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121 " Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita calls desire the “ever-present enemy of the wise . . . which like a fire cannot find satisfaction. "
― Ryan Holiday , Stillness Is the Key
122 " What’s essential is invisible to the eye. That is: Appearances are misleading. "
123 " enough is a beautiful thing. "
124 " Most people never learn that their accomplishments will ultimately fail to provide the relief and happiness we tell ourselves they will. "
125 " Jesus told his disciples not to worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will take care of itself. "
126 " There is no stillness to the mind that thinks of nothing but itself, nor will there ever be peace for the body and spirit that follow their every urge and value nothing but themselves. "
127 " That’s the nice thing about the present. It keeps showing up to give you a second chance. "
128 " Knowing what not to think about. What to ignore and not to do. It’s your first and most important job. "
129 " Thomas Traherne: “To have blessings and to prize them is to be in Heaven; to have them and not to prize them is to be in Hell. . . . To prize them and not to have them is to be in Hell. "
130 " Temperance. That’s the key. Intellectually, we know this. It’s only in flashes of insight or tragedy that we feel it. "
131 " More does nothing for the one who feels less than, who cannot see the wealth that was given to them at birth, that they have accumulated in their relationships and experiences. "
132 " It was Cicero who said that to study philosophy is to learn how to die. "
133 " Killing ourselves does nothing for anybody. "
134 " This is, in fact, the first obligation of a leader and a decision maker. Our job is not to “go with our gut” or fixate on the first impression we form about an issue. No, we need to be strong enough to resist thinking that is too neat, too plausible, and therefore almost always wrong. Because if the leader can’t take the time to develop a clear sense of the bigger picture, who will? If the leader isn’t thinking through all the way to the end, who is? "
135 " Love, Freud said, is the great educator. We learn when we give it. We learn when we get it. We get closer to stillness through it. "
136 " If a man can reduce his needs to zero,” he said, “he is truly free: there is nothing that can be taken from him and nothing anyone can do to hurt him.” To that we would add, “And he or she can also be still. "
137 " This moment we are experiencing right now is a gift (that’s why we call it the present). Even if it is a stressful, trying experience—it could be our last. So let’s develop the ability to be in it, to put everything we have into appreciating the plentitude of the now. "
138 " All of humanity’s problems,” Blaise Pascal said in 1654, “stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” In "
139 " Pick up the phone and make the call to tell someone what they mean to you. Share your wealth. Run for office. Pick up the trash you see on the ground. Step in when someone is being bullied. Step in even if you’re scared, even if you might get hurt. Tell the truth. Maintain your vows, keep your word. Stretch out a hand to someone who has fallen. "
140 " As marksmen say these days, “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. "