The good we do to others is spoilt unless we efface ourselves so completely that those we help have no sense of inferiority.
—Honore de Balzac (French Novelist)
If my mind could gain a firm footing, I would not make essays, I would make decisions; but it is always in apprenticeship and on trial.
—Michel de Montaigne (French Essayist)
He that always gives way to others will end in having no principles of his own.
—Aesop (Greek Fabulist)
Frequently, trite ideas or unimaginative translation of those ideas is the result not of poor subject matter but of poor interpretation of a problem.
—Paul Rand (American Graphic Designer)
In God we trust; all others must bring data.
—W. Edwards Deming (American Statistician)
We pick our friends not only because they are kind and enjoyable company, but also, perhaps more importantly, because they understand us for who we think we are.
—Alain de Botton (Swiss-born British Philosopher)
The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists.
—Jason Zweig (American Personal Finance Columnist)
Like a tortoise withdrawing five limbs into its shell, those who restrain the five senses in one life will find safe shelter for seven.
—The Thirukkural (Indian Tamil Literary Classic)
Do not desire what is impossible.
—Chilon of Sparta (Spartan Magistrate)
A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man—the one he used to be.
—Cesare Pavese (Italian Novelist, Poet)
Just as a man will use a staff to climb a mountain, so should virtue be used in life.
—Yogaswami of Jaffna (Sri Lankan Hindu Religious Leader)
The mind longs for what it has missed.
—Petronius (Roman Courtier)
When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment.
—Pema Chodron (American Buddhist Nun)
You should know, O man, that the greatest enemy you have in the world is your inclination.
—Bahya ibn Paquda (Jewish Philosopher)
Knowledge born of the finest discrimination takes us to the farthest shore. It is intuitive, omniscient, and beyond all divisions of time and space.
—Patanjali (Indian Hindu Philosopher)
When we grow old, there can only be one regret—not to have given enough of ourselves.
—Eleonora Duse (Italian Actress)
Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (Polish Aphorist, Poet)
You can’t sit on the lid of progress. If you do, you will be blown to pieces.
—Henry J. Kaiser (American Industrialist)