Leo Buscaglia on a Zen Buddhism philosophy

Life is now. Yesterday is past and gone, and only real in its effect on the moment. The future is not real, and may never be more than a dream. Only this moment now is real. Yet, so many people live under the shadow of successes or mistakes past, or the possibilities and hopes of the future. They don't realize that when they deal with the unreal worlds, they are missing the moments, the accumulation of which make a life. Life becomes a series of moments, either lived or lost. Since moments pass, as time, there is soon nothing left and life is over, leaving some poor unfortunate souls having never lived at all.

Chinese proverb

Those who say it can’t be done should not interrupt the person doing it

Epictetus was a pretty wise guy

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it

Blimey; the cost of condoms

Just worked out that condoms cost 65 pence each. How can sex possibly be enjoyable
with that in the back of your mind?.

Add to that the delayed ejaculation on my meds (2 years apparently) and there seems little point

Re-interpreting success, failure, optimism, pessimism

Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are miserable

The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It is still just half a glass, and maybe half a glass is enough.

Icarus wasn't failing as he fell to his death; just coming to the end of his triumph (Jack Gilbert). For a while there, he really flew.

What doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger. You just live with it.

There is no closure. You just live with it

Randoms

If you want to make God* laugh, tell him your plans.
(*there are many different flavours)

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better (Samuel Beckett)

So it goes (Vonnegnt)

Life is snakes & ladders, yet we try to play it as chess

Worse than being stuck with someone else's bad idea, is being stuck with
someone else's idea of a good time.

We see people & things not as they are, but as we are

Yeats

Education is the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a pail

Simple

We are all full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies - it is the first law of nature