β
Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.
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Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
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The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.
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Friedrich Nietzsche
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The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
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Albert Einstein
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Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
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George Orwell
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It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.
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Albert Einstein
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Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
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John Keats (Letters of John Keats)
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If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
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Ralph Waldo Emerson
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It is one thing to be clever and another to be wise.
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George R.R. Martin
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Education is no substitute for intelligence.
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Frank Herbert
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Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.
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Alan W. Watts
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Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first.
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Shannon L. Alder
β
I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior.
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Hippolyte Taine
β
Jasnah had once defined a fool as a person who ignored information because it disagreed with desired results.
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Brandon Sanderson (Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive, #2))
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When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.
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Herophilus
β
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.
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Bertrand Russell (Why Men Fight)
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Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of a few perceives what has been carefully hidden.
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Phaedrus
β
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world, so far as I knowβand I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help meβhas ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.
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H.L. Mencken (Notes on Democracy)
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The weak are dominated by their ego, the wise dominate their ego, and the intelligent are in a constant struggle against their ego.
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Hamza Yusuf
β
They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms)
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I don't fancy colors of the face, I'm always attracted to colors of the brain.
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Michael Bassey Johnson
β
The ending of sorrow is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge is always within the shadow of ignorance. Meditation is freedom from thought and a movement in the ecstasy of truth. Meditation is explosion of intelligence.
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J. Krishnamurti
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Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms)
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This is where we are at right now, as a whole. No one is left out of the loop. We are experiencing a reality based on a thin veneer of lies and illusions. A world where greed is our God and wisdom is sin, where division is key and unity is fantasy, where the ego-driven cleverness of the mind is praised, rather than the intelligence of the heart.
β
β
Bill Hicks
β
Quiet people always know more than they seem. Although very normal, their inner world is by default fronted mysterious and therefore assumed weird. Never underestimate the social awareness and sense of reality in a quiet person; they are some of the most observant, absorbent persons of all.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns)
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β
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
β
How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it
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Alexandre Dumas
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Intelligence alone is not nearly enough when it comes to acting wisely.
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Fyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and Punishment)
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The moon is the reflection of your heart and moonlight is the twinkle of your love.
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Debasish Mridha
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Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.
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Thomas Henry Huxley
β
Intelligence is more important than strength, that is why earth is ruled by men and not by animals.
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Amit Kalantri (Wealth of Words)
β
The barrier during self-improvement is not so much that we hate learning, rather we hate being taught. To learn entails that the knowledge was achieved on one's own accord - it feels great - but to be taught often leaves a feeling of inferiority. Thus it takes a bit of determination and a lot of humility in order for one to fully develop.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Esteemed friend, citizen of Athens, the greatest city in the world, so outstanding in both intelligence and power, aren't you ashamed to care so much to make all the money you can, and to advance your reputation and prestige--while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul you have no care or worry?
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Socrates
β
A knavish speech sleeps in a fool's ear.
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William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
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Don't live the same day over and over again and call that a life. Life is about evolving mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.
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Germany Kent
β
A woman may possess the wisdom and chastity of Minerva, and we give no heed to her, if she has a plain face. What folly will not a pair of bright eyes make pardonable? What dullness may not red lips are sweet accents render pleasant? And so, with their usual sense of justice, ladies argue that because a woman is handsome, therefore she is a fool. O ladies, ladies! there are some of you who are neither handsome nor wise.
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William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair)
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The intelligent have plans; the wise have principles.
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Raheel Farooq
β
Beyond all sciences, philosophies, theologies, and histories, a child's relentless inquiry is truly all it takes to remind us that we don't know as much as we think we know.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
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I drink cup of sunlight every morning to brighten myself.
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β
Debasish Mridha
β
Why should we place Christ at the top and summit of the human race? Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates? Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus? In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Lao-tsze, more universal than Confucius? Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those of Zeno? Did he express grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler than Spinozaβs? Was his brain equal to Keplerβs or Newtonβs? Was he grander in death β a sublimer martyr than Bruno? Was he in intelligence, in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison, in knowledge of the human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race?
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β
Robert G. Ingersoll (About The Holy Bible)
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No matter how tiny you look, you can lead huge men if you have what the huge men don't have.
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β
Michael Bassey Johnson
β
A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum.
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Henry Miller
β
People of limited intelligence are fond of talking about "these days," imagining that they have discovered and appraised the peculiarities of "these days" and that human nature changes with the times.
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Leo Tolstoy
β
Incredibly intelligent people always seem odd to those who are not as sharp.
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β
Alexei Maxim Russell (Why Not-World)
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Wisdom is nothing more than confirmed imagination: just because one did not study for his exam does not mean that he should leave it blank.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
β
Men have called me mad; but the question is not settled whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence -- whether much that is glorious -- whether all that is profound -- does not spring from disease of thought -- from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who only dream by night. In their gray visions they obtain glimpses of eternity, and thrill, in waking, to find that they have been upon the verge of the great secret. In snatches, they learn something of the wisdom which is of good, and more of the mere knowledge which is of evil. They penetrate, however rudderless or compassless, into the vast ocean of the βlight ineffableβ.
β
β
Edgar Allan Poe (Eleonora)
β
I didn't set out to discover a truth. I was actually sent to the Outer Fringes to conduct a chair census and learn some humility. But the truth inevitably found me, as important truths often do, like a lost thought in need of a mind.
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Jasper Fforde (Shades of Grey (Shades of Grey, #1))
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Intelligence is not expecting people to understand what your intent is; it is anticipating how it will be perceived.
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β
Shannon L. Alder
β
They say faith is taking the first step when you canβt see the whole staircase. Actually, wisdom is seeing the elevator behind it that would have taken you to the top floor.
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Shannon L. Alder
β
The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is the pretense of intelligent ignorance. The former is teachable; the latter is not.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
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In God's eyes, a man who teaches one truth and nothing else is more righteous than a man who teaches a million truths and one lie.
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Criss Jami (Killosophy)
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When did you get so clever?"
"When I realized I wasn't as clever as I thought.
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John Connolly (The Infernals (Samuel Johnson, #2))
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Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so?
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H. Rider Haggard (She (She, #1))
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True beauty is measured by the number of pearls within you, not those around your neck.
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Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
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Your actions will always be what the world sees, but people who choose to see through God's eyes will always have the compassion to understand why.
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Shannon L. Alder
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The best people are always the worst. They drive everyone mad by being so good at second-guessing everything bad.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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Happiness will grow if you plant the seeds of love in the garden of hope with compassion and care.
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Debasish Mridha
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Intelligence without wisdom brings destruction.
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Erol Ozan
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Intelligence arouses fear and respect, the lack of it keeps one on the narrow minded road of disrespect, stupidity and inferiority complex.
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Michael Bassey Johnson
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The longer I live, Dorian, the more keenly I feel that whatever was good enough for our fathers is not good enough for us. In art, as in politics, les grand-pères ont toujours tort.
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Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
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The ignorant learn from none,
the simple learn from some,
the intelligent learn from many,
but enlightened learn from all.
The arrogant learn from none,
the gracious learn from some,
the patient learn from many,
but the humble learn from all.
The disinterested learn from none,
the curious learn from some,
the keen learn from many,
but the disciplined learn from all.
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β
Matshona Dhliwayo
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Any halfway clever devil would decorate the highway to Hell as beautiful as possible.
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β
Criss Jami (Healology)
β
There is no one way to salvation, whatever the manner in which a man may proceed. All forms and variations are governed by the eternal intelligence of the Universe that enables a man to approach perfection. It may be in the arts of music and painting or it may be in commerce, law, or medicine. It may be in the study of war or the study of peace. Each is as important as any other. Spiritual enlightenment through religious meditation such as Zen or in any other way is as viable and functional as any "Way."... A person should study as they see fit.
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β
Miyamoto Musashi (A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy)
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Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.
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Eckhart Tolle (Stillness Speaks)
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He was one of those people with lots of intelligence but no brains
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Joseph Heller
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The definition of a professional is one who does a job well even when they don't like it.
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Alan Sheinwald (Alan Sheinwald is Building a Perfect Home)
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All knowledge meets an end at the question '...Why?
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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In the morning, celebrate the beauty and warmth of sun light,
in the evening, celebrate the song of silence and love of night.
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β
Debasish Mridha
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Liberty is a supreme precious good. It is our compass and reacts to our encounters, bumps into new realities, and navigates through the complexity of our world. It is map-reading the focus of our attention and listening to the wisdom of our past. Our freedom shall follow the signals of the lighthouse of our emotional intelligence and, at the same time, take account of the social veracities. (βThe infinite Wisdom of Meditationβ)
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Erik Pevernagie
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How easy it is for so many of us today to be undoubtedly full of information yet fully deprived of accurate information.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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Some people spend their whole lives seeking heaven,
when all they needed to do was look about them,
and embrace that which was already there.
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Tom Althouse (The Frowny Face Cow)
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Awareness is not the same as thinking. It is a complementary form of intelligence, a way of knowing that is at least as wonderful and as powerful, if not more so, than thinking.
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Jon Kabat-Zinn (Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness)
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Itβs a sign of wisdom to avoid believing every thought that enters your mind. Itβs a mark of emotional intelligence to avoid internalizing every feeling that enters your heart.
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Adam M. Grant (Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know)
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If your eyes can not cry, then your gut will."
The head and heart may be in denial of your human needs, but the gut will always carry the wisdom of your needs met and unmet, and thusly respond.
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Martha Char Love (What's Behind Your Belly Button? A Psychological Perspective of the Intelligence of Human Nature and Gut Instinct)
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Truth is not fully explosive, but purely electric. You don't blow the world up with the truth; you shock it into motion.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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Never take advice about never taking advice. That is an old vice of men - to dish it out without being able to take it - the blind leading the blind into more blindness.
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Criss Jami (Healology)
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Do you know where your breakthrough begins? Your breakthrough begins where your excuses ends.
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Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
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We Americans are reluctant to learn a foreign language of our own species, let alone another species. But imagine the possibilities. Imagine the access we would have to different perspectives, the things we might see through other eyes, the wisdom that surrounds us. We donβt have to figure out everything by ourselves: there are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us. Imagine how much less lonely the world would be.
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Robin Wall Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants)
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I suspect the I.Q., SAT, and school grades are tests designed by nerds so they can get high scores in order to call each other intelligent...Smart and wise people who score low on IQ tests, or patently intellectually defective ones, like the former U.S. president George
W. Bush, who score high on them (130), are testing the test and not the reverse.
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms)
β
The thing about living alone is that it gives you a lot of time to think. You don't necessarily reach any conclusions, because wisdom is largely a function of intelligence and self-awareness, not time on your hands. But you do become very good at thinking yourself into endless loops of desperation in half the time it would take a normal person.
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Jonathan Tropper (One Last Thing Before I Go)
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It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much, the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasonsβ¦
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Douglas Adams (The Hitchhikerβs Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1))
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As I ate she began the first of what we later called βmy lessons in living.β She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That in those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations.
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Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou's Autobiography, #1))
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Collective wisdom, alas, is no adequate substitute for the intelligence of individuals. Individuals who opposed received opinions have been the source of all progress, both moral and intellectual. They have been unpopular, as was natural.
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Bertrand Russell (Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects)
β
Why do women waste their time trying to convince their insecure family members and girlfriends that they are beautiful? Self esteem is not a beauty cream that you can rub all over them and see instant results. Instead, convince them they are not stupid. Every intelligent woman knows outward beauty is a nip, tuck, chemical peel or diet away. If you don't like it, fix it.
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Shannon L. Alder
β
Some folks may be really bummed to find that "God bless America" does not appear in the Bible. So often we do things that make sense to us and ask God to bless our actions and come alongside our plans, rather than looking at the things God promises to bless and acting alongside of them. For we know that God's blessing will inevitably follow if we are with the poor, the merciful, the hungry, the persecuted, the peacemakers. But sometimes we'd rather have a God who conforms to our logic than conform our logic to the God whose wisdom is a stumbling block to the world of smart bombs and military intelligence.
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Shane Claiborne (Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals)
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Pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.
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β
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
β
The gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.
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β
Robert F. Kennedy
β
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
β
β
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
β
A NATION'S GREATNESS DEPENDS ON ITS LEADER
To vastly improve your country and truly make it great again, start by choosing a better leader. Do not let the media or the establishment make you pick from the people they choose, but instead choose from those they do not pick. Pick a leader from among the people who is heart-driven, one who identifies with the common man on the street and understands what the country needs on every level. Do not pick a leader who is only money-driven and does not understand or identify with the common man, but only what corporations need on every level.
Pick a peacemaker. One who unites, not divides. A cultured leader who supports the arts and true freedom of speech, not censorship. Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.
Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.
Most importantly, a great leader must serve the best interests of the people first, not those of multinational corporations. Human life should never be sacrificed for monetary profit. There are no exceptions. In addition, a leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader.
And lastly, pick a leader who will make their citizens proud. One who will stir the hearts of the people, so that the sons and daughters of a given nation strive to emulate their leader's greatness. Only then will a nation be truly great, when a leader inspires and produces citizens worthy of becoming future leaders, honorable decision makers and peacemakers. And in these times, a great leader must be extremely brave. Their leadership must be steered only by their conscience, not a bribe.
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Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
β
But explaining men still assume I am, in some sort of obscene impregnation metaphor, an empty vessel to be filled with their wisdom and knowledge. A Freudian would claim to know what they have and I lack, but intelligence is not situated in the crotchβeven if you can write one of Virginia Woolfβs long mellifluous musical sentences about the subtle subjugation of women in the snow with your willie.
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Rebecca Solnit (Men Explain Things to Me)
β
There is beauty all around us,
and the light finds us when we realize,
we are all part of that beauty and worth the cherishing.
If we despise any, we journey to despise ourselves.
See all as beautiful, even if they choose to see themselves through you, as being less than so.
We have the power to see for each, and be the reflection of what they may yet see.
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β
Tom Althouse
β
We have made a problem for ourselves by confusing the intelligible with the fixed. We think that making sense out of life is impossible unless the flow of events can somehow be fitted into a framework of rigid forms. To be meaningful, life must be understandable in terms of fixed ideas and laws, and these in turn must correspond to unchanging and eternal realities behind the shifting scene. But if this what "making sense out of life" means, we have set ourselves the impossible task of making fixity out of flux.
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β
Alan W. Watts (The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety)
β
Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product...if we should judge the United States of America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.
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β
Robert F. Kennedy
β
Two things are to be remembered: that a man whose opinions and theories are worth studying may be presumed to have had some intelligence, but that no man is likely to have arrived at complete and final truth on any subject whatever. When an intelligent man expresses a view which seems to us obviously absurd, we should not attempt to prove that it is somehow true, but we should try to understand how it ever came toseemtrue. Thisexercise of historical and psychological imagination at once enlarges the scope of our thinking, and helps us to realize how foolish many of our own cherished prejudices will seem to an age which has a different temper of mind.
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β
Bertrand Russell (A History of Western Philosophy)
β
Do not enter where too much is anticipated. It is the misfortune of the over-celebrated that they cannot measure up to excessive expectations. The actual can never attain the imagined: for to think perfection is easy, but to embody it is most difficult. The imagination weds the wish, and together they always conjure up more than reality can furnish. For however great may be a person's virtues, the will never measure up to what was imagined. When people see themselves cheated in their extravagant anticipations, they turn more quickly to disparagement than to praise. Hope is a great falsifier of the truth; the the intelligence put her right by seeing to it that the fruit is superior to its appetite. You will make a better exit when the actual transcends the imagined, and is more than was expected.
β
β
Baltasar GraciΓ‘n (The Art of Worldly Wisdom: A Pocket Oracle)
β
Consider the capacity of the human body for pleasure. Sometimes, it is pleasant to eat, to drink, to see, to touch, to smell, to hear, to make love. The mouth. The eyes. The fingertips, The nose. The ears. The genitals. Our voluptific faculties (if you will forgive me the coinage) are not exclusively concentrated here. The whole body is susceptible to pleasure, but in places there are wells from which it may be drawn up in greater quantity. But not inexhaustibly. How long is it possible to know pleasure? Rich Romans ate to satiety, and then purged their overburdened bellies and ate again. But they could not eat for ever. A rose is sweet, but the nose becomes habituated to its scent. And what of the most intense pleasures, the personality-annihilating ecstasies of sex? I am no longer a young man; even if I chose to discard my celibacy I would surely have lost my stamina, re-erecting in half-hours where once it was minutes. And yet if youth were restored to me fully, and I engaged again in what was once my greatest delight β to be fellated at stool by nymphet with mouth still blood-heavy from the necessary precautions β what then? What if my supply of anodontic premenstruals were never-ending, what then? Surely, in time, I should sicken of it.
βEven if I were a woman, and could string orgasm on orgasm like beads on a necklace, in time I should sicken of it. Do you think Messalina, in that competition of hers with a courtesan, knew pleasure as much on the first occasion as the last? Impossible.
βYet consider.
βConsider pain.
βGive me a cubic centimeter of your flesh and I could give you pain that would swallow you as the ocean swallows a grain of salt. And you would always be ripe for it, from before the time of your birth to the moment of your death, we are always in season for the embrace of pain. To experience pain requires no intelligence, no maturity, no wisdom, no slow working of the hormones in the moist midnight of our innards. We are always ripe for it. All life is ripe for it. Always.
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Jesus I. Aldapuerta (The Eyes: Emetic Fables from the Andalusian De Sade)
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The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien, who is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear is a dead man. To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, whose gross forms alone are intelligible to our poor faculties β this knowledge, this feeling β¦ that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men.
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Albert Einstein
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Always choose to be smart
There are two types of people in the world,
the seekers of riches and the wise thinkers,
those who believe that the important thing is money,
and those who know that knowledge is the true treasure.
I, for my part, choose the second option,
Though I could have everything I want
I prefer to be an intelligent person,
and never live in a game of vain appearances.
Knowledge can take you far
far beyond what you imagine,
It can open doors and opportunities for you.
and make you see the world with different eyes.
But in this eagerness to be "wise",
There is a task that is a great challenge.
It is facing the fear of the unknown,
and see the horrors around every corner.
It's easy to be brave when you're sure,
away from dangers and imminent risks,
but when death threatens you close,
"wisdom" is not enough to protect you.
Because, even if you are smart and cunning,
death sometimes comes without mercy,
lurking in the darkest shadows,
and there is no way to escape.
That is why the Greek philosophers,
They told us about the moment I died,
an idea we should still take,
to understand that death is a reality.
Wealth can't save you
of the inevitable arrival of the end,
and just as a hoarder loses his treasures,
we also lose what we have gained.
So, if we have to choose between two things,
that is between being cunning or rich,
Always choose the second option
because while the money disappears,
wisdom helps us face dangers.
Do not fear death, my friend,
but embrace your intelligence,
learn all you can in this life,
and maybe you can beat time and death
for that simple reason always choose to be smart.
Maybe death is inevitable
But that doesn't mean you should be afraid
because intelligence and knowledge
They will help you face any situation and know what to do.
No matter what fate has in store,
wisdom will always be your best ally,
to live a life full of satisfaction,
and bravely face any situation.
So don't settle for what you have
and always look for ways to learn more,
because in the end, true wealth
It is not in material goods, but in knowledge.
Always choose to be smart,
Well, that will be the best investment.
that will lead you on the right path,
and it will make you a better version of yourself.
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Marcos Orowitz (THE MAELSTROM OF EMOTIONS: A selection of poems and thoughts About us humans and their nature)
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Fast reading of a great novel will get us the plot. It will get us names, a shadowy idea of characters, a sketch of settings. It will not get us subtleties, small differentiations, depth of emotion and observation, multilayered human experience, the appreciation of simile and metaphor, any sense of context, any comparison with other novels, other writers. Fast reading will not get us cadence and complexities of style and language. It will not get us anything that enters not just the conscious mind but the unconscious. It will not allow the book to burrow down into our memory and become part of ourselves, the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom and vicarious experience which helps to form us as complete human beings. It will not develop our awareness or add to the sum of our knowledge and intelligence. Read parts of a newspaper quickly or an encyclopaedia entry, or a fast-food thriller, but do not insult yourself or a book which has been created with its author's painstakingly acquired skill and effort, by seeing how fast you can dispose of it.
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Susan Hill (Howards End Is on the Landing: A Year of Reading from Home)
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Wisdom can be gathered on your downtime. Wisdom that can change the very course of your life will come from the people you are around, the books you read, and the things you listen to or watch on radio or television. Of course, bad information is gathered in your downtime too. Bad information that can change the very course of your life will come from the people you are around, the books you read, and the things you listen to or watch on radio or television. One of wisdom's greatest benefits, is accurate discernment- the learned ability to immediately tell right from wrong. Good from evil. Acceptable from unacceptable. Time well spent from time wasted. The right decision from the wrong decision. And many times this is simply a matter of having the correct perspective. One way to define wisdom is THE ABILITY TO SEE, INTO THE FUTURE, THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR CHOICES IN THE PRESENT. That ability can give you a completely different perspective on what the future might look like... with a degree of intelligence and a hint of wisdom, most people can tell the difference between good and bad. However, it takes a truly wise person to discern the oh-so-thin line between good and best. And that line...[gives you the] perspective that allows you to see clearly the long-term consequences of your choices.
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Andy Andrews (The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs Is a Little Perspective)
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Naive people tend to generalize people asβ-good, bad, kind, or evil based on their actions. However, even the smartest person in the world is not the wisest or the most spiritual, in all matters. We are all flawed. Maybe, you didnβt know a few of these things about Einstein, but it puts the notion of perfection to rest. Perfection doesnβt exist in anyone. Nor, does a personβs mistakes make them less valuable to the world.
1. He divorced the mother of his children, which caused Mileva, his wife, to have a break down and be hospitalized.
2.He was a ladies man and was known to have had several affairs; infidelity was listed as a reason for his divorce.
3.He married his cousin.
4.He had an estranged relationship with his son.
5. He had his first child out of wedlock.
6. He urged the FDR to build the Atom bomb, which killed thousands of people.
7. He was Jewish, yet he made many arguments for the possibility of God. Yet, hypocritically he did not believe in the Jewish God or Christianity. He stated, βI believe in Spinozaβs God who reveals himself in the harmony of all that exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.
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Shannon L. Alder