In trying to please other people, we find ourselves misdirected toward what lies outside our sphere of influence. In doing so we lose our hold on our life’s purpose.
Content yourself with being a love of wisdom, a seeker of truth. Return and return again to what is essential and worthy.
-Epictetus, Manual for Living (1994, Sharon Lebell translation)
Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.
-Salvador Dali
Mistakes are always forgivable, if one has the courage to admit them.
-Bruce Lee
Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.
-Mary Tyler Moore
Spiritual progress requires us to highlight what is essential and to disregard everything else as trivial pursuits unworthy of our attention. Moreover, it is actually a good thing to be thought foolish and simple with regard to matters that don’t concern us. Don’t be concerned with other’s people’s impressions of you. They are dazzled and deluded by appearances. Stick with your purpose. This alone will strengthen your will and give your life coherence.
Refrain from trying to win other people’s approval and admiration. You are taking a higher road. Don’t long for others to see you as sophisticated, unique, or wise. In fact, be suspicious if you appear to others as someone special. Be on your guard against a false sense of self-importance.
Keeping your will in harmony with truth and concerning yourself with what is beyond your control are mutually exclusive. While you are absorbed in one, you will neglect the other.
-Epictetus, Manual for Living (1994, Sharon Lebell translation)
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.
-Carl Jung
It’s important you supportively interact with yourself. High stress levels make this harder. Reduce the stress! It’s not because you want an easy life; it’s because you’re not helping anyone by having a hard one.
-Holiday Mathis, “Horoscope,” StarTribune, 1-16-2017
You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.
-Carl Jung
It is not so much what you are doing as how you are doing it. When we properly understand and live by this principle, while difficulties will arise — for they are part of the divine order, too — inner peace will still be possible.
-Epictetus, Manual for Living (1994, Sharon Lebell translation)
You’re a person of principle, which is way better than being an impulsive slave to immediate gratification. However, before you go to battle for an idea, make sure you’re absolutely clear on what the idea really is.
-Holiday Mathis, “Horoscope,” StarTribune, 1-6-2017