“We do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training” - Archilochos
“Imperator sibi maximum imperium est” (To rule yourself is the ultimate power) - Seneca
“Slow is smooth; smooth is fast” - anon
“Practice the simple things hard & the hard things become simple” - anon
“Adversity introduces a man to himself” - attributed to Einstein but sources vary
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. -Calvin Coolidge
don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
"What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed, Whatever years be behind us are in death’s hands.
Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s. While we are postponing, life speeds by.
Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity, - time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay."
– Seneca, Epistles to Lucilius, Epistle 1
“When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero, going home” - Tecumseh
from the Go Rin No Sho (Book Of Five Rings)
In battle, if you you make your opponent flinch, you have already won.
It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet.
Today is victory over yourself of yesterday; tomorrow is your victory over lesser men.
If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you.
The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win.
All man are the same except for their belief in their own selves, regardless of what others may think of them.
You must understand that there is more than one path to the top of the mountain.
Miyamoto Musashi
“Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.”
“Let him that would move the world first move himself.”
“Be as you wish to seem.”
“If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.”
Been reading a lot of Socrates. He was a smart dude.
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
Been reading a lot of Socrates. He was a smart dude.[/quote]
Seneca’s Epistles and Cicero’s De Officiis are also good reads. Makes you wonder how far (or little) we’ve really come.
Some great stuff here. I will be using a lot of these
The Calvin Coolidge quote cited by Captnoblivious is the secret to success.
" Life is not all Blondes and Blowjobs" --------Robert A.
" Alcohol will not solve your problems, but, neither will milk"—a sign hanging in the ASP on KAF.
" Fast is fine, accuracy is final" ------Wyatt Earp.
Don’t be a fool and die for your country. Let the other sonofabitch die for his. – George S. Patton
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage. – Anais Tin
It’s never too late to be who you might have been. – George Eliot
Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves. – Joseph P. Thompson
Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself. – Lois McMaster Bujold,
Don’t let the bastards grind you down. – General Joseph W. Stilwell
To be great is to be misunderstood. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
The difference between a successful athlete and a crappy one is they always do the things they have to do, not what they want to do. – Dave Tate
Three failures denote uncommon strength. A weakling has not enough grit to fail thrice. – Minna Thomas Antrim
Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. – George Washington
We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and you must win. – Edward Gibbon
Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide. – Marva Collins
The only normal people are the ones you don’t know very well. – Joe Ancis
I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they’d never expect it. – Jack Handey
It is not worth an intelligent man’s time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already enough people to do that. – G. H. Hardy
Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author? – Philip G. Hamerton
Next time you’re tempted to say you “can’t,” remember that what you’re really saying is, “I don’t want to.” – Craig Weller
Ultimately, we’re all dead men. Sadly we cannot choose how, but, we can decide how we meet that end, in order that we are remembered, as men. – Proximo (Gladiator)
What we do in life, echoes in eternity. – Maximus (Gladiator)
?Once more into the fray…
Into the last good fight I’ll ever know…
To live and die on this day…
To live and die on this day…?
― The Grey
here is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there will be nothing else to do, and nothing else to pursue. Live being true to the single purpose of the moment. Yamamoto Tsunetomo
Quod me nutrit me destruit’ (what nourishes me also destroys me)
?Your fears are not walls, but hurdles. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the conquering of it.?
― Dan Millman
“The more you sweat in training, the less you will bleed in battle.” - Motto of Navy Seals
?Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.?
― Thomas Edison
?Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.?
― William Ernest Henley, Invictus
?Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers,
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but
for the heart to conquer it.?
― Rabindranath Tagore
?Live as if you were already dead.? ~ Japanese Samurai saying
In actuality, this seemingly dark wisdom is anything but morbid ?This wisdom is raw genius; potentially the most important thing I could ever share with you.
For when we wake up to the TRUTH that life ? everyone?s life ? is fragile and precious and fleeting, then we have no choice but to become fully alive once more ? alive like we were in our infancy ? alive like we were in our beginning.
When we wake up to the TRUTH that we are not here to merely ?have fun? or ?be successful? or ?live a good life? ? the TRUTH that these pursuits are actually an avoidance of life, not a living of it, then our options become deliciously limited ?
If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.
Start every day off with a smile and get it over with.
I never drink water because of the disgusting things that fish do in it.
Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake.
No doubt exists that all women are crazy; it’s only a question of degree.
Never try to impress a woman, because if you do she’ll expect you to keep up the standard for the rest of your life.
Women are like elephants. I like to look at 'em, but I wouldn’t want to own one.
It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.
Remember, a dead fish can float downstream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream.
There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.
and his most famous quote’s
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.
Never give a sucker an even break.
W.C. Fields
Temperance
And let this truth be present to thee in the excitement of anger, that to be moved by passion is not manly, but that mildness and gentleness, as they are more agreeable to human nature, so also are they more manly; and he who possesses these qualities possesses strength, nerves and courage, and not the man who is subject to fits of passion and discontent. For in the same degree in which a man?s mind is nearer to freedom from all passion, in the same degree also is it nearer to strength.
-Marcus Aurelius
Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “If”
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don?t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don?t give way to hating,
And yet don?t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream?and not make dreams your master;
If you can think?and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ?em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ?Hold on!?
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings?nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds? worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that?s in it,
And?which is more?you?ll be a Man, my son!
Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.
-Gen. James Mattis USMC
“When life gives you lemons, get the fuck over it.” - my brother
“Quitting is okay if you’re a little sissy.” - friend’s 8 year old
“Do Kegals and marry Rich!” ~ Anna Nicole Smith
A wet pussy and a dry purse doesn’t mix.