You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf. – Jon Kabat-Zinn What does that mean? Waves are unstoppable. They are a force of nature. They may change heights and intensity, but still they come. We can brace against them, but they are as unstoppable as anything on this Earth. However, while…
Life is painting a picture, not doing a sum. – Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr What does that mean? Note that this is not an attempt to diminish those who are into math, but to encourage them to try something with some soul and deeper feeling, in this case, painting. The metaphor of painting a picture…
What does it mean to be slandered? Stand by a stone and slander it. If a man listens like a stone, what effect has the slanderer? – Epictetus What does that mean? This quote is part of a longer discussion regarding why people do seemingly senseless things, specifically to squeeze into a play to get…
To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution. – Marcus Aurelius What does that mean? To me, and my understanding of Stoicism, a closer translation of problem might well be puzzle or challenge. Stoics take the world as it is, and try to deal with it with the minimum fuss. Life,…
Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible. – Saint Augustine What does that mean? What is it with us, that we pursue happiness in so many of the wrong ways? To be happy should be easy, simple and not even remotely confusing. Yet somehow, we manage…
Most men seem to live according to sense rather than reason. – Saint Thomas Aquinas What does that mean? To me, this quote is about the difference between sense (sensations), and reason (logic). Living according to sense is about feelings, and the sensations which provide pleasure. This is, according to the quote’s observation of the…
It was another great year, with the highlight being nearly 1.5 views. Thanks for taking the time to stopping by! Here’s an excerpt from this year’s report: The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 1,500,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would…
Never go to excess, but let moderation be your guide. – Cicero What does that mean? Excess is often synonymous with too much of something. But you can also have an excess of caution, or in other words, you can also have too little of something. The quote asks us to consider a middle path,…
In order to escape from your comfort zone you have to escape the mindset that you led you there. – Cornell Thomas What does that mean? This quote urges us to consider our comfort zone, and to consider making the effort necessary to escape from its warm embrace. We are where we are because of…
What is permissible is not always honorable. – Cicero What does that mean? As many large societies are based on laws, we tend to focus on what is permissible and what is proscribed, without much thought in regards to why. Yet all groups within any society have things they adhere to because of their beliefs…
If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster. – Stephen Covey What does that mean? This quote comes from the difference between management and leadership. A leader has the vision to see the ladder is leaned up against the wrong wall….
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. – Marcus Aurelius What does that mean? The quote urges us to consider that what others say is their opinion, not fact. It may be a respected and well informed opinion, but still it is an opinion….
There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. – Hugh Laurie What does that mean? This is a very short version of a longer (but still abbreviated) quote: “It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is…
Everybody should do at least two things each day that he hates to do, just for practice. – William James What does that mean? This is a paraphrasing of a longer quote, wherein we are urged to practice doing things we would rather not do, so that in an emergency, we are better prepared to…
My mind is an infinity of possibilities. This can be good or bad, but the choice is mine. – Marcus Aurelius What does that mean? While this quote is a bit of a paraphrasing of a very large paragraph, it still has some power to it. In the paragraph, he speaks of both the soul…
