Wisdom Shared III

“A wise person is one who watches over himself and restrains himself from that which is harmful and strives for that which will confront him after death; and a foolish one is he who gives rein to his cravings and seeks from Allah the fulfillment of his vain desires.”

“It is part of the excellence of a person’s Islam that he should eschew that which is of no benefit to him.”

- Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam)

Spanish Proverbs

“A man who prides himself on his ancestry is like the potato plant, the best part of which is underground.”

“A blustering night, a fair day follows.”

“A good grievance is better than bad payment.”

“A rose too often smelled loses its fragrance.”

“An ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship.”

“Better a quiet death than a public misfortune.”

“Between brothers, two witnesses and a notary.”

“Do not rejoice at my grief, for when mine is old, yours will be new.”

“Every season brings its own joy.”

“Experience is not always the kindest of teachers, but it is surely the best.”

“He who is contented is not always rich.”

“I dance to the tune that is played.”

“If you want good service, serve yourself.”

“It is better to be born a beggar than a fool.”

“It is better to weep with wise men than to laugh with fools.”

“To deny all, is to confess all.”

“To whom you tell your secrets, to him you resign your liberty.”

“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week.”

“Truth and oil, always come to the surface.”

“What belongs to everybody belongs to nobody.”

“When fortune knocks upon the door open it widely.”

“Where there is love there is pain.”

“Who knows most speaks least.”

“Stars are not seen by sunshine.”

“The best mirror is an old friend.”

“The wolf loses his teeth, but not his inclinations.”

Inspirations

“Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” – Babe Ruth

“Be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.” – Homer

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop

“The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence.” – Vince Lombardi

“Every man is the architect of his own fortune.” – Sallust

“He who overcomes others has force; he who overcomes himself is strong.” – Lao Tzu

“My mind is my biggest asset. I expect to win every tournament I play.” – Tiger Woods

Fate and Destiny

“You were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within you. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As you are liberated from your own fear, your presence automatically liberates others.” – Nelson Mandela

“We create our fate every day we live.” – Henry Miller

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Fate chooses our relatives, we choose our friends.” – Unknown

“The past is like a river flowing out of sight; the future is an ocean filled with opportunity and delight.” – Anna Hoxie

“Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” – Tyron Edwards

“Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.” – Marcus Aurelius

“Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.” – Nathaniel Hawthorne

“It’s in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.” – Anthony Robbins

“How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is.” – Karl Wilhelm von Humboldt

“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end.” – Ursula K. Le Guin

“The heart is its own Fate.” – Philip James Bailey

“Ask not what tomorrow may bring, but count as blessing every day that fate allows you.” – Horace

“Fate leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant.” – Seneca

“Just because fate doesn’t deal you the right cards, it doesn’t mean you should give up. It just means you have to play the cards you get to their maximum potential.” – Les Brown

“GOOD is good and bad is bad, and nowhere is the difference between good and bad so wide and so fateful as in human character. For character makes destiny in the individual and in the race.” – Edward O. Sisson

“If you can’t change your fate, change your attitude.” – Amy Tan

“You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.” – James Allen

Benevolence and Benefaction

“True benevolence, or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation.” – Joseph Addison

“Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.” – Mother Teresa

“Charity is a supreme virtue, and the great channel through which the mercy of God is passed on to mankind. It is the virtue that unites men and inspires their noblest efforts.” – Conrad Hilton

“I keep my ideals, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” – Anne Frank

“The man of wisdom is never in two minds about right and wrong; the man of benevolence never worries about the future; the man of courage is never afraid.” – Confucius

“The heart benevolent and kind The most resembles God.” – Robert Burns

“For peace is not mere absence of war, but is a virtue that springs from, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” – Baruch Spinoza

“Generosity during life is a very different thing from generosity in the hour of death; one proceeds from genuine liberality and benevolence, the other from pride or fear.” – Horace Mann

“The true source of cheerfulness is benevolence.” – Unknown

“To remove ignorance is an important branch of benevolence.” – Ann Plato

“Behold, I do not give lectures or a little charity, When I give, I give myself.” – Walt Whitman

“The principle of liberty and equality, if coupled with mere selfishness, will make men only devils, each trying to be independent that he may fight only for his own interest. And here is the need of religion and its power, to bring in the principle of benevolence and love to men.” – John Randolph

“If you haven’t got charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.” – Bob Hope

“How quickly a truly benevolent act is repaid by the consciousness of having done it!” – Hosea Ballou

“Every fresh act of benevolence is the herald of deeper satisfaction; every charitable act a stepping-stone towards heaven.” – Henry Ward Beecher

“There is scarcely a man who is not conscious of the benefits which his own mind has received from the performance of single acts of benevolence. How strange that so few of us try a course of the same medicine!” – John Frederick Boyes

“The only way to be loved is to be and to appear lovely; to possess and display kindness, benevolence, tenderness; to be free from selfishness and to be alive to the welfare of others.” – John Jay

Joy and Happiness

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” – Buddha

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” – Unknown

“He who has not looked on Sorrow will never see Joy.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.” – Aristotle

“Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” – Robert Heinlein

“We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.” – Frederick Keonig

“Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” – Mother Teresa

“Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.” – Storm Jameson

“Joy is not in things; it is in us.” – Richard Wagner

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Herman Cain

“The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” – Marcel Pagnol

“One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.” – Robert A. Heinlein

“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein

“There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.” – Kahlil Gibran

“Joy is increased by spreading it to others.” – Robert Murray McCheyne

“Joy delights in Joy.” – William Shakespeare

“When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness… all the good things.” – Maya Angelou

“Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.” – Proverb

“The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy.” – Henry Ward Beecher

“It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” – Dale Carnegie

“One joy shatters a hundred griefs.” – Chinese Proverb

“Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose warm and our intelligence aglow.” – Hellen Keller

Elegance and Eloquence

“Eloquence resides as much in the tone of voice, in the eyes, and in the expression of the face, as in the choice of words.” – Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

“The finest eloquence is that which gets things done; the worst is that which delays them.” – David Lloyd George

“For me, elegance is not to pass unnoticed but to get to the very soul of what one is.” – Christian Lacroix

“We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.” – Yves Saint Laurent

“Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress.” – Coco Chanel

“Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.” – Benjamin Disraeli

“Love makes a subtle man out of a crude one, it gives eloquence to the mute, it gives courage the cowardly and makes the idle quick and sharp.” – Juan Ruiz

“If you would be well spoken of, learn to be well-spoken; and having learnt to be well- spoken, strive also to be well-doing; so shall you succeed in being well spoken of.” – Epictetus

“Even the wisest woman you talk to is ignorant of something you may know, but an elegant woman never forgets her elegance.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Today it is not the classroom nor the classics which are the repositories of models of eloquence, but the ad agencies.” – Marshall McLuhan

“If only for the sake of elegance, I try to remain morally pure.” – Marcel Proust

“To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common – this is my symphony.” – William Ellery Channing

“The only real elegance is in the mind; if you’ve got that, the rest really comes from it.” – Diana Vreeland

“Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.” – Blaise Pascal

“True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.” – Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

“False eloquence is exaggeration; true eloquence is emphasis.” – William R. Alger

“Elegance is innate. It has nothing to do with being well dressed. Elegance is refusal.” – Diana Vreeland

“Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Isn’t elegance forgetting what one is wearing?” – Yves Saint Laurent

“Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks.” – Heinrich Heine

“A just and reasonable modesty does not only recommend eloquence, but sets off every great talent which a man can be possessed of.” – Joseph Addison

Dignity and Nobleness

“We only live once, but once is enough if we do it right. Live your life with class, dignity, and style so that an exclamation, rather than a question mark signifies it!” – Gary Ryan Blair

“The stages of the Noble Path are: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.” – Buddha

“Do not destroy a child’s dignity. There is a vast difference between being harsh and being firm.” – Unknown

“The man of noble mind seeks to achieve the good in others and not their evil. The little-minded man is the reverse of this.” – Confucius

“We can do noble acts without ruling the earth and sea.” – Aristotle

“Safeguarding the rights of others is the most noble and beautiful end of a human being.” – Kahlil Gibran

“To be good is noble; but to show others how to be good is nobler and no trouble.” – Mark Twain

“To bear defeat with dignity, to accept criticism with poise, to receive honors with humility — these are marks of maturity and graciousness.” – William Arthur Ward

“There is no more noble occupation in the world than to assist another human being – to help someone succeed.” – Alan Loy McGinnis

“Ambition is the last infirmity of noble minds.” – James Matthew Barrie

“Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.” – Aesop

“I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.” – John D. Rockefeller

“Noble deeds that are concealed are most esteemed.” – Blaise Pascal

“Every noble work is bound to face problems and obstacles. It is important to check your goal and motivation thoroughly. One should be very truthful, honest, and reasonable. One’s actions should be good for others, and for oneself as well. Once a positive goal is chosen, you should decide to pursue it all the way to the end. Even if it is not realized, at least there will be no regret.” – Dalai Lama

“A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.” – Dag Hammarskjold

“Freedom, morality, and the human dignity of the individual consists precisely in this; that he does good not because he is forced to do so, but because he freely conceives it, wants it, and loves it.” – Mikhail Bakunin

“The most important human endeavor is the striving for morality in our actions. Our inner balance and even our very existence depend on it. Only morality in our actions can give beauty and dignity to life.” – Albert Einstein

“God has put something noble and good into every heart His hand created.” – Mark Twain

“Any necessary work that pays an honest wage carries its own honor and dignity.” – W. Kelly Griffith

“Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.” – Abraham J. Heschel

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.” – Aristotle

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” – Elijah Wood

“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered.” – Morton Kondrake

“Do noble things, not dream them all day long.” – Charles Kingsley

“Maturity is the ability to think, speak and act your feelings within the bounds of dignity. The measure of your maturity is how spiritual you become during the midst of your frustrations.” – Samuel Ullman

“Keep your faith pure, even the smallest good deed will suffice.” – Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam)

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