Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Death and life have their determined appointments; riches and honors depend upon heaven.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Get busy living, or get busy dying.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.
—Jonathan Safran Foer (b.1977) American Novelist
There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth … lust. When he is strong … quarrelsomeness. When he is old … covetousness.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
I want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
When you are laboring for others, let it be with the same zeal as if it were for yourself.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Consideration for others is the basic of a good life, a good society.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never, to forget.
—Arundhati Roy (b.1961) Indian Author, Actress, Activist
If we don’t know life, how can we know death?
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment.
—Buddhist Teaching
The way of the superior man may be compared to what takes place in traveling, when to go to a distance we must first traverse the space that is near, and in ascending a height, when we must begin from the lower ground.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
People living deeply have no fear of death.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
The Path is not far from man. When men try to pursue a course, which is far from the common indications of consciousness, this course cannot be considered The Path.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Being in humaneness is good. If we select other goodness and thus are far apart from humaneness, how can we be the wise?
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself; at rest he does not seek perfect comfort; he is diligent in his work and careful in speech. He avails himself to people of the Tao and thereby corrects himself. This is the kind of person of whom you can say, ‘he loves learning.’
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Study the past, if you would define the future.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
At fifteen my heart was set on learning; at thirty I stood firm; at forty I had no more doubts; at fifty I knew the mandate of heaven; at sixty my ear was obedient; at seventy I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the norm.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path, and I will leave a trail.
—Muriel Strode (1875–1964) American Author, Businesswoman
Use your health, even to the point of wearing it out. That is what it is for. Spend all you have before you die; do not outlive yourself.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The superior man honors his virtuous nature, and maintains constant inquiry and study, seeking to carry it out to its breadth and greatness, so as to omit none of the more exquisite and minute points which it embraces, and to raise it to its greatest height and brilliancy.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The injury of prodigality leads to this, that he that will not economize will have to agonize.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
You can get all A’s and still flunk life.
—Walker Percy (1916–90) American Novelist
Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music-the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
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