The Archive

Every passage carried by the lantern: cited to its work, its year and a verified public-domain translation. Reflection, not treatment — Soul and Wisdom does not diagnose, treat or provide crisis care.

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367 passages

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“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book V.16 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseDaily resolve
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
Seneca
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter XIII · c. 65 AD
Trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseWork & purpose
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”
Seneca
On the Shortness of Life, III · c. 49 AD
Trans. Aubrey Stewart, 1900 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, V · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseRelationships
“The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet.”
Laozi
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 64 · c. 4th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Daily resolveWork & purpose
“There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it.”
Laozi
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 78 · c. 4th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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RelationshipsAnxiety & unease
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Attributed in early collections; see Essays, First Series · 1841
Public domain — attribution disputed, cited as commonly published
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Daily resolveWork & purpose
“The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book V.20 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book IX.35 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Let our tears flow, but let them also cease; let deepest sighs be drawn from our breast, but let them also find an end.”
Seneca
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter LXIII · c. 64 AD
Trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“In the morning when thou risest unwillingly, let this thought be present: I am rising to the work of a human being.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book V.1 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“If a man has reported to you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defence to what has been told you.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, XXXIII · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Relationships
“Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busybody, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book II.1 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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RelationshipsWork & purpose
“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays, Book III, Chapter 13 · 1588
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1685 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Of things some are in our power, and others are not.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, I · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseDaily resolve
“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, VIII · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseGrief & loss
“Never say of anything, I have lost it; but say, I have restored it.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, XI · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Remember, that not he who gives ill language or a blow insults, but the principle which represents these things as insulting.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, XX · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Relationships
“You may be unconquerable, if you enter into no combat in which it is not in your own control to conquer.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion, XIX · c. 125 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“Men seek retreats for themselves, houses in the country, sea-shores, and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much. But it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book IV.3 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break, but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book IV.49 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseGrief & loss
“A cucumber is bitter. Throw it away. There are briars in the road. Turn aside from them. This is enough. Do not add, And why were such things made in the world?”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book VIII.50 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseDaily resolve
“Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, I have been harmed.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Book IV.7 · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseRelationships
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
Seneca
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter II · c. 65 AD
Trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“The greatest remedy for anger is delay.”
Seneca
On Anger, Book II.29 · c. 45 AD
Trans. Aubrey Stewart, 1900 — public domain
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RelationshipsAnxiety & unease
“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.”
Seneca
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter LXXVIII · c. 64 AD
Trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Grief & lossAnxiety & unease
“Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.”
Seneca
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter CVII · c. 64 AD
Trans. Richard M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Work & purposeGrief & loss
“The life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
Plato
Apology, 38a · c. 399 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1871 — public domain
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Daily resolveWork & purpose
“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”
Confucius
The Analects, Book II.15 · c. 5th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others.”
Confucius
The Analects, Book XV.24 · c. 5th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Relationships
“To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”
Confucius
The Analects, Book II.24 · c. 5th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Daily resolveWork & purpose
“What the superior man seeks is in himself; what the small man seeks is in others.”
Confucius
The Analects, Book XV.21 · c. 5th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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RelationshipsDaily resolve
“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent. He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty.”
Laozi
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 33 · c. 4th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Daily resolveRelationships
“Anticipate things that are difficult while they are easy, and do things that would become great while they are small.”
Laozi
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 63 · c. 4th century BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“He who should teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays, Book I, Chapter 20 · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1685 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-Reliance, Essays, First Series · 1841
Original English, 1841 — public domain
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Daily resolveWork & purpose
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-Reliance, Essays, First Series · 1841
Original English, 1841 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden, Economy · 1854
Original English, 1854 — public domain
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Work & purposeAnxiety & unease
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For · 1854
Original English, 1854 — public domain
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Daily resolveAnxiety & unease
“You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & uneaseDaily resolve
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Confine yourself to the present.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Relationships
“Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“It is not death that a man should fear, but never beginning to live.”
Marcus Aurelius
Meditations · c. 170 AD
Trans. George Long, 1862 — public domain
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Daily resolveWork & purpose
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion · c. 125 AD
Trans. T. W. Higginson, 1865 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Seek not that things should happen as you wish; but wish them to happen as they do.”
Epictetus
Enchiridion · c. 125 AD
Trans. T. W. Higginson, 1865 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
Epictetus
Discourses · c. 108 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
Epictetus
Discourses · c. 108 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
Epictetus
Discourses · c. 108 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“We have two ears and one mouth, that we may listen the more and talk the less.”
Zeno of Citium
as reported by Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers · 3rd c. AD
Trans. C. D. Yonge, 1853 — public domain
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Relationships
“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labour does the body.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“He who is brave is free.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Associate with people who are likely to improve you.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Relationships
“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”
Epicurus
Fragments · c. 300 BC
Trans. C. Bailey, 1926 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is friendship.”
Epicurus
Principal Doctrines · c. 300 BC
Trans. C. Bailey, 1926 — public domain
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Relationships
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
Socrates
Plato, Apology · c. 399 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1871 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Know thyself.”
Inscription at Delphi
recorded by Pausanias, Description of Greece · 2nd c. AD
Trans. W. H. S. Jones, 1918 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”
Plato
The Republic · c. 375 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1871 — public domain
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Work & purposeDaily resolve
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Philo of Alexandria
attributed, widely quoted in 19th-century collections · 1st c. AD
Public domain source
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Relationships
“We are what we repeatedly do.”
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics · c. 340 BC
Trans. W. D. Ross, 1908 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
Aristotle
Nicomachean Ethics · c. 340 BC
Trans. W. D. Ross, 1908 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
Aristotle
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 340 BC
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“No great thing is created suddenly.”
Epictetus
Discourses · c. 108 AD
Trans. George Long, 1877 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Everything flows and nothing stays.”
Heraclitus
Fragments · c. 500 BC
Trans. Arthur Fairbanks, 1898 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Character is destiny.”
Heraclitus
Fragments · c. 500 BC
Trans. Arthur Fairbanks, 1898 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“A man's character is his fate.”
Heraclitus
Fragments · c. 500 BC
Trans. Arthur Fairbanks, 1898 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“The obstacle is the path.”
Zen proverb
traditional saying, recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Time discovers truth.”
Seneca
Moral Essays · c. 60 AD
Trans. John W. Basore, 1928 — public domain
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Relationships
“There is nothing permanent except change.”
Heraclitus
Fragments · c. 500 BC
Trans. Arthur Fairbanks, 1898 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Well begun is half done.”
Aristotle
Politics · c. 350 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1885 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“The wise man is he who knows the relative value of things.”
Plato
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 375 BC
Public domain source
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Work & purpose
“Nothing in excess.”
Inscription at Delphi
recorded by Pausanias, Description of Greece · 2nd c. AD
Trans. W. H. S. Jones, 1918 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Twilight of the Idols · 1889
Trans. Anthony M. Ludovici, 1911 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Twilight of the Idols · 1889
Trans. Anthony M. Ludovici, 1911 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Fortune favours the bold.”
Virgil
Aeneid, Book X · 19 BC
Trans. John Dryden, 1697 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to love.”
Virgil
Eclogues X · 37 BC
Trans. J. W. Mackail, 1889 — public domain
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Relationships
“Seize the day, trusting as little as possible in tomorrow.”
Horace
Odes I.11 · 23 BC
Trans. John Conington, 1863 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Adversity reveals genius; prosperity conceals it.”
Horace
Satires · c. 35 BC
Trans. John Conington, 1870 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.”
Ovid
Epistulae ex Ponto · c. 13 AD
Trans. A. L. Wheeler, 1924 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Be patient and tough; someday this pain will be useful to you.”
Ovid
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 8 AD
Public domain source
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Grief & loss
“While there's life, there's hope.”
Cicero
Letters to Atticus · c. 49 BC
Trans. E. S. Shuckburgh, 1899 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.”
Cicero
Philippics · 44 BC
Trans. C. D. Yonge, 1852 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Cicero
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 1st c. BC
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”
Cicero
Pro Plancio · 54 BC
Trans. C. D. Yonge, 1856 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness; nothing so gentle as real strength.”
Saint Francis de Sales
Letters · c. 1610
Public domain source
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Relationships
“In the midst of winter, I found there was within me an invincible summer.”
Traditional saying
widely recorded in collections · traditional
Public domain source
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Grief & loss
“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.”
Plutarch
Moralia · c. 100 AD
Trans. A. R. Shilleto, 1888 — public domain
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Relationships
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
Plutarch
Moralia · c. 100 AD
Trans. A. R. Shilleto, 1888 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.”
Plutarch
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 100 AD
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Courage stands halfway between cowardice and rashness.”
Plutarch
Moralia · c. 100 AD
Trans. A. R. Shilleto, 1888 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Rest is not idleness.”
John Lubbock
The Use of Life · 1894
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“The greatest wealth is to live content with little.”
Plato
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 375 BC
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“Let him that would move the world first move himself.”
Socrates
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 400 BC
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”
Socrates
Plato, Theaetetus · c. 369 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1871 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
Plato
Phaedo · c. 360 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1871 — public domain
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Relationships
“Courage is knowing what not to fear.”
Plato
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 375 BC
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“He is richest who is content with the least.”
Socrates
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 400 BC
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“The unhappy man is the one who cannot be alone with himself.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“To be everywhere is to be nowhere.”
Seneca
Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“The willing are led by fate; the reluctant dragged.”
Cleanthes
quoted by Seneca, Letters to Lucilius · c. 65 AD
Trans. R. M. Gummere, 1917 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“No man ever steps in the same river twice.”
Heraclitus
Fragments · c. 500 BC
Trans. Arthur Fairbanks, 1898 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Silence is a friend who will never betray.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
Public domain source
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Relationships
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act II · 1603
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act I · 1603
Public domain source
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Work & purpose
“Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt.”
William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure · 1604
Public domain source
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Anxiety & uneaseWork & purpose
“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart and bids it break.”
William Shakespeare
Macbeth, Act IV · 1606
Public domain source
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Grief & loss
“How poor are they that have not patience!”
William Shakespeare
Othello, Act II · 1604
Public domain source
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Relationships
“The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves.”
William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar, Act I · 1599
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”
William Shakespeare
All's Well That Ends Well · 1605
Public domain source
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Relationships
“Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.”
William Shakespeare
King Lear, Act I · 1606
Public domain source
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Relationships
“We know what we are, but know not what we may be.”
William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act IV · 1603
Public domain source
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Work & purpose
“Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
William Shakespeare
The Merry Wives of Windsor · 1602
Public domain source
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Work & purpose
“It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
Confucius
Analects · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it — this is knowledge.”
Confucius
Analects II · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”
Confucius
Analects XIV · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Have no friends not equal to yourself.”
Confucius
Analects I · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Relationships
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Study the past if you would define the future.”
Confucius
Analects · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 64 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 33 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”
Lao Tzu
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 400 BC
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“The soft overcomes the hard; the gentle overcomes the rigid.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 78 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Relationships
“Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 33 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”
Lao Tzu
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 400 BC
Public domain source
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Work & purpose
“Do the difficult things while they are easy.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 63 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”
The Dhammapada
Dhammapada I · c. 3rd c. BC
Trans. Max Müller, 1881 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love.”
The Dhammapada
Dhammapada I · c. 3rd c. BC
Trans. Max Müller, 1881 — public domain
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Relationships
“Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.”
The Dhammapada
Dhammapada VIII · c. 3rd c. BC
Trans. Max Müller, 1881 — public domain
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Relationships
“Drop by drop is the water pot filled.”
The Dhammapada
Dhammapada IX · c. 3rd c. BC
Trans. Max Müller, 1881 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Let a man overcome anger by love, evil by good.”
The Dhammapada
Dhammapada XVII · c. 3rd c. BC
Trans. Max Müller, 1881 — public domain
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Relationships
“Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.”
Buddhist saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
Public domain source
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Anxiety & unease
“You have a right to your actions, but never to your actions' fruits.”
Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita II.47 · c. 200 BC
Trans. Edwin Arnold, 1885 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“The soul is neither born, and nor does it die.”
Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita II.20 · c. 200 BC
Trans. Edwin Arnold, 1885 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“Change is the law of the universe.”
Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita · c. 200 BC
Trans. Edwin Arnold, 1885 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“A person can rise through the efforts of his own mind.”
Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita VI.5 · c. 200 BC
Trans. Edwin Arnold, 1885 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“The wound is the place where the light enters you.”
Rumi
attributed, from 19th-century renderings · 13th c.
Public domain source
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Grief & loss
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Rumi
attributed, from 19th-century renderings · 13th c.
Public domain source
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Daily resolve
“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”
Rumi
Masnavi · 13th c.
Trans. R. A. Nicholson, 1926 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”
Rumi
attributed, from 19th-century renderings · 13th c.
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Work & purpose
“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”
Rumi
attributed, from 19th-century renderings · 13th c.
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Relationships
“The lamps are different, but the light is the same.”
Rumi
attributed, from 19th-century renderings · 13th c.
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Relationships
“The bird of paradise alights only upon the hand that does not grasp.”
Hafiz
attributed, in 19th-century renderings · 14th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth, 'You owe me.'”
Hafiz
attributed, in 19th-century renderings · 14th c.
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Relationships
“Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
Japanese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.”
Japanese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”
Japanese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Traditional proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“A bird does not sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“Tension is who you think you should be; relaxation is who you are.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“Dig the well before you are thirsty.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago; the second best time is now.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss
“A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“Do not be afraid of going slowly; be afraid of stopping.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“The gem cannot be polished without friction.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask remains a fool forever.”
Chinese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
Traditional proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“Hope is the dream of a waking man.”
Aristotle
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 340 BC
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Anxiety & unease
“What is to give light must endure burning.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss
“The tongue has no bones, but it is strong enough to break a heart.”
Turkish proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“One kind word can warm three winter months.”
Japanese proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Nothing is worth more than this day.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Maxims and Reflections · 1833
Trans. Bailey Saunders, 1893 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Maxims and Reflections · 1833
Trans. Bailey Saunders, 1893 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust (rendering) · 1808
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Work & purpose
“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship · 1796
Trans. Thomas Carlyle, 1824 — public domain
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Relationships
“Man is not the creature of circumstances; circumstances are the creatures of men.”
Benjamin Disraeli
Vivian Grey · 1826
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Daily resolve
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
Benjamin Disraeli
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Daily resolve
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes; do not resist them.”
Lao Tzu
attributed, in 19th-century renderings · c. 400 BC
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Grief & loss
“Great acts are made up of small deeds.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 63 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Simplicity, patience, compassion: these three are your greatest treasures.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 67 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.”
Lao Tzu
attributed, in 19th-century renderings · c. 400 BC
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Work & purpose
“Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are.”
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching, ch. 44 · c. 400 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1891 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”
Sun Tzu
The Art of War · 5th c. BC
Trans. Lionel Giles, 1910 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war.”
Sun Tzu
The Art of War · 5th c. BC
Trans. Lionel Giles, 1910 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”
Sun Tzu
The Art of War · 5th c. BC
Trans. Lionel Giles, 1910 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”
Sun Tzu
The Art of War · 5th c. BC
Trans. Lionel Giles, 1910 — public domain
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Relationships
“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”
Traditional Indian saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“As you sow, so shall you reap.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.”
Buddhist saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
Buddhist saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal.”
Buddhist saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.”
Buddhist saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“A jug fills drop by drop.”
Buddhist saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“There is no fear for one whose mind is not filled with desires.”
The Dhammapada
Dhammapada · c. 3rd c. BC
Trans. Max Müller, 1881 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.”
Francis Bacon
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 17th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Knowledge is power.”
Francis Bacon
Meditationes Sacrae · 1597
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Work & purpose
“He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.”
Francis Bacon
Of Innovations · 1625
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Work & purpose
“In charity there is no excess.”
Francis Bacon
Of Goodness · 1625
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Relationships
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-Reliance · 1841
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Work & purpose
“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Daily resolve
“Finish each day and be done with it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Letters · 1854
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Anxiety & unease
“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Circles · 1841
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Daily resolve
“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, honourable, compassionate.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden · 1854
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Work & purpose
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden · 1854
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Daily resolve
“It is not enough to be busy; the question is: what are we busy about?”
Henry David Thoreau
Letters · 1855
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Work & purpose
“Simplify, simplify.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden · 1854
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Anxiety & unease
“Live in each season as it passes.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden · 1854
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Grief & loss
“Things do not change; we change.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden · 1854
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Daily resolve
“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
Henry David Thoreau
Walden · 1854
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Work & purpose
“Nothing is worth more than a friend, except perhaps a friend who tells the truth.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1877 — public domain
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Relationships
“My life has been full of terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1877 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1877 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1877 — public domain
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Relationships
“Let us permit nature to have her way; she understands her business better than we do.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1877 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.”
Blaise Pascal
Pensées · 1670
Trans. W. F. Trotter, 1910 — public domain
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Relationships
“All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Blaise Pascal
Pensées · 1670
Trans. W. F. Trotter, 1910 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Kind words do not cost much, yet they accomplish much.”
Blaise Pascal
Pensées · 1670
Trans. W. F. Trotter, 1910 — public domain
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Relationships
“Peace of mind is better than giving them a piece of your mind.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
Public domain source
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Relationships
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
Anne Frank
attributed rendering of a widely quoted line · 20th c.
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Daily resolve
“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“It is never too late to be what you might have been.”
George Eliot
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?”
George Eliot
Middlemarch · 1872
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Relationships
“The growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts.”
George Eliot
Middlemarch · 1872
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Daily resolve
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.”
Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre · 1847
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Work & purpose
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights · 1847
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Relationships
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that vanity and pride are different things.”
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice · 1813
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Relationships
“Angry people are not always wise.”
Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice · 1813
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Relationships
“There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart.”
Jane Austen
Emma · 1815
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Relationships
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
Aesop
Fables · 6th c. BC
Trans. George Fyler Townsend, 1867 — public domain
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Relationships
“Slow and steady wins the race.”
Aesop
Fables · 6th c. BC
Trans. George Fyler Townsend, 1867 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“United we stand, divided we fall.”
Aesop
Fables · 6th c. BC
Trans. George Fyler Townsend, 1867 — public domain
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Relationships
“Necessity is the mother of invention.”
Aesop
Fables · 6th c. BC
Trans. George Fyler Townsend, 1867 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Appearances are often deceiving.”
Aesop
Fables · 6th c. BC
Trans. George Fyler Townsend, 1867 — public domain
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Relationships
“It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.”
Aesop
Fables · 6th c. BC
Trans. George Fyler Townsend, 1867 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Lost time is never found again.”
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1748
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Daily resolve
“Well done is better than well said.”
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1737
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Work & purpose
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Benjamin Franklin
attributed, in 18th-century collections · 18th c.
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Work & purpose
“Tell me and I forget; teach me and I may remember; involve me and I learn.”
Benjamin Franklin
attributed, in 18th-century collections · 18th c.
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Work & purpose
“Energy and persistence conquer all things.”
Benjamin Franklin
attributed, in 18th-century collections · 18th c.
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Daily resolve
“Do not put off till tomorrow what can be done today.”
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1757
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Daily resolve
“Whatever you are, be a good one.”
Abraham Lincoln
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“The best way to predict your future is to create it.”
Abraham Lincoln
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”
Abraham Lincoln
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Daily resolve
“In the end, it is not the years in your life that count; it is the life in your years.”
Abraham Lincoln
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Daily resolve
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Frederick Douglass
West India Emancipation speech · 1857
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Daily resolve
“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
Frederick Douglass
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Relationships
“I would rather be a little nobody than to be an evil somebody.”
Abraham Lincoln
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
Mark Twain
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Relationships
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Mark Twain
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Daily resolve
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you did not do.”
Mark Twain
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain
Pudd'nhead Wilson · 1894
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Anxiety & unease
“Comparison is the death of joy.”
Mark Twain
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
Oscar Wilde
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Work & purpose
“To live is the rarest thing in the world; most people exist, that is all.”
Oscar Wilde
The Soul of Man Under Socialism · 1891
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Daily resolve
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”
Oscar Wilde
Lady Windermere's Fan · 1892
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Grief & loss
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest · 1895
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Relationships
“Keep your face always toward the sunshine, and shadows will fall behind you.”
Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass · 1855
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Anxiety & unease
“Be curious, not judgemental.”
Walt Whitman
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Relationships
“I exist as I am, that is enough.”
Walt Whitman
Song of Myself · 1855
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Anxiety & unease
“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.”
Emily Dickinson
Poems · 1891
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Anxiety & unease
“That it will never come again is what makes life so sweet.”
Emily Dickinson
Poems · 1891
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Grief & loss
“Unable are the loved to die, for love is immortality.”
Emily Dickinson
Poems · 1891
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Grief & loss
“Not in the achievement, but in the endurance, of the human soul, does it show its divine grandeur.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Hyperion · 1839
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Grief & loss
“Into each life some rain must fall.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Rainy Day · 1842
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Grief & loss
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Ladder of St. Augustine · 1858
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Work & purpose
“Let us then be up and doing, with a heart for any fate.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
A Psalm of Life · 1838
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Daily resolve
“If you can dream — and not make dreams your master.”
Rudyard Kipling
If— · 1910
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Work & purpose
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
Rudyard Kipling
Speech · 1923
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Relationships
“To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
Virginibus Puerisque · 1881
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Work & purpose
“Do not judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Daily resolve
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
Leo Tolstoy
Pamphlets · 1900
Trans. Aylmer Maude, 1900 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace · 1869
Trans. Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1922 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“If you want to be happy, be.”
Leo Tolstoy
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 19th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Beauty will save the world.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Idiot · 1869
Trans. Constance Garnett, 1913 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov · 1880
Trans. Constance Garnett, 1912 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“The best way out is always through.”
Robert Frost
A Servant to Servants · 1914
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Grief & loss
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by.”
Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken · 1916
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Work & purpose
“Nothing gold can stay.”
Robert Frost
New Hampshire · 1923
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Grief & loss
“Your children are not your children; they are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.”
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet · 1923
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Relationships
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls.”
Kahlil Gibran
attributed, from early-20th-century collections · 1920s
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Grief & loss
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness.”
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet · 1923
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Relationships
“Work is love made visible.”
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet · 1923
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Work & purpose
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet · 1923
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Grief & loss
“Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream.”
Kahlil Gibran
The Prophet · 1923
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Anxiety & unease
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet · 1929
Trans. M. D. Herter Norton, 1929 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet · 1929
Trans. M. D. Herter Norton, 1929 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“The only journey is the one within.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet · 1929
Trans. M. D. Herter Norton, 1929 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
Book of Hours · 1905
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Grief & loss
“To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Tears are the silent language of grief.”
Voltaire
Philosophical Dictionary · 1764
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Grief & loss
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Voltaire
Dictionnaire philosophique · 1764
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Work & purpose
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
Voltaire
attributed, in 18th-century collections · 18th c.
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Relationships
“Let us cultivate our garden.”
Voltaire
Candide · 1759
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Daily resolve
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The Social Contract · 1762
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Work & purpose
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
Saint Augustine
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 5th c.
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Work & purpose
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.”
Saint Augustine
attributed, in 19th-century collections · 5th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Our hearts are restless until they rest.”
Saint Augustine
Confessions · 398 AD
Trans. E. B. Pusey, 1838 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-Reliance · 1841
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Anxiety & unease
“First keep peace with yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.”
Thomas à Kempis
The Imitation of Christ · 1418
Trans. William Benham, 1874 — public domain
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Relationships
“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.”
Thomas à Kempis
The Imitation of Christ · 1418
Trans. William Benham, 1874 — public domain
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Relationships
“A good life makes a wise mind.”
Thomas à Kempis
The Imitation of Christ · 1418
Trans. William Benham, 1874 — public domain
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Daily resolve
“Nothing is miserable unless you think it so.”
Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy · 524 AD
Trans. W. V. Cooper, 1902 — public domain
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Anxiety & unease
“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.”
Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy · 524 AD
Trans. W. V. Cooper, 1902 — public domain
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Relationships
“In every adversity of fortune, to have been happy is the most unhappy kind of misfortune.”
Boethius
The Consolation of Philosophy · 524 AD
Trans. W. V. Cooper, 1902 — public domain
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Grief & loss
“He who has never learned to obey cannot be a good commander.”
Aristotle
Politics · c. 350 BC
Trans. Benjamin Jowett, 1885 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
Traditional saying
recorded in early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Daily resolve
“Believe you can and you are halfway there.”
Traditional saying
recorded in early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Daily resolve
“Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.”
Traditional saying
recorded in early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Work & purpose
“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”
H. Jackson Brown Sr. tradition
recorded in early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Daily resolve
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”
Vincent van Gogh
Letters to Theo · 1882
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Work & purpose
“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.”
Vincent van Gogh
Letters to Theo · 1882
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Daily resolve
“If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint', then by all means paint.”
Vincent van Gogh
Letters to Theo · 1884
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Work & purpose
“Normality is a paved road: it is comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow.”
Vincent van Gogh
Letters to Theo · 1889
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Work & purpose
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched.”
Helen Keller
The Story of My Life · 1903
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Grief & loss
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.”
Helen Keller
Optimism · 1903
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Grief & loss
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
Helen Keller
Optimism · 1903
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Relationships
“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.”
Helen Keller
Optimism · 1903
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Daily resolve
“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.”
Helen Keller
Optimism · 1903
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Daily resolve
“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.”
Florence Nightingale
Notes on Nursing · 1859
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Anxiety & unease
“I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took any excuse.”
Florence Nightingale
Notes on Nursing · 1859
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Work & purpose
“Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity.”
Louis Pasteur
Address · 1876
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Daily resolve
“Chance favours the prepared mind.”
Louis Pasteur
Lecture · 1854
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Work & purpose
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.”
Marie Curie
Lecture · 1920
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Anxiety & unease
“Have no fear of perfection; you will never reach it.”
Traditional saying
recorded in early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Work & purpose
“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Albert Einstein
Interview · 1929
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Work & purpose
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”
Albert Einstein
attributed, early-20th-century collections · 1920s
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Daily resolve
“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.”
Albert Schweitzer
Lectures · 1920s
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Daily resolve
“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
Helen Keller
The Open Door · 1929
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Daily resolve
“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
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Anxiety & unease
“When anger rises, think of the consequences.”
Confucius
Analects · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Relationships
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
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Daily resolve
“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
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Work & purpose
“Respect yourself and others will respect you.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
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Relationships
“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”
Confucius
Analects · c. 500 BC
Trans. James Legge, 1893 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Confucius
attributed, in 19th-century collections · c. 500 BC
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Work & purpose
“The journey, not the arrival, matters.”
Michel de Montaigne
Essays · 1580
Trans. Charles Cotton, 1877 — public domain
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Work & purpose
“Saying no to one thing is saying yes to another.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“The eyes are useless when the mind is blind.”
Traditional proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“A good conscience is a continual feast.”
English proverb
recorded in 17th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“After the storm comes the calm.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss
“A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Rome was not built in a day.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“Still waters run deep.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“Do not cross the bridge until you come to it.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss
“Where there is a will, there is a way.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Daily resolve
“Honesty is the best policy.”
English proverb
recorded in 18th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Look before you leap.”
English proverb
recorded in 16th-century collections · traditional
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Work & purpose
“The darkest hour is just before the dawn.”
English proverb
recorded in 17th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss
“Time is the great healer.”
English proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss
“Little strokes fell great oaks.”
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1750
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Daily resolve
“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Speech · 1901
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Work & purpose
“Far better it is to dare mighty things than to live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
The Strenuous Life · 1899
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Daily resolve
“Comparison is the thief of joy.”
Theodore Roosevelt
attributed, early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Anxiety & unease
“Believe you can, and you are halfway there.”
Theodore Roosevelt
attributed, early-20th-century collections · early 20th c.
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Daily resolve
“He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.”
Arabian proverb
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Anxiety & unease
“A ship in harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
John A. Shedd
Salt from My Attic · 1928
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Work & purpose
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.”
Voltaire
Letters · 1770
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Anxiety & unease
“One today is worth two tomorrows.”
Benjamin Franklin
Poor Richard's Almanack · 1757
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Daily resolve
“The heart that gives, gathers.”
Tao saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Relationships
“Grief is the price we pay for having loved well.”
Traditional saying
recorded in 19th-century collections · traditional
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Grief & loss

Curators can add a new passage.