12 Wise Words
12 quotes and a note about their power
Over the past six weeks I have had the joy of reflecting on some wise thoughts from leaders across history, arenas, and nations. There are many more quotes that inspire and guide my work, but here is a summary of each of these.
As you read, reflect on which single quote speaks most poignantly to your present circumstance:
People need to be reminded more than they need to be instructed.
—Samuel Johnson
Acknowledge that what people need most is to be reminded of truths they’ve learned, and you will positively change your posture, approach, and the results.
Other men are lenses through which we read our own minds.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ultimately, it is through others, by comparison or contrast, that I understand myself: we require diverse community to facilitate learning and growth.
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ―Eleanor Roosevelt
To look fear in the face, to engage it as you might and old friend, creates new neural pathways, shortcuts to courage and strength, that you can return to later.
"If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." —Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The greatest leaders start with inspiring the hearts of the people, developing a passion for not just the work itself, but for the results the work creates for the world.
“The moment we use the term 'help', a kind of egocentric idea enters into us. If we help someone, that means we are in a superior position. When we help, we feel that we are one step ahead or one step higher than the ones that we are helping. But if we serve someone, then we offer our capacity with humility, on the strength of our loving concern and oneness. So let us use the proper term, 'service'.”—Sri Chinmoy
Service is an offer moreso than help, and service elevates the recipient, inspiring and empowering them—help is a power play, while service is a gift.
“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” —Henry David Thoreau
The answer to some questions is crucial to your life: what are you busy about?
what is the busy-ness producing for you, and what is the ultimate result of your being busy? Be busy about something meaningful.
Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom. —Francis Bacon
If we want to make wise decisions, more talk and noise is unlikely to assist; instead, we should allow silence to nourish the wisdom within.
“The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.”
— Robert M. Pirsig
Wherever you go, there you are… if I don’t have peace, contentment, and “zen” when I’m sitting on my back porch, I’m unlikely to find it on the streets of Paris or at the yoga retreat, I must cultivate these emotions where I am.
"One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation." —Arthur Ashe
In order to be successful we need to have self-confidence—a belief that we can and will be successful, and in order to develop self-confidence, we must work and put in the effort that creates skills and knowledge and passion worth having confidence.
“The sooner we become less impressed with our life, our accomplishments, our career, our relationships, the prospects in front of us...
the sooner we become less impressed and more involved with these things, the sooner we get better at them.” —Matthew McConaughey
When we dive deep into ourselves–to rout out the sharp edges and nurture the rare fruit buried deep below– we can show up better for everything in which we are involved.
“Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
There exists the possibility of and access to true “joy and moral stimulation” in fulfilling work, which provides the thrill of achievement and inherent value in creative effort. Believing this and pursuing work that has meaning to you may not solve your money problems, but it will improve your attitude and experience of work.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear: nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”
—Henry David Thoreau
You don’t have to go into the woods, but your great calling is to live deliberately—
consciously, intentionally, carefully, and on purpose.
I would love to hear how any of these quotes have inspired or impacted you, and if you have a beloved quote you’d like me to see, send it my way!
Thanks for reading.
