Wisdom across time

“Who doeth all for Me; who findeth Me In all; adoreth always; loveth all Which I have made, and Me, for Love's sole end That man, Arjuna! unto Me doth wend.”

Krishna describes the person who achieves union with the divine.

“Being of equal grace to comrades, friends, Chance-comers, strangers, lovers, enemies, Aliens and kinsmen; loving all alike, Evil or good.”

Krishna describes how a perfected yogi relates to all beings without distinction.

“The sage does not accumulate (for himself). The more that he expends for others, the more does he possess of his own; the more that he gives to others, the more does he have himself.”

Laozi describes the paradoxical economy of the sage, in which generosity increases rather than depletes one's own resources.

“Bad men it guards, and doth their ill efface. (Its) admirable words can purchase honour; (its) admirable deeds can raise their performer above others. Even men who are not good are not abandoned by it.”

On the universal reach of the Tao — it does not withhold itself even from those who have done wrong.

“For hatred does not cease by hatred at any time: hatred ceases by love, this is an old rule.”

“From love comes grief, from love comes fear; he who is free from love knows neither grief nor fear.”

“Can there be love which does not lead to strictness with its object? Can there be loyalty which does not lead to the instruction of its object?”

Confucius challenges a shallow understanding of love and loyalty, arguing that genuine care requires honest correction.

“They are, in regard to the aged, to give them rest; in regard to friends, to show them sincerity; in regard to the young, to treat them tenderly.”

Confucius states his own deepest wishes when asked by disciples, summarizing his relational ideals.

“meekness is a thing unconquerable, if it be true and natural, and not affected or hypocritical. For how shall even the most fierce and malicious that thou shalt conceive, be able to hold on against thee, if thou shalt still continue meek and loving unto him?”

One of Marcus's nine counsels on anger: genuine gentleness disarms hostility in a way that force cannot.

“Him that offends, to teach with love and meekness, and to show him his error. But if thou canst not, then to blame thyself; or rather not thyself neither, if thy will and endeavours have not been wanting.”

“All love that depends on a something, [when the] thing ceases, [the] love ceases; and [all love] that does not depend on anything, will never cease.”

The mishna illustrates conditional vs. unconditional love with biblical examples: Amnon's lust for Tamar versus David and Jonathan's friendship.

“be of the disciples of Aaron, loving peace and pursuing peace, loving mankind and drawing them close to the Torah.”

Hillel holds up Aaron the High Priest as a model of active peacemaking and universal love.

“Who though longing for it themselves, bestowed their food on the poor and the orphan and the captive: 'We feed you for the sake of God: we seek from you neither recompense nor thanks.'”

A description of the righteous — those who give charitably despite their own need, expecting nothing in return.

“We have not sent thee otherwise than as mercy unto all creatures.”

God describes the Prophet Muhammad's mission as universal mercy, not exclusive benefit.

“love is ever rewarded, either with the reciproque, or with an inward and secret contempt.”

“Nuptial love maketh mankind; friendly love perfecteth it; but wanton love corrupteth, and embaseth it.”

“The sentiment of love is, in itself, agreeable to the person who feels it. It soothes and composes the breast, seems to favour the vital motions, and to promote the healthful state of the human constitution.”

“The merit of benevolence, arising from its utility, and its tendency to promote the good of mankind has been already explained, and is, no doubt, the source of a CONSIDERABLE part of that esteem, which is so universally paid to it. But it will also be allowed, that the very softness and tenderness of the sentiment, its…”

Hume argues that benevolence and love are valued not only for their usefulness but because the feelings themselves are intrinsically pleasing to all who witness them.

“Thirty-nine lashes on my naked and bleeding back, would have been joyfully borne, in preference to this separation from these, the friends of my youth.”

Douglass reflects on the moment his companions were released from prison while he was kept behind — finding the loss of friendship more painful than any physical punishment.

“Who hears me, who understands me, becomes mine,--a possession for all time.”

“Also in all loves and friendships one has the experience that nothing of the kind continues when the discovery has been made that in using the same words, one of the two parties has feelings, thoughts, intuitions, wishes, or fears different from those of the other.”

Nietzsche observes that shared language is not enough to sustain love or friendship — what must be shared are the inner experiences behind the words.

“True and genuine friendship presupposes a strong sympathy with the weal and woe of another--purely objective in its character and quite disinterested; and this in its turn means an absolute identification of self with the object of friendship. The egoism of human nature is so strongly antagonistic to any such sympathy,…”

Schopenhauer opens a discussion of friendship by defining what genuine friendship would require.

“It is not that thou lovest thy son because thou desirest him, but thou lovest thy son because thou desirest thine own soul. The meaning of this is, that whomsoever we love, in him we find our own soul in the highest sense.”

Tagore quotes the Upanishads to argue that love for another is ultimately a recognition of the soul shared between self and other.

“In love all the contradictions of existence merge themselves and are lost. Only in love are unity and duality not at variance. Love must be one and two at the same time.”

“The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.”

Sending away the person he wants most, Rick measures a private happiness against what is happening in the world and finds it small.

Written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch.

“You want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

After years of avoiding the conclusion, Harry describes the particular impatience that tells you what you have decided.

Written by Nora Ephron.

“Isn't everything we do in life a way to be loved a little more?”

Céline admits, to a stranger she has one night with, that being loved matters to her more than she and everyone else pretend.

Written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan.

“Blessed are the forgetful, for they get the better even of their blunders.”

Offered as consolation in a film about erasing a relationship, and landing as an indictment. The line is Nietzsche's, from Beyond Good and Evil, which sits in the canon a century earlier.

Written by Charlie Kaufman.

“When life reaches out with a moment like this, it's a sin if you don't reach back.”

A father tells his son not to miss the difficult, improbable chance at love standing in front of him.

Written by David O. Russell.

“The heart's not like a box that gets filled up. It expands in size the more you love.”

Samantha answers Theodore's fear that love given elsewhere must diminish the love she has for him.

Written by Spike Jonze.