Life is Complex. Don't Expect Easy Answers

Willingly accept the complexity and the contradictions of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

For every complex problem,
there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma,
a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own
mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Further reading: All Life is Paradox

Lessons from Life

Stand Rapt in Awe
      

Do Not be Distracted by Fearsome-Looking Shadows

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
- Aesop  [Read The Dog and the Shadow - A Fable by Aesop]

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

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect,
excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
- John Henry Newman

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
- Joseph Epstein

The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates

Further reading: This God Called Money

The Shadow of Worry

Attitude toward Gratitude

Discovery and Adventure, rather than Fear
        

Human Nature is Life's Greatest Riddle

Life is a riddle.
We cannot expect to understand life's twists and turns as they occur each day,
and we greatly frustrate ourselves in the futile attempt.
Be content to appreciate that there is an overarching purpose,
though that purpose be known only to God, and to history.
Choose service. Choose joy. Accept the unknowing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.
- Jose Ortega Y Gasset

We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

Half of everything you were ever taught is wrong;
the question is which half.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
(and human nature is perhaps life's greatest riddle.)
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Read more about The Book of Life

Further reading:  The Nature of Learning

Lessons from Life

Beyond Understanding
      

Each of Us is In Charge of Ourself and Only Ourself

No one can persuade another to change.
Each of us guards a gate of change
that can only be opened from the inside.
We cannot open the gate of another,
either by argument or emotional appeal.
- Marilyn Ferguson

You cannot teach a man anything;
you can only help him find it within himself.
- Galileo Galilei

The truth only irritates those it enlightens,
but does not convert.
- Pasquier Quesnel

I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think.
- Socrates

The greatest roadblock to a great relationship
is trying to force a partner to change through bribes or threats.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live and Let Live

The Problem with Advice

My thoughts on meddling in the affairs of others

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice
    

 

Always Choose What You Know to be Right

The greatest way to live with honor in this world
is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Gen. Norman Schwarzkoff

You will never do anything in this world without courage.
It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- Aristotle

When people get caught up with that which is right
and they are willing to sacrifice for it,
there is no stopping point short of victory.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
- Abraham Lincoln

Never let your sense of morals
get in the way of doing what's right.
- Isaac Asimov

Read: What is Moral versus What is Right

Do what you feel in your heart to be right.
You'll be criticized anyway.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Whatever your friends and family do,
Always do what you know is right.
...
If it's Right, stand up for it - together.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live with Honor

Be yourself. Honor yourself.

Is there a place for Honor today?
         

Consciously Spend Time In Your Own Company

 

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly -
spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity
to renew itself and create order.
- Susan Taylor

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

Further reading: A Truly Successful Life

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What Is Success?

What You Become
    

Life Does Not Offer Simple Answers

 

Willingly accept the complexity and the contradictions of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

For every complex problem,
there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma,
a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own
mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Further reading: All Life is Paradox

Lessons from Life

Stand Rapt in Awe
      

Do Not Grasp at the Shadow

 

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
- Aesop  [Read The Dog and the Shadow - A Fable by Aesop]

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

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect,
excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
- John Henry Newman

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
- Joseph Epstein

The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates

Further reading: This God Called Money

The Shadow of Worry

Attitude toward Gratitude

Discovery and Adventure, rather than Fear
        

Life is a Riddle

 

Life is a riddle.
We cannot expect to understand life's twists and turns as they occur each day,
and we greatly frustrate ourselves in the futile attempt.
Be content to appreciate that there is an overarching purpose,
though that purpose be known only to God, and to history.
Choose service. Choose joy. Accept the unknowing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.
- Jose Ortega Y Gasset

We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

Half of everything you were ever taught is wrong;
the question is which half.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
(and human nature is perhaps life's greatest riddle.)
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Read more about The Book of Life

Further reading:  The Nature of Learning

Lessons from Life

Beyond Understanding
      

You Cannot Change Another. You Can Only Change Yourself

 

No one can persuade another to change.
Each of us guards a gate of change
that can only be opened from the inside.
We cannot open the gate of another,
either by argument or emotional appeal.
- Marilyn Ferguson

You cannot teach a man anything;
you can only help him find it within himself.
- Galileo Galilei

The truth only irritates those it enlightens,
but does not convert.
- Pasquier Quesnel

I cannot teach anybody anything.
I can only make them think.
- Socrates

The greatest roadblock to a great relationship
is trying to force a partner to change through bribes or threats.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live and Let Live

The Problem with Advice

My thoughts on meddling in the affairs of others

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice
    

Always Do the Right Thing

The greatest way to live with honor in this world
is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Gen. Norman Schwarzkoff

You will never do anything in this world without courage.
It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- Aristotle

When people get caught up with that which is right
and they are willing to sacrifice for it,
there is no stopping point short of victory.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
- Abraham Lincoln

Never let your sense of morals
get in the way of doing what's right.
- Isaac Asimov

Read: What is Moral versus What is Right

Do what you feel in your heart to be right.
You'll be criticized anyway.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Whatever your friends and family do,
Always do what you know is right.
...
If it's Right, stand up for it - together.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live with Honor

Be yourself. Honor yourself.

Is there a place for Honor today?
         

Cherish Quiet Time

 

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly -
spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity
to renew itself and create order.
- Susan Taylor

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

Further reading: A Truly Successful Life

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What Is Success?

What You Become
    

Life is Complex and Filled with Contradictions

 

Willingly accept the complexity and the contradictions of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

For every complex problem,
there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma,
a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own
mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Further reading: All Life is Paradox

Lessons from Life

Stand Rapt in Awe
      

Do Not be Deceived by the Shadow

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
- Aesop  [Read The Dog and the Shadow - A Fable by Aesop]

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

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect,
excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
- John Henry Newman

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
- Joseph Epstein

The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates

Further reading: This God Called Money

The Shadow of Worry

Attitude toward Gratitude

Discovery and Adventure, rather than Fear
        

 

The Riddle That Life Is

Life is a riddle.
We cannot expect to understand life's twists and turns as they occur each day,
and we greatly frustrate ourselves in the futile attempt.
Be content to appreciate that there is an overarching purpose,
though that purpose be known only to God, and to history.
Choose service. Choose joy. Accept the unknowing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.
- Jose Ortega Y Gasset

We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

Half of everything you were ever taught is wrong;
the question is which half.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
(and human nature is perhaps life's greatest riddle.)
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Read more about The Book of Life

Further reading:  The Nature of Learning

Lessons from Life

Beyond Understanding
      

 

Always Do What's Right

The greatest way to live with honor in this world
is to be what we pretend to be.
- Socrates

Reputation is what other people know about you.
Honor is what you know about yourself.
- Lois McMaster Bujold

The truth of the matter is that
you always know the right thing to do.
The hard part is doing it.
- Gen. Norman Schwarzkoff

You will never do anything in this world without courage.
It is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor.
- Aristotle

When people get caught up with that which is right
and they are willing to sacrifice for it,
there is no stopping point short of victory.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

All the great things are simple,
and many can be expressed in a single word:
freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
- Winston Churchill

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.
- Abraham Lincoln

Never let your sense of morals
get in the way of doing what's right.
- Isaac Asimov

Read: What is Moral versus What is Right

Do what you feel in your heart to be right.
You'll be criticized anyway.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Whatever your friends and family do,
Always do what you know is right.
...
If it's Right, stand up for it - together.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live with Honor

Be yourself. Honor yourself.

Is there a place for Honor today?
         

Re-examine all that you have been told

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly -
spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity
to renew itself and create order.
- Susan Taylor

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

Further reading: A Truly Successful Life

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What Is Success?

What You Become
    

Willingly Accept the Complexity and the Contradictions of Life

Willingly accept the complexity and the contradictions of life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

You didn't get stamped out of a mold. You aren't a "black person" or a "white person," a "fat person" or a "skinny person," a "bad person" or a "good person." You are a highly complex human being with emotions, beliefs, capabilities. Each day you face challenges to your health, relationships, finances, and world-view -- and every day you respond to those challenges in ways which are unique to you.

Honor and love all of your unique self. Never diminish yourself with self-applied labels or categorizations.

Actions are always more complex and nuanced than they seem.
We have to be willing to wrestle with paradox in pursuing understanding.
- Harold Evans

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

For every complex problem,
there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
- H. L. Mencken

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma,
a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own
mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- Umberto Eco

Further reading: All Life is Paradox

Lessons from Life

Stand Rapt in Awe
      

Focus on the Substance of the Matter

 

Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.
- Aesop  [Read The Dog and the Shadow - A Fable by Aesop]

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

Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect,
excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.
- John Henry Newman

Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
- Joseph Epstein

The envious person grows lean
with the fatness of their neighbor.
- Socrates

Further reading: This God Called Money

The Shadow of Worry

Attitude toward Gratitude

Discovery and Adventure, rather than Fear
        

Life is a Riddle

 

Life is a riddle.
We cannot expect to understand life's twists and turns as they occur each day,
and we greatly frustrate ourselves in the futile attempt.
Be content to appreciate that there is an overarching purpose,
though that purpose be known only to God, and to history.
Choose service. Choose joy. Accept the unknowing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

To be surprised, to wonder, is to begin to understand.
- Jose Ortega Y Gasset

We learn more by looking for the answer
to a question and not finding it
than we do from learning the answer itself.
- Lloyd Alexander

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize
how little we understand about life,
ourselves, and the world around us.
- Socrates

Half of everything you were ever taught is wrong;
the question is which half.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The book of life is filled with incoherent riddles.
(and human nature is perhaps life's greatest riddle.)
Life's true lessons are inscribed in a corner of the margin.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Read more about The Book of Life

Further reading:  The Nature of Learning

Lessons from Life

Beyond Understanding