Tag: wisdom

  • Einstein’s Theory of Happiness

    Einstein’s Theory of Happiness

    A great thinker writes a few words about life on two pieces of paper. 95 years later, the two notes written by Einstein sold for $1.8 million. Not bad for something that was, according to the seller, given by the scientist as a tip to a messenger during the trip when he learned he has been awarded the Nobel prize in Physics.

    What did Einstein write on the two notes?

    “A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”

    “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

    Wise words indeed! I will even dare to say that such words should be considered as having exactly equal importance to other discoveries of his. Why exactly equal? Because facts of science and truths of life (nature) go hand in hand. Unfortunately, civilization currently values scientific progress much more than philosophical progress thanks to the illusion that money is more important than happiness.

    Einstein achieved scientific success not only thanks to his skills in understanding nature, but also thanks to his character. His discoveries could not have been made without him thinking the way he was. In exactly the same way, he couldn’t have understood such important facts about life without his scientific mind and his deep connection to nature. I think Einstein deserves the Nobel prize in Wisdom too:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/24/einstein-scribbled-his-theory-of-happiness-in-place-of-a-tip-it-just-sold-for-more-than-1-million^

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  • The Three Gates

    The Three Gates

    Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself ‘Is it true?’ At the second gate ask, ‘Is it necessary?’ At the third gate ask, ‘Is it kind?’

    This beautiful Sufi saying has been with me for several years now. I wanted to write a few words about it since quite some time ago. First of all, this is one of the best rules for life that I’ve ever encountered in any culture. I’d like to also paraphrase it as such:

    Before you take any action, let your thoughts pass through three gates. At the first gate, ask yourself ‘Is it an honest action?’ At the second gate ask, ‘Is it necessary?’ At the third gate ask, ‘Is it kind?

    Applying this throughout my life is, however, much more difficult than I could have ever imagined. I believe there’s a certain culture clash occurring here. I live in a culture where I need to stay competitive in order to make ends meet. In the same time, I have creative cravings that are incompatible with what society currently values (being a writer doesn’t pay much).

    But then I should at least be able to live by these words at home, right? Or at least in how I treat myself. Well, it’s not that simple actually. Being constantly submerged in a certain culture (and exposed to all the behaviors that culture comes with) makes this very difficult.

    I guess it’s time to invest in training my will and patience and my “cultural immune system”, whose duty is to filter out cultural elements that are preventing me from choosing my words and actions more wisely.

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  • Wise Quotes Pill for 2018

    Wise Quotes Pill for 2018

    Some years ago, I began passively collecting random bits of wisdom; quotes I would come across while roaming the web or during daily interactions with friends and colleagues. I didn’t limit myself at including only quotes from famous people. I collected from the anonymous, from the ancient unknown and included even original or quirky sayings I heard during some conversation. My collection of quotes is growing slowly but surely.

    Today, I’ll share with you some of the best quotes I came across when browsing through a small section of my collection. Of course, should you want to have a look at the whole collection, you can always find it here^ (Note: I only upload the collection once a year so the link will lead to the file as it was at the publishing time of the latest “Wise Quotes Pill” article).

     

    “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

    – Martin Luther King Jr.

     

    “Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.”

    – Benjamin Franklin

     

    “Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”

    – Thoreau

     

    “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

    – Albert Einstein

     

    “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.”

    – Ambrose Moon

     

    “Our scientific capabilities have outrun our spiritual capabilities. We now have guided missiles and misguided men.”

    – Martin Luther King Jr.

     

    “The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them – words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it. That’s the worst, I think.”

    – Stephen King (Different Seasons)

     

    “Our greatest illusion is to believe that we are what we think ourselves to be.”

    – Henri-Frédéric Amiel, The Private Journal of Henri Prédéric Amiel, 1889

     

    “You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.”

    – Eleanor Roosevelt

     

    “The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small.”

    – Lao Tzu

     

    “If you want to know the past, to know what has caused you, look at yourself in the present, for that is the past’s effect. If you want to know your future, then look at yourself in the present, for that is the cause of the future.”

    – Majjhima Nikaya

     

    “We are born in one day. / We die in one day. / We can change in one day. / And we can fall in love in one day. / Anything can happen in just one day.”

    – Gayle Forman

     

    “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?”

    – Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

     

    “I have found that great ideas come when you have a great desire to have them.”

    – Charles Chaplin

     

    “You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”

    – Ray Bradbury

     

    “Your state of mind is the most important factor in the outcome of your life.”

    – Ziad K. Abdelnour

     

    “It’s funny because we ask God to change our situation, not knowing he put us in the situation to change us.”

    – Unknown

     

    “This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”

    – Alan Watts

     

    “One of the hardest decisions you’ll ever face in life is choosing whether to walk away or try harder.”

    – Ziad K. Abdelnour

     

    “Time decides who you meet in life, your heart decides who you want in your life, and your behavior decides who stays in your life.”

    – Ziad K. Abdelnour

     

    “For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.”

    – Dr. Michio Kaku

     

    “The greatest wisdom is to realize one’s lack of it.”

    – Konstantin Stanislavsky

     

    “Alone but happy, happy but alone…”

    – Adrian Nastase (not the former prime minister of Romania)

     

    “Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.”

    – Anthony Robbins

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