The ultimate source of happiness is not money and power, but warm-heartedness. – Dalai Lama What does that mean? How happy are powerful people? How many have had no regrets on their death beds? How many rich people spend more time getting more, or protecting what they have, than they spend enjoying it? How many of them…
The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all. – Niccolò Machiavelli What does that mean? This is the classic “pull off the bandage” issue. Do you pull it off quickly and get it over with, or do you pull a little bit at…
Actions driven solely by anger are of no use at all; realizing this can help strengthen your determination to resist it. – Dalai Lama What does that mean? Does anger really accomplish anything? Some might say that it is useful for motivation, but there are few other things of which I can think that it can do…
Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. – Niccolò Machiavelli What does that mean? In this statement to the Princes of Renaissance Italy, the point is that their subjects are fairly simple folk. Their primary focus is their needs, such as food,…
Make no small plans for they have no power to stir the soul. – Niccolò Machiavelli Also attributed (in slightly different words) to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe What does that mean? Which is more inspiring, putting a man on the moon, or going to the grocery store for a gallon of milk? Yes, that’s an extreme example,…
Where love rules, there is no will to power; where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other. – Carl Jung What does that mean? It sounds to me that he is saying that love, when pursued, excludes power; and that power, when pursued, excludes love. Put another way,…
