Aphorisms to Live By
Michael Gollin
April 1, 2013

You can quote me:

The purpose of life is to prepare yourself for whatever life may bring your way, and to help others do so, too. If you keep yourself ready to enjoy the good and to cope with the bad, you are leading a purposeful life.

The meaning of life is found by asking, “What is the meaning of life?”

Do more good, less harm. There are no absolutes, but this relativism is enough for living a good life.

The only two things we can control are our relationships with other people and our skills based on experience.

Be patient when things are getting better or can’t be changed, but be impatient when they’re getting worse and they can be changed.

Adapted from other wise people:

Where is it written that life would be easy?

Luck is the intersection of preparedness and opportunity. Luck favors the prepared mind.

Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Shared joys are doubled and shared sorrows are halved.

According to the Book of Job, Nature and Fate (God) bring pleasure and pain unpredictably, and the art of living is to accept that we will get one after the other. Who are we to question which we get?
(But we should not accept cruelty or malfeasance by other people.)

Appearances are often different from reality.