You just do the things that you love and see if other people can like them too.
Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion vow to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a light-house.
[Letter to his wife, 17 July 1757, after narrowly avoiding a shipwreck; often misquoted as “Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.”]
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched—they must be felt with the heart.
Why should we build our happiness on the opinions of others, when we can find it in our own hearts?
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.
There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture in the lonely shore, there is society where none intrudes, by the deep sea, and music in its roar.
There is a way that nature speaks, that land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough, quiet enough, to pay attention to the story.
The meaning of the river flowing is not that all things are changing so that we cannot encounter them twice but that some things stay the same only by changing.
It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
If one way be better than another, that you may be sure is Nature’s way.
When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.
What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.
People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.
No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.
In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.” ~ Marcus Aurelius
Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature. Love the hand that fate deals you and play it as your own, for what could be more fitting?
When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.
Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well.
How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?
I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.
The wise man knows that it is better to sit on the banks of a remote mountain stream than to be emperor of the whole world.
To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.
Don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.
Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.
We have to discover the essence of our creation for us to carry out our purpose as believers
Time stops for no one, no matter how unsure we are of the future.
Choose to focus your time, energy and conversation around people who inspire you, support you and help you to grow you into your happiest, strongest, wisest self.
A man is like a novel: until the very last page you don’t know how it will end. Otherwise it wouldn’t even be worth reading.
Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself.
Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces to call you once by your name.
Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live.
I have every reason to be sad, but I don’t have any reason to mourn. People grieve when things end. Nothing has ended tonight. One of us has simply gone ahead as we always knew it would have to be.
It’s a philosophy of life. A practice. If you do this, something will change, what will change is that you will change, your life will change, and if you can change you, you can perhaps change the world.
I always had a philosophy which I got from my father. He used to say, ‘Listen. God gave to you the gift to play football. This is your gift from God. If you take care of your health, if you are in good shape all the time, with your gift from God no one will stop you, but you must be prepared.’
‘Freedom from fear’ could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.
Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.
I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
My philosophy is: Life is hard, but God is good. Try not to confuse the two.
For my own part, I would rather excel in knowledge of the highest secrets of philosophy than in arms.
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.
Men are not allowed to think freely about chemistry and biology: why should they be allowed to think freely about political philosophy?
There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy.
I really believe in the philosophy that you create your own universe. I’m just trying to create a good one for myself.
A philosopher once said, ‘Half of good philosophy is good grammar.’