“The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.”

— Buddha गौतम बुद्ध 563 – 483 BCE
(Siddhartha Shakyamuni Gautama)
Awakened Truth

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“To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it.”

— Confucius 孔丘 551 – 479 BCE
(Kongzi, Kǒng Zǐ)
History's most influential "failure"

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“One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.”

— Socrates 469 – 399 BCE
One of the most powerful influences on Western Civilization

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“When a man's eyes are sore his friends do not let him finger them, however much he wishes to, nor do they themselves touch the inflammation: But a man sunk in grief suffers every chance comer to stir and augment his affliction like a running sore; and by reason of the fingering and consequent irritation it hardens into a serious and intractable evil.”

— Plutarch 46 – 120 CE
(Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus)

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“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone."”

— Epictetus Ἐπίκτητος 55 – 135 CE
from Discourses of Epictetus, Ἐπικτήτου διατριβαί

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“The good cultivate themselves, they don’t concern themselves with others.”

— Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓 1 via Richard Wilhelm
(Lü Tung-Pin)

from Secret of the Golden Flower 太乙金華宗旨; Tàiyǐ Jīnhuá Zōngzhǐ

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“Those concerned with taxes cannot avoid making claims on others and thus cannot prevent disputes. This is why they lack virtue.”

— Wang Anshi 王安石 1021 – 1086 CE

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“Wisdom consists in doing the next thing you have to do, doing it with your whole heart, and finding delight in doing it.”

— Meister Eckhart 1260 – 1328 CE
(Eckhart von Hochheim)

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“Remember to forget. The things we remember best are those better forgotten… Very often the only remedy for the trouble is to forget it, and all we forget is the remedy.”

— Balthasar Gracian 1601 – 1658 CE

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“The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.”

— Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet 1694 – 1778 CE

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“The most sublime act is to set another before you.”

— William Blake 1757 – 1827 CE

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“Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do.”

— Elbert Hubbard 1856 – 1915 CE

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“A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.”

— Elbert Hubbard 1856 – 1915 CE

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“It takes a minute to have a crush on someone, an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone... but it takes a lifetime to forget someone.”

— Kahlil Gibran 1883 – 1931 CE

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“When life does not find a singer to sing her heart she produces a philosopher to speak her mind.”

— Kahlil Gibran 1883 – 1931 CE

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“On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”

— Aldous Huxley 1894 – 1963 CE

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“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944 CE

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“In an age where there is so much talk about ‘being yourself,’ I reserve the right to forget about being myself, since in any case there is very little chance of my being anybody else.”

— Thomas Merton 1915 – 1968 CE

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“I heard a definition once: ‘Happiness is health and a short memory!’ I wish I'd invented it, because it is very true.”

— Audrey Hepburn 1929 – 1993 CE

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“This chapter is equally relevant to private relationships and to political treaties.”

— Ursula Le Guin 1929 – 2018 CE

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“The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.”

— Dalai Lama XIV Tenzin Gyatso 1935 CE –

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“When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.”

— John Lennon 1940 – 1980 CE

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