LIFE CHANGING. Inspirational quotes about happiness, health, love...
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Inspiring quotes & insights on wisdom. 

Wisdom is quite simply the most important foundation on which you can build the most fulfilled and contented life you can. Without wisdom, the quality of our lives will be greatly diminished.

Some of the following quotes try to emphasize this importance of wisdom (and learning), and also share some short snippets of wisdom that resonate to things I have experienced so far in life, and whilst I don't consider myself wise (I'm still figuring things out and learning), I'd like to think I'm wiser than I used to be!

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Wisdom and the path of understanding:

A world guided by wisdom is the proverbial heaven on earth.

Proverb

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.

Thomas Huxley

Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living, the other helps you make a life.

Sandra Carey

Dont gain the gold and lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver and gold

Bob Marley

No man was ever wise by chance.

Seneca

The path of wisdom is a lifelong journey.

Unknown.

I am still learning 

Michelangelo, at age 87.


We are not provided with wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can take for us, an effort which no one can spare us.

Proust

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.

Anthony J. D'Angelo

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young. 

Henry Ford 

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death

Einstein

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.

Ernest Hemingway

The only person you should aim to be wiser than is the person you were yesterday

Stuart Hodgson

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

Aldous Huxley

Years teach us more than books.

Berthold Auerbach

Teachers open the door... You enter by yourself.

Chinese Proverb

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

Carl Jung

One does not become enlightened by imaging figures of light. But by making the darkness, conscious.

Carl Jung

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.

Albert Einstein

Understand what you are and what the world is, then only fulfillment will come.

Paul Brunton

The mind is everything. What you think you become

Buddha

Know Thyself

Ancient Greek aphorism


Snippets of Wisdom:

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

William Shakespeare, "As You Like It", Act 5 scene 1

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Socrates

He who asks a question is a fool for a minute; he who does not remains a fool forever.

Famous Chinese Proverb

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Marcus Aurelius


We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. 

Unknown

Opinions are like assholes. Everybody's got one and everyone thinks everyone else's stinks.

Unknown

It is easier to be wise for others than for ourselves :-)

Francois De La Rochefoucauld

A wise man learns by the mistakes of others,
 a fool by his own.

Latin Proverb

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance; the wise grows it under his feet.

 J. Robert Oppenheimer

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

Epictetus

The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough

Einstein

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

Hans Hofmann

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Leonardo da Vinci

Take risks. If you win - you will be happy. If you lose you will be wise.

Anomymous

Moderation in all things

Terence

One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

Golden Rule

Don't judge another until you've walked a mile in their shoes?

Proverb

Do not take life too seriously, you will never get out of it alive

Elbert Hubbard

Don't explain your philosophy - Embody it.

Epictetus

Humour

When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him.

Thomas Szasz

When people say "life is short". What the hell??? Life is the longest damn thing anyone ever does!!! What can you do thats longer?

Unknown

Don't think of yourself as an ugly person. Think of yourself as a beautiful monkey!

Unknown

All I want is the chance to prove that money can't buy happiness​.

Spike Milligan

Wisdom through Life Experience...

It's one thing to hear wise words, but to fully understand something you have to relate it to experience.

Stuart Hodgson

You can't beat experience.

Kenny Hodgson

The core of mans spirit comes from new experiences.

Christopher MCandles

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Søren Kierkegaard

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Saint Augustine

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.

Marcel Proust


Thoughts on life...

Life is like a roller coaster. It has it's ups and downs. But it's your choice to scream & curse or enjoy the most exhilarating ride of your life.

Anoymous

Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it.

Dennis P. Kimbro

We see things not as they are, but as we are.

H. M. Tomlinson

Life is what you make of it

Proverb

Life is a rollercoaster. You have just got to learn how to deal with the ride.

Stuart Hodgson

Life is like a game of cards. The hand that is dealt you represents determinism; the way you play it is free will.

Jawaharal Nehru

A good life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well.

Josh Billings

It is easy to overlook this thought that life just is. As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with. But what's life to a lichen? Yet its impulse to exist, to be , is every bit as strong as ours-arguably even stronger. If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Lichens don't. Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment's additions existence. Life, in short just wants to be. 

Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything


Live & Learn...

Forget not your past, for in the future it may help you grow.

J M Barrie.

The only mistake in life is the lesson not learned

Einstein

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. 

Unknown

Live & Learn from your experiences. If you do that - then every experience can be counted as beneficial to making you a wiser, stronger, happier person.

Stuart Hodgson

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso

A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor

Unknown

Success in the affairs of life often serves to hide one's abilities, whereas adversity frequently gives one an opportunity to discover them.

Horace

Do not brood over your past mistakes and failures as this will only fill your mind with grief, regret and depression. Simply do not repeat them in the future.

Swami Sivanda


The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Einstein

The difference between school and life? In school, you're taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you're given a test that teaches you a lesson.

Tom Bodett

Those who do not learn from a difficult situations are doomed to repeat them.

Stuart Hodgson

We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Einstein

There is no such thing as failure if you learn from it.

American proverb

Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

Thomas Edison

Surmounted difficulties not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles.

James Sharp

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

Samuel Smiles

One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment.

Shain, Merle

When you are inside your comfort zone, you may be outside of the enhancement zone.

Unknown

The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse. ​

Carlos Castaneda

If it doesn’t challenge you it won’t change you. We only expand by demand. Use every challenge as an opportunity to stretch yourself and become better.

Zig Ziglar

We don’t learn and grow when things are easy, we grow when we face challenges.

Unknown


Coping with loss

The pain that we feel when a loved one dies, means that we were fortunate to have had a very special person in our lives, and that at least is something to provide comfort in the difficult time of grieving.

Stuart Hodgson

Don't cry because it's over - smile because it happened.

Unknown

When people die - part of them lives on in those they made a good impression on.

Unknown

Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have - life itself.

Walter Anderson

I never said I wanted a 'happy' life but an interesting one. From separation and loss, I have learned a lot. I have become strong and resilient, as is the case of almost every human being exposed to life and to the world. We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward.

Isabel Allende

Facing challenging times...

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Helen Keller


Sometimes you have to get knocked down lower than you've ever been, to stand up taller than you than you ever were.​

Unknown

The marvelous richness of human experience would lose something of rewarding joy if there were no limitations to overcome. The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse.

Helen Keller


The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it.

Epicurus


It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.

Lena Horne


Know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum.

Baz Luhrmann



Good fortune and bad are equally necessary to man, to fit him to meet the contingencies of this life.

French Proverb

If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain.

Dolly Parton


The success of our lives and our future depends on our motivation and determination or self-confidence. Through difficult experiences, life sometimes becomes more meaningful. If you look at people who, from the beginning of their lives, have had everything, you may see that when small things happen they soon lose hope or grow irritated. Others have developed stronger mental attitudes as a result of their hardships. I think the person who has had more experience of hardships can stand more firmly in the face of problems than the person who has never experienced suffering. From this angle then, some suffering can be a good lesson for life.

Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama

Difficulties strengthen the mind,
 as well as labor does the body.

Seneca

Fractures well cured make us more strong.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

All sunshine and no rain makes a desert.

Arabian Proverb

That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Let your past make you better, not bitter

Anoymous

Use your energy to solve problems rather than complain about them.

Stuart Hodgson

Trying times are not the times to stop trying.

Ray Owen

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.

Carl Jung

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Misfortunes often sharpen the genius.

Ovid

Be master of your petty annoyances and conserve your energies for the big, worthwhile things. It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe.

Robert Service

When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"

Anoymous

Sometimes it takes the bad times to allow us to appreciate the good times.

Stuart Hodgson

It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.

Vince Lombardi

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first steps to something better.

Proverb

A wise man adapts himself to circumstances as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.

Chinese Proverb

If you’re going through hell, keep going.

Winston Churchill

There is no failure except in no longer trying

Elbert Hubbard

Don't let a bad day make you feel like your whole life is bad.

Anoymous

When you're in an ill mood, learn to pass it off as simply that: an unavoidable human condition that will pass with time, if you leave it alone. A low mood is not the time to analyze your life. To do so is emotional suicide. If you have a legitimate problem, it will still be there when your state of mind improves. The trick is to be grateful for our good moods and graceful in our low moods - not taking them too seriously. The next time you feel low, for whatever reason, remind yourself 'This too shall pass'. It will.

Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama

Depression (feeling low over a long period of time) is inner biofeedback, signaling you that something isn't right within your system. Use the signal of depression to let you know it's time to change

Dr. Joyce Brothers

Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something by doing nothing.

Charles F. Kettering

As long as you keep thinking as you’ve been thinking you’ll keep feeling as you’ve been feeling, doing as you’ve been doing, and getting what you’ve been getting. Everything you do to improve the quality of your thoughts improves the quality of your life.

Marcia Grad

Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.

BUDDHISM : Dhammapada 3

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another

William James

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.

Robert Frost

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will shine again.

Victor Hugo

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.

Unknown

You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.

Jon Kabat-Zinn

The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings.

Ralph Blum

Sometimes new beginnings are disguised as painful endings

Lao Tzu

The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.

Chinese Proverb

If you change nothing, nothing will change

Unknown

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Lao Tzu

Attachment & Suffering

Attachment is the root of suffering.

Pali canon

Detachment is not that you should own nothing, but that nothing should own you.

Ali ibn abi Talib

Non-attachment comes from the wisdom that nothing is truly separate.

Unknown

Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You’re able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment.

Ralph Marston

Good? Bad? - who really knows?...

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them

Epictetus

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Shakespeare

There are no failures - just experiences and your reactions to them.

Tom Krause

'Good' & 'bad' are concepts in the minds of human beings.

Stuart Hodgson

In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.

Buddha
Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold
The path of wisdom is a life long journey
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All that glitters is not gold
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know thyself quotes
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are. 
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simplicity is the ultimate sophistication
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beauty is in the eye of the beholder
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inhale. exhale. repeat
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fortune favours the bold
life lessons quotes
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every exit is an entrance somewhere else
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Shakespeare quote
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Tunnel View, Yosemite, California, USA www.stuart-hodgson.com

Religion:

The confidence people have in their beliefs is not a measure of the quality of evidence, but of the coherence of the story that the mind has managed to construct

Daniel Kahneman

Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

Steve Jobs

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

People would do better to ask unanswerable questions of science, than accept the unquestionable answers of religion.

Thom Menzies


If a religious person had to supply any kind of tangeable evidence to prove the existence of 'their' god, their hole belief structure would evaporate in a poof of logic.

Unknown

We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. 

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion


It's important to have morals, but you don't need religion to be moralistic.

Anoymous

Not being religious shouldn't stop you from having a tremendous sense of awe & appreciation for life and the universe. Not being religious shouldn't stop you from wanting to do good by those you share our planet with. Not being religious shouldn't stop you from learning from many of the important teachings of the world's sacred texts. Not being religious is simply a matter of not being trapped by dogma, choosing to look at the evidence - and make up your own mind what to believe and not believe.

Stuart Hodgson

Religious wars are basically people killing each other over who has the better imaginary friend.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

Pascal


Many of the world's wickedest acts have been committed in the name of religion or 'God'

Anoymous

I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator.

Adolf Hitler

God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq

George W Bush

We will remain, God willing, a curse chasing the Americans and their agents, following them outside and inside their countries.

Al-Qaida


Never trust anyone who claims to speak in the name of God [more often than not it's used as a means of coercion or pursuasion].

Anoymous

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.

Marcus Aurelius

Jesus wasn't a Christian. Buddha wasn't a buddhist. There is no doubt these sort of figures who are idolised in religions were no doubt very wise & inspirational people - but it's those that live after who form the religions, write the religious texts & promote the teachings - and it's often like chinese whispers - with original insights being altered to suit the prevailing cultural context and powers that be.

Anoymous


The word religion comes from the Latin word "religare" - meaning 'to bind fast, to join, to connect' - but to many of us it seems most religions now seem to do the opposite and infact separate us.

Stuart Hodgson


National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. 

Carl Sagan



I believe in God, only I spell it Nature.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Beyond religious dogma to a deeper meaning...

Truth is One and the learned call It by many names

Rig Veda (Hinduism)

Truth has many aspects. Infinite truth has infinite expression. Though the sages speak in different ways, they express One and the same truth. The ignorant say, "what I believe is true, others are wrong". It is because of this attitude that there have been doubts and misunderstandings about God. It is this attitude that causes disputes among men. But all doubts vanish when one masters the Self and finds peace by realizing the heart of the Truth.

a passage from the Srimad Bhagavatan 11.5 (Hinduism)


Jesus said: “I am a son of God,” well there’s the whole [Christian] thing in a nutshell. If you read the King James Bible… You will see in italics, in front of the words “son of God,” the “son of God.” Most people think the italics are for emphasis. They’re not. The italics indicate words interpolated by the translators. You will not find that in the Greek. In the Greek it says, a son of God. It seems to me here perfectly plain. That Jesus has got it in the back of his mind that this isn’t something peculiar to himself. So when he says, “I am the Way, no Man comes to the Father but by me.” This “I am” this “Me” is the divine in all of us. We are all sons of, or of the nature of God. Manifestations of the divine. This discovery is the gospel. That is the good news. But this has been perpetually repressed throughout the history of Western religion…

Alan Watts


The kingdom of God is within man, not one man nor a group of men, but in all men

St. luke

The kingdom of God is within.

CHRISTIANITY : Luke 17.20-1

His disciples said to him "When will the kingdom come?" Jesus said "it will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying 'here it is' or 'there it is'. Rather the kingdom of the father is spread out upon the earth and men do not see it."

CHRISTIANITY : Gospel of Thomas 111

Where one sees nothing but the One, hears nothing but the One – there is the Infinite. Where one sees another, hears another, knows another – there is the finite. The Infinite is immortal, the finite is mortal. It is written, He who has realized eternal Truth does not see death, nor illness, nor pain; he sees everything as the Self, and obtains all.

HINDUISM: Chandogya Upanishad 7.23 & 7.27

Everybody is fundamentally, the ultimate reality. Not god in the political kingly sense, but god in the sense of being the self – the deep down basic whatever there is. And you’re all that… only you’re pretending you’re not.

Alan Watts 


We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe understands itself. For me, our true significance lies in our ability to understand and explore this beautiful universe.

Brian Cox

Connectedness:

The wise stand out because they see themselves as part of the Whole.

TAOISM: Tao Te Ching 22

I and All Things in the Universe Are One 

TAOISM : Chuang-Tzu

You didn't come into this world.  You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. 

Alan Watts

All life is part of a complex relationship in which each is dependent upon the others, taking from, giving to and living with all the rest.

Yves Cousteau

The Universe is a cosmic dance of energy and matter, engaged in ceaseless creation, destruction, and evolution. We are all part of that dance.

Paul Harrison


Your deepest roots are in nature.  No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain irrevocably linked with everything else.

Charles Cook

Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

Rumi

We are all part of something greater, just as each wave is part of the ocean. Catch life as it flows.

Zen proverb

After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?

Neil deGrasse Tyson

If the doors of perception were cleansed - everything would appear as it is: infinite

Aldous Huxley

You are the universe, expressing itself as a human for a little while.

Eckhart Tolle

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.

Nikola Tesla


Reality?

The nature of reality is pure subjective fantasy.

Noel Gallagher, Oasis

I know I'm not seeing things as they are, I'm seeing things as I am

Laurel Lee

OUR life is the creation of OUR mind.

Buddha

Let it be:

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Max Ehrmann

If you understand, things are just as they are; if you do not understand, things are just as they are.

Zen Proverb
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tao te ching - I and all things in the universe are one
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Check out my blog on my favourite & best nature landscape photos I have come across so far from around the world. They inspire me in showing the beauty of our world - I hope they do the same to you! Stuart

Short Stories

Luck? Chinese proverb

Taoist Farmer stories are based on the Chinese belief that life has its ups and downs, good times and bad times, so called "good luck" and "bad luck" - but you never really have absolute knowledge of what is a "good" or "bad" thing! Instead you just get on with things as best you can - as looking back - a bad event - could infact have been a good thing for you...

There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?" Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was this good luck or bad luck? Who knows? :-)


Remember not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck

Dalai Lama

Don't mistake the cup for the coffee...

A group of former students, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.




The Good Life? The Fisherman and the Businessman:

There was once a businessman who was sitting by the beach in a small Brazilian village. As he sat, he saw a Brazilian fisherman rowing a small boat towards the shore having caught quite a few big fish. The businessman was impressed and asked the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” The fisherman replied, “Oh, just a short while.”

“Then why don’t you stay longer at sea and catch even more?” The businessman was astonished. “This is enough to feed my whole family,” the fisherman said. The businessman then asked, “So, what do you do for the rest of the day?”

The fisherman replied, “Well, I usually wake up early in the morning, go out to sea and catch a few fish, then go back and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap with my wife, and evening comes, I join my buddies in the village for a drink — we play guitar, sing and dance throughout the night.”

The businessman offered a suggestion to the fisherman. “I have a PhD in business management. I could help you to become a more successful person. From now on, you should spend more time at sea and try to catch as many fish as possible. When you have saved enough money, you could buy a bigger boat and catch even more fish. Soon you will be able to afford to buy more boats, set up your own company, your own production plant for canned food and distribution network. By then, you will have moved out of this village and to Sao Paulo, where you can set up HQ to manage your other branches.”

The fisherman continues, “And after that?” The businessman laughs heartily, “After that, you can live like a king in your own house, and when the time is right, you can go public and float your shares in the Stock Exchange, and you will be rich.” The fisherman asks, “And after that?” The businessman says, “After that, you can finally retire, you can move to a house by the fishing village, wake up early in the morning, catch a few fish, then return home to play with your kids, have a nice afternoon nap with your wife, and when evening comes, you can join your buddies for a drink, play the guitar, sing and dance throughout the night!” The fisherman smiled.



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