“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.”
Solomon, c. 700 BC · traditional author of the book of Proverbs
Chapter 3
On First Choices
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.”
The Dhammapada, c. 300 BC · the earliest collected sayings of the Buddha
“Our deeds determine us, as much as we determine our deeds.”
George Eliot, 1859 · Mary Ann Evans, English novelist
“What the superior man seeks, is in himself. What the mean man seeks, is in others.”
Confucius, c. 479 BC · Chinese teacher of the Spring and Autumn period
“Let right deeds be thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them.”
The Bhagavad Gita, c. 200 BC · Krishna instructing Arjuna before the battle
“A man cannot any whither retire better than to his own soul.”
Marcus Aurelius, c. 175 AD · Roman emperor writing privately to himself
“A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.”
Solomon, c. 700 BC · traditional author of the book of Proverbs
“A ship long lost at sea signalled for water, and the answer came back from a friendly vessel, cast down your bucket where you are.”
Booker T. Washington, 1895 · born enslaved, founder of Tuskegee Institute
When people were asked to name the single greatest regret of their lives, eighty-four in every hundred named something they had failed to do.
Gilovich and Medvec, 1994 · surveys and interviews on the shape of regret over time
In the places where people live longest, everyone can name their reason for getting up. Okinawa calls it ikigai; Nicoya calls it plan de vida.
Blue Zones research, 2008 · five long-lived regions studied by Dan Buettner and colleagues
Cholesterol at fifty told the researchers almost nothing. How satisfied a person was with their close relationships at fifty told them who would be healthy at eighty.
Harvard Study of Adult Development, 2017 · the longest running study of one group of lives, begun 1938
“I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence. I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference.”
Robert Frost, 1916 · American poet
Free to read, always. Liking a verse or leaving a comment happens in the app, so the conversation has a name attached to it.