Thoughts for the Day

Hatred is pain, accompanied by the idea of an external cause.

Contempt is the conception of anything which touches the mind so little, that its presence leads the mind to imagine those qualities which are not in it rather than such as are in it.

Desire is the actual essence of man, in so far as it is conceived, as determined to a particular activity by some given modification of itself.

“A smile travels a great distance, and always finds it’s way back home”

“Since it is a joy to have the benefit of what is good, it is greater to experience what is better.”

If anyone conceives, that an object of his love joins itself to another with closer bonds of friendship than he himself has attained to, he will be affected with hatred towards the loved object and with envy towards his rival.

There are as many kinds of pleasure, of pain, of desire, and of every emotion compounded of these, such as vacillations of spirit, or derived from these, such as love, hatred, hope, fear, &c., as there are kinds of objects whereby we are affected.

Since hatred and love are themselves emotions of pain and pleasure, it follows in like manner that the endeavour, appetite, or desire, which arises through hatred or love, will be greater in proportion to the hatred or love

The greater the emotion with which we conceive a loved object to be affected towards us, the greater will be our complacency.

He who conceives, that an object of his hatred is painfully affected, will feel pleasure. Contrariwise, if he thinks that the said object is pleasurably affected, he will feel pain. Each of these emotions will be greater or less, according as its contrary is greater or less in the object of hatred.

If we conceive that a thing, which is wont to affect us painfully, has any point of resemblance with another thing which is wont to affect us with an equally strong emotion of pleasure, we shall hate the first—named thing, and at the same time we shall love it.

Simply from the fact that we have regarded a thing with the emotion of pleasure or pain, though that thing be not the efficient cause of the emotion, we can either love or hate it.

“It’s ok to enjoy your success, as long as you don’t quite believe it”

A man is as much affected pleasurably or painfully by the image of a thing past or future as by the image of a thing present.

“Being a success at the office isn’t worth it if it means being a failure at home”

An idea, which excludes the existence of our body, cannot be postulated in our mind, but is contrary thereto.

“I have one more intimate confidant, my melancholy. In the midst of my joy, in the midst of my work, he waves to me, calls me to one side, even though I physically stay put. My melancholy is the most faithful mistress I have known; what wonder, then, that I love her in return.”

Soren Kierkegaard

The idea, which constitutes the actual being of the human mind, is not simple, but compounded of a great number of ideas.

“I think I have the courage to doubt everything; I think I have the courage to fight everything. But I do not have the courage to know anything, nor to possess, to own anything.”

“Without forgiveness, life is governed by an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation.”

Roberto Assagioli