“The purpose of the magnanimous is to be found in procuring benefits for the world and eliminating its calamities. … Mutual attacks among states, mutual usurpation among houses, mutual injuries among individuals; the lack of grace and loyalty between ruler and ruled, the lack of affection and filial piety between father and son, the lack of harmony between elder and younger brothers — these are the major calamities in the world.”
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“Man’s nature is evil; goodness is the result of conscious activity.”
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Xunzi
Words exist because of meaning; once you’ve gotten the meaning, you can forget the words.
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Zhuangzi
We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.
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Zhuangzi
The effect of life in society is to complicate and confuse our existence, making us forget who we really are by causing us to become obsessed with what we are not.
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Zhuangzi
The perfect man uses his mind as a mirror. It grasps nothing. It regrets nothing. It receives but does not keep.
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Zhuangzi
A frog in a well cannot conceive of the ocean.
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Zhuangzi
The living is a passing traveler; The dead, a man come home.
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Li Bai
Shade and light are different in every valley.
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Li Bai
When the moon reaches fullness, it begins to wane.
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Sima Qian
And make death proud to take us.
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Cleopatra
I will not be triumphed over.
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Cleopatra
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
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Philo of Alexandria
Emotions become more violent when expression is stifled.
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Philo of Alexandria
One should make his decisions within the space of seven breaths.
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Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Learn how to listen as things speak for themselves.
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Matsuo Basho
Death is only the beginning
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Imhotep
Events defined time, they were not ordered by it.
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Imhotep
Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.
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Augustine of Hippo
In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.
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Augustine of Hippo
Love begins with a smile, grows with a kiss, and ends with a teardrop.
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Augustine of Hippo
How can the past and future be, when the past no longer is, and the future is not yet? As for the present, if it were always present and never moved on to become the past, it would not be time, but eternity.
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Augustine of Hippo
The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.
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Augustine of Hippo
The measure of love is to love without measure.
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Augustine of Hippo
There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.
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Augustine of Hippo
The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.
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Maimonides
Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, smarter than you think and twice as beautiful as you'd ever imagined. Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself
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Rumi
It's your road & yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you
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Rumi
The soul has been given its own ears to hear things that the mind does not understand.
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Rumi
The wound is the place where the Light enters you.
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Rumi
What comes, will go. What is found, will be lost again. But what you are is beyond coming and going and beyond description.
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Rumi