“One must shed the bad taste of wanting to agree with many. "Good" is no longer good when one's neighbor mouths it. And how should there be a "common good"! The term contradicts itself: whatever can be common always has little value. In the end it must be as it is and always has been: great things remain for the great, abysses for the profound, nuances and shudders for the refined, and, in brief, all that is rare for the rare.”
Wise feeling
Wise Quotes — page 157 of 916
“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. It is never a narrowing of the mind or a restriction of the human spirit or the country's spirit.”
“Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.”
“If you truly believe something, and it's incorrect, that doesn't mean you don't have integrity.”
“Always be willing to look at both sides of the argument. Understanding the other side is the best way to strengthen your own.”
“Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.”
“True Grit is making a decision and standing by it, doing what must be done. No moral man can have peace of mind if he leaves undone what he knows he should have done.”
“Avoid an unusual and unfamiliar word just as you would a reef.”
“Along the iron veins that traverse the frame of our country, beat and flow the fiery pulses of its exertion, hotter and faster every hour. All vitality is concentrated through those throbbing arteries into the central cities; the country is passed over like a green sea by narrow bridges, and we are thrown back in continually closer crowds on the city gates.”
“We tell ourselves stories in order to live.”
“The real problem is usually two or three questions deep. If you want to go after someone's problem, be aware that most people aren't going to reveal what the real problem is after the first question.”
“Every trader has strengths and weakness. Some are good holders of winners, but may hold their losers a little too long. Others may cut their winners a little short, but are quick to take their losses. As long as you stick to your own style, you get the good and bad in your own approach.”
“Things are only worth what you make them worth.”
“A face is like the outside of a house, and most faces, like most houses, give us an idea of what we can expect to find inside.”
“Poetry is a special use of language that opens onto the real. The business of the poet is truth telling, which is why in the Celtic tradition no one could be a teacher unless he or she was a poet.”
“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”
“In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people's, we do not accept them easily enough.”
“Often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.”
“Better a good enemy than a bad friend.”
“Humility and self-restraint is the True Objective of Kenpo”