"Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment."

— Ecclesiastes 11:9 (quoted by Anne Brontë in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 1848)

Sun Tzu said: The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. That is, of course, by a mistake on the enemy's part. — The Art of War

Laws and principles aren’t made for easy times, but for the moments when we’re most tempted to break them. They are strict, yes, but they must remain unbroken—otherwise, they’d mean nothing. If I choose to ignore them just because it suits me, what value would they have? I’ve always believed in their worth, and if I struggle to believe it now, it’s only because my emotions are overwhelming me. Right now, all I can hold on to are my convictions—and that’s where I take my stand. — Charlotte Bronte

My patients have taught me that honesty enhances awareness, creates more satisfying relationships, holds us accountable to a more authentic narrative, and strengthens our ability to delay gratification. It may even prevent the future development of addiction. — Dopamine Nation

We’re all running from pain. Some of us take pills. Some of us couch surf while binge-watching Netflix. Some of us read romance novels. We’ll do almost anything to distract ourselves from ourselves. Yet all this trying to insulate ourselves from pain seems only to have made our pain worse. —

The best advice I ever got was on an airplane. It was in my early day on Wall Street. I was flying to Chicago, and I sat next to an older guy. Anyway, I remember him as being an old guy, which means he may have been 40. He told me to read everything. If you get interested in a company and you read the annual report, he said, you will have done more than 98% of the people on Wall Street. And if you read the footnotes in the annual report you will have done more than 100% of the people on Wall Street. I realized right away that if I just literally read a company’s annual report and the notes — or better yet, two or three years of reports — that I would know much more than others. Professional investors used to sort of be dazzled. Everyone seemed to think I was smart. I later realized that I had to do more than just that. I learned that I had to read the annual reports of those I am investing in and their competitor’s annual reports, the trade journals, and everything that I could get my hands on. But I realized that most people don’ bother even doing the basic home work. And if I did even more, I’d be so far ahead that I’d probably be able to find successful investments. — Jim Rogers

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself; you will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself; the height of your success is gauged by your self-mastery, the depth of your failure by your self-abandonment. Those who cannot establish dominion over themselves will have no dominion over others.” — Leonardo da Vinci on self-mastery:

Your cage is just like this. When you approach the edges you feel insecurity, jealousy, fear, or self-consciousness. You pull back, and if you are like most people, you stop trying. Spirituality begins when you decide that you’ll never stop trying. Spirituality is the commitment to go beyond, no matter what it takes. It’s an infinite journey based upon going beyond yourself every minute of every day for the rest of your life. If you’re truly going beyond, you are always at your limits. You’re never back in the comfort zone. A spiritual being feels as though they are always against that edge, and they are constantly being pushed through it. — Michael Alan Singer