thoughts to think

Great things I found whilst studying for my American lit midterm:

11 virtues to live by.

1. Temperance. Eat not dullness. Drink not elevation.

2. Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.

3. Order. Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.

4. Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.

5. Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: waste nothing.

6. Industry. Lose no time. Be always employ’d in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.

7. Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly: and, if you speak accordingly.

8.  Justice. Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.

9. Moderation. Avoid extremes. Forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.

10. Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.

11. Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable. 

                - Benjamin Franklin

Self Reliance – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance: that imitation is suicide: that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion”

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string”

“My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady”

“What I must do, is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This is rule… it is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion: it is easy in solitude to live after our own: but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude”

“For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face”

“If we live truly, we shall see truly. It is easy for the strong man to be strong, as it is for the weak to be weak”

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself”