April 18

What is important is not the quantity of your knowledge, but its quality. You can know many things without knowing that which is most important.

Ignorance in itself is neither shameful nor harmful. Nobody can know everything. But pretending that you know what you actually do not know is both shameful and harmful.

There are two types of ignorance, the pure, natural ignorance into which all people are born, and the ignorance of the so-called wise. You will see that many among those who call themselves scholars do not know real life, and they despise simple people and simple things.

— Blaise Pascal

The truth should often overcome thousands of obstacles, until it is accepted.

— George Lightenberg

The scholar who thinks but does not create is like the cloud which does not give rain.

— Eastern Wisdom

Vague and complex terminology was created by false scholars. Real, truthful knowledge does not need vague terms.

March 29

If sometimes you feel that in spite of all your wishes to gain triumph over your passions, they gain victory over you, do not think that you cannot conquer them at all. You have only proven that you weren't able to this one time. A good groom does not drop his reins when he cannot stop his horses at once but tries again to pull the reins, and eventually the horses stop. So if you could not resist the temptations once, continue your fight, and in the end not your passion but you will gain the victory.

Try to be the master over greed, sloth, lechery, and rage.

A victory over oneself is a bigger and a better victory than a victory over thousands of people in a score of battles. Those who have achieved victory over other people can be defeated in future battles, but those who have achieved victory over themselves become victors forever.

— Dhammapada, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

A passion in a person's heart is like a spider's web. At the beginning it is an alien visitor; then it becomes a regular guest; then it becomes master of the house.

— After the TALMUD

He who has achieved victory over himself has real power.

— Eastern Wisdom

Abstention cannot be achieved at once, but it should be a process, and a constant effort. The life of a person who makes this effort is directed not to the calming of his passions but to the mastery of them. Time and persistence help you in these efforts. 

January 5

Sometimes, the damage done by our words is obvious and sometimes it isn't, but the damage is not any smaller for our not being able to see those people who suffer from our words.

 

A gunshot wound may be cured, but the wound made by a tongue never heals.

— Persian Wisdom

If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man . . . Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

— James 3:2, 5

When you hear people speak about the viciousness of other people, do not share in pleasure by discussing these issues. When you hear about the bad deeds of people, do not listen to the end and try to forget what you have heard. When you hear about the virtues of other people, remember them and tell them to others.

— Eastern Wisdom

 

Do listen to disputes, but be not so involved in disputes yourself.

— Nikolai Gogol

 

I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue.

Psalms 39:1

 

Be afraid to destroy the unity of people by stirring bad feelings amongst them against another with your words.

November 9

Self-admiration is the beginning of pride. Pride is dissipated self-admiration.

Those who do not hate their own selfishness, their placing of themselves higher than the rest of the world, are blind, because this action contradicts the truth.

— Blaise Pascal

The lighter and less dense a substance is, the less space it occupies. The qualities which a proud person attributes to himself can be compared to this.

There are many people who claim to be teachers of others who should themselves be taught first of all.

— Eastern Wisdom

The most important thing in life is the path to perfection, and what kind of perfection can exist if a person is proud and satisfied with himself? 

August 13

To be wise, you must follow your intellect, even though such a way of life is often attacked.

The heavens do not approve when we sin, and the earth does not approve when we are virtuous.

—The Talmud

Do not be interested in the quantity of people who respect and admire you, but in their quality. If bad people dislike you, so much the better.

—Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Human intellect is a divine lamp, and its light penetrates to the depth of things.

—Eastern Wisdom

You should not be upset by the sight of wisdom being criticized. Wisdom would not be real wisdom if it did not reveal the stupidity of a bad life, and people would not be people if they endured this revelation without criticism.

July 22

Faith is not true faith if love is not in harmony with it.

 

The door to heaven is opened to you to the same extent you want it. Get rid of your troubles and problems, and direct your soul to spiritual things. Be attentive, and fulfill your duty without thinking about the consequences. You should not guide events, but be guided by events.

— Indian Wisdom

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone . . . Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only . . . For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

— James 2:14-18; 24; 26

A person who knows the law but does not fulfill it reminds me of one who ploughs the land but does not put seed in it.

— Eastern Wisdom

If a person is not in a hurry to fulfill the things which he understands as the law of God, then he believes neither in the law, nor in God.

June 26

Love provides a person with the purpose of his life. Intellect shows him the means to achieve that purpose.

In the scheme of the world, a person is no more than a pine cone, or a weak herb, or a bit of swamp grass, but he is a grass which possesses some intellect.

— Blaise Pascal

Man differs from other animals only in his intellect; some people try to develop it and others neglect it, just as they try to reject those other qualities which differentiate them from the animals.

— Eastern Wisdom

I praise Christianity because it develops, strengthens, and elevates my intellectual nature.

— William Ellery Channing

If a person lacks intellect, he can not distinguish bad from good, and so he can neither truly seek nor truly have real goodness.

June 13

Intellect is the quality that makes us different from animals.

Buddha said: “In meditation, in speech, in life, in studies, I never forget about the most important thing: the requirements of the intellect.”

The moral and the intellectual are always in harmony.

If a self-confident man talks to a wise man, he will not understand the truth, just as a spoon will not understand the truth when it gets into the mouth.

— Eastern Wisdom

I cannot cause any improvement in anyone except with the help of the goodness and kindness which already is inherent in this person.

— Immanuel Kant

People spoil their life who neglect their intellect and say that it cannot guide them.

Intellect is the same in all people, and communication is based on intellect; therefore every man must correspond to its requirements.

June 2

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

— Luke 14:11

A person who stands on his tiptoes cannot stand long, and a person who is too proud of himself cannot set a good example.

— Lao-Tzu

He who is looking for wisdom is already wise; and he who thinks that he has found wisdom is a stupid man.

— Eastern Wisdom

No exterior force can make you humble. There is only one way to be humble: do not think about yourself, but about how you can serve God and others.

May 7

A person who tries to find good outside himself, either in this life or in the one to come, is making a mistake.

I went along all the earth, searching for a guiding light. I went all over without rest, at night and during the day, and then I heard from a preacher, who opened the truth to me, that the answer is inside my soul, and that the light which I was looking for everywhere in the world is inside me.

— Eastern Wisdom

There are no coincidences, either in life or in one’s fate. A man creates his own destiny.

— Abel Villemain

You either make evil for yourself, or you escape sin and purify yourself; you are bad or evil, or you are pure; and nobody can save you except for yourself.

— Dhammapadda, a book of Buddhist Wisdom

Your body is a city which is full of good and evil; and you are the king of this city and your intellect is your best counselor.

— Saint Luke

The happiness or unhappiness of a man does not depend upon the amount of property or gold he owns. Happiness or misery is in one’s soul. A wise man feels at home in every country. The whole universe is the home of a noble soul.

— Democritus

Nothing can give a man strength when he is looking for salvation other than his own effort.

May 3

The life of Jesus Christ is very important for us as an example of a life of one who could not see the fruits of his work during his lifetime.

Clever people study in order to know more. Undeserving people study to be more known.

— Eastern Wisdom

In order to reach spiritual perfection, you should first of all take care of the purity of your soul. This can be reached when the heart looks for truth, and strives for wholeness, and depends on true knowledge.

— Confucius

If you would like to know how to recognize a prophet, look to him who gives you the knowledge of your own heart.

— Persian Wisdom

Every person has only one purpose: to find perfection in goodness. Therefore, only that knowledge is necessary which leads us to this.