Stoicism
'Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?'
Lao Tzu
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you’re heading.” - Lao Tzu
Only silence enables us to say something unheard of. The compulsion of communication, by contrast, leads to the reproduction of the same, to conformism:
So it’s not a problem of getting people to express themselves but of providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say. Repressive forces don’t stop
“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
– Epictetus
The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The work of life is to develop it. The meaning of life is to give your gift away.
Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?
– Socrates
concluding that he was indeed wiser than all others, for he alone recognized his own ignorance.
Richard Tarnas • Passion of the Western Mind
“He who knows much about others may be learned, but he who understands himself is more intelligent. He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.”
– Lao-Tse