Es liebt die Welt, das Strahlende zu schwärzen Und das Erhabne in den Staub zu ziehn. The world delights to tarnish shining names, And to trample the sublime in the dust. -Schiller, Das Mädchen von Orleans If this is true of the world, then it is true of the men and women who compose it. I …
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Worst Enemy
"He must fall either by the hand of his enemies, or by himself; for he is his own worst enemy." - Marcus Tullius Cicero, Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men, 6th ed., comp. by Samuel Arthur Bent. Boston: Ticknor and Co., 1887 A troubled heart is a human weapon of mass destruction, for it is from this …
Doing to the Purpose
"If time be of all things the most precious, wasting time must be the greatest prodigality, since lost time is never found again; and what we call time enough always proves little enough. Let us then be up and doing, and doing to the purpose; so by diligence shall we do more with less perplexity." …
Your Heart
Time, no matter how well spent, will leave furrows in your face, but it need not wrinkle your heart. A light and supple heart is possible no matter what your age, provided that you cultivate a deep and abiding sense of appreciation for the opportunities at hand.
Core of You
“Not till we are lost, in other words not till we have lost the world, do we begin to find ourselves, and realize where we are and the infinite extent of our relations.” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden As much as you value your relationships, romantic or otherwise, you are wise to remember that they …
A Habit of Attention
"In the power of fixing the attention, the most precious of the intellectual habits, mankind differ greatly; but every man possesses some, and it will increase the more it is exerted. He who exercises no discipline over himself in this respect acquires such a volatility of mind, such a vagrancy of imagination, as dooms him …
Typology of Temperament
Venerate four characters: the sanguine who has checked volatility and the rage for pleasure; the choleric who has subdued passion and pride; the phlegmatic emerged from indolence; and the melancholy who has dismissed avarice, suspicion and asperity. - Johann Kaspar Lavater, Aphorisms on Man, c. 1788, No. 609 There are many ways to categorize people and …
Pretension
"Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed: nature never pretends." - Johann Kaspar Lavater, Select Maxims, 1831, p. 234 If you were to immediately cease all efforts to present yourself in a certain way, to make something of yourself that you presently are not or to change others on the same basis, how much …
Words
"In a language like ours, so many words of which are derived from other languages, there are few modes of instruction more useful or more amusing than that of accustoming young people to seek the etymology or primary meaning of the words they use. There are cases in which more knowledge, of more value, may …
Intent
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” ―Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change Deliberately cultivating the intent to understand rather than to reply is the key to effective listening. This is an appealing thought, but what does it …
Gregory Hake 