Quotes

Happiness equals reality minus expectations.

~ https://dateful.com/2021/10/27/my-side-project-story.html

Once you name something, it stops you seeing the whole of it, or why it matters. You focus on the word, which is just the tiniest part, really, the tip of an iceberg.

~ Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

Madālasā's lullaby

You are pure, conscious
and taintless
You are not subject to the
illusoriness of the world
Give up this sleep of
delusion, this dream
which confounds
the mind

Why are you crying?
You are pure
The name you have acquired
is not yours, merely a
mind-created fiction
applied to you

The body is not you,
nor are you of it
The Lord of the universe
doesn't cry either!
This sound is an illusion
attributed to you

The qualities imagined as
yours are inherent in
all the senses
The insignificant elements
within the man acquire
the condition of growth...

...through the addition of
food, water and drink
It is not a growth or
diminution of You

Within the body shell
You remain constant
Do not become confounded
by this body which has been
fastened upon you

"Father"
"Son"
"Mother"
"Wife"
"Mine"
"Not Mine"

Do not assign much
significance to what is only
an aggregation of elements

The deluded man thinks
pains alleviate pain
The deluded man thinks
enjoyment of pleasures
gives happiness

The intelligent man,
whose mind is free from
confusion knows pleasures
and sorrows to be alike

The carriage goes upon
the earth, the body is
seated in the carriage
The Self resides
within the body

The deluded Jīva thinks
"I am this body"
The Self has no attachment
to His carriage
Foolish is such ignorance!

~ Madālasā, Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa (Chapter 23, Verse 11).
Sanskrit source available here. (English translation from Gaiea's rendition).

It is not how much you do – how you do it is what makes life beautiful.

~ Sadhguru

Once you enjoy the inner pleasures of your being, external pleasures will seem rudimentary.

~ Sadhguru

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

~ Rick Cook (context)

Embrace what you don’t know, especially in the beginning, because what you don’t know can become your greatest asset. It ensures that you will absolutely be doing things different from everybody else.

~ Sara Blakely

little by little
day by day
what is meant for you
will find its way

~ s.p

Perfect is the enemy of shipped.

~ Simon Willison

As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.

~ Rumi

The price of loving someone very much is never loving anyone again.

~ Dostoevsky

When you get what you want in your struggle for self,
And the world makes you king for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that man has to say.

For it is not a man's father, mother or wife,
Whose judgment upon him must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most in life
is the one staring back from the glass.

He's the fellow to please, nevermind all the rest,
For he's with you clear to the end
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test,
If the man in the glass is your friend.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But the final reward will be heartache and tears,
If you've cheated the man in the glass.

~ The Guy in the Glass by Dale Wimbrow

Intelligence without courage leads to anxiety because you will spend your time overthinking instead of acting, taking risks, improving your life.

~ Orange Book

If you don't have awareness, you can't change something.

~ Leo Babauta

Rejoice and delight in yourself, no matter how it’s going!

~ Leo Babauta

We don’t usually realize we’re craving quiet. But in my experience, this is where the deepest experience of life lies, in the quietude.

~ Leo Babauta

In stillness, the world is restored.

~ Lao Tzu

The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.

~ Rumi

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.

~ Robert Greene

As long as you know your intentions are pure, never stress yourself about anything or anyone. you have to trust that you will always end up being where you’re meant to be & that it’s never your loss respectfully.

~ y

Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.

~ Jim Rohn

After getting what you manifested, ask for discipline to keep it and wisdom to multiply it.

~ Unknown

Difficulty is what wakes up the genius.

~ Nassim N. Taleb

Inaction is a slow death.

~ Joey Schweitzer

...the second best time is now.

~ Unknown

Crypto is like catnip for programmers. It is hard to keep us away from it, because it's challenging and fun to play with. And programmers respond very badly to the insinuation that they're not clever enough to do something.

~ maciej

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.

~ Bruce Lee

If you’re not sure why you’re doing something, you can never do enough of it.

~ David Allen, Getting Things Done

The distance between dreams and reality is called discipline.

~ Paulo Coelho

Breathe.

If you feel overwhelmed, breathe. It will calm you and release the tensions.

If you are worried about something coming up, or caught up in something that already happened, breathe. It will bring you back to the present.

If you are moving too fast, breathe. It will remind you to slow down, and enjoy life more.

Breathe, and enjoy each moment of this life. They’re too fleeting and few to waste.

~ Leo Babauta

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.

~ Victor Frankl

It is not in our control to have everything turn out exactly as we want, but it is in our control to control how we respond to what happens

~ Epictetus (Stoic philosopher)

Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other.

~ William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction

And when nobody wakes you up in the morning, and when nobody waits for you at night, and when you can do whatever you want. What do you call it, freedom or loneliness?

~ Charles Bukowski

A half truth is a whole lie.

~ Yiddish proverb

We should be careful of each other
We should be kind
While there is still time

~ Philip Larkin, "The Mower"

Every rise and ascent to a higher level represents the death of our lower personality at the level we leave behind. Then, we can gently return to that level and whisper to the ear of the actor playing that role with love, understanding, and affection, 'Yes, you are me, but I am not just you!' This way, we can end the dominion of that role in our lives. We both free it from an existence it actually hates and offer ourselves an opportunity for growth! The biggest obstacle in abandoning the role, that is, the lower personality, is not knowing the existence of a higher level - the fear that if the role goes away, we will fall into a void.

~ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41403090

For an eye washed in silvers, everything looks gray.

~ Aditya Purwa

1. Do your duty, but do not concern yourself with the results.
2. The fruits of your actions are not for your enjoyment.
3. Even while working, give up the pride of doership.
4. Do not be attached to inaction.

~ Bhagavad Gita 2.47

The greatest obstacle to blogging is the temptation to futz with your website instead of writing. Don’t succumb!

~ https://www.benkuhn.net/writing/