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A system of morality which is based
on relative emotional values
is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception
which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
- Socrates
Related topics: Values
Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
- Socrates
Be as you wish to seem.
- Socrates
Know thyself.
- Socrates (inscribed on the ancient Greek temple at Delphi)
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An honest man is always a child.
- Socrates
He is richest who is content with the least,
for content is the wealth of nature.
- Socrates
He is richest who is content with the least.
- Socrates
I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
- Socrates
The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor
to be what you desire to appear.
- Socrates
Wisdom begins in wonder.
- Socrates
The greatest way to live with honor in this world
is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates
The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates
It is not living that matters, but living rightly.
- Socrates
The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates
Not life, but good life,
is to be chiefly valued.
- Socrates
As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
- Socrates
One who is injured ought not to return the injury,
for on no account can it be right to do an injustice;
and it is not right to return an injury,
or to do evil to any man,
however much we have suffered from him.
- Socrates
Be slow to fall into friendship;
but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
- Socrates
Let him that would move the world first move himself.
- Socrates
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
- Socrates
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing,
and that is that I know nothing.
- Socrates
The shortest and surest way to
live with honor in the world,
is to be in reality
what we would appear to be.
- Socrates
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
- Socrates
Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
- Socrates
Envy is the ulcer of the soul.
- Socrates
I know that I am intelligent,
because I know that I know nothing.
- Socrates
Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
- Socrates
Worthless people live only to eat and drink;
people of worth eat and drink only to live.
- Socrates
I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think.
- Socrates
If a man is proud of his wealth,
he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
- Socrates
Ordinary people seem not to realize
that those who really apply themselves
in the right way to philosophy
are directly and of their own accord
preparing themselves for dying and death.
- Socrates
True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates
He is a man of courage who does not run away,
but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
- Socrates
False words are not only evil in themselves,
but they infect the soul with evil.
- Socrates
From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
- Socrates
All men's souls are immortal,
but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.
- Socrates
The end of life is to be like God,
and the soul following God will be like Him.
- Socrates
Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
- Socrates
As to marriage or celibacy, let a man
take which course he will,
he will be sure to repent.
- Socrates
Our prayers should be for blessings in general,
for God knows best what is good for us.
- Socrates
By all means marry.
If you get a good wife, you'll be happy.
If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher
and that is a good thing for any man.
- Socrates
I decided that it was not wisdom that
enabled poets to write their poetry,
but a kind of instinct or inspiration,
such as you find in seers and prophets
who deliver all their sublime messages
without knowing in the least what they mean.
- Socrates
If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap
whence everyone must take an equal portion,
most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
- Socrates
Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings,
so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
- Socrates
The greatest force in the human body
is the natural drive of the body to heal itself -
but that force in not independent of the belief system.
Everything begins with belief.
What we believe is the most powerful option of all.
- Norman Cousins
Most people don't CHOOSE their value system -
they simply inherit the beliefs of their parents and community.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
It's not clutter, it's my unique filing system.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
When we blindly adopt a religion,
a political system, a literary dogma,
we become automatons. We cease to grow.
- Anais Nin
I want to share with you the three rules
that I have in order to accept an apprentice.
Rule Number 1: Don't believe me.
I don't want you to believe me
but I want you to listen and make choices - your choices.
If what I say, doesn't work for you, leave it.
But if it works for you and that's what you want, then make it yours.
Rule Number 2: Don't believe yourself.
Why? Because most of your belief system is a lie - it's not true.
And by believing yourself, you create all the limitations
that don't allow you to be what you really are.
Don't believe yourself. Listen to what you say,
listen to what you think, listen to what you believe.
And when you listen, open your ears, open your mind,
open your intelligence and make choices.
Rule 3 is, don't believe anybody else.
Don't believe them at all.
Open your ears and your mind; listen and make choices.
- don Miguel Ruiz
Living Into the Great Paradox,
I strive toward my vision,
while accepting gratefully whatever life serves up.
I work to bring about my vision of the future,
which is based on my value system of what is right,
just, noble, compassionate, generous, humane, peaceful, and loving.
Simultaneously, I accept that my vision
is based on only my opinions and prejudices,
and I honor all points of view and value systems,
no matter how different from my own.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Do you ever question why our educational system
teaches competition rather than cooperation?
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
The only way to store information is by agreement.
The belief system is like a Book of Law that rules our mind.
Our biggest fear is taking the risk to be alive.
Humans punish themselves endlessly
for not being what they believe they should be.
We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others,
but we cannot accept and love ourselves.
- don Miguel Ruiz
There is a magic in the memory of schoolboy friendships;
it softens the heart,
and even affects the nervous system
of those who have no heart.
- Benjamin Disraeli
It is much more painful to have lost
something you thought you had,
than never to have had it at all.
If feels as if our trust was dashed.
We are disappointed and we are angry;
but not quite sure at who to direct our anger.
Someone, perhaps "the system," perhaps God,
should have done better.
Most of all we are angry at ourselves -
even though we did our best -
and we are afraid.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
There is no chance and anarchy in the universe.
All is system and gradation.
Every god is there sitting in his sphere.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Is the system going to flatten you out
and deny you your humanity,
or are you going to be able to make use of the system
to the attainment of human purposes?
- Joseph Campbell
Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Compassion is the basis of morality.
- Arthur Schopenhauer
Truth is certainly a branch of morality
and a very important one to society.
- Thomas Jefferson
Aim above morality.
Be not simply good,
be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau
Reverence for life affords me my fundamental principle of morality.
- Albert Schweitzer
A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences,
in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures -
and that is the basis of all human morality.
- John F. Kennedy
I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal
to reason and is in conflict with morality.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
Morality is the basis of things
and truth is the substance of all morality.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
Morality is of the highest importance -
but for us, not for God.
- Albert Einstein
Do not be too moral.
You may cheat yourself out of much life.
So aim above morality.
Be not simply good;
be good for something.
- Henry David Thoreau
The Four Stages of Public Opinion
I (Just after publication): The novelty is absurd
and subversive of Religion and Morality.
The propounder both fool and knave.
II (Twenty years later): The Novelty is absolute Truth
and will yield a full and satisfactory
explanation of things in general -
The propounder a man of sublime genius and perfect virtue.
III (Forty years later): The Novelty won't explain
things in general after all, and therefore is a wretched failure.
The propounder a very ordinary person advertised by a clique.
IV (A century later): The Novelty a mixture of truth and error.
Explains as much as could reasonably be expected.
The propounder worthy of all honor
in spite of his share of human frailties,
as one who has added to the permanent possessions of science.
- Thomas Henry [T. H.] Huxley
Consider adopting the ongoing practice of zero-based gratitude.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment
and the other by acts of love. Power based on love
is a thousand times more effective and permanent
then the one derived from fear of punishment.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
Make your important choices in life
based on your values and your long-term objectives
rather than on a need for approval.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Suppose our gratitude could be zero-based gratitude.
With zero-based gratitude,
we would be grateful for everything we had each day -
regardless of whether it was more or less than yesterday.
With zero-based gratitude, I can be grateful for all the people,
the love, the food, the shelter, the services,
the health, that I am blessed with today,
regardless of what I had yesterday.
With zero-based gratitude,
I can be grateful each day for the gift of life itself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
Thank you for visiting: A system of morality which is based by Socrates.
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