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An Interview With Oscar Wilde

 by Charly Mann

Oscar Wilde Portrait - by Kathryn Mann

informZoo: Thank you, Mr. Wilde, for affording us the first interview with you since you have come out of the closet about your secret life in the United States for the last century.

Oscar Wilde: Illusion is the first of all pleasures. Nowadays to be intelligible is to be found out. You found me, and now you threaten to reveal where I am living unless I consent to talk to you, so what we have to do, what at any rate it is our duty to do, is to revive the old art of lying.

informZoo: So let me begin by asking, just how it is you are not in Heaven or Hell, or just decomposing in your grave in Paris?

Oscar Wilde: God told me that no other human had such an undignified end to life as me, and that I should return to the world to enjoy my resurgence in popularity.

informZoo: That’s incredible and a little hard to believe.

Oscar Wilde: Ah, you see the true mysteries of this world are the visible, like me sitting here talking to you at 154 years old, and not the invisible.

informZoo: Well, I admit you are sitting here, and you look less than one third your actual age, but I just never thought God let people come back from the dead and live anonymously with us for so long.

Oscar Wilde: It was during my years in prison, and my last years living destitute and miserable in Paris, that I prayed for this, and God told me soon after I died that the way he punishes most people, including myself, is to answer their prayers.

informZoo: Okay, this makes a little more sense, but surely you must be pleased to see how much you are admired today, and feel vindicated about what was done to you.

Oscar Wilde: One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation. In most respects I enjoyed my life in the late 19th century much more than I do now. Besides, God has condemned me to live in the United States, the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

informZoo: Oscar, you are certainly one of the most brilliant men who has ever lived. Yet your downfall seemed to be a libel suit you brought against the Marquis of Queensbury for calling you a sodomite. It seems that most people disliked Queensbury, and all your friends advised you just to ignore this irrational man.

Oscar Wilde: Yes, I think my overindulgence in alcohol caused me to go against my own advice of being careful in the choice of my enemies. It was my recklessness in going against him that ruined me, but I have forgiven him, and nothing annoys an enemy more than this.  

I could say more about the suffering and indignity of not being able to acknowledge my homosexuality in this era, but a man who moralizes is usually a hypocrite.

informZoo: Both of your parents were somewhat eccentric. Your father was a respected eye and ear surgeon who had several illegitimate children from extramarital affairs. Your mother was rather flamboyant and unconventional for her time, a champion for women’s rights, an Irish nationalist, and a poet. How much impact did they have on your life?

Oscar Wilde: I began by loving my parents; after a time I judged them for their faults; I still have not forgiven them. I firmly believe fathers should be neither seen nor heard. That is the only proper basis for family life.

On the whole one’s family is simply a tedious pack of people, who haven’t got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die

informZoo: Your only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is hugely popular today, but was considered immoral by the critics and was poorly received when it was published in 1890. One review at the time implied the book was homoerotic saying, “one element of the novel will taint every young mind that comes in contact with it.” In retrospect how do you assess this criticism?

Oscar Wilde: There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. The press hated me, and morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.

informZoo: Well as an aside, I love the book and have read it at least three times.

Oscar Wilde: If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

informZoo: The theme of Dorian Gray is that goodness and beauty are not necessarily linked, seem to me, more poigant today in our youth and sex obsessed celebrity culture, than when you wrote it.

Oscar Wilde: I believe now that youth and beauty are overrated, and having a meaningful life is preferable to one obsessed by physical beauty. Most people waste their lives vainly believing that happiness can be achieved by looking young and attracting or possessing artificial beauty. It took me most of my life to fully learn this lesson.

informZoo: You were ruined because your writing and personal behavior was considered effeminate. Today the world is a much more open and safer place to be a homosexual, yet recently the majority of the voters in California, our most progressive state, enacted legislation preventing same sex couples from marrying.

Oscar Wilde: The security of society lies in custom and unconscious instinct, and the basis of the stability of society, as a healthy organism, is the complete absence of any intelligence amongst its members.

informZoo: Your legacy and reputation was made as a playwright. In three short years, between 1893 and 1895, you wrote Lady Windermere’s Fan followed by A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband and finally The Importance of Being Earnest. All were highly popular then and continue to be so today.

Oscar Wilde: I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. These plays highlight my individualism as an artist.

informZoo: You did not have literary success until you were in your late thirties, but your socializing, self promotion, and the characterizations of you in the London press and stage, combined to make you famous for being you. In fact you may have been the world’s first real celebrity.

Oscar Wilde: Caricature and celebrity is the tribute that mediocrity pays to my genius.

informZoo: But didn’t you create your celebrity? You said the following when you graduated from college. “I’ll be a poet, a writer, a dramatist. Somehow or other I’ll be famous, and if not famous, I’ll be notorious.”

Oscar Wilde: Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. I knew I had genius and that I wanted to live well. My family raised me to live a life of leisure, however my father died in debt. Nevertheless I was determined to use my talent, which is my artistic genius, to live the life I felt destined to live. 

informZoo: You certainly got yourself noticed early on. At a time when upper class men wore dark suits and inconspicuous ties, you covered your hands with flashy rings, wore a huge bow tie, and carried a cane for effect. You also usually had on white pants with matching gloves, and patent leather shoes. You even had a brightly colored handkerchief in the breast pocket of your jacket. You certainly must have looked outlandish by the standards of the day.

Oscar Wilde: Yes I got many insults for my appearance, but it helped make me the center of attention, and this is what I wanted. As you can see I’m not a naturally handsome person. I’m 6 foot three inches, a bit overweight, and have an overly oval shaped face. Unfortunately also, my teeth are black from the mercury I took for the syphilis I got when I was I college. So my clothing also made me less physically repulsive.

informZoo: After you left college at Oxford you moved to London and seemed to focus on getting invited to A-List parties in town.

Oscar Wilde: It was my charm and wit that got me noticed and made me stand out even in London’s most fashionable circles. Two of the most famous and glamorous actresses of the day, Sara Bernhardt and Lillie Langtry were among my best friends. I even got to know Lillie’s sometime boyfriend, the Prince of Wales.

informZoo: A young William Butler Yeats said he was astonished the first time he met you at one of these parties. He said, “never before have I heard a man talking with perfect sentences, as if he had written them all overnight with labour and yet all spontaneous.”

Oscar Wilde: Yes, I remember the first time I met him as a handsome teenager. He describes me well. I knew that to get into the best society without a title or money, one had either to feed people, amuse people, or shock people. I did the latter two rather well. I learned to talk to every woman as if I loved her, and to every man as if he bored me. 

informZoo: Your plays are timeless social criticisms of the hypocrisy in society. Throughout them we see charming and polite people following social convention, yet actually being cruel and manipulative.

Oscar Wilde: I love using satire to expose the vulgar in society. People are always pretending to be something or believe something they do not. Hypocrisy is a necessary component of the social world. People must pretend and conform to the social norm in order to maintain their position. Hypocrisy is the glue that holds relationships and society together.

informZoo: I agree, lies seem to be a necessary tool in a civil society to avoid conflict.

Oscar Wilde: Yes, I want people to acknowledge that lies are essential for civil conversation.

informZoo: There are many who say that your deathbed conversion to Catholicism was a lie.

Oscar Wilde: My father was an agnostic, but my mother had secretly baptized me as a Catholic when I was young. I had been moving close to converting to Catholicism on my own for many years before my death. While I was in prison I spent much of my time reading St Augustine, the Bible, Dante, and a biography of St Francis of Assisi. The first thing I did when I left prison was to write to the Jesuits begging them to take me in for six-months. Sadly they did not accept me.

informZoo: Nevertheless, many of your admirers today have a hard time accepting the outrageous and irreverent Oscar Wilde as a Christian. Stephen Fry in his recent movie biography of you simply ignores this part of your life.

Oscar Wilde: Fry is a magnificent actor and director, but like any artist what he has created is more a film about himself than me. Life is complex and people grow and learn. His portrayal of me is one-dimensional because I stay the same person throughout my life. Unfortunately, consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative, and that was never me. 

informZoo: So you sincerely wanted to be a Catholic at the end?

Oscar Wilde: Yes, my friend, the year of my death I even attended Easter Sunday mass with the Pope in Rome. I had been attending mass on a regular basis for years. As my health declined I often asked my friend Robert Ross to bring a priest to me so I could be baptized again. He was always reluctant, but promised to bring one when I was dying. When the priest did come, I could not speak, but signaled clearly to him that I wanted to be baptized, and for the next two days until my death, said prayers with him.

informZoo: So now after you have died and met God what is your opinion of him?

Oscar Wilde: l love God, but I think in creating man he somewhat overestimated his ability.

informZoo: One final question, what is the purpose of life?

Oscar Wilde: The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly—that is what each of us is here for.

© Charly Mann 2008

Painting by Kathryn Mann

         


 
 


 
 
Are We Conscious After Death?

by Charly Mann

Where does consciousness come from? Is it in our brain or in our soul? There is little debate that we are all conscious some of the time. But are we conscious when we sleep, before we are born, or after we die? For most of us consciousness mean awareness, and unconsciousness means not being aware. Sleep to many of us in somewhere between these two states, but for many reasons including the fact that we remember parts of our dreams, and some of us even sleepwalk, there is little doubt that sleep is also a state of consciousness.

There is however a philosophical, spiritual, and scientific debate about whether there is consciousness outside the body, either before one’s life begins, after it ends, or in some external form while we are alive. Alva Noe, a University of California cognitive scientist and philosopher says, consciousness “does not take place in the brain. Consciousness is not something that happens inside us, but something we achieve. “ Noe believes one has to have a body to be conscious, but many people believe this is not a requirement. It is true that there is scant evidence of a “dead” person displaying consciousness. However, what “dead” people really do is not do is come back to life in this world in a physical form. Simply because one is dead does not prove one is unconscious. It may be that when we are not in our bodies we are still aware and conscious, but in a state like sleep, or a dream, where we are not connected to the “living” world.

Consciousness when we are out no longer in our body might actually be attuned to things we cannot even imagine in our current living state. For example, we know now there are many colors and sound frequencies that we are unable to see and hear; yet many animals see and hear them. It is likely there are many other things that we are now limited from perceiving. Many think that after death we actually achieve a higher consciousness. For example, we are raised to believe there are only three physical dimensions, plus the extended dimension of time. This physical world is what we can readily perceive, and it is difficult comprehending anything beyond this plain. However many religions and cultures, as well as many scientists believe there are least seven dimensions. Some even say there are an infinite number of cosmic dimensions. In String Theory, which combines the science of quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of general relativity, physicts have concluded that there are between ten and twenty-six dimensions.

One of the implications of death may be that we are freed from our four demsional world to exist in the full dimensions of the cosmos. It is hard for our limited minds to imagine what awareness and existence would be like outside of the confines of four dimensions, but I think I have a good analogy. Think of how differently you would perceive the world if you never had sight. The gift of vision allows us to enjoy the full splendor of three dimensions. A consciousness that could live in seven or more dimensions would not be limited by time or space. We could probably be everywhere and at everytime in the existence of our universe at the same time. With extra-dimensional awareness; it is likely we would discover that everything, including ourselves, is part of a great single entity. It would not be like we were interconnected like parts of a great organism, it would be that everything was essentially one inseparable piece. As part of this great piece we would be totally aware of every part of us, just like we are now aware of every part of our own body. It would be like we were a single neuron in a brain of countless trillions of neurons working coherently together to comprehend everything. We would together be a single great intelligence. As Nobel Prize winner, and Harvard scientist, George Wald said, “The stuff of this universe is ultimately mind-stuff. What we recognize as the material universe, the universe of space and time and elementary particles and energies, is then an avatar, the materialization of primal mind. In that sense, there is no waiting for consciousness to arise. It is there always. “
 

         


 
 


 
 
Can Something Come From Nothing?

by Charly Mann

Do you believe in God, or do you think we, and the universe, somehow just originated out of nothingness? If we came from nothing that would mean that everything somehow came from something that was the absence of anything. This means at one time there was, instead of a universe, eternal nothing that just poof turned into something. I think that is pretty amazing, and defies all logic and common sense.

I know many people who think the idea of a God creating us and the universe is absurd, but even most of them say that total nothingness is impossible. So if nothing never existed that means there was always something, and what was that? And what created that something? The fact that there was probably always something is, I think, one good argument for accepting a divine force over everything.

         


 
 


 
 
One Life Can Make A Difference

George Washington (probably the greatest man who has ever lived)

One SONG can spark a moment
One FLOWER can start a dream
One TREE can start a forest
One BIRD can herald spring
One SMILE begins a friendship
One HANDCLASP will lift a soul
One STAR can guide a ship
One WORD can frame your goal
One VOTE can change a nation
One SUNBEAM will light a room
One CANDLE wipes out darkness
One LAUGH can conquer gloom
One STEP can start a journey
One WORD can start a prayer
One HOPE will raise our spirits
One TOUCH can show you care
One VOICE can speak with wisdom
One HEART can know what is true
One LIFE can make a difference.

         


 
 


 
 
Celebrity and the Death of American Culture

by Charly Mann

We have become a culture that is far more interested in style than substance. This is manifested in our infatuation with celebrity. We no longer have knowledge of or interest in people who have made a significant contribution to society, have great ideas, or have exceptionally strong character. In 2008, the people and topics Americans were most interested in were:

#1. Britney Spears - a mediocre singer with an IQ of 100, whose fame grows as she humiliates herself with drunken public nudity and weeks of forced psychiatric evaluation. She is also judged so mentally impaired that her father has taken over her finances.

#2. The World Wrestling Federation - a fake sport that has more violence per second than anything else on television.

#3. Naruto -  a cartoon character whose creator, Masashi Kishimoto, says is "simple and stupid."

#4. Miley Cyrus - the 15 years old daughter of one the least talented country stars of all time, Billy Ray Cyrus. She is famous for taking on the persona of a non-existent person, Hannah Montana. Her fame has been greatly enhanced by scandalous photos she did for Vanity Fair magazine. Her talent and intellect seem average at best.

#5. Jessica Alba - one of the least talented actresses in history, who at 17 has already managed to score three worst actress nominations in the annual Razzle Awards for Good Luck Chuck, Awake, & Fantastic Four.

#6. Lindsay Lohan - who beats out Jessica Alba as the world’s worst actress in Hollywood. She is also well known for her many stays in rehab and a revolving door of relationships.

#7. Angelina Jolie - an actress who cannot act her way out of a box, but is certainly beautiful even though her body is covered with at least a dozen separate tattoos. Her gorgeous looks are helped by a major nose job and lip augmentation. Her favorite fun activity is sexual bondage and S&M (sadism and masochism). She has had many relationships and several marriages. For her marriage to Jonny Lee Miller she wore a white shirt with his name written on it in her own blood.

#8. American Idol - a television show which marks the low point in American popular culture. Never has homogeneity and mediocrity been so celebrated. In a musical culture that has given the world its most talented and instantly recognizable singers, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Dylan, and Johnny Cash, we now have a weekly array of the most uninspired and bland singers imaginable. Talent is now judged on sexiness, flash, and predictability. Whereas we once prided ourselves on recognizing and rewarding unique talent, American Idol is a show about people desperate for fame who possess no originality.

We now have little interest in people who are wise, intelligent and ethical. People mainly care about celebrities, whose primary appeal is their attractiveness and lack of virtue. Music and movie stars are often the least creative and intelligent people in the entertainment business. Their success is usually based on the talent of brilliant songwriters, directors, record producers, and screenwriters, but in our shallowness we attribute the genius we see in a movie or hear in a song to the person who is usually least responsible for that achievement.

The essence of a person is their substance. One's style is conveyed by image, which is primarily a combination of appearance, comfort level, and conversational ability. We are now attracted to style over substance. For example, while most Americans say they prefer to vote for the candidate who is most intelligent, the primary way we judge how smart a politician is is how they look and speak on television. Having a polished image and speaking well are admirable traits, but these are not a good indication of intellectual capacity. Almost every good cheat, liar, and swindler has these attributes, as do most celebrities. In the 2004 Presidential election between John Kerry and George Bush, most people believed Kerry was far more intelligent than Bush because he looked and spoke like a movie star. George Bush on the other hand was always ill at ease in front of a television camera, and sometimes even mispronounced words. For the record, Kerry and Bush went to Yale University at the same time, and Bush's grades were better than Kerry's. Kerry also scored lower than Bush on a military intelligence test.

In theory, a person should become famous based on their achievements. In practice, being a celebrity is widely seen as a great achievement in itself. Americans are absurdly interested in the lives of inconsequential celebrities. Rarely will one see a news magazine in a grocery checkout line, but there are always People, Us, In Style, Star and National Enquirer magazines. Just fifty years ago, 86% of the people Americans admired most were great writers, inventors, scientists and world leaders. Today, the only non-celebrity on America's top ten list of most admired people is Barack Obama. 

         


 
 


 
 
Life is Not Fair But it Evens Out

by Charly Mann

A little more than a hundred years ago there was a family that lived in Bartlesville, Oklahoma who everyone in the town believed had a perfect life. One day a neighbor said to the father of this family, "Life is really not fair for me. You always have good luck, and I rarely do." The father thought for a moment and said, "It depends what you mean my friend." The neighbor then said, " Yesterday your son went out for a ride in the hills, and an entire herd of wild horses followed him back to your pasture. This you must admit is good luck." The husband replied, "It depends."

A day later the man's son was thrown from one of the wild horses as he tried to tame it and broke his leg. The neighbor hearing this news returned and said to the husband, "I was wrong about your family’s luck, you have bad luck like all the rest of us.” The husband responded by saying. “It depends.”

The next day the son along with most of the other boys in town received letters from the government telling them that they must join the army and go off and fight in World War I. Because the son’s leg was broken he could not join. The neighbor returned to see the father and said, “I was right the first time, you and your family are blessed with good fortune.” The husband replied, “It just depends. “

The next day the family’s house burned down, and the neighbor came over and said, “ I am so sorry, your family really seems to be cursed.” The husband looked down at a small pool of black oil coming up from the ground beneath where the house had once stood, and said, “It depends.”

         


 
 



Uplifting Visions
a guide to happiness, good health, and success
Charly Mann in a Hawaiian shirt
by Charly Mann

From the age of seven I have been enchanted with the idea of living happily ever after, and have made it a life quest to find that answer. I have spoken to hundreds of people – usually older and wiser than me, and read countless books and articles on the subject. In my website Uplifting Visions I share what I consider the best insights I have learned about achieving happiness in life.



There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

The great breakthrough in one's life comes when you realize that you can learn anything you need to learn to accomplish any goal you set for yourself. This means there are no limits on what you can be.

-- William Robert Mann

 

 

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

-- Galileo Galilei

 

 

We're not meant to fit in. We're meant to stand out.

-- Sarah Ban Breathnach

 

 

If you love life, life will love you back.

-- Arthur Rubinstein

 

 

Life isn't about finding yourself; it's about creating yourself.

-- George Bernard Shaw

 

 

Making a living is not the same as making a life.

-- Fred Castrovinci

 

 

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think of you.

-- John Wooden

 

 

Ideas that matter; information that inspires

 

 

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod, my shadow does that much better.

-- Plutarch

 

 

If you were all alone in the universe with no one to talk to, no one with which to share the beauty of the stars, to laugh with, to touch, what would be your purpose in life? It is other life, it is love, which gives your life meaning. This is harmony. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth.

-- Mitsugi Saotome

 

 

Judge yourself by your actions and not your intentions.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.

-- Jim Rohn

 

 

Call it Nature, Fate, or Fortune; all are names of God.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Remember to work hard. Look to the future with enthusiasm and hope. Accept responsibility, not only asking for your own rights, but also accepting responsibility for yourself, for other people, for nature and for future generations.

-- Madison Mann

 

 

Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it�s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment.

-- Anthony Robbins

 

 

Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

Ethical existence is the highest manifestation of spirituality.

-- Albert Schweitzer

 

 

My desire for knowledge is intermittent; but my desire to commune with the spirit of the universe, to be intoxicated with the fumes, call it, of that divine nectar, to bear my head through atmospheres and over heights unknown to my feet, is perennial and constant.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

One-half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that's the important half, for without discipline you wouldn't know what to do with luck.

-- Carl Zuckmeyer

 

 

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.

-- The Dalai Lama

 

 

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

-- Confucius

 

 

There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.

-- Sophia Lyon Fahs

 

 

Adults are obsolete children.

-- Dr. Seuss

 

 

You will never be the person you can be if pressure, tension, and discipline are taken out of your life.

-- James Bilkey

 

 

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of withering, of tarnishing.

-- Anais Nin

 

 

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

-- Franklin P. Jones

 

 

If you're never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take chances.

-- Julia Sorel

 

 

Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.

-- Washington Irving

 

 

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.

-- Carl Sandberg

 

 

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

-- Confucius

 

 

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.

-- Mark Twain

 

 

We can't measure out goodness by what we don't do, by what we deny ourselves, or by what we resist, and who we exclude; but we should measure our goodness by what we embrace, what we create, and who we include.

-- from the movie Chocolat

 

 

Random information for a more fulfilling life

 

 

Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow. It has no real substance of its own. It is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.

-- Shakti Gawain

 

 

The difference between adults and children is that adults don't ask questions.

-- Kathryn Mann

 

 

No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.

-- Harry Emerson Fosdick

 

 

You must live for another if you wish to live for yourself.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Why is there something rather than nothing? We do not know. We will never know. Why? To what purpose? We do not know whether there is a purpose. But if it is true that nothing is born of nothing, the very existence of something - the world, the universe - would seem to imply that there has always been something: that being is eternal, uncreated, perhaps creator, and this is what some people call God.

-- Andre Comte-Sponville

 

 

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

The shortest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time.

-- Richard Cech

 

 

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

-- Epicurus

 

 

A life, if well lived, is long enough.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent.

-- Carl Sandberg

 

 

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.

-- Solomon Ibn Gabriol

 

 

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart.

-- Helen Keller

 

 

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.

-- Alan K. Simpson

 

 

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.

-- Leon J. Suenesl

 

 

It's not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of humankind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.

-- Leo Buscaglia

 

 

When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no "I'll start tomorrow." Tomorrow is disease.

-- V.L. Allineare

 

 

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.

-- Edmund Burke

 

 

Experience taught me a few things. One is to listen to your gut, no matter how good something sounds on paper. The second is that you're generally better off sticking with what you know. And the third is that sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.

-- Donald Trump

 

 

The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they're still alive.

-- Olando Battista

 

 

Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you.

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

 

Overcome your fears and you can reach your potential.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.

-- Immanual Kant

 

 

Six essential qualities that are the key to success: Sincerity, personal integrity, humility, courtesy, wisdom, charity.

-- William Menninger

 

 

Only Ideas have long and lasting consequences, and ideas come mainly from books not television, movies, or video games.

-- Kathryn Mann

 

 

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

True love is eternal, infinite, and always like itself. It is equal and pure, without violent demonstrations: it is seen with white hairs and is always young in the heart.

-- Honore de Balzac

 

 

Life is a marathon, not a sprint.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.

-- Vernon Howard

 

 

It's not how much money you make that's important - it's how much money you keep and how long you keep it.

-- Robert Kiyosaki

 

 

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.

-- Walter Lippman

 

 

The only way to change your life is to change your mind.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway to the human spirit.

-- Helen Keller

 

 

To say that a man is your Friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of Friendship, as that the Friend can assist in time of need by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel. Even the utmost goodwill and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for Friendship, for Friends do not live in harmony merely, as some say, but in melody.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

If you are going through hell, keep going.

-- Winston Churchill

 

 

I have six great friends that taught me all I knew; their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

-- Rudyard Kipling

 

 

Very few people really care about freedom, about liberty, about the truth, very few. Very few people have guts, the kind of guts on which a real democracy has to depend. Without people with that sort of guts a free society dies or cannot be born.

-- Doris Lessing "The Golden Notebook"

 

 

If you cannot accept fear of failure, you will never be successful.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

The good life is inspired by love and guided by knowledge.

-- Buddha

 

 

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.

-- Edwin Way Teale

 

 

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

-- Abraham Lincoln

 

 

A certain degree of physical harmony and comfort is necessary, but above a certain level it becomes a hindrance instead of a help.

-- Mohandas Gandhi

 

 

Nothing is as weak as a relationship that has not been tested under fire.

-- Mark Twain

 

 

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.

-- Will Rogers

 

 

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

-- Plato

 

 

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

-- Logan Pearsall Smith

 

 

Money can contribute significantly to happiness if spent wisely.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Universal truths, insights and information for a better life

 

 

Money often costs too much.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

Passion is the genesis of genius.

-- Anthony Robbins

 

 

Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

-- Proverbs 17:28

 

 

A community that cares about you

 

 

Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who treat you spitefully. When a man hits you on the cheek, offer him the other cheek too; when a man takes your coat, let him have your shirt as well. Give to everyone who asks you; when a man takes what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others as you would like them to treat you. If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. Again, if you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do as much. And if you lend only where you expect to be repaid, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to each other to be repaid in full. But you must love your enemies and do good; and lend without expecting any return; and you will have a rich reward: you will be sons of the Most High, because he himself is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.

-- Jesus -Luke 6:27-36

 

 

We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

-- Samuel Smiles

 

 

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.

-- Socrates

 

 

If a problem cannot be solved, then you need to find the best way to manage it.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

The greatest wealth is health.

-- Virgil

 

 

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

-- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

 

 

Wisdom is the supreme part of happiness.

-- Sophocles

 

 

You may think that you are the product of events that are largely beyond your control, but you do control the moment. The present is the time you take control of what your future will be.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

-- Andre Gide

 

 

An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run.

-- Sidney J. Harris

 

 

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

-- John Quincy Adams

 

 

Self-pity is our worst enemy.

-- Helen Keller

 

 

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely.

-- Henry David Thoreau

 

 

Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

-- Mark Twain

 

 

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

-- Pliny the Younger

 

 

Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.

-- Albert Einstein

 

 

An intellectual is a person who is always seeking knowledge and has the ability to change his mind when he learns new information.

-- Charly Mann

 

 

Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.

-- Doug Horton

 

 

To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.

-- Bertrand Russell