This continuation page contains additional source-backed quotations not shown in the initial 50-quotation overview. Return to the topic guide and browse collection.
“Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure.”
Leisure is easier to protect when working time is used deliberately, linking time management with freedom rather than treating organization as an end in itself.
Poor Richard’s Almanack; the maxim connects disciplined use of working time with the ability to gain leisure.
“Education is meant to make us appreciate the things that are beautiful in nature.”
Learning should enlarge perception as well as employability, helping a person notice value and beauty that might otherwise pass without attention.
Character Building, “The Highest Education,” Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington places appreciation of beauty in nature alongside truth, justice, generosity and service as outcomes of education; this sentence belongs to the later address identified here rather than the earlier education address.
“Call the attention of your near neighbour at the table to the excellence of the coffee.”
The deliberately ordinary example turns gratitude into a social habit: notice what is good and make that appreciation visible to another person.
Character Building, “Two Sides of Life,” Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington contrasts excellent coffee with poor rolls as a small exercise in selective attention.
“Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
The sentence does not deny bereavement or hardship; it redirects attention toward the good that remains present while acknowledging that every life also contains misfortune.
Sketches by Boz, “Characters,” Chapter II, “A Christmas Dinner,” verified against Project Gutenberg #882 and the scan-backed 1836 Volume I transcription on Wikisource. “Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some” appears immediately after Dickens asks readers to look at their children and explicitly imagines an empty seat where a child has died. The sentence therefore places gratitude beside bereavement and remembered loss rather than denying grief; it is narrator prose, not modern clinical grief-treatment guidance.
“The course of life is fixed, and nature admits of its being run but in one way, and only once.”
Each stage of life occurs only once, so wisdom includes accepting its appropriate strengths instead of endlessly trying to restore an earlier stage.
Cato on Old Age, Shuckburgh translation, in Cicero’s discussion of the distinctive advantages of each season of life.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
The verse places change inside a larger rhythm of seasons and purposes, making it useful for thinking about acceptance when one phase of life gives way to another.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the King James Version, opening the sequence of contrasting times and seasons.
“Forever — is composed of Nows —”
The future and the infinite are made from successive present moments, giving ordinary time a larger philosophical significance.
Poem 690; Dickinson builds the abstract idea of eternity from individual present moments.
“Remember that thou art an actor in a play.”
Life is pictured as a role with conditions we did not choose, while the quality of our performance remains our responsibility.
Enchiridion 17; the longer passage compares human life with playing the role assigned in a drama.
“Some things are in our control and others not.”
The opening distinction of the Enchiridion asks people to separate what depends on their own judgment and action from what does not.
Classical work; English wording varies by translation.
“Wish the things which happen to be as they are.”
The advice is not passivity; it is a call to stop fighting reality before deciding how to respond to it.
A concise clause from Enchiridion 8, where Epictetus contrasts demanding preferred outcomes with accepting what occurs.
“Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party.”
The dinner-party image recommends waiting for what comes in proper order instead of grabbing anxiously, turning restraint into a model for daily conduct.
Enchiridion, chapter 15; the following sentences explain waiting until things come round to you.
“Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish.”
Peace becomes more possible when desire stops demanding that reality conform perfectly to preference before a useful response can begin.
Enchiridion, section VIII, George Long translation; the following clause advises wishing events to be as they are.
“Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.”
Epictetus separates an event from the judgment placed on it, making interpretation a practical point of leverage.
Enchiridion 5 in George Long’s translation; the passage distinguishes events from the opinions that disturb us.
“True instruction is this:—to learn to wish that each thing should come to pass as it does.”
Stoic instruction begins by reducing the conflict between reality and demand, leaving judgment and action to work with what actually occurs.
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, saying XXVI, Hastings Crossley translation.
“There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.”
Mortality cannot be eliminated, so the practical answer is to make conscious use of the finite span between beginning and end.
Soliloquies in England, “War Shrines”; the sentence follows a contrast between strained worldliness and a more festive acceptance of life.
“I do live in a beautiful dream; but that dream is the actual, the present,—not cold, but warm; not bare, but furnished with a thousand blessings.”
Her optimism is located in attention to the actual present and the blessings she perceives there, not in denial of present reality.
Optimism: An Essay (1903), Project Gutenberg #31622. Keller immediately goes on to reject optimism that ignores evil or suffering.
“The hand is my feeler with which I reach through isolation and darkness and seize every pleasure, every activity that my fingers encounter.”
Keller describes active exploration rather than passive limitation: touch becomes a way to pursue experience, pleasure, work, and connection with the world.
The World I Live In (1908), Chapter I, “The Seeing Hand,” printed page 5, Project Gutenberg #27683. Keller calls the hand her “feeler” reaching through isolation and darkness to seize pleasure and activity, describing her own tactile engagement with the world rather than prescribing one universal sensory hierarchy.
“Do no violence to yourself, respect in yourself the oscillations of feeling.”
Self-respect here means refusing to force inner life into an artificial uniformity; changing feelings can be observed and treated with patience instead of self-aggression.
Amiel's Journal, entry dated April 28, 1852, in Mary Augusta Ward’s public-domain translation; Amiel counsels patience with the movement of feeling.
“To be awake is to be alive.”
Being fully attentive is presented as a deeper form of living than merely moving through routine.
Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.”
Wonder and transcendence are located in the ordinary world around us instead of only in distant or abstract ideals.
Walden, chapter “The Pond in Winter”; the line joins the immediate natural world with spiritual wonder.
“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.”
Morning becomes a metaphor for inward wakefulness: a person is fully awake when attention and possibility begin again.
Walden, chapter “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
The line criticizes unnecessary complexity and argues for protecting attention from endless small demands.
Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately.”
The move to the woods is a deliberate experiment in stripping away distraction and paying closer attention to living.
Walden, “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For.”
“I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”
Solitude is described as companionship rather than deprivation, making room for comfort in one’s own presence.
Walden, “Solitude”; Thoreau argues that physical aloneness need not amount to loneliness or lack of companionship.
“Act—act in the living Present!”
The imperative shifts attention from regret and speculation toward action available in the present.
A Psalm of Life; the line follows the instruction to let the dead past bury its dead.
“Let the dead Past bury its dead!”
The poem rejects living backward and immediately redirects attention toward action available in the present.
A Psalm of Life, in the stanza beginning “Trust no Future.”
“Man is the keeper of his heart; the watcher of his mind; the solitary sentinel of his citadel of life.”
Self-command is pictured as watchfulness: repeated attention to thought matters because neglected patterns can gradually direct conduct without deliberate choice.
Out from the Heart; Allen uses the sentinel image while describing responsibility for guarding and ordering one’s thought.
“This inward peace, this silence, this harmony, this Love, is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Allen describes spiritual fulfillment as an inward condition of peace, harmony, and love rather than as a reward measured primarily by external circumstance.
The Way of Peace; the sentence belongs to Allen’s account of the inward qualities he associates with spiritual peace and selfless love.
“As you succeed in overcoming self you will begin to see things in their right relations.”
For Allen, clearer perception follows disciplined work on one’s own impulses and biases; self-mastery changes not only conduct but the proportions in which problems are seen.
The Way of Peace; Allen links self-mastery with clearer perception and a less distorted relationship to circumstances and other people.
“Of your own accord you cling to your unrest; of your own accord you can come to abiding peace.”
Within Allen’s spiritual framework, the line emphasizes personal participation in habits of unrest and in the disciplined change he believes can lead toward a more settled inward life.
The Way of Peace, “The Realization of Perfect Peace,” Project Gutenberg #10740. Allen places this sentence in a religious exhortation about surrendering selfish desires and entering what he calls an inward resting-place; it is period spiritual teaching, not a claim that distress is always voluntarily chosen.
“To be in the world and yet not of the world is the highest perfection, the most blessed peace, is to achieve the greatest victory.”
Allen defines peace as freedom from being inwardly ruled by surrounding pressures, presenting self-command and spiritual detachment as a deeper victory than external conquest.
The Way of Peace; Allen contrasts inward spiritual independence with being carried along by the impulses and conflicts of the surrounding world.
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any.”
The instruction makes unresolved resentment relevant even in a private act of prayer: a grievance cannot simply be separated from the way a person approaches reconciliation and mercy.
Mark 11:25 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse.
“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:”
Attention is directed to ordinary flowers as a corrective to anxious preoccupation, making observation itself part of the teaching about worry.
Matthew 6:28, King James Version; Jesus points listeners to the lilies while discussing anxiety about clothing and material provision.
“There is always a new page to be turned in natural history, if one is sufficiently on the alert.”
Close observation keeps natural history open-ended because alert attention can reveal behavior and relationships that familiar surroundings had previously concealed.
Pepacton, natural-history essay; Project Gutenberg #7441. Burroughs immediately illustrates the claim with an unexpected observation of eagles and later repeats the naturalist’s maxim “Watch and wait.”
“Secrets lurk on all sides.”
The brief line frames observation as discovery: familiar landscapes still contain details that reward patience, questions, and repeated looking.
Wake-Robin; the phrase belongs to Burroughs’s description of the naturalist’s expectant attention to the world nearby.
“There is news in every bush.”
Ordinary natural surroundings become continuously informative when attention is active enough to notice changes, signs, creatures, and seasonal detail.
Wake-Robin; Burroughs uses the line while describing the alertness and discovery available to an attentive observer outdoors.
“Expectation is ever on tiptoe.”
Curiosity keeps the observer mentally ready because the next small discovery may appear before it can be predicted or scheduled.
Wake-Robin; Burroughs describes the anticipatory state created by close engagement with birds, seasons, and other natural signs.
“The poetry of earth is never dead.”
Seasonal change does not extinguish natural life; the poem hears a continuing voice in both summer and winter.
On the Grasshopper and Cricket, opening line.
“The mind is its own place.”
The statement emphasizes how mental framing can alter the experience of circumstances, for good or ill.
Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 254; retained legacy short extract from the fuller Satan sentence beginning ‘The mind is its own place’ and continuing into line 255. It is the same underlying passage as the longer catalog record, not a separate fifth passage.
“How interesting everything is!”
Wonder becomes a method of attention: rocks, streams, plants, and animals all become invitations to learn rather than background scenery.
My First Summer in the Sierra, near the close of the summer journal.
“This is true freedom, a good practical sort of immortality.”
Muir describes freedom as absorption in immediate natural experience, where ordinary anxiety about saving time temporarily loses its force.
My First Summer in the Sierra, June 13; the sentence follows his reflection on not hurrying like the trees and stars.
“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.”
Muir presents mountain experience as something that can restore perspective and emotional steadiness through direct contact with wild landscapes.
Our National Parks; Muir follows the invitation with an account of nature’s peace flowing into the observer, linking mountains with restoration and attention.
“Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.”
The image treats peace as something absorbed through attentive presence in nature, not merely as an idea reached through argument or distraction.
Our National Parks; the sentence occurs in Muir’s invitation to enter the mountains and receive their restorative influence.
“All the world seemed new-born.”
Intense attention can make familiar surroundings feel newly encountered, turning an ordinary moment into a renewed experience of landscape and life.
Travels in Alaska, mountain excursion near the Stickeen; Muir describes the effect of evening light after a strenuous day.
“For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.”
Life continues forward despite attachment to what has already happened, so care for the past cannot make the present remain there.
The Prophet, “On Children”; Gibran contrasts parents’ memory of yesterday with children belonging to a life that moves forward.
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
Different seasons of life call for different emotional responses; mourning is not a permanent failure but one legitimate part of human time.
Ecclesiastes 3:4 in the King James Version.
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow.”
The teaching redirects attention from imagined future trouble toward responsibilities that actually belong to today.
Matthew 6:34 in the King James Version; the opening sentence is quoted here.
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”
Guarding inner life is presented as practical because attention and motives influence conduct downstream.
Proverbs 4:23 in the King James Version.
“Be still, and know that I am God.”
Stillness is paired with trust, shifting attention away from frantic control and toward a larger frame of confidence and perspective.
Psalm 46:10 in the King James Version; the verse places stillness and trust inside a psalm about turmoil and refuge.
“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”
Awareness of limited time is turned into a reason to choose more wisely rather than merely fear mortality.
Psalm 90:12 in the King James Version.
“The excellence of the mind is in abysmal stillness.”
The water analogy extends inward: excellence of mind is associated with depth and stillness rather than constant display, rivalry, or restless reaction.
Tao Teh King, chapter 8, James Legge translation; the line is one element in a broader comparison between highest excellence and water.
“Purity and stillness give the correct law to all under heaven.”
The line gives stillness a governing role: clarity and quiet are treated as conditions from which more ordered action can emerge.
Tao Teh King, chapter 45, James Legge translation; the sentence follows the claim that being still overcomes heat.
“Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear.”
The muddy-water image makes stillness a condition for clarity: agitation can keep disturbance suspended, while enough quiet allows what is clouding perception to settle without force.
Tao Teh King, Chapter 15, James Legge translation, Project Gutenberg #216. The next sentence asks how the condition of rest is secured and answers through the gradual relation between movement and rest; the passage belongs to Taoist philosophy, not a clinical relaxation technique.
“Do every act of thy life as if it were the last.”
Treating action as potentially final concentrates attention on doing the present duty carefully instead of postponing integrity or focus.
Meditations, Book II, section 5, George Long translation; this clause occurs inside a longer instruction about dignity and reason.
“While thou livest, while it is in thy power, be good.”
Limited time turns character into a present-tense responsibility rather than a future intention.
Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation.
“Think not so much of what thou hast not as of what thou hast.”
Attention to what is already present can reduce the restless comparison created by constantly measuring life against what is missing.
Meditations, Book VII, section 27, George Long translation.
“Say nothing more to thyself than what the first appearances report.”
The instruction separates observation from added interpretation, helping prevent an initial event from becoming a larger story of injury or fear.
Meditations, Book VIII, section 49, George Long translation.
“It is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself.”
A person can create an inward pause even when external conditions are noisy, using reflection to restore order before returning to action.
Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation; this is the central clause of the retreat passage.
“Take away thy opinion, and then there is taken away the complaint, “I have been harmed.””
The statement asks whether part of suffering is sustained by the story attached to an event rather than by the event alone.
Meditations, Book IV, in George Long’s translation.
“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”
Moral resources are pictured as something cultivated inwardly through continued examination rather than obtained only from external approval or circumstance.
Meditations, Book VII, section 59, George Long translation in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
“A taste for the beauties of nature should be very early cultivated.”
Attention to nature is treated as something that can be educated, giving children another source of pleasure beyond display, fashion, or social approval.
Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787), “MORAL DISCIPLINE,” printed page 22, Project Gutenberg #67466. Wollstonecraft urges that a taste for the beauties of nature be cultivated early and immediately recommends making the vegetable and animal worlds intelligible and amusing to children.
“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
Anticipatory fear can add suffering before any feared event occurs, effectively extending pain through imagination and expectation.
Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter XIII, “Of Experience,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 19 #3599 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne argues that anticipatory fear can add suffering before the feared event arrives.
“Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.”
Seeking is itself connected with rejoicing, so happiness is not postponed until every answer or destination is secured.
Psalm 105:3 in the King James Version; concluding clause of the verse.
“This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
The verse directs attention to the present day and treats rejoicing as a deliberate response to what has been given now.
Psalm 118:24 in the King James Version.
“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
Emerson connects wisdom with renewed attention, suggesting that curiosity does not always require exotic objects because ordinary experience becomes remarkable when examined closely.
Nature (first published 1836), Chapter VIII, “Prospects,” in James Munroe and Company’s 1849 new-edition witness represented by Project Gutenberg #29433. “The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common” appears near the essay’s close during Emerson’s discussion of prayer, study, facts and ideas. This collection retains 1836 as first-publication year while the evidence layer identifies the reviewed 1849 witness; the sentence remains Transcendentalist philosophical rhetoric rather than an experimentally established measure of wisdom.
“No man can have a peaceful life who thinks too much about lengthening it.”
An obsession with extending life can undermine the peace of the life already present, because fear of ending displaces attention from living.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 4.
“It is likely that some troubles will befall us; but it is not a present fact.”
Possible future trouble is acknowledged without being treated as present reality, preserving attention for what is actually happening now.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 13, section 10, Richard M. Gummere translation.
“It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.”
Poverty is reframed as uncontrolled desire rather than a simple measure of possessions, making appetite itself central to the experience of not having enough.
Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2.
“Postponement is the greatest waste of life.”
Delay is costly because it exchanges a real day for a future that remains uncertain and therefore cannot be spent yet.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; sentence in Seneca’s criticism of distant plans that steal the present.
“Old age surprises them while their minds are still childish.”
Years can accumulate without corresponding preparation or maturity when a person repeatedly postpones the work of deciding how they want to live.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; Seneca describes the engrossed reaching old age unprepared because they failed to notice its daily approach.
“What guarantee, pray, have you that your life will last longer?”
Future plans are not rejected, but Seneca refuses to treat longevity as a certainty that can justify endless postponement.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; Seneca challenges plans to begin living only after retirement from public duties.
“How late it is to begin to live just when we must cease to live!”
The line challenges plans that postpone meaningful living until an imagined later stage when there may be little time left to use.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter III; Seneca criticizes reserving wisdom and leisure for very old age.
“All things that are still to come lie in uncertainty; live straightway!”
Uncertainty about the future becomes an argument for using the available present rather than waiting for perfect guarantees.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter IX; follows Seneca’s contrast between what is in Fortune’s hands and what is presently one’s own.
“The present time is short, the future is doubtful, the past is certain.”
Seneca divides time into three conditions and gives the present special urgency because it is both available and quickly passing.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter X; opening distinction between past, present and future.
“It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”
Seneca shifts the complaint from life being too brief to attention and time being poorly spent.
English wording varies by translation.
“Now while the blood is hot, we must enter with brisk step upon the better course.”
Improvement is treated as work for the available present, not a project reserved for an imagined later period when energy and opportunity may be smaller.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter XIX; Seneca urges a move from borrowed busyness toward study, virtue, and a more deliberate course of life.
“Yet no one will bring back the years, no one will bestow you once more on yourself.”
Lost time cannot be restored in the way money or possessions sometimes can, so protecting one’s years becomes a form of protecting oneself.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter VIII; Seneca warns that even people who know time is precious often give it away without noticing the loss.
“Life will follow the path it started upon, and will neither reverse nor check its course.”
Time continues without negotiating with status or preference, making acceptance of its direction a reason to use the available part more deliberately.
On the Shortness of Life, Chapter VIII; the sentence follows Seneca’s warning that lost years will not be returned.
“The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy, which depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day.”
Excessive dependence on tomorrow steals attention from the only time available for action, making postponement itself a way of wasting life.
On the Shortness of Life, chapter IX.
“It is good to tame the mind, which is difficult to hold in and flighty, rushing wherever it listeth; a tamed mind brings happiness.”
The verse treats inward steadiness as trained rather than accidental: a mind that is repeatedly brought under wise direction becomes a source of greater stability and happiness.
Dhammapada 35, F. Max Müller translation; the wording belongs to the chapter on thought and is preserved as a translated canonical verse rather than attributed to a modern individual author.
“Give thanks unto God for His grace, but for thyself alone confess thy fault.”
The sentence separates gratitude from self-congratulation: what is received as grace is answered with thanks, while personal failure remains something to examine rather than disguise with spiritual pride.
The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter X, “Of gratitude for the Grace of God,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The sentence appears in the third paragraph, distinguishing thanks for grace from confession of one’s own fault within the work’s Christian theology of grace and humility.
“Be thankful, therefore, for the least benefit and thou shalt be worthy to receive greater.”
The devotional instruction treats gratitude as a discipline of scale: small benefits should not disappear merely because larger gifts are desired, since attention to what is received is itself part of humility.
The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Chapter X, “Of gratitude for the Grace of God,” William Benham translation, Project Gutenberg #1653. The sentence appears in the chapter’s fifth paragraph and treats gratitude for even the least divine benefit as part of humility; this remains explicitly Christian devotional teaching rather than a general promise of material reward.
“I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars.”
The ordinary and the cosmic are placed on the same continuum of wonder, resisting the habit of treating small things as insignificant.
Song of Myself, in Whitman’s catalogue of equal wonders.
“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite.”
Blake imagines habitual perception as a filter that narrows reality; cleansing it would reveal a less limited world.
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Plate 14; Blake’s prose-poetic argument about the limits and cleansing of perception.
“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
The rule asks people to judge possessions by use or beauty, turning everyday surroundings into a practical exercise in selection rather than accumulation for display.
Hopes and Fears for Art, lecture “The Beauty of Life”; Project Gutenberg #3773. Morris presents this as a design and household principle inside a larger social argument.
“The readiness is all.”
The emphasis is not on controlling every outcome but on meeting what comes with preparedness and acceptance.
Act 5, Scene 2.
“Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.”
Wordsworth describes long attention to nature as a dependable source of memory, quietness, and moral perspective.
Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey.
“Sweet is the lore which Nature brings.”
Nature is presented as a source of knowledge that can complement formal study by training attention and receptiveness.
The Tables Turned; the line follows Wordsworth’s claim that a vernal wood can teach moral insight.
