"The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”~ Epictetus I discovered this simple truth the other day and despite its simplicity it is one of the most profound statements I've come across in a while. To follow this advice you needn't be hardhearted, you just …
Tag: truth
A True Lady or Gentleman
I am inclined to agree more with Theodore Roosevelt's assessment that courtesy is "as much a mark of a gentleman" than with Honore de Balzac's less encouraging assessment of courtesy being "only a thin veneer on the general selfishness." While the latter may be more predominantly the case, the former holds in it the promise …
Intrinsic Value III
"Reputation is what the world thinks a man is; character is what he really is. Anyone can play shuttlecock with a man’s reputation; his character is his alone. No one can injure his character but he himself. Character is the sword; reputation is the scabbard. Many men acquire insomnia in standing guard over their reputation, …
The Truth is True
I stumbled upon an excellent article yesterday in The New York Times Sunday Review entitled "Biased but Brilliant." The author, Cordelia Fine, a senior research associate at the Melbourne Business School, points to research showing that confirmation bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude XIII
"We must ever tower high above dependence on human gratitude or we can do nothing really great, nothing truly noble. The expectation of gratitude is the alloy of an otherwise virtuous act. It ever dulls the edge of even our best actions. Most persons look at gratitude as a protective tariff on virtues. The man …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude VIII
"In justice to ourselves we should not permit the ingratitude of a few to make us condemn the whole world. We pay too much tribute to a few human insects when we let their wrong-doing paralyze our faith in humanity. It is a lie of the cynics that says “all men are ungrateful,” a companion …
The Courage to Face Ingratitude IV
"Man should have only one court of appeals as to his actions, not “what will be the result?” 'how will it be received?' but 'is it right?' Then he should live his life in harmony with this standard alone, serenely, bravely, loyally and unfalteringly, making 'right for right’s sake' both his ideal and his inspiration." …
The Truth Prevails
"If you have Truth on your side you can pass through the dark valley of slander, misrepresentation and abuse, undaunted, as though you wore a magic suit of mail that no bullet could enter, no arrow could pierce, You can hold your head high, toss it fearlessly and defiantly, look every man calmly and unflinchingly …
True Living
"Let man realize that Truth is essentially an intrinsic virtue, in his relation to himself even if there were no other human being living; it becomes extrinsic as he radiates it in his daily life. Truth is first, intellectual honest—the craving to know the right; second, it is moral honesty, the higher to live the …
The Triumph of Things
The first two stanzas of Whitman's Song at Sunset came to mind while I walked my dogs under the trees lit by the setting sun last evening: Splendor of ended day, floating and filling me! Hour prophetic—hour resuming the past! Inflating my throat—you, divine average! You, Earth and Life, till the last ray gleams, I …
Gregory Hake 