Wisdom From The Wise...

The cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
-Oscar Wilde.

However brilliant an action may be, it should not be accounted great when it is not the result of a great purpose.

Great geniuses have the shortest biographies. Their cousins can tell you nothing about them.
-R W Emerson.

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.
-E M Forster.

The hardest of all is learning to be a well of affection, and not a fountain; to show them we love them not when we feel like it, but when they do.
-Nan Fairbrother.

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.


The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.


At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.
Albert Einstein, In a letter to Max Born, 1926

If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.
Albert Einstein, when asked to describe radio.

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

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.

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

Imagination is more important than knowledge...

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

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.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.


Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

Getting up early is a gift you give to yourself. Few disciplines have the power to transform your life as does the habit of early rising. There is something very special about the first few hours of the morning. Time seems to slow down and a deep sense of peace fills the air. Joining the "Five O'Clock Club" will allow you to start controlling your day rather than letting the day control you. Winning the "Battle of the Bed" and putting "Mind over Mattress" by rising early will provide you with at least one quiet hour for yourself during the most crucial part of the day: the beginning. If spent wisely, the rest of your day will unfold in a wonderful way.

To cultivate the habit of getting up earlier, the first thing to remember is that it is the quality of sleep that matters the most rather than the quantity of sleep.It is better to have 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep than having 10 hours of broken sleep.

Our character is shaped not through life's easiest experiences, but during life's toughest ones.It is during life's most trying times that we discover who we really are and the fullness of the strength that lies between us.

Live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that is not life.

To live your life to the fullest, start taking more risks and doing the things that you fear. Get good at becoming uncomfortable and stop taking the path of least resistance. Sure, there is a greater chance that you will stub your toes when you walk the road less traveled, but that is the only way you can reach to the top.

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to loose sight of the shore for a very long time."
-Andre Gide.

The real secret to a life of abundance is to stop spending your days searching for security and to start spending your time pursuing opportunity.Sure, you will meet with your share of failures if you start living more deliberately and passionately. But failure is nothing more than learning how to win. Its risky out on a limb but thats where all the fruit is.

Deeply fulfilled and highly actualized people simply make wiser choices than others. You can choose to spend the rest of your days sitting on the shore of life in complete safety or you can take some chances, dive deep into the water and discover the pearls that lie waiting for the person of true courage.

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doers of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best, knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
-Theodore Roosevelt.

The real secret of getting things done is knowing what things need to be left undone.

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."
-Peter Drucker.

The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure.
-Sven Goran Eriksson.

Jealousy always sees things through a magnifying glass that makes little things large.
-Cervantes.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.
-John Wooden.

The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people think you cannot do.
-Walter Bagehot.

Incidents should not govern policy but policy should govern incidents.
-Napoleon Bonaparte.

The measure of love is to love without measure.
-St. Augustine.

Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
-H.L. Mencken.

If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.
-Albert Einstein.

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which all the difficulties disappear.
-John Adams.

All greatness is achieved while performing outside your comfort zone.
-Greg Arnold.

Its easy to make money but difficult to make a difference.

Whatever good things we build end up building us.
-Jim Rohn.

A superior man is modest in his speech but exceeds in his actions.
-Confucius.

The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
-Voltaire.

Better a little with the fear of LORD than great wealth with turmoil.
-Bible.

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
-Bible.

The great use of life is to spend it on something that will outlast it.
-James Truslow.

Life can only be understood backwards but it must be lived forwards.
-Goethe.

Our greatest glory lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
-Confucius.

Many of us try to do what is lawful and proper-only to realize that our system is not made for such behavior.

“Vision without action is merely a dream, action without vision is merely passing time; but action and vision together can change the world”- JJ Irani, former TISCO chairman.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.-Abraham Lincoln.

Henry Ford
There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail.

Given a good idea to start with, it is better to concentrate on perfecting it than to hunt around for a new idea. One idea at a time is about as much as anyone can handle.