The misery that oppresses you lies not in your profession but in yourself! What man in the world would not find his situation intolerable if he chooses a craft, an art, indeed any form of life, without experiencing an inner calling? Whoever is born with a talent, or to a talent, must surely find in that the most pleasing of occupations! Everything on this earth has its difficult sides! Only some inner drive - pleasure, love - can help us overcome obstacles, prepare a path, and lift as out of the narrow circle in which others tread out their anguished, miserable existences!
Beware of a man of one book.
If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
To the world you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world. Kindness is the golden chain by which our world is bound together.
Tolerance should really be only a temporary attitude; it must lead to recognition. To tolerate means to offend.
We see only what we know.
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.
What is not started today is never finished tomorrow.
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago.
Difficulties increase the nearer we get to the goal.
The highest happiness of man ... is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable.
Hell begins the day that God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do.
Words are good, but there is something better. The best cannot be explained by words. The spirit in which we act is the chief matter. Action can only be only understood and represented by the spirit.
There are two things parents should give their children roots and wings. Roots to give them bearing and a sense of belonging, but also wings to help free them from constraints and prejudices and give them other ways to travel (or rather, to fly).
It is sometimes essential for a husband and a wife to quarrel - they get to know each other better.
Rest not. Life is sweeping by; go and dare before you die. Something mighty and sublime, leave behind to conquer time.
The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.
Nothing is more odious than the majority, for it consists of a few powerful leaders, a certain number of accommodating scoundrels and submissive weaklings, and a mass of men who trot after them without thinking, or knowing their own minds.
There is nothing in the world more shameful than establishing one's self on lies and fables.
You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.
What is important in life is life, and not the result of life.
Man... knows only when he is satisfied and when he suffers, and only his sufferings and his satisfactions instruct him concerning himself, teach him what to seek and what to avoid. For the rest, man is a confused creature; he knows not whence he comes or whither he goes, he knows little of the world, and above all, he knows little of himself.
What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes.
Truth has to be repeated constantly, because Error also is being preached all the time, and not just by a few, but by the multitude. In the Press and Encyclopaedias, in Schools and Universities, everywhere Error holds sway, feeling happy and comfortable in the knowledge of having Majority on its side.
Fools and wise men are equally harmless. It is the half-fools and half-wise that are dangerous.
Freedom consists not in refusing to recognize anything above us, but in respecting something which is above us; for by respecting it, we raise ourselves to it, and, by our very acknowledgment, prove that we bear within ourselves what is higher, and are worthy to be on a level with it.
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.
If you live criticizing people, you won't have time to love them.
A wife is a gift bestowed upon a man to reconcile him to the loss of paradise.
Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths.
I think that I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.
Kindness is the golden thread that holds society together.
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. Whatever you think you can do, or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, power and grace.
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
If a good person does you wrong, act as though you had not noticed it. If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the wholeworld will be blind and toothless.
Each indecision brings its own delays and days are lost lamenting over lost days... What you can do or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has magic, power, and genius in it.
To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult.
Everybody wants to be somebody; nobody wants to grow.
Humans fear reason, but they ought to fear stupidity- for reason can be hard, but stupidity can be fatal.
Someday perhaps the inner light will shine forth from us, and the we'll need no other light.
Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.
Our friends show us what we can do; our enemies teach us what we must do.
The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt.
Belief is not the beginning of knowledge - it is the end.
Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth.
He is the happiest man who can see the connection between the end and the beginning of life.
Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.
The Bible grows more beautiful, as we grow in our understanding of it.
There is nothing worse than aggressive stupidity.
At the moment of commitment the entire universe conspires to assist you.
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.
None are so hopelessly enslaved, as those who falsely believe they are free. The truth has been kept from the depth of their minds by masters who rule them with lies. They feed them on falsehoods till wrong looks like right in their eyes.
Oblivion is full of people who allow the opinions of others to overrule their belief in themselves.
The soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own.
Nothing is worse than active ignorance.
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.
A man who cannot command himself will always be a slave.
Not all that is presented to us as history has really happened; and what really happened did not actually happen the way it is presented to us; moreover, what really happened is only a small part of all that happened. Everything in history remains uncertain, the largest events as well as the smallest occurrence.
Few people have the imagination for reality.
One is never deceived; one deceives oneself.
The moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred...unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.
A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.
We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.
Whatever you can do or dream, begin it.
The solution of every problem is another problem
Nothing is worth more than this day. You cannot relive yesterday. Tomorrow is still beyond your reach.
No one would talk much in society if they knew how often they misunderstood others.
A person hears only what they understand.
Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.
Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are.
Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at.
The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes.
The flowers are full of honey, but only the bee finds out the sweetness.
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.
Enjoy what you can, endure what you must.
Of all thieves, fools are the worst; they rob you of time and temper.
Let everyone sweep in front of his own door, and the whole world will be clean.
Be always resolute with the present hour. Every moment is of infinite value.
The main thing is to have a soul that loves the truth and harbours it where he finds it. And another thing: truth requires constant repetition, because error is being preached about us all the time, and not only by isolated individuals but by the masses. In the newspapers and encyclopedias, in schools and universities, everywhere error rides high and basks in the consciousness of having the majority on its side.
Wisdom is found only in truth.
The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.
The ideal of beauty is simplicity and tranquility.
The soul is indestructible and its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set at night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.
Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.
I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather....In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or is dehumanized.
We must always change, renew, rejuvenate ourselves; otherwise, we harden.
Look at a man the way he is and he only becomes worse, but look at him as if he were what he could be, then he becomes what he should be.
If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.
Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
Sin writes histories, goodness is silent.
It is not doing the thing we like to do, but liking the thing we have to do, that makes life blessed.
Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
Distrust those in whom the desire to punish is strong.
Life is the childhood of our immortality.
Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex than you imagine
If you want someone to develop a specific trait, treat them as though they already had it.
Life is too short to drink bad wine.
Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
Night is the other half of life, and the better half.
A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
I can promise to be sincere, but I cannot promise to be impartial.
How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to.
If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the universe, and so winning peace of heart whatever obstacles we meet.
Our senses don't deceive us: our judgment does
Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
Courage is the commitment to begin without any guarantee of success.
If you want a wise answer, ask a reasonable question.
People who think honestly and deeply have a hostile attitude towards the public.
Everything is hard before it is easy.
If nature is your teacher, your soul will awaken.
Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real thing; a confusion of the real with the ideal never goes unpunished.
Mankind? That is an abstraction. There have always been and always will be only individuals.
The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.
All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, until they take root in our personal experience.
Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
Why look for conspiracy when stupidity can explain so much
Talent develops in quiet, alone; character is sharpened in the torrent of the world.
Doesn't surprise me that Christ our Lord preferred to live with whores and sinners, seeing I go in for that myself.
Nothing is more disgusting than the majority: because it consists of a few powerful predecessors, of rogues who adapt themselves, of weak who assimilate themselves, and the masses who imitate without knowing at all what they want.
