu Scripture)

I’m working to improve my methods, and every hour I save is an hour added to my life.
—Ayn Rand (Russian-born American Novelist)

‘No’ is no answer.
—Dhirubhai Ambani (Indian Businessperson)

A dream is a wish your heart makes.
—Walt Disney (American Entrepreneur)

Chance fights ever on the side of the prudent.
—Euripides (Ancient Greek Dramatist)

Yoga is restraining the mind from taking various forms.
—Patanjali (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

A woman can be overdressed, never over-elegant.
—Coco Chanel (French Fashion Designer)

Therefore trust to thy heart, and to what the world calls illusions.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (American Poet)

Look around the habitable world: how few know their own good, or knowing it, pursue.
—Juvenal (Roman Poet)

Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
—Ted Turner (American Businessperson)

We are the men of intrinsic value, who can strike our fortunes out of ourselves, whose worth is independent of accidents in life, or revolutions in government: we have heads to get money, and hearts to spend it.
—George Farquhar (Irish Dramatist)

True friends want nothing from you except the joy of your presence. No matter what you do, they will always be your friend.
—Paramahansa Yogananda (Indian Hindu Mystic)

One common slogan of the West, the importance of which the Indian citizen has not yet sufficiently grasped, is: “If you do not work, neither shall you eat”. It is by his work that an individual is enabled to earn a living.
—Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (Indian Engineer)

As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce.
—Adam Smith (Scottish Philosopher)

I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find—at the age of fifty, say—that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about…It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you.
—Agatha Christie (British Novelist)

But of all other stupendous inventions, what sublimity of mind must have been his who conceived how to communicate his most secret thoughts to any other person, though very far distant either in time or place? And with no greater difficulty than the various arrangement of two dozen little signs upon paper? Let this be the seal of all the admirable inventions of man.
—Galileo Galilei (Italian Astronomer)

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge where there is no river.
—Nikita Khrushchev (Russian Head of State)

Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe.—They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.
—Isaac Watts (English Hymn writer)

The man who puts $10,000 additional capital into an established business is pretty certain of increased returns; and in the same way, the man who puts additional capital into his brains—information, well directed thought and study of possibilities—will as surely—yes, more surely—get increased returns. There is no capital and no increase in capital safer than that.
—Marshall Field (American Entrepreneur)

When a man teaches something he does not know to somebody else who has no aptitude for it, and gives him a certificate of proficiency, the latter has completed the education of a gentleman.
—George Bernard Shaw (Irish Playwright)

There’s only one boss: the customer. He can fire everybody from the chairman on down simply by spending his money elsewhere.
—Sam Walton (American Entrepreneur)

There’s no use running if you’re on the wrong road.
—Warren Buffett (American Investor)

A language is something infinitely greater than grammar and philology. It is the poetic testament of the genius of a race and a culture, and the living embodiment of the thoughts and fancies that have moulded them.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian Head of State)

Innocence can be redefined and called stupidity. Honesty can be called gullibility. Candor becomes lack of common sense. Interest in your work can be called cowardice. Generosity can be called soft-headedness, and observe: the former is disturbing.
—Abraham Maslow (American Psychologist)

We have every reason to look forward into the future with hope and excitement. Fear nothing and no one. Work honestly. Be good, be happy. And remember that each of you is unique, your soul your own, irreplaceable, and individual in the miracle of your mortal frame.
—Pearl S. Buck (American Novelist)

Everywhere I go I’m asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don’t stifle enough of them. There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
—Flannery O’Connor (American Novelist)

Another kind of love and compassion is not based on something appearing beautiful or nice, but based on the fact that the other person, just like oneself, wants happiness and does not want suffering and indeed has every right to be happy and to overcome suffering. On such a basis, we feel a sense of responsibility, a sense of closeness toward that being. That is true compassion. This is because the compassion is based on reason, not just on emotional feeling. As a consequence, it does not matter what the other’s attitude is, whether negative, or positive. What matters is that it is a human being, a sentient being that has the experience of pain and pleasure. There is no reason not to feel compassion so long as it is a sentient being.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader)

Man can will nothing unless he has first understood that he must count on no one but himself; that he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (French Philosopher)

Rely on the ordinary virtues that intelligent, balanced human beings have relied on for centuries: common sense, thrift, realistic expectations, patience, and perseverance.
—John C. Bogle (American Mutual Fund Pioneer)

Men are more apt to be mistaken in their generalizations than in their particular observations.
—Niccolo Machiavelli (Florentine Political Philosopher)

Most of us follow our conscience as we follow a wheelbarrow. We push it in front of us in the direction we want to go.
—Billy Graham (American Baptist Religious Leader)

Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own. They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced them they should want, without realizing that it won’t make them happy. Don’t.
—Derek Sivers (American Entrepreneur)

I’m not into the money thing. You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time. So I don’t have to have millions of dollars to be happy. All I need are clothes on my back, a decent meal, and a little loving when I feel like it. That’s the bottom line.
—Ray Charles (American Singer)

Man is the roof and crown of creation. He may be tossed about by uncertain storms of life, but the solution to it lies in his own efforts in finding an ideal, and then raising his personality, from the level of petty emotions, to the loftier heights of the chosen ideal.
—Swami Chinmayananda (Indian Hindu Teacher)

Managers have traditionally developed the skills in finance, planning, marketing and production techniques. Too often the relationships with their people have been assigned a secondary role. This is too important a subject not to receive first line attention.
—William Hewlett (American Engineer, Businessperson)

Our careers aren’t paths so much as landscapes that are navigated. We’re free agents, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs—each with our own unique brand.
—Keith Ferrazzi (American Author)

Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also—if you love them enough.
—George Washington Carver (American Scientist)

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (American First Lady)

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.
—Richard Nixon (American Head of State)

If one can only realize at heart what one’s true nature is, one then will find that it is infinite wisdom, truth, and bliss, without beginning and without end.
—Ramana Maharshi (Indian Hindu Mystic)

The only way you can live a truly creative life or know the highest happiness is by developing your own unique potential.
—Norman Vincent Peale (American Clergyman, Self-Help Author)

Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.
—John Wanamaker (American Merchant, Civil Servant)

The meaning of man’s life, as we have seen, is not measured by what he has, but by what he is. No matter how many possessions we have amassed, how much wealth we have accrued, how respected and secure our position is in society, how numerous the pieces of information we have accumulated, in moments of lucidity we may still abruptly perceive the dreadful futility of it all, the overwhelming emptiness and pointlessness of such a life.
—Stephen Batchelor (British Buddhist Author, Teacher)

Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
—Albert Schweitzer (French Theologian)

The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often also political, nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.
—Eckhart Tolle (German Spiritual Writer)

He who rolls up his sleeves seldom loses his shirt.
—Caroline Schoeder (American Aphorist)

Inspiration and genius—one and the same.
—Victor Hugo (French Novelist)

It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields.
—Henry David Thoreau (American Philosopher)

What is the point of getting angry with others who are angry with you? Getting angry is senseless. It is self-destructive. If you have fire in your house it will burn down your own house, Likewise your anger will hurt you. Oh Lord, help me to deal with my anger.
—Basava (Indian Hindu Philosopher)

The human head is bigger than the globe. It conceives itself as containing more. It can think and rethink itself and ourselves from any desired point outside the gravitational pull of the earth. It starts by writing one thing and later reads itself as something else. The human head is monstrous.
—Gunter Grass (German Novelist, Poet)

It is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than your own.
—Daniel Kahneman (American-Israeli Psychologist, Economist)

The hardest battle you’re ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.
—Leo Buscaglia (American Motivational Speaker)

People don’t change. Only their costumes do.
—Gene Moore (American Designer, Window Dresser)