“We have to focus on what we can learn from other people. We have to focus on what is special and unique about them instead of zeroing in on the ways they are not as good as us. We have to be forgiving and patient, kind and appreciative. We have to engage with what they bring to the table, not lament the things they take from it. Then we have to work to make those people around us better…not write them off as hopeless and broken.”
Ryan Holiday, Daily Stoic Blog
“Someone told me once that every person has an element of good and an element of bad within him, and that either the good or the bad can be manifested according to the person’s mood. We possess within us two different ways of understanding this world. One is the feeling of being divided, distanced, and alienated from each other; in this state, all things seem gloomy to us. We feel nothing except jealousy, indifference, and hatred. I would like to call the opposite way of understanding the understanding of universal unification. In this state, all people seem very close to us, and all are equal among themselves. This state, therefore, arouses compassion and love in us.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 241)
“Today, we could hope that goodness comes our way—good news, good weather, good luck. Or we could find it ourselves, in ourselves. Goodness isn’t something that’s going to be delivered by mail. You have to dig it up inside your own soul. You find it within your own thoughts, and you make it with your own actions.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 317)
“Our world is abundant with quiet, hidden lives of beauty and courage and goodness. There are millions of people at any given moment, young and old, giving themselves over to service, risking hope, and all the while ennobling us all. To take such goodness in and let it matter—to let it define our take on reality as much as headlines of violence—is a choice we can make to live by the light in the darkness.”
Krista Tippett, Becoming Wise (Page 265)
“It’s hard to make good news sexy. It is. I think about this a lot as a journalist. But maybe it’s like kindness. Kindness is the stuff of moments, but it can be absolutely transformative in moments. Beautiful lives are transformative in moments. But we have to train ourselves to look for them.”
Sylvia Boorstein, via Becoming Wise (Page 222)
“I have lived a life of a lot of pain and I’m not pretending that I haven’t. I’ve had to deal with death; I’ve had to deal with painful surgeries; I’ve had to deal with being alone and scared in the hospital. But I have had a beautiful life—and one that I am so incredibly proud of. And that is not in spite of having Cystic Fibrosis… That’s because of it.” ~ Claire Wineland (19), Zappos All Hands Meeting
“Gandhi believed in the intrinsic good in every individual – the universality of humankind. He asked individuals to search for the truth that was within them and to act in accordance with their conscience. He devoted a great deal of his life trying to convince people to acknowledge the good in others, to reject differences based on caste, religion, and social position, and to work for the welfare of all.” ~ Keshavan Nair, A Higher Standard of Leadership
