Ancient Wisdom

“It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits.”

Aristotle

Nicomachean Ethics, Book I (trans. W.D. Ross)

“Virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason.”

Aristotle

Nicomachean Ethics, Book II

“Those who are not angry at the things they should be angry at are thought to be fools.”

Aristotle

Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV

“Man is by nature a political animal.”

Aristotle

Politics, Book I

“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.”

Buddha

Dhammapada (trans. Thomas Byrom)

“Never in this world does hatred cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love. This is an eternal law.”

Buddha

Dhammapada, Ch. 1, v. 5 (trans. Eknath Easwaran)

“By oneself is evil done; by oneself is one defiled. By oneself is evil left undone; by oneself is one purified. Purity and impurity depend on oneself; no one can purify another.”

Buddha

Dhammapada, Ch. 12, v. 165 (trans. Acharya Buddharakkhita)

“Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, to purify one's mind: this is the teaching of the Buddhas.”

Buddha

Dhammapada, Ch. 14, v. 183 (trans. Acharya Buddharakkhita)

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, a trusted friend the best relative, liberation the greatest bliss.”

Buddha

Dhammapada, Ch. 15, v. 204 (trans. Eknath Easwaran)

“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”

Buddha

Dhammapada, Ch. 20, v. 277 (trans. Acharya Buddharakkhita)

“Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.”

Buddha

Dhammapada, Ch. 8, v. 100 (trans. Thomas Byrom)

“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book II, Ch. 15 (trans. James Legge)

“At fifteen, I had my mind bent on learning. At thirty, I stood firm. At forty, I had no doubts. At fifty, I knew the decrees of Heaven. At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth. At seventy, I could follow what my heart desired, without transgressing what was right.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book II, Ch. 4 (trans. James Legge)

“The mind of the superior man is conversant with righteousness; the mind of the mean man is conversant with gain.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book IV, Ch. 16 (trans. James Legge)

“When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book IV, Ch. 17 (trans. James Legge)

“Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practises it will have neighbours.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book IV, Ch. 25 (trans. James Legge)

“When I walk along with two others, they may serve me as my teachers. I will select their good qualities and follow them, their bad qualities and avoid them.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book VII, Ch. 21 (trans. James Legge)

“Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life? Is not reciprocity such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

Confucius

The Analects, Book XV, Ch. 23 (trans. James Legge)

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”

Epictetus

Discourses

“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”

Epictetus

Discourses

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

Epictetus

Discourses, Book 3.23

“Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”

Epictetus

Enchiridion (The Handbook), Ch. 1

“Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.”

Epictetus

Enchiridion (The Handbook), Ch. 5 (trans. Elizabeth Carter)

“Death is nothing to us, since when we are, death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.”

Epicurus

Letter to Menoeceus

“It is not possible to live pleasantly without living prudently and honorably and justly.”

Epicurus

Principal Doctrines, V

“Of all the things which wisdom acquires to produce the blessedness of the complete life, far the greatest is the possession of friendship.”

Epicurus

Principal Doctrines, XXVII

“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.”

Epicurus

Vatican Sayings, 68

“When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists. When his work is done, the people say, 'Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!'”

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching, Ch. 17 (trans. Stephen Mitchell)

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching, Ch. 33 (trans. Stephen Mitchell)

“Deal with the difficult while it is still easy; deal with the big while it is still small.”

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching, Ch. 63 (trans. Stephen Mitchell)

“A journey of a thousand miles starts under one's feet.”

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching, Ch. 64 (trans. Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English)

“The stiff and unbending is the disciple of death. The gentle and yielding is the disciple of life.”

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching, Ch. 76 (trans. Gia-Fu Feng & Jane English)

“The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to. It is content with the low places that people disdain. Thus it is like the Tao.”

Lao Tzu

Tao Te Ching, Ch. 8 (trans. Stephen Mitchell)

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 10.16 (trans. Gregory Hays)

“How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 11.18

“If it is not right, do not do it; if it is not true, do not say it.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 12.17

“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 2.11 (trans. Gregory Hays)

“The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 6.6

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 7.67

“Confine yourself to the present.”

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations, Book 8.36

“The wound is the place where the Light enters you.”

Rumi

The Essential Rumi (Coleman Barks interpretation, not a literal translation)

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

Rumi

The Essential Rumi (Coleman Barks interpretation, not a literal translation)

“Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?”

Rumi

The Essential Rumi (Coleman Barks interpretation, not a literal translation)

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there.”

Rumi

The Essential Rumi, "A Great Wagon" (Coleman Barks interpretation, not a literal translation)

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”

Rumi

The Essential Rumi, from the Masnavi (Coleman Barks interpretation, not a literal translation)

“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

Seneca

Letters from a Stoic (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter 13

“While we are postponing, life speeds by.”

Seneca

Letters from a Stoic, Letter 1 (trans. Robin Campbell)

“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as a separate life.”

Seneca

Letters from a Stoic, Letter 101

“No man was ever wise by chance.”

Seneca

Letters from a Stoic, Letter 76

“As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.”

Seneca

Letters from a Stoic, Letter 77

“The best cure for anger is delay.”

Seneca

On Anger (De Ira)

“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

Seneca

On the Shortness of Life, Ch. 1