Inspiring quotes & insights on wisdom.
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.
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 yesterdayStuart 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
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
HumourWhen 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.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.
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
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Tunnel View, Yosemite, California, USA www.stuart-hodgson.com
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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.
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.
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 IraqGeorge 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.
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.
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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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? :-)
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.
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.
“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.
