It Only Happens Once

Blog — Quotes

To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it.

Meditations20 more from Marcus Aurelius

Added on Tuesday, August 11, 2026

The golden rule—treat others as you would treat yourself.
The internal golden rule—treat yourself as others should have treated you.

Added in 2026

Without reason, and we become a slave to our circumstances.

But without emotion, there is no reason to have reason.

Added on Wednesday, August 5, 2026

'Be kinder to yourself' is a lifeline for a perfectionist who is already tearing himself up, but it's a permission slip for the man who already lets himself off the hook everyday.

— Chris Williamson

Added on Wednesday, August 5, 2026

we do not suddenly fall on death, but advance towards it by slight degrees; we die every day. For every day a little of our life is taken from us; even when we are growing, our life is on the wane. We lose our childhood, then our boyhood, and then our youth. Counting even yesterday, all past time is lost time; the very day which we are now spending is shared between ourselves and death. It is not the last drop that empties the water-clock, but all that which previously has flowed out; similarly, the final hour when we cease to exist does not of itself bring death; it merely of itself completes the death-process. We reach death at that moment, but we have been a long time on the way.

Letters From a Stoic, Letter 24:19-203 more from Seneca

Added on Monday, August 3, 2026

I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning, nor favor to the skillful; for time and chance overtake them all.

The Bible

Added on Monday, August 3, 2026

Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; no wound will heal when one salve is tried after another; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong. There is nothing so efficacious that it can be helpful while it is being shifted about. And in reading of many books is distraction. Accordingly, since you cannot read all the books which you may possess, it is enough to possess only as many books as you can read.

Letters From a Stoic, Letter 2:3, p. 193 more from Seneca

Added on Monday, August 3, 2026

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Added in 2026

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

— Oscar Wilde

Added in 2026

If you do not know what port you are sailing to, no wind is favorable.

3 more from Seneca

Added in 2026

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

— Lao Tzu

Added in 2026

He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Added in 2026

Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.

— Aristotle

Added in 2026

There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.

1 more from Thomas Sowell

Added in 2026

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

— Albert Einstein

Added in 2026

Not a dancer but a wrestler: waiting, poised, and dug in, for sudden assaults.

Meditations, Book 7:6120 more from Marcus Aurelius

Added in 2026

The soul is healed by being with children.

— Fyodor Dostoevsky

Added in 2026

When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.

1 more from Thomas Sowell

Added in 2026

Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.

— Søren Kierkegaard

Added in 2026

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.

— Albert Camus

Added in 2026

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.

— Blaise Pascal

Added in 2026

Time is too slow for those who wait,
too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
too short for those who rejoice,
but for those who love,
time is eternity.

— Henry Van Dyke

Added in 2026

The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.

1 more from Thucydides

Added in 2026

Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.

— Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche

Added in 2026

Well-being is realized by small steps, but is truly no small thing.

— Zeno

Added in 2026

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