Neil > Neil's Quotes

“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”
― Cesare Pavese

“Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“1. Accept everything just the way it is.
2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, depend on a partial feeling.
4. Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world.
5. Be detached from desire your whole life long.
6. Do not regret what you have done.
7. Never be jealous.
8. Never let yourself be saddened by a separation.
9. Resentment and complaint are appropriate neither for oneself nor others.
10. Do not let yourself be guided by the feeling of lust or love.
11. In all things have no preferences.
12. Be indifferent to where you live.
13. Do not pursue the taste of good food.
14. Do not hold on to possessions you no longer need.
15. Do not act following customary beliefs.
16. Do not collect weapons or practice with weapons beyond what is useful.
17. Do not fear death.
18. Do not seek to possess either goods or fiefs for your old age.
19. Respect Buddha and the gods without counting on their help.
20. You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honour.
21. Never stray from the Way.”
― Miyamoto Musashi

“... that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them.
(Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“A sense of humour is the only divine quality of man”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Scholars are those who have read in books, but thinkers, men of genius, world-enlighteners, and reformers of the human race are those who have read directly in the book of the world.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.”
― Marcus Aurelius , Meditations

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

“Happiness consists in frequent repetition of pleasure”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“The shortness of life, so often lamented, may be the best thing about it.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“the world is my idea”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“To feel envy is human, to savour schadenfreude is devilish.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, On Human Nature

“We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer

“The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits

“Tell me how you read and I'll tell you who you are.”
― Martin Heidegger

“If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life - and only then will I be free to become myself. ”
― Martin Heidegger

“only he who already understands can listen”
― Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

“Every moment waited is a moment wasted....”
― David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire

“You are only punishing yourself when you want to be in a relationship with a woman more than she wants to be a in a relationship with you.”
― David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire

“Everything in your life, from your diet to your career, must be aligned with your purpose if you are to act with coherence and integrity in the world. If you know your purpose, your deepest desire, then the secret of success is to discipline your life so that you support your deepest purpose and minimize distractions and detours.”
― David Deida, The Way of the Superior Man: A Spiritual Guide to Mastering the Challenges of Women, Work, and Sexual Desire

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“I wish my wish would not be granted!”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

“Why is some music so much deeper and more beautiful than other music? It is because form, in music, is expressive–expressive to some strange subconscious regions of our minds. The sounds of music do not refer to serfs or city-states, but they do trigger clouds of emotion in our innermost selves; in that sense musical meaning IS dependent on intangible links from symbols to things in the world–those 'things', in this case, being secret software structures in our minds.”
― Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.

{His teacher was the legendary philosopher Aristotle}”
― Alexander the Great

“When we give someone our time, we actually give a portion of our life that we will never take back.”
― Alexander the Great

“Sex and sleep alone make me conscious that I am mortal.”
― Alexander the Great