When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity… you cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others
Keep your friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent
Hesitation creates gaps. Boldness obliterates them.
12–Lose Battles, But Win The War: Grand StrategyGrand strategy is the art of looking beyond the present battle and calculating ahead. Focus on your ultimate goal and plot to reach it.
The time that leads to mastery is dependent on the intensity of our focus.
Sweet are the thoughts that savour of content, The quiet mind is richer than a crown…
…But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.
Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do NOT do, what you do not ALLOW yourself to get dragged into.
Power is a game, and in games you do not judge your opponents by their intentions but by the effects of their actions.
Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start a revolution, or even those who further it; power sticks to those who bring it to a conclusion
The truth is that creative activity is one that involves the entire self – our emotions, our levels of energy, our characters, and our minds.
The conventional mind is passive – it consumes information and regurgitates it in familiar forms. The dimensional mind is active, transforming everything it digests into something new and original, creating instead of consuming.
Creativity is a combination of discipline and childlike spirit.
It is in fact the height of selfishness to merely consume what others create and to retreat into a shell of limited goals and immediate pleasures.
If we experience any failures or setbacks, we do not forget them because they offend our self-esteem. Instead we reflect on them deeply, trying to figure out what went wrong and discern whether there are any patterns to our mistakes.
Any titles, money, or privilege you inherit are actually hindrances. They delude you into believing you are owed respect.
The dreamers, those who misread the actual state of affairs and act upon their emotions, are often the source of the greatest mistakes in history—the wars that are not thought out, the disasters that are not foreseen
Events in life mean nothing if you do not reflect on them in a deep way, and ideas from books are pointless if they have no application to life as you live it.
The pain is kind of challenge your mind presents – will you learn how to focus and move past boredom, or like a child will you succumb to the need for immediate pleasure and distraction?
It is time to reverse this prejudice against conscious effort and to see the powers we gain through practice and discipline as eminently inspiring and even miraculous.
How can we explain such inclinations? They are forces within us that come from a deeper place than conscious words can express.They draw us to certain experiences and away from others.
In following your inclinations and moving toward mastery, you make a great contribution to society, enriching it with discoveries and insights, and making the most of the diversity in nature and among human society.
Though men determine the gods do dispose: and oft times many things fall out between the cup and the lip.