At the beginning of any path, we’re excited and nervous. So we seek to comfort ourselves externally instead of inwardly. There’s a weak side to each of us, that—like a trade union—isn’t exactly malici...
Ask yourself the following first thing in the morning: What am I lacking in attaining freedom from passion? What for tranquility? What am I? A mere body, estate-holder, or reputation? None of these th...
As the philosopher and writer Paul Valéry explained in 1938, A poet’s function . . . is not to experience the poetic state: that is a private affair. His function is to create it in others. That is, h...
As the Quaker William Penn observed, Buildings that lie so exposed to the weather need a good foundation.
As screenwriter William Goldman famously put it, nobody knows anything—even the people in charge. It’s all a big gamble.
As a young basketball player, Bill Bradley would remind himself, When you are not practicing, remember, someone somewhere is practicing, and when you meet him he will win.
As James Basford remarked, It requires a strong constitution to withstand repeated attacks of prosperity. Well, that’s where we are now.
As Goethe once observed, the great failing is to see yourself as more than you are and to value yourself at less than your true worth.
Appearances are deceiving. Having authority is not the same as being an authority. Having the right and being right are not the same either. Being promoted doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing good w...
And that’s the final part: Stay moving, always. Like Earhart, Rommel knew from history that those who attack problems and life with the most initiative and energy usually win. He was always pushing ah...
Always prepared for disruption, always working that disruption into our plans. Fitted, as they say, for defeat or victory.
Always prepare ourselves for more difficult times. Always accept what we’re unable to change. Always manage our expectations. Always persevere. Always learn to love our fate and what happens to us. Al...
Algunos aprenden humildad. Otros eligen el ego. Algunos están preparados para las vicisitudes del destino, tanto las positivas como las negativas. Otros no. ¿Cuál de los dos elige ser? ¿Quién será?
After you’ve distinguished between the things that are up to you and the things that aren’t (ta eph’hemin, ta ouk eph’hemin), and the break comes down to something you don’t control… you’ve got only o...
Adversity can harden you. Or it can loosen you up and make you better—if you let it.
Act with fortitude and honor, he wrote to a distraught friend in serious financial and legal trouble of the man’s own making. If you cannot reasonably hope for a favorable extrication, do not plunge d...
According to Seneca, the Greek word euthymia is one we should think of often: it is the sense of our own path and how to stay on it without getting distracted by all the others that intersect it. In o...
Accept only what is true. 2. Work for the common good. 3. Match our needs and wants with what is in our control. 4. Embrace what nature has in store for us.
Aaron] had previously believed that if you came up with a great idea people would use it. But he realized now that you couldn’t expect people to come to you; you had to pull them in.
A man’s job is to make the world a better place to live in, so far as he is able—always remembering the results will be infinitesimal—and to attend to his own soul.