MJD > MJD's Quotes

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Love is wise,
Hatred is foolish”
― Bertrand Russell

“But man's duty is to try and endeavour, success depends upon chance and environments.”
― Bhagat Singh, Why I Am An Atheist: An Autobiographical Discourse

“Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.”
― Albert Camus

“People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.”
― Albert Camus, The Fall

“Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“Language disguises the thought; so that from the external form of the clothes one cannot infer the form of the thought they clothe, because the external form of the clothes is constructed with quite another object than to let the form of the body be recognized.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
― George Orwell

“I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
― Albert Camus

“The helpful thought for which you look
Is written somewhere in a book.”
― Edward Gorey

“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth.”
― Marcel Proust, Time Regained

“Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will
Always to strive for wisdom; opened hand
And governed appetites; and piety,
And love of lonely study; humbleness,
Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives,
Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind
That lightly letteth go what others prize;
And equanimity, and charity
Which spieth no man's faults; and tenderness
Towards all that suffer; a contented heart,
Fluttered by no desires; a bearing mild,
Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed,
With patience, fortitude, and purity;
An unrevengeful spirit, never given
To rate itself too high;--such be the signs,
O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set
On that fair path which leads to heavenly birth!
Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride,
Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech,
And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,--
These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth
Is fated for the regions of the vile.”
― Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita: Krishna guides Arjuna on dharma, warrior duty, and the yogic paths of bhakti, jnana, karma, and moksha in the Mahabharata

“When a society decays, it is language that is first to become gangrenous. As a result, social criticism begins with grammar and the re-establishing of meanings”
― Octavio Paz, The Labyrinth of Solitude and Other Writings

“Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone.”
― Octavio Paz

“Patience is the key. Patience. If you learn nothing else from meditation, you will learn patience. Patience is essential for any profound change.”
― Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English

“But when I know that the glass is already broken, every minute with it is precious.”
― Ajahn Chah

“Treat a work of art like a prince: let it speak to you first.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room.”
― Confucius

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer