“Everyone knows that with money you can buy shoes, but not happiness; food, but not appetite; a bed, but not sleep; medicine, but not health; servants, but not friends; entertainment, but not joy; teachers, but not wisdom.” Socrates
“Money cannot buy friends, but it can lead to quite a few interesting acquaintances. There are things more important than money, but without money, you cannot buy those things.”
Prosper Mérimée
“Most people are deprived of a meaningful existence. We cling to jobs we hate in order to acquire more and more trinkets we do not need, or we work overtime, accumulating days off so we can escape the very reasons we need a vacation in the first place.”
Jacque Fresco
“I came to a wise man and asked him:
‘What is love?’ He said: ‘Nothing.’
But I know that many books have been written:
Some say it is eternity, others that it is a moment.
Sometimes it scorches with fire, sometimes it melts like snow;
What is love? ‘It is everything human!’
And then I looked him straight in the face:
How am I to understand you? ‘Nothing or everything?’
He said with a smile: ‘You have answered yourself:
Nothing or everything—there is no middle ground here!’
Omar Khayyam
“It always seems that people love us because we are good. We do not realize that they love us because those who love us are good.”
Leo Tolstoy
“Love is when you give, and you want to give even more.” Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
“ I think love has no dimensions at all. If anything, there is only yes or no.” Sergei Dovlatov, The Suitcase
“Love knows no logic; it is above reason. Love dwells on the heights, above the valleys of reason. It is an exalted state of existence, the crown of being, and it is granted to few.”
Jack London
“True love begins where nothing is expected in return.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“The eternal thrones of snow,
Their peaks seemed to the eye
An immovable chain of clouds,
And within their circle, the colossal two-headed one,
Shining in an icy crown,
Elbrus, immense and majestic,
Whitened against the blue sky.”
A. S. Pushkin, “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”
“Standing at the summit of a mountain, we gaze into the abyss. Having fallen into the chasm, we contemplate the sky.”
“This world is a mountain, and our actions are cries; it is our cry that always returns to us from the mountains.”
Jalaluddin Rumi
“Those who move mountains begin by removing small stones.” Confucius
“Life in this world is a dream of oblivion that separates a person from reality. Like someone who, having seen a fleeting dream, forgets the native city where they lived for years, the soul surrenders to the illusion and dream of this world and forgets its true homeland. It does not understand that this destructive world clouds the eyes, just as a cloud conceals the stars.” Jalaluddin Rumi
"The main thing that life teaches a person is not that suffering exists in the world, but that it depends on them whether they will turn suffering to their own benefit, whether they will transform it into joy."
"We come to know a person not by what they know, but by what brings them joy."
Rabindranath Tagore
"I think life is given to us so that we can figure out what may be done and what may not. Otherwise, how can we know where the truth lies?" Henri Charrière, "Papillon"
"Life should be arranged so that every moment in it is meaningful." Ivan Turgenev, "Fathers and Sons"
"This river ran and ran, ran without stopping, and yet remained here, in its place. Always, throughout all ages, it was the same, and yet every second it was different, new." Hermann Hesse
"I bow to Lord Krishna, who invariably appears in the form of various complete expansions, such as Rama and Narasimha, and numerous partial expansions, while always remaining the eternal Personality of Godhead, who also comes into this world in His original form—the form of Krishna."
"By killing animals for food, a person suppresses their higher spiritual feelings—compassion and pity for other living beings like themselves—overcoming their own conscience and hardening their heart. How can we hope that peace and prosperity will reign on Earth if our bodies are living tombs in which slaughtered animals are buried?" L. N. Tolstoy