MAXIMS, EPIGRAMS AND APHORISMS (Vol 1. By Frank Andrews) Year 2020

When one becomes a victim, they lose responsibility and freedom but they gain the feeling of entitlement.

We desire to possess what we do not have.

A utopia is impossible, for a perfect society requires perfect citizens. Therefore if one speaks of utopia, run in the opposite direction.

Constantly unsatisfied and searching for more, a human being's curse.

The brain cannot differentiate between what is real and what is imagined. To the brain, the fantasy is just as real as the reality.

Reflection, abstraction, and rationalization stifles action and promotes indolence.

Stop reflecting and start acting. When in doubt, act.

Many speak frivolously because they are petrified of the silence which reveals their emptiness.

Imagination is the remarkable ability of the human species that is underused and undervalued.

A life without love is purposeless.

We all seek love, but the kind of love we receive is proportionate to the love we do indeed think we deserve.

The answers we receive depend immensely upon the questions we ask.

Suffering is a virtue for those wanting to be great.

Suffering awakens that part of you that is capable of rising up against it.

Existence may not be possible without suffering and tragedy. Therefore, create a meaning for the suffering.

Why waste time asking riddles that you will never find the answer to?

Words disguise, actions reveal.

It is far better to die a failure than to die a coward.

Our ideas and beliefs grow rigid as we age, our openness to new ideas practically becomes a sealed door.

We miss the thing we never cherished, and feel remorse for the things we never did.

We love what we pay attention to, and our attention is easily seduced.

The beautiful belongs to the few.

If your neighbor walked by you in public, would you even recognize them?

To be a true individual, one must be fully responsible for their own choices. Take ownership of the good and the bad, to never allow themselves to play the victim.

We are all responsible for our own actions and have the power to choose how we react and perceive the world.

It becomes radically more difficult to be human in a world that is constantly becoming ever more inhuman.

To be a victim is to position yourself as a helpless, weak and pathetic individual who desires to be pitied. When the odds are against you, rise up and show strength of character, refuse to be a victim and refuse to be pitied.

Pity is a cruel evil.

Too often people misunderstand pity for compassion.

Is complete freedom even achievable? Or even a better question, is complete freedom even desirable?

Independence is reserved for the very few; it is a privilege for the strong.

Nietzsche's message for those elevated and illustrious souls: "Our highest insights must and should sound like follies, and sometimes like crimes when they are heard without permission by those who are not predisposed and predestined for them."

"There are heights of the soul from which tragedy ceases to look tragic." - Nietzsche

What serves the higher type of man as nourishment must almost be poison for a very different and inferior type. On the other hand, the virtues of the common may perhaps be vices and weaknesses to the superior.

Not all mysteries are meant to be uncovered.

A stem can grow tall, but if it bears no leaves, where is its beauty?

We all have the capacity for greatness, we just need to believe we do.

One must shed the bad taste of wanting to agree with many.

Many are okay with not finding that somebody, they just want a body.

Habit must be stripped in order for one to capture the splendor and grandeur of life once again.

Love is a socially acceptable form of lunacy.

The harshest truths are permitted when told in the form of a joke.

Prohibition is not required for those things human beings do not desire.

Act according to your own will, not the will of others.

We all make rationalizations in order to exercise and gratify our passions.

The transformation of instinct is influenced by our external situations.

Who helps a hero when he needs help? Answer, the divine that exists within.

What you fear will consume you.

Life is a canvas and you are the artist. Make your art something beautiful.

There is a part of us that wants comfort and stability, yet another part of us wants to risk that all for greatness.

Rationality must be grounded in something of a higher sort.

Nothing distinguishes memories from ordinary moments. Only later do they become memorable by the scars, marks and impressions they leave on us. However, even those memories are tainted with distance, bias, and a limited perspective.

We do not remember days, we remember moments.

Without dreams life is colorless, cheerless and utterly empty.

Time changes not, but all things change in time.

Learn by experimenting and making mistakes. Just remember to grow from the mistakes instead of foolishly performing the same actions.

Our most severe challenges will one day reveal themselves to be our greatest teachers.

Do not fear, Icarus was only a fable and a myth. One may indeed be able to fly as high as they could ever imagine. However, Icarus was trying to fly high without having the right tools, he was arrogant. Let this be a lesson: Hubris inflates one with the idea of competence, but with competence one is released from limitation.

There are dreams and there are fantasies, one must recognize this crucial difference.

Leo Tolstoy said, "Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed." Yes, but then that in which you uncovered would continually harm you and master you if it remained repressed in your unconscious. Bringing the troubling parts of ourselves to our awareness allows for us to properly confront it and diffuse it of its power.

The only people we can think of as normal, are those we don't know yet, or those we don't know very well.

Everyone is weird because everyone's idea of normal differs from person to person.

There is a common misconception that change equates to progress.

One of the greatest rarities in life is finding someone that actually listens.

Women, why sexualize yourself for attention and admiration? Your value is far greater than just your body as a sexual object of desire.

We claim to want change but when someone presents us with that change, we vehemently cling to the familiar.

Many philosophers sought a truthful life yet they got so caught up in the abstraction of truth, that they never even made it to the part about life.

People dread the unfamiliar.

When you can't trust anyone, not even yourself, have faith that you can trust in God.

Obedience without understanding is blind obedience.

Lust for that which grows thy soul upward.

Without limitations one would have nothing to overcome.

Everything you do matters, is there a more frightening proposition?

The only lasting truth is change.

With love comes a shadow of hate.

Many philosophers do not desire for their readers to think for themselves. Instead they desire one to think like them, which means to agree with the philosopher and all of their conclusions by following lines of logic that they constructed.

Knowing facts is not true intelligence. A child with access to the internet can know facts.

We are afraid to live and afraid to die.

The characters you meet in life are far more fascinating than the characters you see in the films or read in the books.

The greatest stories are those you experience.

Life is the greatest story.

Who are the heroes and who are the villains? It is tougher to distinguish then the stories make it out to be.

Heroes and villains are both flawed, both break rules, and both evoke feelings of ambivalence.

Take a look at the world and what do you see? An array of possibilities? All the things you can be?

The pursuit of happiness has now become the pursuit of pleasure.

To gratify one's pleasures has never been easier.

Miscommunication is man's greatest enemy for it is the cause of almost every strife. Perception is a close second.

Society, has it ever been ideal?

Expectations influence and color our experiences.

We are all born unique, but the vast majority of us perish as copies.

A paradox of life is that it is simultaneously banal and absurd.

Leaders offer stories, and stories demand illusions.

As long as you are alive, you still have time.

Chaos is found in order, and order is found in chaos.

When you find a person worth chasing after, make sure you are capable of running a marathon.

Society fears one that is free.

In times of crisis, the true nature of an individual emerges.

People like people who take interest in them.

Perfection can exist in the finite.

Life has the remarkable ability to turn almost every optimist into a pessimist.

We may believe that we are through with the past, but the past understands that it is not through with us.

We worry about self-imagined futures and attempt to proclaim that our worries are completely rational.

Failure is merely an opportunity to more intelligently begin again.

Time destroys everything, it's a curse and a blessing.

People are beautiful, especially the ones that smile.

Anything can be trendy if enough people agree that it is.

Our feelings can become specters as they continually haunt us even when the event is no longer in conscious memory. The event has been forgotten but the feeling has not.

The past is far more real than the present and the future. For the future is imagined, and the present is constantly transforming into the past. The past then becomes our present as we carry it with us every single day.

We are all spiritual beings living a human experience, once we come to that realization our limits are nonexistent.

The transcendental cannot be explained by rational logic, it can only be expressed through art.

Art is the communication vehicle for the soul.

A mirror is only as effective as it is revealing.

On modern society: the better the images become, the more tempting it becomes to interact with those images than with actual reality.

We are all capable of greatness, but you will never be great if you do not decide to be great.

Sometimes words get in the way. When someone is speaking to us, we tend to focus more on what they are saying versus how they are saying it.

You need to be silent to hear the voice from within.

There is no room for God in a person who is full of themself.

If you want to change the world, change your attitude toward it.

The world will alter to that of what and who you are.

The world changes when you change.

Seek growth not perfection.

The body is the temple for the living God. Sparks of divinity lie dormant in us all.

Every human being is capable of greatness, but far too many are content with mediocrity.

Comfort breeds mediocrity.

We must choose between the comfort of the life we have grown accustomed to, or risk it all to go after what we want and desire. Both carry risks, one just has the greater reward.

The fantastic possibility of having a dream become a reality is what induces feelings of hope and excitement.

Hope, the ingredient needed to withstand the suffering of existence.

The fear of losing something is typically greater than the possibility of gain.

People need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want.

Whoever understands the world soul will understand the language of all things. Everything is conscious.

Love without ownership is a goal worth striving for.

One truly learns through action. Experience is life's greatest instructor.

The fear of suffering is generally worse than the suffering itself.

The fear of failure prevents a great many from ever even trying to strive after a dream.

Life must be lived, not read nor observed nor abstracted.

When all is stripped away, all that remains is your character.

We want to change the world but rarely do we want to change ourselves.

The comforts of life and the comfort of our habits are utterly pleasurable and seductive, but immensely detrimental to our being.

The narrative that is preached and believed by the masses is that the greatest pupil is one who echoes their master's words.

What we do in dreams we also do when we are awake: we invent and fabricate the person with whom we associate - and immediately forget we have done so.

One must cherish the darkness as much as the light because darkness brings change.

History is kind to the victor

Few think but all have opinions.

Forgiveness is an ongoing business

Consensus does not equate to truth.

Stop expecting and start intending.

Distractions, one way man relieves himself of the perpetual guilt he feels.

Not caring makes life easier, but easier does not equate to fulfilling.

Why follow the pattern of others when others are unhappy and lack freedom? Do you not have a mind and a will of your own? Do not short yourself, nor deprive yourself of life's abundance.

Life gives if you have the courage to ask and accept.

Why stay 2-steps ahead when you could be 3 or 4?

Stop lowering yourself to the herd.

Relate, conform, and lose yourself; is this what you seek? You poor wretched soul, what a waste of a life.

Lose fear and you gain absolute freedom.

Social media, a perpetual trap to live for others in a way that gratifies your ego.

Followers (you are followers) Who do you follow? (Following the lead of another human being) follow your own footsteps. Find our own path.

No one ever remembers the "pleasant" person.

One way to solve a problem is to be amused by it.

Along with habit and inertia, fear has much to do with keeping one's unfulfilling life the same as it always is.

Help yourself before you attempt to try to help others.

People love to give advice but hate to take advice.

Everyone's favorite person is themself.

Our greatest strength is our greatest vanity.

One can forget the action but cannot forget the feeling.

Hope is the fuel one needs to carry onward.

Choose to be a hero, we have far too many villains, it is quite a saturated market.

With growth comes pain and pleasure.

Growth requires courage, will and strength.

Growth is the cause of death and rebirth.

If one lacks meaning, they will jump at anything good or bad that may fill that void and provide that desperate yearning for meaning.

One must be willing to look like a fool in order to learn something of value.

Most facts are irrelevant.

It takes something to become broken before one gives it the proper examination it deserves.

Be yourself and you will be unique.

The labyrinth of life does not come with a map

You will never discover yourself by imitating others.

Mirrors represent the gift of self-reflection.

Don't practice what you don't want to become.

Everyone has an interesting story.

One must have limitations, otherwise, what will you need to overcome?

Perfection is boring, there is nothing to improve.

Being kind takes no money or resources.

You cannot bring your same stale self into the world and expect it to be wondrous.

We attempt to act out our ideals, and fail miserably.

To remain undistracted, quite a noble challenge indeed.

We all share the feeling of being lied to.

When you treat everything in life as means to an end, you make it to the end and miss out on all the beauty, and things that make life great.

Creating is your only chance of becoming immortal.

The search for meaning is the greatest ongoing search that rarely obtains a satisfied discovery.

If you confront a dark soul, light a torch for it.

Compliment the person who longs for their vanity to be acknowledged and you will gain a friend.

We are paralyzed in the face of endless choices, one must have limitations in order to move forward.

Tragedy is a revelation of our own vulnerability

Rarely do we ever act from a place of complete and utter selflessness.

Our goals are shaped by our idea of our ideal.

Nothing changes a person's attitude toward money more than earning a lot of it.

For one to never feel depressed ever in their life is definitely someone who is blessed.

The more active our imagination becomes, the greater the pleasure we derive from it.

It is not possession but desire that covertly compels people.

Every new possession brings a new disappointment. Which then results in the search for something new to pursue and possess.

The vast majority of human beings are short sighted, they rarely play the long game.

Be significant to those that matter.

One must resist that impulse that wants to agree with the many.

Resentment often sprouts when one lives for others.

"Great things remain for the great, abysses for the profound, nuances and shudders for the refined, and, in brief, all that is rare for the rare." - Nietzsche

Fear can be the greatest of motivators.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A cliche yes, but a fitting one. One can find beauty in everything. For there is even immense beauty in the greatest of tragedies.

The quest for knowledge is eternal.

Many scoff at those things and those people whom they consider less than.

Many scoff at things and people they do not understand.

Those who dare to imagine, dare to create, are the ones who end up changing the world.

The greatest unspoken fear is the fear of freedom.

Masks are a man's best friend.

Many complain about life, yet fear ever leaving it.

Too often we are taught what to think, rarely how to think.

The more intelligent you are, the more adept you are at rationalizing your most idiotic behaviors.

Everyone has something they can teach us.

If you desire peace, prepare for war.

You can't defeat a monster you do not know, and for many individuals that monster is themselves.

Public shame, a great deterrent of individuality.

Whoever seeks will find, but what they find may not appease them.

"I have morals...that is, until you present me with enough money." – The vast majority.

Within the darkness lies discovery.

When attempting to appeal to the masses, one greatly constricts their creativity.

If you confront a dark soul, light a torch for it.

We do not experience the world as it is, we experience the world through our perception of it.

"The world is an empty and hollow place," says the empty and hollow man.

Each of us has a skeleton in our soul.

Be careful what you plant in the garden of your mind.

Deny your soul and you deny your power.

Pain is the prerequisite to transformation.

Our truths can be menacing.

Be wary and attentive to that desire which leads you the strongest.

How is one able to differentiate between a tragedy and a comedy? From my understanding they are one in the same.

A great way to paralyze someone is to give them endless choices.

The incessant feeling of emptiness must be filled, be wary of what you fill it with.

To face your tragedy with the utmost courage is a sign of nobility.

You can't have the unlimited without having the limited.

Live your life in a manner that justifies existence.

Every moment offers a fresh beginning.

By fearing the stranger, the odd, the different, we create outcasts. Society is partially guilty for creating these monsters that take revenge on the world that rejected them.

In order to have character one must have flaws and shadows. Ask any artist, shadows are essential, without them the art lacks depth.

Those who glory in the senses do so only because they are slaves to them.

We turn our proudest vices into our virtues, because we are too lazy and cowardly to change.

Few think, but all have opinions.

Without responsibility comes an agony, a deep-dark melancholy that fills the soul. The soul that yearns for purpose, for meaning, for truth. It suffers, if not drowns, in the dark and vast sea of nihilism.

Vulnerability shines a light on the soul. Exposing all your parts, good and bad. When you hide these parts you are ashamed of, you live in utter darkness, and hide from yourself. You become a stranger to yourself and ashamed of yourself. Therefore you create a monstrous shadow that seethes with rage and resentment. This shadow acts out not only against others, but against you due to the rejection and shame that is casted on it.

Our intelligence as a species has greatly surpassed our wisdom, a dangerous imbalance.

Suffering awakens that part of us that is capable of rising up against it.

Hope is the great deterrent of depression. One needs something to look forward to during those dark and lonely nights.

Truth is a friend to those who have done what is right. Truth is an enemy to the wicked.

Encouragement is the sweet nectar that we so desperately crave, but in which many are sadly deprived of.

From dusk to dawn, life just has a way of moving on.

We all experience reality differently, but what constitutes as "Reality," is just agreed upon sensations and perceptions of the masses.

If you want to know what someone believes, just observe their actions. We act out what we believe.

Hardship destroys the weak and strengthens the strong.

Many think they are going to change the world, yet they can't even change themselves.

When we love, we always strive to be better than we are.

Too often we follow paths blindly.

A thing turns into its opposite if pushed too far

We are seduced into satisfying every impulse, and obeying every primal instinct under a guise of freedom, expression, individuality and fun.

We are led to believe that the pursuit and indulgence in pleasure equates to lifelong happiness and fulfillment, but in fact it leads to addiction, depression, apathy and a harrowing emptiness.

We have been brainwashed into thinking that being a slave to our base desires and impulses is actually a freedom of choice.

Do what makes you happy is wrongly interpreted into, "do what you find pleasurable and escape any sort of discomfort."

Feeling secure allows one to be curious.

Wisdom is ever illusive, though one moves closer to obtaining it when they are willing to admit their ignorance.

You can override fear by endowing the utmost importance upon that act of which you fear.

Fear is faith's opposite.

Intelligence can blind us to our own ignorance.

Intelligence acquired by those who are not mindful often transforms into a distasteful form of hubris. Which inevitably leads to foolish behavior.

We are built to respond to what is immediate and we seek out instant gratification. One must resist this urge if they want to be great and not be easily controlled.

We reason "from" not "to" our convictions. We make an emotional, feeling decision and then use reason to rationalize and validate the decision. Not the other way around.

Reason supports our attitudes towards things, people, and ideas.

Everyone assumes they are acting rationally. If you were to empathize you could understand why they are doing what seems to be completely irrational because to them it makes sense.

We desire something, and then rationalize why we desire it.

Everything must obey something, and if one can't obey oneself, one must obey someone else.

Our origins are shrouded in mystery.

We possess more time saving devices, yet we feel as if we have far less time.

Does anyone actually take the time to think anymore?

There is this chronic fear that if one doesn't check their phone constantly, they will be missing out on something important.

A danger of a globalized mind is that if enough people believe in a certain assertion, value, idea or belief, they will espouse that as truth, even if it is completely false.

Virtue signaling is used to disguise the anger, hatred and vengeance the weak seek. It is their manifestation of their will to power.

Technology was preached as the liberator of mankind, we could finally conquer nature. We did not realize that it would be used to conquer mankind, for we forgot that we are of nature.

Technology has proven to be proficient at inventing better and more efficient ways to kill each other.

Life is contradictory and full of paradoxes, yet we want to limit it. We want it to be one single meaning, lacking any sort of depth, just so that it can be comprehensible to us. Yet the world is incomprehensible, therefore the more we try to comprehend it, the farther away we get to actually understanding it. The farther away we are from the paradoxical truth of reality.

The desire and possibly need to worship has not disappeared, and may not ever be able to fully disappear. Instead, it is replaced by something else. What this something else is, should be of the highest concern. Once something is deified as a god, the followers will not only worship, but will obey with a fervor. They will even obey to the point of immorality, self-mutilation and self-destruction.

Nature doesn't have an opinion of us. Hence why it can be so therapeutic, for we do not need to wear a mask in its presence.

We welcome illusions because they protect us from our emotional distress.

Egoism is channeled into something more acceptable by society and is called altruism. Cruelty is channeled into something more acceptable by society and we call that pity.

We try to run away from ourselves but fail to comprehend that that is indeed impossible to do.

Repression is not the same as reconciliation.

Courage is needed in order to endure the sharp pains that come along with self discovery. The unleashing and confronting of one's shadow can be troubling for even the bravest among us.

The vast majority of individuals are not inherently evil, but what makes evil so terrifying is the vast majority of individuals who are willing to go along with the evil.

You may not have the power to stop or reduce the evil in the world, but you have the power to not add to it.

It is difficult for many to maintain opposing ideas, thus their singular meaning allows for them to be easily manipulated.

It is nearly impossible to form a valid opinion if you are not informed.

The ability to act, think and judge is based on beliefs. If you have no beliefs, you are stuck at this state of tension where you resort to inaction.

Our fellow man may not have sunk so low as we may fear, instead we may have been deceiving ourselves in thinking we have risen so high.

There is a sort of bold reckless freedom that comes with youth.

Parts of yourself are awakened when you force yourself to step out of what is comfortable and routine.

There are some people in whom we encounter that enchant us upon first sight.

Compassion does not fit into the restraints of scientific formulation.

Everything hidden will become manifest, says the zealous prophet.

People are generally magnanimous if given the opportunity to show this virtue.

Humans possess the remarkable ability to grow accustomed to anything if given enough time.

We mistakenly identify our mind as being limited to what we are conscious of.

One must make the repressed instincts conscious not to indulge in them, but to be able to gain a mastery over them.

If one works within the bounds of accepted limitation one will rarely, if ever, discover something new. We have to be willing to explore uncharted territories, even those that society deems as forbidden.

Perception preceded thought, and thought preceded ego.

Rationality lies behind every perceived irrational action. Therefore, everything can be proven to be rational.

A failure and danger of rationality is that everything can be rationalized, even the most heinous and despicable and idiotic actions can be proven to be rational.

Few things are more influential than making an appeal to one's vanity.

One needs a foundation to stand on, otherwise you are drifting, if not drowning in a sea of uncertainty.

It's easy to find the good in someone you like, embrace the challenge of finding the good in someone you despise, it will prove to be far more rewarding.

Balance is the key to a healthy and fulfilling life.

One can truly enjoy rest after a day's hard work.

Some get too caught up with trying to accomplish that they forget to enjoy.

In order to make a true impact one must be willing to take the bold leap and choose bravely to go against the norm. To do something against the grain, to question what others take for granted, and challenge norms. Like the explorers of old, they must discover a new path and pave the way for others.

When the individual becomes a mere statistic, the value of the individual dramatically decreases.

At one point did Art lose its connection to the divine?

Aristotle wisely stated that art is important because it shows where a society's values lie. What does our contemporary art say about our society's values?

What does it mean to be a human in today's modern society?

Matter obeys the laws of the universe, but who is the creator of these laws?

In this image driven world, appearance is valued over substance.

Money is the new religion and the god of this world. People worship it, make sacrifices to it, serve it, have faith in it, believe in its power, will kill for it, might even die for it, people will practically do anything for money. Those who possess lots of money, are treated and believe themselves to be something analogous to a demi-god.

Nothing torments a person's psyche more than the habit of comparing.

The "ordinary" life can actually be extraordinary.

The arrogance of science: If science cannot prove it exists, then it means it does not exist.

We seek money, power, success, and fame primarily in hopes that through these things we will receive love.

We desire constant stimulation which causes us to suffer, which then leads to us needing a distraction from our suffering, thus we desire even more stimulation.

If you want to see someone's true character, examine them when they are under a stressful situation.

It can be reassuring to have someone tell you that the reason you are miserable is because the world is a miserable place. Though just because it is reassuring doesn't necessarily mean it is true.

The world isn't working against you, you are working against yourself.

Non-Consequential thinking is a veritable plague in the world today that is only growing worse with the speed and ease of access to information, thanks to modern society. We as a people are given the illusion that we are informed and have thought deeply about things when typically all we do is look at headlines and make rash judgments that we claim as fact, and fail to see and think more deeply on the problem. Additionally we fail to notice how things are not isolated, there is a connected string of complicated consequences.

Something rarely observed about progression is that once you move forward, it is nearly impossible to ever return to a previous state. Progression demands further progression.

What we value dictates and influences what we do.

Most of our values were given to us, and we unconsciously act out these values that are not necessarily our own.

It is extremely challenging to create our own value structure especially if one resides in a society. The society has set values and the individual living in that society has to abide within the boundaries of those values. If the society's values oppose an individual's, there will be an issue. The individual will either be isolated, ostracized, or locked away.

If the world is irrational, then why do we try to understand it rationally?

Why is the quadratic formula more important for a child to learn than how to purchase a car or home? Why is knowing the specific date of a presidency more important than teaching a child how to properly communicate, or how to complete a tax return?

If you make your citizens dependent than they are much more likely to be controlled and will willingly obey.

A crisis is a golden opportunity for leadership to seize more power and control.

Each thought carries with it power.

We become the sum of our thoughts, feelings and actions.

There is an interconnectedness between us all that we are truly unaware of. We are not islands, for our choices affect not only us, but those around us. Even those we may be unaware we are affecting.

"Bad" things occur in your life to make you aware, to wake you up, to prevent you from making that same mistake again.

Human nature is stronger than any individual, institution or technological invention. It ends up shaping what we create to reflect itself and its primitive roots.

Societies that cannot trust one another fail, implode or become authoritarian.

We bend reality to see the world in terms that are compatible with our own selfish interest, and by doing this, we indeed become dishonest.

We humans are not easily content with our circumstances. By some cruel innate force within us, the moment we possess something or get what we want, our minds begin to drift toward something new, something different, something that we believe and imagine will be better than what we currently have. The more distant and unattainable this new object is, the greater our desire will be for it.

What you should covet is a deeper relationship to reality, which will bring you calmness, focus and practical powers to alter what is possible to alter.

When people overtly display some trait, they are most often concealing the contrary reality.

If people take an action that seems out of character, take note, for what often appears out of character is actually more of their true character.

People respond to your energy and demeanor far more than your words.

People tend to act as mirrors to us, whatever attitude you give to them they will typically give it back to you.

Emotions tend to narrow the mind, making us focus on one or two ideas that will satisfy our immediate desire for power, attention, gratification, and these ideas typically backfire.

A calm mind and spirit allows one to entertain a wide range of options and solutions.

Emotions originate as physical arousal designed to capture our attention and cause us to take notice of something around us.

We have an appearance bias which is typically false, as people will generally present themselves in the noblest light.

When recounting a story, the person will always place themselves in the role of the hero or victim, rarely the perpetrator.

We humans tend to respond first and foremost to what we see and hear and to what is the most dramatic in an event.

Alarmed by something that has caught our attention in the present, we grab for a quick solution without thinking deeply about the context, the roots of the problem, or the possible unintended consequences that might ensue because we have an instinct to react first and think after. Many, if not all of our actions are based on insufficient information.

Trying to persuade someone out of their own beliefs only causes them to build greater defenses.

To get people to move from their defensive positions you must always make it seem like what they are doing is of their own free will and has nothing to do with your persuasive abilities or things that you have stated. If you want to persuade someone, you have to discover a way in which your listener believes your idea to be their own.

People are generally afraid of the uncertain and unfamiliar, therefore they replace curiosity with conviction.

Positive attitudes contain less fear, thus the world opens more to them. Negative attitudes narrow our lenses. From a negative perspective we unconsciously limit what we see and experience to give us more sense of control in hopes that the world will be less fearful if we have some control, even though we are closing ourselves off to the wonders of the world.

You may not have the power to control what happens to you, but you have the power to choose and control how you want to react.

Envy is a painful emotion for it is an admission of our own inferiority, which is something unbearable for most humans to admit.

Human beings all possess unimaginable depth, though the vast majority are content with residing in the shallows.

Technology gives us the impression that everything in life can be fast and simple, that we don't have to spend years learning to master a subject.

If possible, avoid being around someone who is a constant victim. Too much close contact may result in you catching that awful plague as well.

We are the only species of our knowledge that is truly conscious of our own impending mortality, which can act as a curse and a blessing.

Much of our mental activity revolves around fantasies and resentments that are completely internal and have little relationship to reality.

Is it more or less tragic if one doesn't have a choice in their fate?

A creative force had to exist in order for things to be created.

Is there a single universal truth? And if so, how could someone know that that "truth" was actually "truth," and that it is the only "truth?"

The statement that everyone is born equal has been altered to reflect the idea that everyone should be made equal.

By consistently telling a group of people that they are victims, you are stripping them of their power and they will soon believe that they are indeed, nothing more than mere helpless victims.

It is nearly impossible for your culture not to shape you in some way or form.

The chronic habit of conforming to the group will lead to a loss of self.

We never question a dream, only when we wake up from the dream do we realize that the dream was odd and strange. During the dream it seems normal to us, nothing to ponder. Is this the same as life? There are times when things that we do seem so normal until you begin to reflect, and you realize how absurd and strange life truly is.

Why do we assume waking life is reality and dreams are mere fiction? Couldn't it be the opposite? Or couldn't it all be reality since we experience both the waking life and the dream.

Why do we feel lonelier than ever though we inhabit overpopulated cities?

Unconscious to conscious to unconscious once again. The cycle of a life.

A great idea will remain an idea unless one decides to take action.

Perhaps life is so mysterious because it wants to provide us with something to always seek.

Our first impulse is to judge rather than to love.

Though civilizations and technology have changed over the course of human history, the thing that hasn't changed is our base desires.

You can rarely go wrong with forgiveness, compassion and love.

We are shaped by our environment.

It is hard to hear your inner voice when the world is so loud.

Do we create or discover ourselves? Perhaps both?

We are quick to run to someone else to provide us with an answer instead of looking to ourselves.

Too often we unjustly place the blame of who we have become on other people.

Reality is beyond what we can perceive.

One cannot even begin to comprehend objective reality if they are viewing it in the aspect of their limited subjective reality.

One cannot know objective reality, nor Being through their own subjective reality, and limited ego consciousness. When one thinks consciously about anything, they are thinking through their subjective reality, thus, completely unable to escape the subjective which of course leads one never being able to understand reality outside of their subjective understanding.

Being always precedes questioning. It is constantly being eluded. If you question Being, the Being part is always preceding the question. It is impossible to truly get a grip on discovering what the essence of "it" is because you can't escape "it." Even if you were to escape "it," would questioning, thinking, being aware even be possible? It seems as if conscious awareness, thinking and being able to comprehend sense experience is all tied up with whatever Being is.

Mathematics, language, grammar, pronunciation, reason and games all depend on rules and our ability to follow those set rules.

Attempting to hide one's madness indeed causes one to become more mad.

It is far easier to make something more difficult than to make something simpler.

Taking away someone's freedom will not teach them how to act as a free person.

Beauty makes an appeal to both the sensual and the intellectual.

The only personal knowable realities are those in which our conscious minds perceive.

The internal and external depend on one another.

Attention is the new currency.

There are few things that match the joy that is derived from bringing joy to another human being's life.

If you can get yourself to serve others, your life will be fulfilling, rich and meaningful.

The greatest danger to the world is the psyche of man. Which is something rarely mentioned.

Suppressed instincts can gain control of a man, they could quite possibly even destroy him.

Instead of trying to uncover and work out what is bothering us, we resort to distractions.

Pursue that which is meaningful and not which is expedient.

Nothing good ever comes quickly.

Four basic assumptions one must assume in order to move on and create a philosophy that actually works to achieve a fulfilling life:

1. One must accept themselves and their experience as real.

2. One must accept the external world as real.

3. One must believe that they have free will, a choice in their life. That they indeed have some power to choose.

4. One must believe life has a purpose.