Sun Tzu (Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu) seems to be a wise person. His Art of War is popular amongst students of military – and business – strategy.

He said “Every battle is won before it is fought”. It means that you first need to win in your head; only then can you win in the battleground.

My mentor Aporesh Acharya used to say of sportspersons “You don’t win out there (in the field), you win out here (in the mind)”.

In the movie Sholay, Gabbar Singh, the dacoit said “Jo dar gaya woh mar gaya”. Loosely translated, it means “if you get scared, you are finished”.

This is a universally applicable truth and anyone can benefit by internalising it.

Circumstances

Circumstances aren’t permanent, everything will change.

If I am not for myself

If I’m not for myself, who can be for me?
And if I’m only for myself, then what am I?
And if not now, when?

This is from the Talmud and is a translation of the original written in Aramaic language.

I have used this to answer the question “What’s your life motto?” asked by Ronald Wopereis on LinkedIn Answers.

Time is free

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.

– Harvey Mackay

The meaning of every communication

The meaning of every communication is the result that you get; intentions mean nothing, results are everything.

– Tony Robbins

Results

Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.

– Dr. Robert Anthony

The size of our world

The size of our world is the size of our dreams.

Character

Character is the backbone of our human culture. Music is the flowering of it.

– Confucius

We Use the Letters of our Alphabet

We use the letters of our alphabet every day with the utmost ease and unconcern, taking them almost as much for granted as the air we breathe. We do not realize that each of these letters is at our service today only as the result of a long and laboriously slowprocess of evolution in the age-old art of writing.

– Douglas C.McMurtrie

The Whole Duty of Typography

The Whole Duty of Typography, as of Calligraphy, is to communicate to the imagination, without loss by the way, the thought or image intended to be communicated by the Author.

– Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson