Wise Quotations

Seneca on the importance of knowing the good life

2008-07-25T19:47:00.001+01:00

Although we dont know our overall goal, we continue to move as fast as we can in the direction we are already going
(EM III, 269)

Seneca on telling us what we already know

2008-07-25T19:44:00.001+01:00

We sometimes know facts without paying attention to them...
Advice is, in fact, a sort of exhortation
(EM III, 29)

Philosophy did not find Plato a nobleman, it made him one - Seneca

2008-07-25T19:42:00.001+01:00

Philosophy did not find Plato a nobleman, it made him one
Seneca (EM 1, 289)

the meaning of mindfulness (Jon Kabat-Zinn)

2008-05-14T13:23:00.001+01:00

Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way:
on purpose,
in the present moment,
and nonjudgmentally.
JON KABAT-ZINN

"The value of an idea lies in the using of it." Thomas Edison

2008-02-13T10:04:00.000Z

"The value of an idea lies in the using of it."
Thomas Edison

Sutta Nipata - Who is your worst enemy?

2008-01-10T08:59:00.000Z

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded
thoughts.
Sutta Nipata

Norwid on Happiness

2008-01-08T10:44:00.000Z

To be what is called happy, one should have
(1) something to live on, (2) something to live for, (3) something to
die for.
The lack of one of these results in drama. The lack of two results in
tragedy.

/Cyprian Norwid (19^th century Polish poet)/

The Secret of Eternal Happiness (Robin Sharma)

2007-11-26T10:44:00.001Z

Find out what you truly love to do and then direct all your energy towards doing it

Robin Sharma, The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari, p. 55

Technorati tags: robin sharma, monk who sold his ferrari, happiness, buddhism

Remembering to be mindful is the great challenge - Christina Feldman

2007-11-26T09:43:00.001Z

Mindfulness is neither difficult nor complex;
Remembering to be mindful is the great challenge

Christina Feldman

Keywords: Mindfulness, Meditation, Wisdom, Christina Feldman

Read On: Christina Feldman on Stillness and Insight and Dependent Origination

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Frankl on the last of the human freedoms

2007-11-23T23:10:00.000Z

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way

Viktor Frankl

Too much information: David Fontanta

2007-11-12T13:51:00.000Z

A single issue of the New York Times contains more pieces of information in its pages than an educated 18th-century man or woman would have met with in a whole lifetime

David Fontana (Mediation Week by Weke, p. 16)

Philosophy and Psychology (Tim LeBon)

2007-10-05T18:42:00.000+01:00

We need both philosophy and psychology.

Psychology without philosophy lacks wisdom.

Philosophy without psychology lacks science.

We need to integrate the best of philosophy and science - wisdom-informed science.

The 80/20 Rule (Pareto)

2007-09-17T22:07:00.001+01:00

The Pareto Principle and how to manage time better

80% of the results are derived by 20% of activities.

80% of activities yield only 20% of the results .

Which activities make up your most productive 20%?

Which activities are least productive?

The essence of time management - M.Neenan & W.Dryden

2007-09-17T22:06:00.001+01:00

The essence of time management is knowing what your values and goals are in life and making the optimum use of your time to achieve those ends

Michael Neenan and Windy Dryden

Life Coaching - a Cognitive-Behavioural Approach (p. 58)

Neenan and Dryden provide one more motivation for becoming more aware of your values and goals in life.

"Flowers and butterflies and children dancing in the sun are good". Richard Robinson

2007-08-08T07:51:00.000+01:00

Yet it is very strange if the layman needs Oxford philosophers to tell him that milk and cheese are good, that flowers and butterflies and children dancing in the sun are good, that love and joy and companionship and laughter are good. Is there really anyone who is in the unpleasant condition of not caring about anything and wishing he did care about something?

Richard Robinson An Atheist's Values 1.1

We have all got light and dark inside us. (JK Rowling)

2007-07-14T21:37:00.001+01:00

We have all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the power we chose to act on. That's who we really are.

J.K. Rowling (Sirius Black in the film of Harry Potter in The Order of the Phoenix)

Detect this moment's meaning (Frankl)

2007-07-01T21:47:00.000+01:00

For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment.
VIKTOR FRANKL

Frankl's 3 possible ways to find meaning in life

2007-06-27T09:26:00.000+01:00

As early as 1929 I had developed the concept of three groups of values, or three possible ways to find meaning in life - even up to the last moment, the last breath. The three possibilities are

1) A deed we do, a work we create

2) An experience, a human encounter, a love

3) When confrontonted with an unchangeable fate (such as an incurable disease), a change of attitude toward that fate. In shich cases we can still wrest meaning from life by giving testimony to the most human of all human capacities: the ability to turn suffering into human triumph.

VIKTOR FRANKL Recollections, page 64.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space (Unknown)

2007-06-27T07:44:00.001+01:00

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and happiness.

UNKNOWN - quoted by Stephen. R. Covey in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." Often misattributed to Viktor Frankl.

Choices not abilities - Albus Dumbledore

2007-06-26T21:23:00.001+01:00

"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities"

J.K. ROWLING The Chamber of Secrets, 333

Nothing is mightier than wisdom (Socrates)

2007-06-26T18:29:00.000+01:00

Nothing is mightier than wisdom

SOCRATES

Happiness through Compassion (Dalia Lama)

2007-06-25T13:21:00.001+01:00

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

THE DALIA LAMA

For a good brief guide on how to practice,compassion, see zenhabits

The whole world of friendship (Herman Hesse)

2007-06-24T09:29:00.001+01:00

When the ways of friends converge, the whole world looks like home for an hour

HERMAN HESSE

Quoted in Mark Vernon's The Philosophy of Friendship.

Mark Vernon's book is a recent, intelligent and accessible exploration of friendship, taking its cue from Aristotle's distinction between three kinds of friendships - those based on utility, friendship and a genuine admiration and caring for each other. Mark Vernon also has a podcast on Aristotle's theory of friendship

Technorati tags: Herman Hesse, Friendship

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Anger and the mean (Aristotle)

2007-06-24T09:05:00.001+01:00

Anyone can become angry. That is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the
right purpose and in the right way - that is not easy.

ARISTOTLE , The Nicomachean Ethics

This quotation is given at the start of Dan Goleman's Emotional Intelligence.
It seems to me that what Aristotle is talking about would be described better as "emotional wisdom"

An example of using anger wisely is Betty Williams, one of the Irish Peace Women in the 1970s.
Her anger at seeing at first hand the death of 3 children in the Irish violence was channelled into co-founding the Community for Peace People
Williams and co-founder Mairead Corrigan were awared the Nobel Peace Price in 1977.

How to reach the palace of Reason (R.S. Peters)

2007-06-23T19:13:00.001+01:00

The palace of reason is entered through the courtyard of habit.

R.S. PETERS Ethics and Education (1966, 314)

Article on Aristotle and Weakness of will by David Carr