If conscience doesn’t create a barrier between impulse and indulgence intelligence must Suppose a river tends to overflow unpredictably, flooding the nearby areas. To protect [...]
Pleasure is too fragile a purpose to sustain us through life's troubles We all seek pleasure. Yet life can put us in such dilemmas and [...]
Our expectation that nothing should come in our way, often comes in our way Our culture often glamorizes go-getters who achieve great goals without letting [...]
Hold your plans lightly not tightly Suppose we catch a beautiful butterfly and hold it in our fingers. If we hold it too tightly, fearing [...]
Living for the moment is a prescription for chaos at best and calamity at worst While driving along an expressway, suppose we see something attractive [...]
Never lose faith in your potential to improve or you will court cowardice and malice Suppose a patient loses faith in the potential of any [...]
Words are not just vehicles of thought but also engines of thought We often think of words as tools for expressing our thoughts. When we [...]
Regulate emotion with reason animate reason with emotion Reason and emotion are two of our fundamental human faculties. By reason, we can be orderly, logical, [...]
Exploiting others’ weaknesses doesn’t make us strong – overcoming our own weaknesses does Some people see the world primarily in terms of power struggles. They [...]
When a danger is less visible it leaves us more vulnerable If we are afflicted by some disease with visible symptoms such as TB, we [...]
Some limits restrict; some protect - knowing which limit does what is intelligence When we are limited in any way, we often see that limitation [...]
Envy targets the envied but torments the envious Envy is the inner dark tendency that makes us miserable at others’ successes; it impels us to [...]
Conscience without intelligence is blunt intelligence without conscience is numb Conscience and intelligence are two vital components of our inner defense mechanism. Whenever we feel [...]
We are the makers of our destiny but not the masters of our destiny When we strive to achieve something challenging, we soon realize that [...]
Weakness makes us hotheaded wickedness makes us cold-blooded We all sometimes act wrongly. But not all wrong actions are equally serious – they fall at [...]
What is our greatest treasure is often not what we treasure the greatest Suppose a child is asked to choose between a toy and a [...]
Time can be a fire in which we burn or a teacher from whom we learn Time is a formidable, inexorable force that pushes us [...]
Intelligence is meant to be the mind’s instructor not its instrument We all have within us something that is impulsive and something that is reflective. [...]
Don’t run from pain or rush towards pleasure – refocus on your purpose Suppose we are driving on a road to a destination. If the [...]
Our intelligence is not like a fixed deposit – it is like a stock market share Suppose we invest in stocks but think of such [...]
We are our greatest hope – and our greatest horror We all sometimes act like Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde; we act sometimes like a [...]
