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Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.
Money cannot buy happiness but it does buy a more pleasant form of misery!
Many a time, man thinks that he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. "The saddest
thing I can ever imagine is to get used to luxury", says Charlie Chaplin.
The art of being happy does not lie in enjoying luxuries but lies in the power of extracting happiness
from common things. Isn't it? Better freedom with a crust, than slavery with every luxury.
Warning: Luxury causes addiction, kills faster than the usual speed.
Luxury! More perilous to youth than storms or quicksand, poverty or chains.
Remember, on the soft bed of luxury most kingdoms have expired.
One must experience poverty, to know the luxury of giving.
Epicurean paradox: "Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with necessities of life".
Utility is when you have one cell phone, luxury is when you have a smart phone, opulence is when you
have two and paradise is when you have none. So do not envy the luxurious; pity them!
Luxury creates more problems than it solves! Do you agree? It's not a luxury if you can't do without it!
Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing! Isn't it? Or is it the costliest,
because it requires time, which none have these days!
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Be careful but not full of care!!!
Beware: It's better to be safe than sorry!
Beware of a silent dog and still water.
Beware of the fury of a patient man!
Beware of all free advice - including this!
Beware of the barrenness of a busy life!
Beware of a person who has nothing to lose! One never goes so
Beware: The most dangerous thing is illusion.
Beware of what you ask for, you may get it! far as when one does
Beware of the friend who was once your foe. not know where he
Beware: A mousetrap always provides free cheese. is going. So beware!
Beware: Every wise quote has an opposite quote!
Beware of the front of a bull and the back of a horse.
Beware of the flatterer, he feeds you with an empty spoon.
Beware of little expenses. A small leak can sink a great ship!
Beware of fishing for compliments, you might come up with a boot.
Beware of the half-truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half.
Beware of too much laughter, for it deadens the mind and produces oblivion.
Beware: Failure lies concealed in every success, and success in every failure.
Even after killing ninety-nine tigers the Maharaja should beware of the hundredth.
Beware! Guard against greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.. says the Bible.
Beware! Avarice engenders disrespect, rashness error, and over-circumspection loss.
The fearfully over-cautious get into many troubles, than the usual, so be..be..beware!
Beware: It's better to meet the danger than to wait for it and die of fear!
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You cannot hang men for what they think!
All the problems of the world could be settled easily if only men
were willing to sit quietly and think! The trouble is that men very
often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because
thinking is such a hard work. Our minds are lazier than our bodies!
Belief is when someone else does the thinking. Believing is easier
than thinking. Hence more believers than thinkers.
Those who will not reason are bigots, who cannot reason are
fools, and slaves dare not use their reason!!
In day-to-day life, the wise are instructed by reason, average
minds by experience, the stupid by necessity, and the brute by
instinct only. Few minds wear out; more rust out.
We can lead a man to knowledge but we can't make him think!
If we had to earn our age by thinking for ourselves at least once
The most courageous act in a year, how many of us would reach adulthood?
the world was, is and will If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking, or only one
be..to think for ourselves.. does all the thinking! Do others think twice before they think?
aloud! To think is difficult, Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. Got it? But
many think not with their head but with their pride!
to act is more difficult and
Machines should work; people should think. Is it happening?
the most difficult is to act "We think too much and feel too little. We need humanity..more
in accordance with our than machinery. And we need kindness and gentleness more than
thinking. Isn't it? cleverness. Without these life will be violent and all will be lost",
warns Charlie Chaplin. So think higher, feel deeper.
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At the gate of patience there is no crowding.
The reward of patience
Patience is a bitter plant but it bears sweet fruit. Patience reaps peace
and rashness regret. "One minute of patience, ten years of peace", says is patience. Patience is
a Greek proverb. Infinite patience brings immediate results. Got it? the art of concealing
The two most powerful and invincible warriors are.. patience and time. our impatience! O Lord!
Patience wins the race of life! There are two cardinal sins from which all Please give me patience,
others spring: impatience and laziness. and give it to me
Patience does not help always, but impatience never helps. Patience is
not about how long one can wait. It is about how well you behave while RIGHT NOW!
you wait. The secret of patience is doing something else in the meanwhile.
"An ounce of patience is worth a pound of brains", says a Dutch Proverb.
"Patience is the companion of wisdom", says St. Augustine. But we must
first have a lot of patience to learn to have patience. Isn't it?
All human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope. The key to
everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by
smashing it. "Let him that hath no power of patience retire within himself,
though even there he will have to put up with himself", says a saint.
We can learn many things from children. How much patience we have, for
instance. With them, our patience will achieve more than our power.
Indifference is an excellent substitute for patience. Much better is
detachment. It's not very different from courage. It just takes longer.
Patience and tension are opposites of each other. Patience makes us
mentally strong and tension makes us strongly mental.
We all have great patience when there are too many witnesses present.
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Sin is a pleasure and pleasure is a sin!
The seven deadly sins of the Christian church are greed, pride,
envy, anger, gluttony, lust, and sloth. Satanism advocates indulging
in each of these sins as they all lead to physical, mental and
emotional gratification. Sin is the assassin of the soul.
Pleasure is the foundation for all vice and selfishness is the soul
of all sin. This is the synopsis of all holy books.
Hindu tradition has five fatal sins: killing a cow, stealing gold,
gambling, womanising, and the fifth one is making friends with
such a sinner! Sin is a spiritual illness. It's highly contagious!
Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future. So hate the sin
but not the sinner. A sinner repenting for sins is no more a sinner;
People who think themselves a saint, so arrogant of his sainthood is no longer a saint.
to be virtuous, unknowingly There are four things every person has more of than they know:
make a vice, i.e., always sins, debt, years, and foes. Do you agree?
dwelling on the sins of He that falls into sin is a man; that grieves at it, is a saint; that
others! Counting other boasts of it, is a devil. They sin and grin! For them, the only way
to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.
people's sins does not make Today's greatest sin is the refusal to delay gratification.
anyone a saint. Other men's It’s always easier to avoid temptation than to resist it.
sins are before our eyes; our Not until we take God seriously will we ever take sin seriously.
own are behind our backs. The goal is to rise spiritually, not simply to avoid sin. He who
looks Godward has his back to sin. It is no sin to cheat the devil.
Lord, forgive me! I am a sinner, who's probably going to sin again!
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Religion is the most powerful alternative to God!?
"He needs no other rosary whose thread of life is strung with beads of
love, service, charity and renunciation", says Kabir.
"All seek the Lord in a moment of need, none in a moment of joy. He that
seeketh him in a moment of joy never comes to grief", says Kabir.
Always pray to have eyes that see the best, a heart that forgives the
worst, a mind that forgets the bad, a soul that never loses faith, or just
pray for a tough hide and a tender heart.
Pray as if everything depends on God, and work as if everything depends
on you. Because prayer is not a substitute for work, thinking, watching,
suffering, or giving; prayer is a support for all these efforts.
"I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with
my legs", says Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave!
"Two hands working for others can do more than a thousand clasped in
What God receives most
prayer. To fold the hands in prayer is well, to open them in charity is
is flattery, not worship. better", says a French proverb. A noble deed is a step towards God.
Top 3 prayers that God If we could all hear one another's prayers, God might be relieved of some
frequently receives.. 1) of his burdens! Isn't it? God has no other hands than ours.
to earn money without "Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of
one’s weakness", says Mahatma Gandhi. That's why God does not listen
working. 2) to be smart
to the prayers of the proud. So defend me, God, from myself!
without studying. 3) to "I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time, and You
eat without getting fat! should never trust a person who prays in public", says a wise man.
The secret of prayer: Pray to GOD by HEART, not just by HABIT.
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Most people like short prayers and heavy prasada!
O God! From unreal lead us to the real, from darkness lead us to light,
from death, lead us to immortality. Lead me from death to life, from
falsehood to truth, Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust,
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill my
heart, my world, my universe.
O Divine Master! Grant that I do not seek so much to be consoled as
to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to
love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are
pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to everlasting peace!
When we pray, God hears more than we ask. He gives more than we
imagine. But in his own time, in his own way, and according to his
own wisdom. Let us keep faith. God's delays are not His denials!
I believe in the Sun, even when He is not shining.
I believe in love, even when I do not feel it. God grant me the
I believe in God, even when He is silent: These lines were found serenity to accept the
scrawled on a cellar wall at a concentration camp in Germany. (Where things I can’t change,
thousands of people were tortured to death, mostly for racial reasons!) the courage to change
"The greatest prayer is patience", says the Lord Gautama Buddha.
the things I can, and
Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire? The trouble with
our praying is, we just do it as a means of last resort. Isn't it? the wisdom to know the
When you can’t put your prayer into words, God hears your heart. difference!
He can pick sense out of a confused prayer.
Oh God! Help me change my mind. Make me good. But not yet!
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God’s answers are wiser than our prayers!
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The believer is happy; the doubter is wise. Is man one of God's blunders, or
is God one of man's blunders?
Look back and thank God, look forward and trust God, Because God is more talked about
look around and serve god, look within and find God. than the devil, but followed less.
God is so big, he can cover the world with his love; so small, It seems that many render only
he can curl up inside our hearts; so wise, he knows all our
desires but grants what is good for us. He gives us enough lip service to God like me! Most
to meet our needs, not our greed. people wish to serve God, but
"Adore God as you would if you saw Him, for even if you see only as his advisers! I wanted to
Him not, He sees you", says a Prophet. St. Augustine says, be an atheist, but there weren't
"Compared to God man is nothing. Yet we are everything to enough holidays.
God! God loves each of us as if others don't exist".
"Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart.. a
leaf, a flower, a fruit, or water, I accept with joy", says the
Lord in the Bhagavad-Gita. God sees hearts as we see faces.
God helps those who help themselves, and God helps those
who cannot help themselves. Which is right? Both, because
God helps those who are tired of helping themselves or busy
helping others. But never does he help the lazy!
Don't be greatly worried about all the problems of the world.
That's my job! ..yours lovingly, your God!
People see God every day, they just don't recognize him,
says Vedanta. Think how? (Man - Desire = GOD).
God is at home. It’s we who have gone out for a walk!
Beware: The devil is more interesting than God.
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Success needs a ladder, not a road.
Success is.. knowing your purpose in life, growing to reach your maximum
potential, and sowing seeds that benefit others.
Success is not the key to happiness but happiness is the key to success.
Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of
enthusiasm. Because there is no failure, only feedback. Failure is not the
opposite of success, but a part of success. In fact failure is success in
progress! One may fail many times, but he is not a failure until he gives up.
Don't wish it was easier, wish you were better. Don't wish for less problems,
wish for more skills. Don’t wish for less challenge, wish for more wisdom. This
is the key to success. In fact, there are no keys to success, only tools.
Many of life's failures are people who did not realise how close they were to
success when they gave up. To know how to wait is the secret of success.
From success to failure is one step; from failure to success is a long road,
and the road to success always runs uphill. The road to success leads
The secret of success
through the valley of humility, and the path is up the ladder of patience and
is making our vocation, across the wide barren plains of perseverance. As yet, no short cut has ever
our vacation. When been discovered. So it's not about success, it's all about progress.
passion meets work, The successful people are the ones who can think up stuff for the rest of
work becomes a the world to keep busy with. Isn't it? "To be successful, look for the job you
will take if you don't need a job", says Warren Buffett!
hobby. No rules for
There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot succeed:
success will work if Those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.
we don't. I hold the key to my own success! (You do too!)
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The door of success is marked "push" and "pull."
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You can't be a howling success by simply howling.
Do we really gain anything,
if we conquer the whole Success= dreams+ hard work+ dedication.
world and lose ourselves in Success= I.Q.+ E.Q.
the process? Ours is a Success = 99% Attitude + 1% Aptitude.
world where people don't Success = Sweat + Sacrifice.
Success = 1% inspiration + 99% perspiration.
know what they want and Einstein's equation of success is A = X + Y + Z.
are willing to go through Where A = Success; X = Hard work; Y = Play;
hell to get it! Z = Keeping one's mouth shut.
One of the hardest things in life is not to handle failure, but success!
Success has made failures of many men.
If you wish success in life, make perseverance your bosom friend,
experience your wise counsellor, caution your elder brother, and
hope your guardian angel. Success is the child of two very plain
parents.. punctuality and accuracy.
"The first requisite for success is the ability to apply your physical
and mental energies to one problem incessantly without growing
weary", says Thomas Alva Edison. There is no secret ingredient!
The one and only secret of success is, if you want to die for
something, the whole universe conspires to help you to achieve it.
Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph.
Success is a personal standard, the highest that is in us, becoming
all that we can be. If we do our best, we are a success.
If you go in search of honey, you must expect to be stung by bees!
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Success.. no excuses please!
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The world is full of cacti, but we don't have to sit on them.
The main dangers in this life are the people who are over enthusiastic
about changing everything, or highly stubborn about changing nothing..
Everybody wants to save the Earth, but nobody wants to help his own
mother with the dishes. "Everybody thinks to transform humanity, but
no one thinks of changing oneself", says Leo Tolstoy. But it’s easier to
change oneself than everyone else. That's why a saint prayed every
day: Lord, reform Thy world, beginning with me.
If everyone cleaned their own premises, the whole world would have
become perfectly clean. Likewise, if everybody minded their own
business, the world would go round a good deal faster than it does.
A worldly prayer: Those who are at war with others, are not at peace with themselves.
He who cannot cut the bread evenly cannot get on well with people.
O God, if you can’t make
"I like to see a man proud of the country in which he lives. I like to see
me rich, make my a man live so that his country will be proud of him", says Lincoln.
neighbours poor; if you The biggest change in the modern world is that the young don’t learn
can’t make me thin, make my from the old, they teach the old about the world today.
neighbours fat; if you can’t We live in a world where we give our pounds to those who have too
much and our pennies to those who have too little!
make me intelligent, make The question isn’t whether the world is perfect. The real question to
my neighbours forgetful! If consider is: If it were, would you still be in it?
you give me 10 crores, I We try to change the world, and the world tries to change us. So I
will build a great gorgeous found out that I can’t change the world, and the best I can do is to
temple.. worth 2 crores! learn to live with it. The world changes only from within!
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I am the best author of my life. Life is 50% what we make it
and 50% how we take it. The
I am strong because I know my weaknesses. real problem begins, when we
I am beautiful because I'm aware of my flaws.
I am fearless because I learnt to recognise illusion from reality. overthink of how others take
I am wise because I learn from my mistakes. it! The unhappiest people in the
I am a lover because I have felt hatred. world are those who care the
I can laugh because I have known sadness. most about what other people
I sympathise with the miserable, because I know what it is to may think! In our concern for
suffer! But I know, I have to improve a lot!
Real difficulties can be overcome. It's the imaginary ones that are others, we worry less about
difficult to conquer. Other's feelings are not always facts. So let improving ourselves.
us do our best and do not worry. Stop imagining and start living!
Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself. We cannot
control the evil tongues of others; but a good life enables us to
disregard them. . If you need encouragement, praise, pats on the
back from everybody, then you make everybody your judge.
What we really are, matters more than what other people think of
us! Isn't it? The way you treat yourself sets the standard for
others. But all charming people have something to conceal, usually
their total dependence on the appreciation of others. The desire
to impress others is one of the worst forms of mental imprisonment.
The bad news is.. you can't make people like, love, understand,
validate, accept, or be nice to you. You can't control them either!
But the good news is.. it doesn't matter!
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My biggest fear in life is to be average.
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Conquest of the self is most gratifying!
No two persons in this world are just alike; and both of them are glad for it!
There are only two forces that unite men: Fear and interest. Two things
control men's nature.. instinct and experience.
"The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he
has attained liberation from the self", says Albert Einstein.
The man who thinks he can live without others is mistaken; the one who
thinks others can’t live without him is even more deluded.
"One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how
to love", says Leo Tolstoy. True life lies in laughter, love and work.
"I fear the day technology will surpass our human interaction. Then the
world will have a generation of idiots", says Einstein. He adds, "I do not at
all believe in human freedom in the philosophical sense". Schopenhauer’s
saying..'A man can do what he wants, but not will what he wants'! This
Among all the realization prevents us from taking ourselves and other people too seriously.
creatures, man alone It is conducive to a view of life which, in part, gives humour its due".
is born crying, lives All are made for two reasons: to teach them better or to bear with them.
Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings. Isn't it?
complaining and dies
When a man’s best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.
disappointed. Man Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he
is the only creature intends to eat until he eats them.
who refuses to be I know at last what distinguishes man from animals; financial problems.
what he is. The trouble with people is that they can't or don't understand people.
God’s greatest tragedy is the creation of mankind. Do you agree?
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Threats and insults never rule a country!
A slave of sense
If our actions inspire others to dream more, to do more, to learn pleasures can't become a
more, and to become more, then we are true leaders. Leadership master of himself and a
is not a position or a title, it is action and example. leader of mankind! A
The challenge of leadership is..to be strong, but not rude, simple test of leadership..
to be kind, but not weak; to be bold, but not a bully;
to be thoughtful, but not lazy; to be humble, but not timid; turn around and see if
to be proud, but not arrogant; to have humour but without folly. anyone is following !
He should lead from the front, but not too ahead of his followers!
"It is easy to get a thousand soldiers, but difficult to get one
general", says a Chinese Proverb.
"When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the
heat", says a leader! "But a leader should be slow to punish, and
quick to reward; praise loudly, blame softly", says a proverb.
A good leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men
to do what he wants to be done, and enough self-restraint to
keep from meddling with them while they do it!
A true leader must be able to command with an iron fist, not just
with a humble heart! A leader must inspire or his team will expire.
There is a significant difference between a leader and a cheerleader.
One measure of leadership is the calibre of people who choose to
follow him. Isn't it? So it's the last secret of leadership: Be the
kind of leader that you would like to follow.
Leadership is not about power but empowerment!
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Leadership, like swimming, can't be learned only by reading.
What valour cannot win, flattery may. Only two groups of people fall for He who praises me on
flattery; men and women. People sometimes say that they hate flattery,
but most of them only hate the manner in which it is done!
all occasions is an
Flattery is like chewing gum, enjoy it without ever swallowing it. enemy, who despises
The most skilful flattery is to let a person talk on, and be a listener. me or a knave who
A fool flatters himself, but a wise man flatters the fool. Fools are always wishes to cheat me! A
engrossed in praising themselves and criticising others. But wise men flattering friend is a
keep on evolving by finding fault with themselves, and praising the good
in others. Were there no fools, there would be no flatterers.
secret enemy!
The trouble with all of us is that we would like to be ruined by praise
than be saved by criticism. The sweetest of all sounds is praise. Isn't it?
He flatters me because he knows I am flattered by his flattering me. And
that flatters him. So when he flatters me, he is really flattering himself.
It seems to be a Vedantic explanation of flattery!
Refusal of flattery may be a desire to be flattered twice!
Remember, man does not live on bread alone! Sometimes he needs a
little buttering up. Flattery is the lime that catches many a human fly.
I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me;
Because I always feel that they.. have not said enough.
We despise those who flatter us too much, and hate those who do not
flatter us at all. Do you agree? But they only flatter us who can't hit us!
Remember, gossip is what you say about the objects of flattery when
they aren't present. He who can't or doesn't love, learns to flatter.
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How defenseless we are in the face of flattery!
Compliments cost nothing, Flattery: Something a person tells you about yourself, that you've
yet many pay dearly for suspected all along. It is the sweet food of fools! Yet now and then
even men of wit, will condescend to take a bit. Flattery is like throwing
them. It is hard to resist dust in people's eyes, generally for the purpose of picking their pockets.
a flatterer who gets it Praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. It is easy to flatter, but
right, you see! He never difficult to praise. Who are fond of praising men on their faces are also
seems absurd! Flattery is fond of damning them behind their backs.
useful when dealing with We swallow with one gulp the lie that flatters us, and drink drop by drop
the truth which is bitter to us, or we may reject it altogether!
youngsters. Try and see! Flattery is praise without foundation. Flattery and knavery are blood
relations. He who knows how to flatter unduly, also knows how to
slander unjustly! The same man cannot be both friend and flatterer.
Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier
than flattery. But flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies.
Positive criticism is a good friend, but insincere flattery is a fake friend.
"It is not the failure of others to appreciate your abilities that should
trouble you, but rather your failure to appreciate theirs", says Confucius.
He that rewards flattery, begs it. Self-love is the source of all flattery.
People with high self-esteem are easy victims to flattery. If we never
flattered ourselves, the flattery of others would not hurt us.
To speak ill of others is an indirect way of praising ourselves. Isn't it?
"Grant me prudence to avoid him that flatters me, and patience to
endure him that contradicts me", prays Thomas a Kempis, a saint.
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