Words to live by?

[Fridays Child]

Do you have words that illuminate your life? A quote that describes you or your thoughts, or how you would like to be perceived? Words of inspiration. Words of meaning to you. Perhaps something that makes you smile with self-recognition. It could be from someone famous, infamous, or from a parent, friend, teacher, mentor -- even from an advertising slogan.


Here's mine to get us started:

"One never reaches home, but wherever friendly paths intersect the whole world looks like home for a time." - Hermann Hesse



This speaks to my questing nature, my acceptance of solitary journeys and my joy of unexpected companions along the road. Also of loss and sadness, tempered by experience and hope.

What words do you live by?

[Seppuku Savant]

First become I, before you and someone else become we. -Bluewing?

When people lament about their relationship woes to me. They want to know how I'm happy being single. That is my default response.

[Homini Lupus]

Various come and go as the situation needs them. They tend to be more or less the same with some new added and some old forgotten. I posted one quite long in the post "Black Blog" and some in others. The first that comes in to my mund riht now is "forget the fathers: their tombs sink into ashes, black birds, the wind, cover their hearts" - Salvatore Quasimodo

This one is the end of a poetry piece about man being plagued from the age of stone to the same warmongering passions turning science into a mean of subjogation. It always reminds me both that men are always the same, even if inserted in more efficient societies and using different techs, but also that if we go on with the idea of "historical responsibilities", we'll be on constant state of war or on the brink of it. History is the past. The future is properly faced with insight and intuition, not with ancient rivalries.

[Phalanx]

The fear of death is the beginning of slavery.

[void]

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son." - Dean Vernon Wormer, Animal House

"Wisdom begins in wonder." - Socrates

[Deraj0100]

I had a dream once where I was on a pogo-stick jumping on a trampoline - I bounced so high I could look into the window of a passing airplane. This was all third person and I saw myself telling a passenger "Dont't forget to jump".

They have always been profound words of ambiguity for me.

On a more serious note, however, "if it could have happened any other way it would have" has always been a motto of mine.

[Scorne]

"You were meant to fly and you must unclip those wings before bitterness can sour your attitude." - Friday's Child.

[jikin]

"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

[ElstonGunn]

"I is another."

[enfpchick]

"Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

[Tulula]

It ain't no disgrace to fall down, but to lay there and grunt is!

No guts, No glory!

They said she couldn't do it, so she did!

[pinkroger]

We know who we are and what we want to say
And we don't care who's listening
We don't rebel to sell
It just suits us well
We're the bright young things

-Marilyn Manson

This is essentially my attitude towards most everything. I just don't give a damn. Period. Anything worth its salt will be able to withstand some irreverence.

[PHS Philip]

Just a few? That's tough, I have so many. Although I guess a lot aren't related to living your life, day to day, so that narrows it.

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh because you are all the same. " - Daniel Knode

“The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” –Thomas Paine

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." - Bertrand Russell

"Do your own bit of saving and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore." -Kurt Vonnegut

"The most important thing to do in your life, is to not interfere with somebody else's life." -Frank Zappa

Not my favorites, but my favorites tend to be a little more abstract than something you'd ordinarily live your life by.

[MadmanMSU]

The unexamined life is not worth living.

-Socrates

[Tenacious B]

You can say nearly anything if you do so with a smile.


-my friend Jimmy

[Saint]

Only the shallow know themselves.
-Oscar Wilde

How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one's senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality.
-Norman Douglas

The face of the enemy frightens me only when I see how much it resembles mine.
-Stanislaw Jerszy Lec

That which is complete is also dead.
-Salman Rushdie

You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.
-Henri-Frédéric Amiel

In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.
-Paul Harvey

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
-Leonardo da Vinci

If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.
-Leonardo da Vinci

[Mozzes]

"Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind."
Bertrand Russell

"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity."
Albert Einstein

[Monte314]

Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Matthew 22:37-40

[redbaren]

Ill put some easy ones down from my great friend John Lennon.

"Give peace a chance"

"All you need is love"

and pretty much all of this To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[Beery Swine]

Ernest Hemingway once wrote, "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.
Detective William Somerset

Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.
Ace Ventura

[bricklayer]

"Whether you situation is good or bad it is what we have been given. Enjo it. You only get so many rides around the sun."

"I have often found that by the times my dreams have come true I've turned into some one else."

"Love Many. Trust few. And always paddle your own canoe."

[pinkroger]

Here's another one -

"If we don't make it alive, it's a hell of a good day to die"

[theunstrungharp]

*curiously waits to see how long it will take for someone to quote a female*

[Fridays Child]

*curiously waits to see how long it will take for someone to quote a female*

I see at least two. How curious that you missed them.

[Rachel45]

Cursed be the social lies that warp us from the living truth-Alfred Lord Tennyson. Trust the instinct to the end,though you can render no reason-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[void]

*curiously waits to see how long it will take for someone to quote a female*

"Patterning your life around other's opinions is nothing more than slavery." - Lawana Blackwell

"Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas." - Anna Eleanor Roosevelt

Quotes by Ayn Rand are far too numerous to list here.

[volk]

"Every day in every way I'm getting better and better"

[PHS Philip]

*curiously waits to see how long it will take for someone to quote a female*

“If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern.” -Ursula K. LeGuin


“It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope.” -Ursula K. LeGuin

[Aaron Burr]

'We must do scary things because they are scary'

'The greatest mysteries are often manifested in our lives through suffering'

'I'm from a totally different alternate reality'

'See what no one else sees'

'What's crazy is in a world full of people only some want to fly'

I could go on; I collect quotes. However I rarely write down names (often I hear a good phrase on TV, internet or from a friend).

[athenian200]

"We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are." -- Unknown

[ElstonGunn]

"We do not see things as they are, we see things as we are." -- Unknown

That reminds me of a more succinct version of this one:

"Sometimes it's not enough to know the meaning of things, sometimes we have to know what things don't mean as well. Like what does it mean to not know what the person you love is capable of? Things fall apart, especially all the neat order of rules and laws. The way we look at the world is the way we really are. See it from a fair garden and everything looks cheerful. Climb to a higher plateau and you'll see plunder and murder. Truth and beauty are in the eye of the beholder. I stopped trying to figure everything out a long time ago."

[vaguely dissatisfied]

From the movie 'As Good As It Gets".

Jack Nicholson's character said something like this..........."The thing that really gets you is not that you had it so bad. What really gets you is that everybody else had it so good."

[ScurvyRose]

Grandma- Shit or get off the pot!, and
Beer on wine is fine,
Wine on beer will set you on your ear!

Boondock Saints:
Connor: How far are we going to take this, Da?
Il Duce: The question is not how far. The question is, do you possess the constitution, the depth of faith, to go as far as is needed?

Marilyn Monroe:
A wise girl kisses, but doesn't love,
Listens, but doesn't believe,
And leaves before she is left.

[PortInStorm]

Holy crap, who knew that ol' Marilyn had that in her? That's fantastic!

[Synamon]

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, but the perpetual human predicament is that the answer soon poses its own problems" Sydney J. Harris

This reminds me to be a positive force instead of a negative one and that answers just result in more questions perpetuating the endless cycle of learning.

[Fridays Child]

"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, but the perpetual human predicament is that the answer soon poses its own problems" Sydney J. Harris

This reminds me to be a positive force instead of a negative one and that answers just result in more questions perpetuating the endless cycle of learning.



This reminds me of a similar favourite of mine: "If I'm not the problem, there is no solution."

This is such a deceptively simple statement; but it hit me between the eyes at the right time and helped me make a necessary shift in perspective that I have never regretted.

[Beery Swine]

A quitter never wins and never trust whitey.
Lois Griffin (I love reruns)

[Minxz]

Experience Life!

Its better to be silent and thought a fool than open your mouth and be proved one

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.
-Emily Dickinson

[SirJac]

"The only constant is change"

Heraclitus

This one reminds me to not hold on too tightly to the present because I will lose it. Instead I should always look towards the future and strive to make change be in my favor.

"How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortune of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it."

Adam Smith

Although it may not be words to live by, I still like it because it gives me hope in humanity.

[Claptonian]

"I know it's only rock 'n' roll but I like it."

:cheesy:

[Fridays Child]

"I know it's only rock 'n' roll but I like it."

:cheesy:


...like it, yes, I do.

[ssrprotege]

"All that is not perfect down to the smallest detail is doomed to perish." - Gustav Mahler

"Math is more than formulas or equations; it’s logic, it’s rationality, it’s using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know." - Charlie Eppes

[ScurvyRose]

There is an exception to every rule. Except this one!

[Sara27]

Don't talk with your mouth full.




PLEASE! DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!

[Saint]

Don't talk with your mouth full.




PLEASE! DON'T TALK WITH YOUR MOUTH FULL!

Can I still go "om nom nom nom" while eating? :D

[The Real Eagle]

"Fu<k em"

Roy Leashman.

[Beery Swine]

Measure twice, cut once.

[Radamisto]

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.
—JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

When I remember how many of my private
schemes have miscarried; how speculations
have failed, agents proved dishonest, marriage
been a disappointment; how I did but pauperize
the relative I sought to help; how my carefully
governed son has turned out worse than most
children; how the thing I desperately strove
against as a misfortune did me immense good;
how while the objects I ardently pursued
brought me little happiness when gained, most
of my pleasures have come from unexpected
sources; when I recall these and hosts of like
facts, I am struck with the incompetence of my
intellect to prescribe for society.
—HERBERT SPENCER

Don't worry about the whole world: if you do it will over-
whelm you. Worry about one wave at a time. Please your-
self. Do something for you, and the rest will fall in line.
—DAVID SEABURY

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been
in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words,
that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.
—ALEXANDER POPE

When people won't let you alone, it's because
you haven't learned how to make them do it.
—DAVID SEABURY

[Metanoia]

Words, words, words!

[emanon]

Not quite an INTJ quote, but I've always liked:

"You have a unique message to deliver, a unique song to sing, a unique act of love to bestow; this message, this song, this act of love has been entrusted exclusively to the one and only you." ~ John Powell, S.J.

[Antares]

"If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out." - 48 Laws of Power (Someone posted a link to this on the forum)

"... men must be either pampered or annihilated." - Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

"We must find a way or make one." - Hannibal Barca

"Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious." - Oscar Wilde

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." - Oscar Wilde (Irony?)

"There is no easy way from the earth to the stars." - Seneca

[Deepdelver]

Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

Matthew 22:37-40

Ditto.

[cal]

For every saying, there is an equal and opposing saying. (Keeps things in perspective for me.)

[Antares]

For every saying, there is an equal and opposing saying. (Keeps things in perspective for me.)

So the "equal and opposing saying" to that would be?

[Lupin]

"Live like you'll die tomorrow; Learn like you'll live forever" - Mahatma Gandhi

......needless to say, this is not the response expected for the above ;).

[Sean O]

"Cop didn't see it, I didn't do it." - George Carlin

[cal]

So the "equal and opposing saying" to that would be?

That's a good question. Any thoughts? I thought about it a couple of times, but nothing that seemed to be "equal" came up at the time.

If I maybe added something like "except for this one" to it, I thought that could get things close enough to the truth for me to work with.

[Beery Swine]

When you're through changing, you're through.
Bruce Barton

[Tabemashoo]

"There are times when a man should be content with what he has, but never with what he is." - William George Jordan

Although I do like that one posted earlier by Eleanor Roosevelt:
"Small minds discuss people. Average minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas." I must add that to my repertoire. XP

[SShack]

"Or what?"

[Olympics2010]

Good choice of a question to post on here !

Don't mean to be a poor sport, not that being a good sport matters so much to us INTJ's I would guess, but I don't think that I have any words of wisdom. I have several that I've encountered along the way, of course, being an INTJ and all, but I don't think that I've settled for any as my ultimate words of wisdom.

This hesitation of mine to settle for a single conclusion may be due to a number of factors. It may be due to two qualities which I read somewhere that are supposed to me characteristic of us INTJs, namely, that we live at the intersections of life, and also, that we are skeptical about the future. Living at the intersections of life for me means that I never settle for anything in particular, but try to be all and nothing at the same time, choosing to remain at the center of possibilities rather than choosing any specific one or more of them. I only make a choice when I feel I have to, and, if so, I always plan to retreat from it in the near future, back to a place of indecision, which I consider best of all. A middle path if you will.

As for being skeptical about the future, I believe there is some truth that this may be a quality of INTJs. However, I don't think it's 100% accurate. I would say that INTJs are skeptical in general, not just about the future. Sometimes, for instance, we are just skeptical about a problem, a conclusion to a problem, the past, or the present moment. We are skeptical in general about lots of things, not just about whether or not the future will turn out in a positive way, in any specific way, or in any way at all, or as we planned. While it is true that INTJs are skeptical, I don't think that it is accurate to say that INTJs are skeptical JUST about the future. The future is just one thing among all the other possible things we may be so very skeptical about.

All in all, for these two reasons (our favorite place being intersections, and our skepticism) I don't have any single quote that I think would do justice to my view of a good life as INTJ. Rather, I would characterize my tendency as INTJ with regards to this discussion that I tend to take many possibilities of words of wisdom, decompose them, and perhaps create something entirely my own out of them, with great indebtedness to them, of course. Any of these personal creations, however, I am still skeptical about, as I believe they need to always be improved, since everything is best if we look at it as something temporary that can be improved, since then we have less of a risk of doing something foolish.

There is one possible saying I have. I also would scribble down the following:

When it comes to human beings and their best possible actions, you and I are the only ultimate ends.

[Mozzes]

That's a good question. Any thoughts? I thought about it a couple of times, but nothing that seemed to be "equal" came up at the time.

I thought about it in kind of a weird way. "every saying has an equal and opposite saying" is a saying about sayings - a meta-saying. It's a rule being applied to a lower level but I don't think there's any way to apply it to itself - at least not without more formal rules for transforming statements into their "equal and opposites". I do figure you could apply the rule on increasing levels - "every meta-saying has an equal and opposite meta-saying" as a meta-meta-saying, and so forth.

We're dealing with pretty fuzzy notions here. It's easy to see what the spirit of "equal and opposite" means but without formal rules for the transformation we're kind of stuck in mud here.

[Fridays Child]

This is an old favourite of mine and it still works for me today.


"Wear your learning, like your watch in a private pocket: and do not merely pull it out and strike it; merely to show that you have one." -- Earl of Chesterfield

[cal]

I thought about it in kind of a weird way. "every saying has an equal and opposite saying" is a saying about sayings - a meta-saying. It's a rule being applied to a lower level but I don't think there's any way to apply it to itself - at least not without more formal rules for transforming statements into their "equal and opposites". I do figure you could apply the rule on increasing levels - "every meta-saying has an equal and opposite meta-saying" as a meta-meta-saying, and so forth.

We're dealing with pretty fuzzy notions here. It's easy to see what the spirit of "equal and opposite" means but without formal rules for the transformation we're kind of stuck in mud here.

Thanks for that, Mozzes. Doesn't sound weird to me.

As I said when I first posted it, it helps me keep perspective on things. I don't hold it up as an absolute truth, but as a reminder that it's too easy to allow a saying to do much of the 'thinking' about a situation, without questioning its relevancy/accuracy to the situation enough.

It's a takeoff from my logic studies about cliches.

Btw: You avatar brings a smile. Nice.

[le Duc]

"There's always hope."

Alas, my own creation, but nonetheless my motto.

[NephilimAzrael]

"All truth is crooked, time itself is a circle" - Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra

[notoppings]

Life is composed of two elements knowledge and strength, without some sort of strength knowledge can not be attained, without some sort of knowledge no strength can be complete. Piers Anthony.

[Autoptic]

It's almost entirely a repost but fits.
"This heart within me I can feel, and I judge that it exists. This world I can touch, and I likewise judge that it exists. There ends all my knowledge, and the rest is construction." Albert Camus

"Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful." George Box

“All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.” Ambrose Bierce

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it`s not the same river and he`s not the same man." Heraclitus paraphrased

"There is no such thing as a free lunch." Alvin Hansen

"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails." William Arthur Ward

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” Orson Welles

"Correctness is clearly the prime quality. If a system does not do what it is supposed to do, then everything else about it matters little.” Bertrand Meyer

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert Einstein

“Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated; you can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.” David Lloyd George

"A man's interest in the world is only an overflow from his interest in himself." George Bernard Shaw

"The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Joseph Heller

"Morality is the custom of one's country and the current feeling of one's peers. Cannibalism is moral in a cannibal country." Samuel Butler

"Some wounds never heal, they just stop bleeding." Jacqueline Delisle

"Sometimes black humor is the only kind we can summon, but even dark laughter can sustain.” Dean Koontz

"... it is impossible to convey the life-sensation of any given epoch of one's existence, - that which makes its truth, its meaning - its subtle and penetrating essence. It is impossible. We live, as we dream - alone” Joseph Conrad

"We're all a little weird, and life is a little weird, and, when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness and call it love." Anonymous

[Nikita]

There are so many...but I'll just post the most memorable one from childhood. My father always told me:

"Never start a fight, but if someone starts one with you - finish it."
I live by it.

[enWTFp]

"I'm not that smart, I just stay with problems longer." - Albert Einstein (unsourced)

[SmileyMan]

Non scholae, sed vitae discimus (We learn not for school, but for life) - Seneca

[dogwoodlover]

"An unexamined life is not worth living." -- Socrates

"All I know is that I know nothing." -- Socrates

"It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself." -- Epicurus

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan

[Jgib5328]

I thought of this this morning:

Life is either going to give you shit, or take shit away from you. All you can really do is accept it and plan accordingly. Those who can deal with their shit the best, on average succeed more in life than others.

It's basically a take on the "If life gives you lemons.."

[Synamon]

Don't drink the purple kool-aid. - me

[Nikita]

Some others:

"Not until the being faces annihilation does that part of it which is indestructible emerge." - Unknown

"Nature understands no jesting; she is always true, always serious, always severe; she is always right, and the errors and faults are always those of man. The man incapable of appreciating her, she despises; and only to the apt, the pure, and the true, does she resign herself and reveal her secrets." - Goethe

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour." - William Blake, Auguries of Innocence

"Time not cash." - Unknown


From Fight Club:
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything."
"Only after disaster can we be resurrected."
"The things you own end up owning you."

[rara avis]

Don't drink the purple kool-aid. - me

Coming from a religious family, I do love a kool-aid reference...
:devilish:


One of my most-thought-of lately, this is applicable on several levels:
"He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither." Benjamin Franklin


After that, pick any random Dorothy Parker, for me...
"I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things."

[pocohauntus]

"Never start a fight, but if someone starts one with you - finish it."
I live by it.
Do ya? Where?

[Nikita]

Do ya? Where?

In real life.

[pocohauntus]

In real life.
Where's that?

[Tragic Hero]

Here's a fairly well known saying about business but is applicable in most areas of life..

Don't be afraid to give up the good, to go for the great.

[ATCGs]

"The trouble with oaths of the form 'death before dishonor' is that eventually all you have left are the dead and the foresworn."

[strategisweet]

"If you are satisfied in life, you are rich" - taoist

[volk]

Unless you know where you are going, and why, you cannot possibly get there.

[mplogue]

"Time is relative... lunch time. doubly so!"

"It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes. "

- Douglas Adams





mplogue added to this post, 1 minutes and 18 seconds later...

Unless you know where you are going, and why, you cannot possibly get there.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be. "

[Scarlet Cake]

"I prefer to be true to myself,
even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others,
rather than be false,
and incur my own abhorrence."

-Frederick Douglass

[gedreosan]

"You should not confuse your career with your life." Dave Barry

“I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.” Stephen Hawking

[John F Kennedy]

I fail to see how some of the quotations relate to living your life. I'm not sure this was meant as just a "great quotes" thread.

[naberus]

"Life's too short to be worrying about idiots whom you've never meet"
-me

[Muumeh]

"You can run but you just die tired"

[dalidaisy]

Here's one I like: "Don't burn the day..." - Dave Matthews

[void]

Give a man fire and he will be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.

[Nihilum]

"Too close to the sun" is my absolute favorite phrase. To me it means that greatness will eventually kill us, and that pleasure is just as bad as pain. I live by the phrase "Too close to the sun".

[Tishy]

From the immortal Kevin Smith's Dogma:

"He (Jesus) said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it... I think it's better to have ideas. You can change an idea. Changing a belief is trickier. Life should malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can't generate. Life becomes stagnant."

and

"Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar."

from Highlander:

"Listen up, I've something to say: Its better to burn out, then fade away."

[volk]

The best assumption to have is that any commonly held belief is wrong.
Key Olson, CEO, DEC

[gdsdiana]

Never be afraid to share your dreams with the world, because there's nothing the world loves more than the taste of really sweet dreams.

[Fryman58]

“Don’t take life so seriously or you won’t get out alive.”
Some movie…

“Three rules to live by. 1 everyone is lying, 2 don’t trust anyone, and 3 everyone is stupid and ignorant.”
“Sometimes you need to kill a few hundred thousand people to prove a point.”
My dad…

“Don’t go gently into that good night.”

[Nikita]

One I heard recently as a piece of advice a parent would give two children fighting:

"Scratch it on the ice, and let the sun sort it out."

[putupon]

Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?

Andrea del Sarto, Robert Browning

[Krazy P]

"Reason without emotion has no direction." - J.J. Roussau

[ArkansasFan]

Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace. -Oscar Wilde


Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absense of fear. -Mark Twain

Anything in the New Testament.

[gn0sis]

I have come to the conclusion recently that if the universe can be understood through archetypes, this understanding can occur on macro- and microscopic levels. For example, Jung's concept of archetypes can be applied on a very low level of specificity to personality types vis a vis the MBTI. Similarly, I think that this sort of archetypal understanding of the universe can take place on a larger scale.

I have come up with a series of "quadranyms" that I have found to describe the universe: it's nature, the way events therein unfold, and so on. Each of the four words (to live by, if you were wondering how this related to the thread) within a quadranym individually describe an aspect of the universe but must also be understood as four faces of the same concept. Just as words themselves have insinuations and hidden meanings in them that aren't apparent at face value, so these sets of four words each describes a concept better in its gestalt than as sets of four separate words. There is no special meaning behind the number four; I just found that it worked well.

humor, cosmic jokes, synchronicity, things working out well in the end
evolution, progress, creativity, a universal attractor to which all events lead
consciousness, mind, spirit, species memory in DNA/mtDNA/RNA
oneness, duality of being, unity of opposites, interconnectedness of all phenomena
humility, meekness within power, peace and quiet, ability to admit mistakes
wisdom, enthusiasm for knowledge, dynamic learning, memory

Applying these concepts to my understanding of life and reality has definitely helped me to relax a little bit and opened up my perception to things I never would have noticed before.

[FreeFall]

'Life is not the way it's supposed to be.. It's the way it is.
The way we cope with it, is what makes the difference.'

Our entire lives are made up of the choices we make in the moment.

[Cesare Borgia]

"War is the prophecy, survival the strategy"

"Friends come and go, wars come and go, but my soldiers stay eternal"

[putupon]

We ran like young wild furies,
where angels feared to tread.

Boy's Life, Robert R. McCammon

[naberus]

There's a reason for everything, even if the reason is illogical.

[ReasoningMind]

I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.

I came here to say that I do not recognize anyone’s right to one minute of my life. Nor to any part of my energy. Nor to any achievement of mine. No matter who makes the claim, how large their number or how great their need.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone. Men have been taught that the ego is the synonym of evil, and selflessness the ideal of virtue. But the creator is the egotist in the absolute sense, and the selfless man is the one who does not think, feel, judge or act. These are functions of the self.

Ayn Rand.

[lancelot]

One of my favorite quotes, words to live by.."To thine own self be true" typical INTJ quote!

[Mathnerdkid]

Either
"Failure is not an option"
"Look at things from a logical point of view",
"Never stop asking questions.",
or, mostly,
"Think."

[Pika]

"To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable,
and wealthy, not rich;

to study hard, think quietly,
talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds,
to babes and sages, with open heart;
to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely,
await occasions, hurry never.

In a word, to let the spiritual,
unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.

This is to be my symphony."

William Henry Channing

[putupon]

In the search for truth human beings take two steps forward and one
step back. Suffering, mistakes and weariness of life thrust them
back, but the thirst for truth and stubborn will drive them forward.
And who knows? Perhaps they will reach the real truth at last.

Anton Chekhov, The Duel

[rflki3]

"If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or as Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great streetsweeper that did his job well."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

"Imagination is a quality given a man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
-Oscar Wilde

"One man with courage is a majority."
-Thomas Jefferson

"All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up."
-Picasso

[Deadgod]

"Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks within, awakes." ~Carl Gustav Jung

[LaoTzu]

those who know don't talk
those who talk don't know

[SeaCzar]

Honi soit qui mal y pense. Edward III, c. 1348

Shamed be he who thinks evil of it.

[Tsumaranai]

These quotes essentially represent ideas that I hold to be true, and thus judge with and live by.

It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.
- Ayn Rand

If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
- Niccolo Machiavelli

It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
- Niccolo Machiavelli

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
- Niccolo Machiavelli

Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
- Niccolo Machiavelli

The wise man does at once what the fool does finally.
- Niccolo Machiavelli
(I really like Machiavelli)

War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.
- Mao Zedong

Power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
- Mao Zedong

You can get more done with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.
- Al Capone

[PortInStorm]

The present is the only time when duty can be done and any grace received- C.S. Lewis

[Lymitra]

The present is the only time when duty can be done and any grace received- C.S. Lewis

Reminds me of another quote.

"The present is called the present because it's a gift."

[Phyconaut]

"One head cannot contain all wisdom" these words kept me going though a Lutheran high school with my beliefs intact aka atheism

"Pessimism is not a survival trait"
it keeps my mind open to look for out of the box solutions when the pressure gets high and realism gets me down.

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions." Albert Einstein

Reminds me that people can not always comprehend what i am saying.