• Simple
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• Classical Wisdom
• Heritage of Faith
• American Revolution
• Enduring Americans
• International Philosophy

Simple

Mental warfare forged in conversation, from those who train the mind like a muscle.

• Morior Invictus - Death Before Defeat
• Consilium ex oculis apparet - Intention appears from the eyes
• Difficilis ascensus caelo - Difficult is the ascent to heaven
• Fortuna favens parato - Fortune favors the prepared
• Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici - By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe
• ichi-go ichi-e - One time, one meeting
• Shikata ga nai - Acceptance of circumstances beyond one's control
• Wabi-sabi - Beauty in imperfection, impermanence, and incompleteness
• Jigō-Jitoku - The consequences of one's own actions

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Mental warfare forged in conversation, from those who train the mind like a muscle.

• I would want to tell her, my daughter, to not fall into the trap of feeling you have to conform to what society wants you to be. That peer pressure is going to lead to always chasing the same thing, which is ever changing. Chasing that level of acceptance can be detrimental,  because you are going to have to change your personality every time. Be yourself and be happy with yourself.
• Be Yourself - Zak Ruppert
• Discipline is the art of just doing it. It is an action. It is not about how you feel, what you are going to do, or what you have done. It is sticking to your plan and trusting it because you know you will get the results. It is just a matter of time. 
• Disciplined Results - Rasmus Elnæs
• There is something to be said about how painful it is along the way. It is cliche to say it is about the journey, not about the end result, but it is true. If you can not find a way to enjoy the ride, you are going to get to the top of the mountain and just be like: damn, what a waste of time. The more painful it is, the more enjoyable it becomes. 
• Enjoyable Journeys - Stephen Marlo
• Joy is eternal. When I am around my grandchildren, that is joy. Happiness is a temporary and brief feeling. Joy is spiritual. Joy is a connection and a level beyond happiness that will last a lifetime.
• Eternal Joy - Mark Ferguson
• You have to lose. You have to fail. If you do not fail, then you cannot win. If you do not even try, you are not going to win. Will you fail again? Probably. Not every mistake that you make is exactly the same. You are a human being. Life would be really boring if you were not.
• Human Wins - Emily LaFave
• “Be proud of yourself despite your setbacks. Be proud of yourself especially when you lose. Having that ability to say to yourself, “You are good enough, you did well enough,” and having that acceptance will lead you to making better choices later, which leads to better character development. Fail, fail again, fail better.”
• Proud Setbacks - David Porter
• “From day one, I instilled in them: respect yourself. Some things you will not do if you respect yourself, because you have a higher standard. The higher the standard you hold for yourself, the less you will lower your standards for others.”
• Respect Yourself - Roderick Harris

Classical Wisdom

Ancient discipline for modern excellence, principles that outlasted empires.

• Do not let your mind become a prey to excitement, for if this effects a lodgment in your breast it will have dominion over you and will lead you into the great transgression. Always have some work on hand, that the devil may find you busy.
• Busy Work - St. Jerome
• Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated. Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position which makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.
• Certain Victory - Sun Tzu
• It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. What does it matter how much a man has laid up in his safe, or in his warehouse, how large are his flocks and how fat his dividends, if he covets his neighbour's property, and reckons, not his past gains, but his hopes of gains to come? Do you ask what is the proper limit to wealth? It is, first, to have what is necessary, and, second, to have what is enough.
• Craving More - Lucius Annaeus Seneca
• It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. As to things then which ought to be done and ought not to be done, and good and bad, and beautiful and ugly. On these matters we praise, we censure, we accuse, we blame, we judge and determine about principles honourable and dishonourable.
• Perceived Understanding - Epictetus
• For love is the desire of the whole, and the pursuit of the whole is called love. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety, that we may obtain the goods of which love is the author, and be reconciled to God, and find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world. 
• Loving Pursuit - Plato
• There are more things, Lucilius, likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality. Accordingly, some things torment us more than they ought; some torment us before they ought; and some torment us when they ought not to torment us at all. We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating, sorrow.
• S. Annaeus Seneca
• It is your duty not to complain of that part which you have lost, but to return thanks for that which you have enjoyed. “But,” say you, “it might have lasted longer.”  Supposing you were given your choice, to be happy for a short time or not at all? It is better to enjoy pleasures which soon leave us than to enjoy none at all.
• S. Annaeus Seneca

Heritage of Faith

Sacred strength and eternal foundation, for those who build on something bigger than themselves.

• Love is patient and is kind. Love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Love never fails.
• 1 Corinthians 13 Love
• They were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God troubled them with all adversity. But you be strong! Don’t let your hands be slack, for your work will be rewarded.
• 2 Chronicles 15
• Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection.
• Colossians 3 Compassion
• Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him who is alone when he falls, and doesn’t have another to lift him up.
• Ecclesiastes 4 Together
• In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening don’t withhold your hand; for you don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will be equally good. Truly the light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun.
• Ecclesiastes 11
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the assembly and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without defect. He who loves his wife loves himself
• Ephesians 5 Husbands
• Isaiah 30 Teacher
• Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be hidden any more, but your eyes will see your teachers; and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way. Walk in it.”
• James 1 Doers
• Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger; for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
• Luke 6 Enemies
• Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back; and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.
• Matthew 12
• Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit. You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man out of his good treasure brings out good things, and the evil man out.
• Philippians 4 Peace
• Whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report: if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Do the things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
• Romans 12 Transformed
• Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.
• Romans 14 Judgement
• Why do you judge your brother? Why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Each one of us will give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another any more, but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block in his brother’s way, or an occasion for falling.
• Dhammapada 1:2
• All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.

American Revolution

Revolutionary wisdom that built a nation.

• Complacent Suffering - Declaration of Independence
• “Accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.”
• Curb Temper - Abigail Adams (19 January 1780)
• “You must do it for yourself. You must curb that impetuosity of temper, but which properly directed may be productive of great good. I know you capable of these exertions. If you indulge yourself in the practise of any foible or vice in youth, it will gain strength with your years and become your conquerer.”
• Dessolated Lover - John Adams (6 May 1816)
• “The dessolated Lover and disappointed Connections, are compelled by their Grief to reflect on the vanity of human Wishes and Expectations; to learn the essential Lesson of Resignation; to review their own Conduct towards the deceased; to correct any Errors or faults in their future conduct towards their remaining friends and towards all Men; to recollect the Virtues of the lost Friend and resolve to imitate them; his Follies and Vices if he had and resolve to avoid them.”
• Great Distance - Abigail Adams
• “I am anxious to hear how you do. The great distance between us makes me anxious. A thousand fears crowd upon my mind. I cannot help being apprehensive that your health will be injured by so much application to business and so little relaxation. I fear you will have too much upon your hands. The multiplicity of cares which surround you fill me with concern.”
• Naturally Proud - Benjamin Franklin
• “In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.”
• Precious Value - Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, 1776)
• “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”
• Stubborn Facts - John Adams (Counsel for the Defense, Boston Massacre Trials)
• “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.”
• True Friendship - George Washington
• "Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence—true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo & withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.“

Enduring Americans

Blood, Grit, and the American Dream.

• The commoner type of success in every walk of life and in every species of effort is that which comes to the man who differs from his fellows not by the kind of quality which he possesses but by the degree of development which he has given that quality. 
• Developed Quality - Theodore Roosevelt
• I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success. Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything. Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs. The future, for which I have really worked, is mine.
• Future Evaluation - Nikola Tesla
• Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
• Glorious Triumphs - Theodore Roosevelt (10 April 1899)
• Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have these because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
• Habitual Excellence - Will Durant
• The infinite wonders of the universe are revealed to us in exact measure as we are capable of receiving them. The keenness of our vision depends not on how much we can see, but on how much we feel. 
• Infinite Wonders - Helen Keller
• Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad.
• Inner Battles - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
• The doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife. The highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.
• Strenuous Life - Theodore Roosevelt
• I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence. 
• Superstitious Truth - Frederick Douglass
• We do not admire the man of timid peace, we admire the man who embodies victorious effort. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been stored up effort in the past. 
• Victorious Effort - Theodore Roosevelt

International Philosophy

World wisdom without borders, that strength speaks every language.

• I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect has intended us to forego their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.
• Endowed Intelligence - Leonardo DaVinci
• For the secret of man’s being is not only to live but to have something to live for. Without a stable conception of the object of life, man would not consent to go on living, and would rather destroy himself than remain on earth, though he had bread in abundance.
• Human Existence - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• In opposition to Positivism, which halts at phenomena and says, these are only facts and nothing more, I would say: no, facts are precisely what is lacking, all that exists consists of interpretations. We cannot establish any fact in itself. Everything is subjective, you say, but that in itself is interpretation.
• Interpretations - Friedrich Nietzsche
• What is love? Love hinders death. Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.
• Love Everything - Leo Tolsley
• We do not know the true value of our moments until they have undergone the test of memory. Like the images the photographer plunges into a golden bath, our sentiments take on color; and only then, after that recoil and that transfiguration, do we understand their real meaning and enjoy them in all their tranquil splendor.
• Magic Memories - Georges Duhamel
• The struggle alone pleases us, not the victory. It is the same in play, and the same in the search for truth. In disputes we like to see the clash of opinions, but not at all to contemplate truth when found. In the passions, there is pleasure in seeing the collision of two contraries; but when one acquires the mastery, it becomes only brutality. 
• Observing Struggle - Blaise Pascal
• Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.
• Respectful Truth - Fyodor Dostoevsky
• If after I am free a friend of mine gave a feast, and did not invite me to it, I should not mind a bit. I can be perfectly happy by myself. But if after I am free a friend of mine had a sorrow and refused to allow me to share it, I should feel it most bitterly. He who can look at the loveliness of the world and share its sorrow, and realize something of the wonder of both, is in immediate contact with divine things, and has got as near to God’s secret as any one can get.
• Shared Sorrow - Oscar Wilde
• The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking by cowards.
• Thinking Fighter - William Francis Butler (1889)
• In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong. Quite an untaught genius, I made the discovery of the line of action for myself.
• Untaught Genius - Charles Dickens
• Sensibility in such a situation is a curse: men become "cannibals of their own hearts;" remorse, regret, and restless impatience usurp the place of more wholesome feeling: every thing seems better than that which is; and solitude becomes a sort of tangible enemy, the more dangerous, because it dwells within the citadel itself.
• Mary Shelley
• I always loved you, and if one loves anyone, one loves the whole person, just as they are and not as one would like them to be.
• Leo Tolstoy
• It is a blessing that he did not know, for otherwise he would have lost faith in his power to fly, and the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.
• J. M. Barrie