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"People are like tea bags; they don't know their own strength until they get into hot water."

Dan McKinnon

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

Marcus Aurelius

You can change your life by simply deciding not to settle for mediocrity.

"It's your decisions and not your conditions that shape your destiny."

Anthony Robbins

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man."

Francis Bacon

Too many of us act as though the chief components of a happy life were luxuries and comfort. Actually all that is necessary is something to be enthusiastic about.

Fear and hatred both spring from ignorance.

"The secret of a man's being is not only to live, but to have something to live for."

Dostoyevsky

"Beginning with self-concern is the only sound approach to the solution of moral problems that involve other men and organized society as well as one's own life."

Mortimer Adler

If a person lacks sufficient desire, no method will prove adequate.

“This is the true joy in life, being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it what I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life...

Of all the many concepts one might consider as critical to human flourishing, I think that of balance is possibly 'Numero Uno'. Too much food, too much alcohol, too much exercise and even too much discipline are not the path to happiness and fulfillment. Balance is. Why do I say this? It's simply because nature itself is balanced and we are a part of nature. Take the simple example of walking. What happens if you lean too much to the right or left? You probably fall down right? The same is...

"Men are so simple and yield so readily to the desires of the moment that he who will trick will always find another who will suffer himself to be tricked."

Machiavelli

Capitalism all too often gets a bad rap. The primary reason is a failure to make a very important distinction. The accumulation of capital has never been the problem. The problem is in how that capital is acquired. Capital acquired through creativity, industry and cooperation is just. Capital acquired any other way is not.

"Individual reality is plastic, shaped by the questions we make important."

Lawrence G. Boldt

Aristotle said that he preferred 12 months of noble living to a lifetime of humdrum existence. I share that sentiment.

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!”— Theodore Roosevelt

"A good book should be an axe for the frozen sea within us."

Franz Kafka

One of the most important habits one can develop is that of maintaining 'equanimity'. This is the ability to remain calm and poised under trying circumstances. If we allow such things to disturb us we are much more likely to make poor decisions which will only lead to more trying circumstances.

“Heroism is the brilliant triumph of the soul over the flesh—that is to say, over fear: fear of poverty, of suffering, of calumny, of sickness, of isolation, and of death.”

Henri-Frédéric Amiel