Something I wanna live by...

“No great man lives in vain. The history of the world is but the biography of great men. ”
- Thomas Carlyle

Selective Emerson

• The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him with his friendship
• Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them
• It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, ‘Always do what you are afraid to do
• If a man write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbour, tho' he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

Swami Vivekananda at his best

· It is the industrious and not the wishful thinking that accomplishes results. The prey will not on its own come and fall into the mouth of a sleeping lion.

· We can overcome any difficulty by constant practice. We must learn that nothing can happen to us, unless we make ourselves susceptible to it.

· Throughout the history of mankind, if any motive power has been more potent than another in the lives of all great men and women, it is that of faith in themselves.

· How can we see evil unless it is in us?

· All the negative thoughts and ideas that are in this world are produced from this evil spirit of fear. Therefore, I say, Be fearless, be fearless.

· Give as the rose gives perfume, because it is its own nature, utterly unconscious of giving.

· Even the least work done for others awakens the power within, gradually instills into the heart the strength of a lion.

· Money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.

· Be brave and be sincere; then follow the path with devotion and you must reach the Lord.

· No one did coronate nor cultivate a lion to be king of the forest. It is due to its own potentiality and valor that it attained the kingship of animals.

· Even the greatest fool can accomplish a task if it be after his heart. But the intelligent man is he who can convert every work into one that suits his taste. No work is petty.

Man's search for meaning

• don't aim at success - the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's personal dedication to cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.
• "Man is defined as a being who can get used to anything" - Dostoevsky
• "There are things that must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose" - lessens
• Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death
• No man should judge unless he asks himself in absolute honesty whether in a similar situation he might not have done the same
• "There is only one thing that I dread - not to be worthy of my sufferings" - Dostoevsky
• "Life is like being at the dentist. You always think that the worst is still to come, and yet it is over already" - Bismarck
• "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how" - Nietzsche
• ...It does not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us...
• When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude
• Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!
• Every thing is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find

Logotherapy gems

• Everything can be taken from a man, but the last of the human freedoms; the freedom to choose one’s attitude in any a given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way
• By virtue of this capacity man is capable of detaching himself not only from a situation, but also from himself. He is capable of choosing his attitude toward himself
• Human freedom is finite freedom. Man is not free from conditions. But he is free to take a stand in regard to them. The conditions do not completely condition him
• Only to the extent to which man fulfills a meaning out there in the world, does he fulfill himself
• If you take human beings as they are, you make them worse. If you take them as they can be, you help them to become what they are capable of becoming
• 'We needed to stop asking ourselves about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life-daily and hourly. . . . Therefore, it was necessary for us to face up to the full amount of suffering, trying to keep moments of weakness and furtive tears to a minimum. But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer' - Quoted from Frankl's book

Of Economics and Success...

There is the will to conquer, the impulse to fight, to prove oneself superior to others, to succeed for the sake, not of the fruits of success, but for success itself. Finally there is the joy of creating, of getting things done, or simply exercising one's energy and ingenuity. - Joseph Schumpeter, Theory of Economic Development (1911)

Gandhian Thoughts...

You must be the change you want to see in the world.Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty, it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands

Happiness is when what you think, what you say and what you do are in harmony

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in clearer light and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest for truth

You must be the change you want to see in the world

A man is but the product of his thoughts - what he thinks, he becomes.

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.

Don't listen to friends when the Friend inside you says 'Do this.'

I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.