Opening the book…
Opening the book…
Setbacks, mistakes, and the possibilities that remain.
“Tell me about a failure that shaped you. What did it cost, and what did it give you?”
Related passages from different traditions. Read them together, or follow a question that interests you.
Wrong action harms the one who commits it, and consequences circle back regardless of intention or denial.
25 passages · 5 traditions
If ye do well, to your own behoof will ye do well: and if ye do evil, against yourselves will ye do it.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 17:7, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
Whoever causes the multitudes to be righteous, sin will not occur on his account; And whoever causes the multitudes to sin, they do not give him the ability to repent.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 5:18, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Not the perversities of others, not their sins of commission or omission, but his own misdeeds and negligences should a sage take notice of.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 4.v.50, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Be quick in performing a minor commandment as in the case of a major one, and flee from transgression; For one commandment leads to another commandment, and transgression leads to another transgression; For the reward for performing a commandment is another commandment and the reward for committing a transgression is a transgression.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 4:2, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
But as to him who is covetous and bent on riches, And calleth the Good a lie, To him will we make easy the path to misery: And what shall his wealth avail him when he goeth down?
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 107-92.92:8-11, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
Let no man think lightly of evil, saying in his heart, It will not come nigh unto me. Even by the falling of water-drops a water-pot is filled; the fool becomes full of evil, even if he gather it little by little.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 9.v.121, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Unchecked appetite, lust, wrath, and greed erode judgment and drag people toward destruction.
25 passages · 6 traditions
Bad deeds, and deeds hurtful to ourselves, are easy to do; what is beneficial and good, that is very difficult to do.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 12.v.163, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
The mind That gives itself to follow shows of sense Seeth its helm of wisdom rent away, And, like a ship in waves of whirlwind, drives To wreck and death. Only with him, great Prince! Whose senses are not swayed by things of sense-- Only with him who holds his mastery, Shows wisdom perfect.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 2, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 1.v.13, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Pleasures destroy the foolish, if they look not for the other shore; the foolish by his thirst for pleasures destroys himself, as if he were his own enemy.
People are quick to judge others and slow to examine themselves, and that inward blindness is itself the wound.
30 passages · 8 traditions
It is simply by being pained at (the thought of) having this disease that we are preserved from it. The sage has not the disease. He knows the pain that would be inseparable from it, and therefore he does not have it.
when a man has little or no experience, he must judge by his own antecedent notions; and in matters demanding judgment, an antecedent notion is never on the same level as experience. For, with the commoner sort of people, an antecedent notion means just their own selfish point of view.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 29, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 2.24, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
It is the nature of extreme self-lovers, as they will set an house on fire, and it were but to roast their eggs; and yet these men many times hold credit with their masters, because their study is but to please them, and profit themselves.
Failure is not always personal; oppressive structures, bad fortune, and the cruelty of circumstance break people who might have flourished.
27 passages · 8 traditions
When a country is well-governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill-governed, riches and honour are things to be ashamed of.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 8.13, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 9:11, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
And who has not seen the tragedy of imprudent genius struggling for years with paltry pecuniary difficulties, at last sinking, chilled, exhausted and fruitless, like a giant slaughtered by pins?
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Prudence, 1844 ↗
Failure is not final; the honest recognition of error opens a path back toward wholeness and forward motion.
37 passages · 9 traditions
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Proverbs 13:12, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
If this room is full of darkness for thousands of years, and you come in and begin to weep and wail, 'Oh, the darkness,' will the darkness vanish? Bring the light in, strike a match, and light comes in a moment. So what good will it do you to think all your lives, 'Oh, I have done evil, I have made many mistakes'?... Bring in the light, and the evil goes in a moment. Strengthen the real nature, build up yourselves.
— The turn of the century · William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, note 355 (Vivekananda quotation), 1902 ↗
Moreover, Son of Pandu! wert thou worst Of all wrong-doers, this fair ship of Truth Should bear thee safe and dry across the sea Of thy transgressions.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 4, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
Promises made too easily, knowledge unacted upon, and ideals that stay in speech rather than becoming conduct are their own form of failure.
28 passages · 11 traditions
Like a beautiful flower, full of colour, but without scent, are the fine but fruitless words of him who does not act accordingly.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 4.v.51, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
They are idle in their actions, who toil and labour in this life, and have no certain scope to which to direct all their motions, and desires.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 2.IV, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
And walk not proudly on the earth, for thou canst not cleave the earth, neither shalt thou reach to the mountains in height.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 17:37, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
The reason why the ancients did not readily give utterance to their words, was that they feared lest their actions should not come up to them.
People mistake prosperity for merit and suffering for disgrace, misunderstanding what either actually means about their lives.
31 passages · 9 traditions
Even in our counsels and deliberations there must, certainly, be something of chance and good-luck mixed with human prudence; for all that our wisdom can do alone is no great matter; the more piercing, quick, and apprehensive it is, the weaker it finds itself, and is by so much more apt to mistrust itself.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Essay II (On military enterprises), tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:2-3, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Thou grievest where no grief should be! thou speak'st Words lacking wisdom! for the wise in heart Mourn not for those that live, nor those that die.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 2, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
He that sinneth, sinneth unto himself. He that is unjust, hurts himself, in that he makes himself worse than he was before. Not he only that committeth, but he also that omitteth something, is oftentimes unjust.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 9.IV, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
That no burdened soul shall bear the burdens of another, And that nothing shall be reckoned to a man but that for which he hath made efforts: And that his efforts shall at last be seen in their true light: That then he shall be recompensed with a most exact recompense.
He who, by causing pain to others, wishes to obtain pleasure for himself, he, entangled in the bonds of hatred, will never be free from hatred.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 21.v.291, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
The consequences of our actions seize us by the forelock, very indifferent to the fact that we have meanwhile "reformed."
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 179, tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907 ↗
For it is not we who have treated them unjustly, but it was they who were unjust to themselves.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 43:76, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the gambler.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 18.v.252, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Because you drowned others, they drowned you. And in the end, they that drowned you will be drowned.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 2:6, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
But he who shall have his book given into his left hand, will say, 'O that my book had never been given me! And that I had never known my reckoning! O that death had made an end of me! My wealth hath not profited me! My power hath perished from me!'
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 83-69.69:25-29, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
Yea, a man shall be the eye witness against himself.
Yes; but their own works have got the mastery over their hearts.
Whatever a hater may do to a hater, or an enemy to an enemy, a wrongly-directed mind will do us greater mischief.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 3.v.42, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Blessed now is he who hath kept it pure, and undone is he who hath corrupted it!
By oneself the evil is done, by oneself one suffers; by oneself evil is left undone, by oneself one is purified. Purity and impurity belong to oneself, no one can purify another.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 12.v.165, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
For his own good only shall the guided yield to guidance, and to his own loss only shall the erring err; and the heavy laden shall not be laden with another's load.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 17:15, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
If a man offend a harmless, pure, and innocent person, the evil falls back upon that fool, like light dust thrown up against the wind.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 9.v.125, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
For its own works lieth every soul in pledge.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 74:38, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
If a man looks after the faults of others, and is always inclined to be offended, his own passions will grow, and he is far from the destruction of passions.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 18.v.253, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
When death overtaketh one of the wicked, he saith, 'Lord, send me back again, That I may do the good which I have left undone.' 'By no means.' These are the very words which he shall speak.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 23:99-100, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 1.v.1, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 24.v.355, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
As a tree, even though it has been cut down, is firm so long as its root is safe, and grows again, thus, unless the feeders of thirst are destroyed, the pain (of life) will return again and again.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 24.v.338, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Envy, lust and [the desire for] honor put a man out of the world.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 4:21, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Let him not despise what he has received, nor ever envy others: a mendicant who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 25.v.365, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
By passion for the 'pairs of opposites,' By those twain snares of Like and Dislike, Prince! All creatures live bewildered, save some few Who, quit of sins, holy in act, informed, Freed from the 'opposites,' and fixed in faith, Cleave unto Me.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 7, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
As smoke blots the white fire, as clinging rust Mars the bright mirror, as the womb surrounds The babe unborn, so is the world of things Foiled, soiled, enclosed in this desire of flesh. The wise fall, caught in it; the unresting foe It is of wisdom, wearing countless forms, Fair but deceitful, subtle as a flame.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 3, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
If one Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs Attraction; from attraction grows desire, Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds Recklessness; then the memory--all betrayed-- Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind, Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 2, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
Ensnared / In nooses of a hundred idle hopes, / Slaves to their passion and their wrath, they buy / Wealth with base deeds, to glut hot appetites.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 16, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
There is no satisfying lusts, even by a shower of gold pieces; he who knows that lusts have a short taste and cause pain, he is wise.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 14.v.186, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
In youth, when the physical powers are not yet settled, he guards against lust. When he is strong and the physical powers are full of vigor, he guards against quarrelsomeness. When he is old, and the animal powers are decayed, he guards against covetousness.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 16.7, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Ecclesiastes 5:10, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
They shall wear elegant and ornamented robes, carry a sharp sword at their girdle, pamper themselves in eating and drinking, and have a superabundance of property and wealth;--such (princes) may be called robbers and boasters. This is contrary to the Tao surely!
There is no guilt greater than to sanction ambition; no calamity greater than to be discontented with one's lot; no fault greater than the wish to be getting. Therefore the sufficiency of contentment is an enduring and unchanging sufficiency.
He who does not rouse himself when it is time to rise, who, though young and strong, is full of sloth, whose will and thought are weak, that lazy and idle man will never find the way to knowledge.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 20.v.280, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
They comprehend not, the Unheavenly, / How Souls go forth from Me; nor how they come / Back unto Me: nor is there Truth in these, / Nor purity, nor rule of Life. "This world / Hath not a Law, nor Order, nor a Lord," / So say they... / And, this thing thinking, all those ruined ones-- / Of little wit, dark-minded--give themselves / To evil deeds, the curses of their kind.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 16, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
Men who have not observed proper discipline, and have not gained treasure in their youth, lie, like broken bows, sighing after the past.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 11.v.156, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Deceitfulness, and arrogance, and pride, / Quickness to anger, harsh and evil speech, / And ignorance, to its own darkness blind,-- / These be the signs, My Prince! of him whose birth / Is fated for the regions of the vile.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 16, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 18.v.251, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Whereof sweet "Soothfastness," by purity Living unsullied and enlightened, binds The sinless Soul to happiness and truth; And Passion, being kin to appetite, And breeding impulse and propensity, Binds the embodied Soul, O Kunti's Son! By tie of works. But Ignorance, begot Of Darkness, blinding mortal men, binds down Their souls to stupor, sloth, and drowsiness.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 14, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
An evil eye, the evil inclination, and hatred for humankind put a person out of the world.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 2:11, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Be not thoughtless, watch your thoughts! Draw yourself out of the evil way, like an elephant sunk in mud.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 23.v.327, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
The Doors of Hell / Are threefold, whereby men to ruin pass,-- / The door of Lust, the door of Wrath, the door / Of Avarice. Let a man shun those three! / He who shall turn aside from entering / All those three gates of Narak, wendeth straight / To find his peace, and comes to Swarga's gate.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 16, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Wisdom For A Man's Self, 1625 ↗
We are only ingenious in using ourselves ill: 'tis the real quarry our intellects fly at; and intellect, when misapplied, is a dangerous tool!
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Book II, On Some Verses of Virgil, tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
When we see men of worth, we should think of equalling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 4.17, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
The reason why the ancients did not readily give utterance to their words, was that they feared lest their actions should not come up to them.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 4.22, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment); not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease.
To have faults and not to reform them,-- this, indeed, should be pronounced having faults.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 15.29, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Proverbs 16:18, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
The fault of others is easily perceived, but that of oneself is difficult to perceive; a man winnows his neighbour's faults like chaff, but his own fault he hides, as a cheat hides the bad die from the gambler.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 18.v.252, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
If now we attend to ourselves on occasion of any transgression of duty, we shall find that we in fact do not will that our maxim should be a universal law, for that is impossible for us; on the contrary, we will that the opposite should remain a universal law, only we assume the liberty of making an exception in our own favour or (just for this time only) in favour of our inclination.
— The Enlightenment · Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Section II (self-exception passage), tr. Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, 1873 ↗
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 14.21, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 2.15, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
If anybody shall reprove me, and shall make it apparent unto me, that in any either opinion or action of mine I do err, I will most gladly retract. For it is the truth that I seek after, by which I am sure that never any man was hurt; and as sure, that he is hurt that continueth in any error, or ignorance whatsoever.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.XX, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
The fool who knows his foolishness, is wise at least so far. But a fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed.
— Buddhism · Dhammapada, 5.v.63, tr. F. Max Müller, 1881 ↗
Remember, that to change thy mind upon occasion, and to follow him that is able to rectify thee, is equally ingenuous, as to find out at the first, what is right and just, without help.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.XIV, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
We are, I know not how, double in ourselves, which is the cause that what we believe we do not believe, and cannot disengage ourselves from what we condemn.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Chapter XVI, tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
If doing what is to be done be made the first business, and success a secondary consideration;-- is not this the way to exalt virtue? To assail one's own wickedness and not assail that of others;-- is not this the way to correct cherished evil?
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 12.21, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
When thou art offended with any man's transgression, presently reflect upon thyself; and consider what thou thyself art guilty of in the same kind. For this if thou shalt call to mind, thou shalt soon forget thine anger; especially when at the same time this also shall concur in thy thoughts, that he was constrained by his error and ignorance so to do: for how can he choose as long as he is of that opinion?
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 10.XXX, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
it is a strange thing to behold, what gross errors and extreme absurdities many (especially of the greater sort) do commit, for want of a friend to tell them of them; to the great damage both of their fame and fortune.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Friendship, 1625 ↗
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Matthew 7:3-5, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
The most sincere praise can give little pleasure when it cannot be considered as some sort of proof of praise-worthiness. It is by no means sufficient that, from ignorance or mistake, esteem and admiration should, in some way or other, be bestowed upon us. If we are conscious that we do not deserve to be so favourably thought of, and that if the truth were known, we should be regarded with very different sentiments, our satisfaction is far from being complete.
— The Enlightenment · Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III (p. 103), 1759 ↗
Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, James 4:17, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Most justly have these things happened unto thee: why dost not thou amend? O but thou hadst rather become good to-morrow, than to be so to-day.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 8.XXI, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
If a minister make his own conduct correct, what difficulty will he have in assisting in government? If he cannot rectify himself, what has he to do with rectifying others?
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 13.13, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 9.24, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Can men refuse to assent to the words of strict admonition? But it is reforming the conduct because of them which is valuable. Can men refuse to be pleased with words of gentle advice? But it is unfolding their aim which is valuable. If a man be pleased with these words, but does not unfold their aim, and assents to those, but does not reform his conduct, I can really do nothing with him.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 9.23, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
A man should say, I am not concerned that I have no place, I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known, I seek to be worthy to be known.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 4.14, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
There is nothing that so poisons princes as flattery, nor anything whereby wicked men more easily obtain credit and favour with them; nor panderism so apt and so usually made use of to corrupt the chastity of women as to wheedle and entertain them with their own praises.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Chapter XVI, tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
The more similar, the more ordinary people, have always had and are still having the advantage; the more select, more refined, more unique, and difficultly comprehensible, are liable to stand alone; they succumb to accidents in their isolation, and seldom propagate themselves.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 268, tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907 ↗
It recalled to life my crushed self-respect and my self-confidence, and inspired me with a renewed determination to be A FREEMAN.
— Transcendentalism · Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, Chapter XVII, 1855 ↗
There are few pains so grievous as to have seen, divined, or experienced how an exceptional man has missed his way and deteriorated.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 203, tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907 ↗
By taking away their best equipped teachers and leaders, by slamming the door of opportunity in the faces of their bolder and brighter minds, will you make them satisfied with their lot? or will you not rather transfer their leading from the hands of men taught to think to the hands of untrained demagogues?
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Training of Black Men, 1903 ↗
Why should he strive? Every year finds him deeper in debt. How strange that Georgia, the world-heralded refuge of poor debtors, should bind her own to sloth and misfortune as ruthlessly as ever England did!
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Black Belt, 1903 ↗
To lead an uninstructed people to war, is to throw them away.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 13.30, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
But when all is said, it is very hard in human actions to give so exact a rule upon moral reasons, that fortune will not therein maintain her own right.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Chapter IV, tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
All this is bitter hard; and many a man and city and people have found in it excuse for sulking, and brooding, and listless waiting.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Wings of Atalanta, 1903 ↗
Thus the mind itself is bowed to the yoke: even in what people do for pleasure, conformity is the first thing thought of; they live in crowds; they exercise choice only among things commonly done: peculiarity of taste, eccentricity of conduct, are shunned equally with crimes: until by dint of not following their own nature, they have no nature to follow.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapter III, paragraph 6, 1859 ↗
slavery can change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon.
— Transcendentalism · Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, Chapter X, 1855 ↗
Deception is the natural defence of the weak against the strong, and the South used it for many years against its conquerors; to-day it must be prepared to see its black proletariat turn that same two-edged weapon against itself.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Faith of the Fathers, 1903 ↗
there is also irreparable loss,—a loss of that peculiarly valuable education which a group receives when by search and criticism it finds and commissions its own leaders.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, III. Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others, 1903 ↗
The greatest parts without it, as observed by an elegant writer, may be fatal to their owner; as Polyphemus, deprived of his eye, was only the more exposed, on account of his enormous strength and stature.
— The Enlightenment · David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Section VI, Part I, 1751 ↗
So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of 'swift' and 'slow' in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Sorrow Songs, 1903 ↗
the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of the vital power which, in order that the machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Chapter V, 1859 ↗
Is it not the tendency, born of Reconstruction and Reaction, to found a society on lawlessness and deception, to tamper with the moral fibre of a naturally honest and straightforward people until the whites threaten to become ungovernable tyrants and the blacks criminals and hypocrites?
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Faith of the Fathers, 1903 ↗
In the end, growing weary of this bustle to no purpose, they began, some one way and some another, to steal out of the assembly: every one carrying back this resolution in his mind, that the oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Essay III (On Vanity, approx.), tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
It is a hard thing to live haunted by the ghost of an untrue dream; to see the wide vision of empire fade into real ashes and dirt; to feel the pang of the conquered, and yet know that with all the Bad that fell on one black day, something was vanquished that deserved to live, something killed that in justice had not dared to die; to know that with the Right that triumphed, triumphed something of Wrong, something sordid and mean, something less than the broadest and best.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Wings of Atalanta, 1903 ↗
It is not progress that we object to; on the contrary, we flatter ourselves that we are the most progressive people who ever lived. It is individuality that we war against: we should think we had done wonders if we had made ourselves all alike; forgetting that the unlikeness of one person to another is generally the first thing which draws the attention of either to the imperfection of his own type, and the superiority of another, or the possibility, by combining the advantages of both, of producing something better than either.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Ch. III, 1859 ↗
The mass of those to whom slavery was a dim recollection of childhood found the world a puzzling thing: it asked little of them, and they answered with little, and yet it ridiculed their offering. Such a paradox they could not understand, and therefore sank into listless indifference, or shiftlessness, or reckless bravado.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Meaning of Progress, 1903 ↗
A people, it appears, may be progressive for a certain length of time, and then stop: when does it stop? When it ceases to possess individuality.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Ch. III, 1859 ↗
Now a rising group of people are not lifted bodily from the ground like an inert solid mass, but rather stretch upward like a living plant with its roots still clinging in the mould.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Black Belt, 1903 ↗
Be careful [in your dealings] with the ruling authorities for they do not befriend a person except for their own needs; they seem like friends when it is to their own interest, but they do not stand by a man in the hour of his distress.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 2:3, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
The Negro farmer started behind,—started in debt. This was not his choosing, but the crime of this happy-go-lucky nation which goes blundering along with its Reconstruction tragedies, its Spanish war interludes and Philippine matinees, just as though God really were dead. Once in debt, it is no easy matter for a whole race to emerge.
— The turn of the century · W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, Of the Black Belt, 1903 ↗
He is not lost, thou Son of Pritha! No! Nor earth, nor heaven is forfeit, even for him, Because no heart that holds one right desire Treadeth the road of loss!
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 6, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
"And who," said he, "despaireth of the mercy of his Lord, but they who err?"
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 15:56, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, James 1:2-4, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
If, in my person, I commit offences, they are not to be attributed to you, the people of the myriad regions. If you in the myriad regions commit offences, these offences must rest on my person.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 20.1.3, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles. Have no friends not equal to yourself. When you have faults, do not fear to abandon them.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 1.8, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
The prosecution of learning may be compared to what may happen in raising a mound. If there want but one basket of earth to complete the work, and I stop, the stopping is my own work. It may be compared to throwing down the earth on the level ground. Though but one basketful is thrown at a time, the advancing with it is my own going forward.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 9.18, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Those whose strength is insufficient give over in the middle of the way but now you limit yourself.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 6.10, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
The faults of the superior man are like the eclipses of the sun and moon. He has his faults, and all men see them; he changes again, and all men look up to him.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 19.21, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
He that despiseth small things will perish by little and little.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Prudence, 1844 ↗
The partial becomes complete; the crooked, straight; the empty, full; the worn out, new. He whose (desires) are few gets them; he whose (desires) are many goes astray.
In these checks and impossibilities, however, we find our advantage, not less than in impulses. Let the victory fall where it will, we are on that side.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Experience (section 16), 1844 ↗
Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Job 5:17-18, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 20:82, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Luke 15:7, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Luke 15:31-32, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Psalms 51:10, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
He did not transfer his anger; he did not repeat a fault.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 6.2, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Proverbs 24:16, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
But, if in this Thy faint heart fails, bring Me thy failure! find Refuge in Me! let fruits of labour go, Renouncing hope for Me, with lowliest heart, So shalt thou come.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 12, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
The object of this fine essay quaintly entitled Circles is to reconcile this rigidity of unalterable law with the fact of human progress. Compensation illustrates one property of a circle, which always returns to the point where it began, but it is no less true that around every circle another can be drawn.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, CIRCLES (Footnote 690), 1844 ↗
And surely the Future shall be better for thee than the Past, And in the end shall thy Lord be bounteous to thee and thou be satisfied.
Then verily along with trouble cometh ease. Verily along with trouble cometh ease. But when thou art set at liberty, then prosecute thy toil. And seek thy Lord with fervour.
Save those who shall repent and believe and do righteous works—for them God will change their evil things into good things, for God is Gracious, Merciful.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 25:70, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Luke 15:24, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Luke 15:17-19, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, 1 John 1:9, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Every excess causes a defect; every defect an excess. Every sweet hath its sour; every evil its good. Every faculty which is a receiver of pleasure has an equal penalty put on its abuse. It is to answer for its moderation with its life. For every grain of wit there is a grain of folly. For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Compensation, 1844 ↗
True conquest is the causing the black event to fade and disappear as an early cloud of insignificant result in a history so large and advancing.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Circles, 1844 ↗
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Proverbs 28:13, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 2:16, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
Despair not! give Me lower service! seek To reach Me, worshipping with steadfast will; And, if thou canst not worship steadfastly, Work for Me, toil in works pleasing to Me! For he that laboureth right for love of Me Shall finally attain!
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 12, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Psalms 51:17, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
Be not discontented, be not disheartened, be not out of hope, if often it succeed not so well with thee punctually and precisely to do all things according to the right dogmata, but being once cast off, return unto them again.
— Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 5.IX, tr. Meric Casaubon (1634/1635) ↗
But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Luke 15:20, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 4.22, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
No man shall 'scape from act By shunning action; nay, and none shall come By mere renouncements unto perfectness. Nay, and no jot of time, at any time, Rests any actionless; his nature's law Compels him, even unwilling, into act.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 3, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
They will say, 'We were not of those who prayed, And we were not of those who fed the poor, And we plunged into vain disputes with vain disputers, And we rejected as a lie, the day of reckoning, Till the certainty came upon us'—And intercession of the interceders shall not avail them.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 74:43-47, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
He that abstains To help the rolling wheels of this great world, Glutting his idle sense, lives a lost life, Shameful and vain. Existing for himself, Self-concentrated, serving self alone, No part hath he in aught.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 3, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 14.3, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
He who speaks without modesty will find it difficult to make his words good.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 14.21, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 2.15, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
A man is an ill husband of his honor, that entereth into any action, the failing wherein may disgrace him, more than the carrying of it through, can honor him.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Honor And Reputation, 1625 ↗
Things that are done, it is needless to speak about; things that have had their course, it is needless to remonstrate about; things that are past, it is needless to blame.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 3.21, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
So to order it that actions may be known and seen is purely the work of fortune; 'tis chance that helps us to glory, according to its own temerity. I have often seen her go before merit, and often very much outstrip it.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Chapter XVI, tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
The part that true conquering is to play, lies in the encounter, not in the coming off; and the honour of valour consists in fighting, not in subduing.
— Renaissance humanism · Michel de Montaigne, Essays, Of Cannibals, tr. Charles Cotton, ed. W. C. Hazlitt, 1877 ↗
People in their conduct of affairs are constantly ruining them when they are on the eve of success. If they were careful at the end, as (they should be) at the beginning, they would not so ruin them.
all my days I grew up among the sages, and I have found nothing better for a person than silence. Study is not the most important thing, but actions; whoever indulges in too many words brings about sin.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 1:17, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
The superior man may indeed have to endure want, but the mean man, when he is in want, gives way to unbridled license.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 15.1, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
one who makes his name great causes his name to be destroyed; one who does not add [to his knowledge] causes [it] to cease; one who does not study [the Torah] deserves death; one who makes [unworthy] use of the crown [of learning] shall pass away.
— Rabbinic Judaism · Pirkei Avot, 1:13, tr. Joshua Kulp, Mishnah Yomit (Sefaria, CC-BY) ↗
He who lightly promises is sure to keep but little faith; he who is continually thinking things easy is sure to find them difficult. Therefore the sage sees difficulty even in what seems easy, and so never has any difficulties.
A man should avoid being led on by the phantoms of his imagination. This is not the same thing as to submit to the guidance of ideas clearly thought out. It is in youth, more especially, that the goal of our efforts comes to be a fanciful picture of happiness, which continues to hover before our eyes sometimes for half and even for the whole of our life--a sort of mocking spirit; for when we think our dream is to be realized, the picture fades away, leaving us the knowledge that nothing of what it promised is actually accomplished.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 18, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
No gifts can raise intemperance. The man of talent affects to call his transgressions of the laws of the senses trivial and to count them nothing considered with his devotion to his art. His art rebukes him. That never taught him lewdness, nor the love of wine, nor the wish to reap where he had not sowed. His art is less for every deduction from his holiness, and less for every defect of common sense.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Prudence, 1844 ↗
For supposing it to be a universal law that everyone when he thinks himself in a difficulty should be able to promise whatever he pleases, with the purpose of not keeping his promise, the promise itself would become impossible, as well as the end that one might have in view in it, since no one would consider that anything was promised to him, but would ridicule all such statements as vain pretences.
— The Enlightenment · Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Section II, example 2 (false promise), tr. Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, 1873 ↗
Though a man may be able to recite the three hundred odes, yet if, when intrusted with a governmental charge, he knows not how to act, or if, when sent to any quarter on a mission, he cannot give his replies unassisted, notwithstanding the extent of his learning, of what practical use is it?
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 13.5, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Finally, this is better, that one do His own task as he may, even though he fail, Than take tasks not his own, though they seem good. To die performing duty is no ill; But who seeks other roads shall wander still.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 3, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
We often find something else, nay, something better than what we are looking for; and what we look for, we often find on a very different path from that on which we began a vain search. Instead of finding, as we expected, pleasure, happiness, joy, we get experience, insight, knowledge—a real and permanent blessing, instead of a fleeting and illusory one.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 3, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
If a man take no thought about what is distant, he will find sorrow near at hand.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 15.11, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
Faithfully admonish your friend, and skillfully lead him on. If you find him impracticable, stop. Do not disgrace yourself.
— Confucianism · Confucius, Analects, 12.23, tr. James Legge, 1893 ↗
So we often toil for things which are no longer suited to us when we attain them; and again, the years we spend in preparing for some work, unconsciously rob us of the power for carrying it out.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section 3, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
Sometimes we credit ourselves with a longing to be in some distant spot, whereas, in truth, we are only longing to have the time back again which we spent there--days when we were younger and fresher than we are now. In those moments Time mocks us by wearing the mask of space; and if we travel to the spot, we can see how much we have been deceived.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Arthur Schopenhauer, Counsels and Maxims, Section on time and memory, tr. T. Bailey Saunders, 1890 ↗
The man who applauds us either for actions which we did not perform, or for motives which had no sort of influence upon our conduct, applauds not us, but another person. We can derive no sort of satisfaction from his praises. To us they should be more mortifying than any censure, and should perpetually call to our minds, the most humbling of all reflections, the reflection of what we ought to be, but what we are not.
— The Enlightenment · Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part III (p. 103), 1759 ↗
The fruit of Soothfastness is true and sweet; The fruit of lusts is pain and toil; the fruit Of Ignorance is deeper darkness.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 14, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
For Light brings light, and Passion ache to have; And gloom, bewilderments, and ignorance Grow forth from Ignorance.
— Hinduism · Bhagavad Gita, 14, tr. Edwin Arnold, 1885 ↗
By unrighteousness men prosper, gain what they desire, and triumph over their enemies, but at the end they are cut off at the root and suffer extinction. Our roots must go deep down into the universal if we would attain the greatness of personality.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, IV, 1913 ↗
The parted water reunites behind our hand. Pleasure is taken out of pleasant things, profit out of profitable things, power out of strong things, as soon as we seek to separate them from the whole. We can no more have things and get the sensual good, by itself, than we can get an inside that shall have no outside, or a light without a shadow.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Compensation, 1844 ↗
Later on, when the young soul, tortured by continual disillusions, finally turns suspiciously against itself--still ardent and savage even in its suspicion and remorse of conscience: how it upbraids itself, how impatiently it tears itself, how it revenges itself for its long self-blinding, as though it had been a voluntary blindness!
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 31, tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907 ↗
Blessed are the forgetful: for they 'get the better' even of their blunders.
— Nineteenth-century philosophy · Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 217, tr. Helen Zimmern, 1907 ↗
What was in front is now behind; what warmed anon we freezing find. Strength is of weakness oft the spoil; the store in ruins mocks our toil. Hence the sage puts away excessive effort, extravagance, and easy indulgence.
To know that unchanging rule is to be intelligent; not to know it leads to wild movements and evil issues. The knowledge of that unchanging rule produces a (grand) capacity and forbearance, and that capacity and forbearance lead to a community (of feeling with all things).
Thus it was that when the Tao was lost, its attributes appeared; when its attributes were lost, benevolence appeared; when benevolence was lost, righteousness appeared; and when righteousness was lost, the proprieties appeared.
The boundary walls of our individuality thrust us back within our limits, on the one hand, and thus lead us, on the other, to the unlimited. Only when we try to make these limits infinite are we launched into an impossible contradiction and court miserable failure.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, IV, 1913 ↗
Who is content needs fear no shame. Who knows to stop incurs no blame. From danger free long live shall he.
It is far better to be often deceived than never to trust; to be disappointed in love, than never to love; to lose a husband's fondness, than forfeit his esteem.
— The Enlightenment · Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Section 5.3, 1792 ↗
Man truly is by creation hasty; When evil befalleth him, impatient; But when good falleth to his lot, tenacious.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 70:19-21, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
It is our ignorance which makes us think that our self, as self, is real, that it has its complete meaning in itself. When we take that wrong view of self then we try to live in such a manner as to make self the ultimate object of our life. Then we are doomed to disappointment like the man who tries to reach his destination by firmly clutching the dust of the road.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, Chapter 4 (The Problem of Self), 1913 ↗
This 'I' is restless. It is working for a gain which can never be assimilated with its spirit, which it never can hold and retain. In its efforts to clasp in its own arms that which is for all, it hurts others and is hurt in its turn.
— The turn of the century · Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana: The Realisation of Life, The Relation of the Individual to the Universe, 1913 ↗
All health and success does me good, however far off and withdrawn it may appear; all disease and failure helps to make me sad and does me evil, however much sympathy it may have with me or I with it.
— Transcendentalism · Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Economy, 1854 ↗
Every heroic act measures itself by its contempt of some external good. But it finds its own success at last, and then the prudent also extol.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Heroism §6, 1844 ↗
As to man, when his Lord trieth him and honoureth him and is bounteous to him, Then saith he, 'My Lord honoureth me:' But when he proveth him and limiteth his gifts to him, He saith, 'My Lord despiseth me.'
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 78-75.89:15-16, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
the most frequent of external causes is, that the folly of one man, is the fortune of another. For no man prospers so suddenly, as by others' errors.
— Renaissance humanism · Francis Bacon, The Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral, Of Fortune, 1625 ↗
When we bestow favours on man, he withdraweth and goeth aside; but when evil toucheth him, he is despairing.
— Qur’an · Qur'an, 17:83, tr. J. M. Rodwell, 1861 ↗
The principle of private happiness, however, is the most objectionable... because it is quite a different thing to make a prosperous man and a good man, or to make one prudent and sharp-sighted for his own interests and to make him virtuous.
Misery!--happiness is to be found by its side! Happiness!--misery lurks beneath it! Who knows what either will come to in the end?
Life invests itself with inevitable conditions, which the unwise seek to dodge, which one and another brags that he does not know; that they do not touch him;--but the brag is on his lips, the conditions are in his soul. If he escapes them in one part, they attack him in another more vital part. If he has escaped them in form, and in the appearance, it is because he has resisted his life, and fled from himself, and the retribution is so much death.
— Transcendentalism · Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Compensation, 1844 ↗
No time can efface the cruel ideas of a man's own foolish conduct, or of affronts, which cowardice or impudence has brought upon him. They still haunt his solitary hours, damp his most aspiring thoughts, and show him, even to himself, in the most contemptible and most odious colours imaginable.
— The Enlightenment · David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Appendix IV / Second reflection, 1751 ↗
It is but the elimination of the humanly unfit, and the survival of the humanly fittest, applied to religious beliefs; and if we look at history candidly and without prejudice, we have to admit that no religion has ever in the long run established or proved itself in any other way. Religions have approved themselves; they have ministered to sundry vital needs which they found reigning. When they violated other needs too strongly, or when other faiths came which served the same needs better, the first religions were supplanted.
— The turn of the century · William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lectures XIV–XV, 1902 ↗
What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?
— Hebrew & Christian Bible · Bible, Job 2:10, tr. King James Version (1611/1769) ↗