What is the wisest thing you have heard?

"Only trolls necropost" - The Internet.

To give a serious reply, here are some of the lessons that stand out to me as being important in my own life.

1: Life is hard and if i want mine to be any good, i have to be willing to pay the piper. I have to go into every day expecting to have to make a serious effort. I have to be willing to work hard and do things as carefully and as well as im able.
2: Life is tragic and unfair. Understanding the truth of this can either demolish a person, mentally and morally, or it can become an opportunity to bolster the self by accepting this truth with the belief that its still worth living and that with good choices, hard work, and a little bit of luck, we can end up with a life that we are proud of and grateful for.
3: We are our behavior and all?we do is behave. Everything we do is behavior, even our thoughts and feelings. We are not our beliefs or our ideas, we are not our emotions, we are not our self image; we are whatever it is that we do with our time and energy. Particularly in regards to how we relate to ourselves (personal health, supportive self-talk, life planning, etc) and how we relate to other people. The we we treat others and the kinds of relationships that we have. It doesn't matter if we call ourselves Jedi or Christians or Ninja Turtles, it is the patterns of our relational behaviors which most define us.
4: We are capable of changing our behavior if we are willing to look at ourselves honestly and willing to make effort at becoming better.
5: Its best to be ethical because we have a standard that we aspire to live up to. But if nothing else, be ethical because being unethical has a way of coming back to punish you, hard.

“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.”

“To have faith is to trust yourself to the water. When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.”

“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”

“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.”

“No one is more dangerously insane than one who is sane all the time: he is like a steel bridge without flexibility, and the order of his life is rigid and brittle.”

“We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.”

“Without birth and death, and without the perpetual transmutation of all the forms of life, the world would be static, rhythm-less, undancing, mummified.”

“Only words and conventions can isolate us from the entirely undefinable something which is everything.”

“…and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live.”

“Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way”

– Alan Watts.

"When you are deluded, every statement is an ulcer. When you are enlightened, every word is wisdom." —Zhiqu

that fear is a path to the dark side.

I don't think we realize how true this is and how catastrophic the results are of our own fears.

It’s not the destination, it’s the journey. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The journey, not the destination, becomes a source of wonder. ~ Lorena McKennitt

Silence...

'It takes more courage to suffer than to die.' - Megatron (IDW version)

One of my wisest Modern day Jeddist told me one time in the beginning of my ministry - "Dont take the bait"

Still works till this day

"The universe is unfolding as it should."

First heard that from Spock in The Undiscovered Country, then learned it was from the Desiderata: https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html

"He who thinks he knows, doesn't know. He who knows that he doesn't know, knows" - Joseph Campbell

This one spoke to me very recently and I think no one ever truly knows all, life is a endless learning process and there's ought to be many things even the most intelligent minds among us don't even understand or have yet to find out. I also think this is important if we want to reach mutual understanding , not only in communication but also in society.

Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of the wolf. - Aldo Leapold

Our time on earth is so short, and our experience here is so deeply entrenched within our culture that we can't help but see things subjectively. We all hear something different when wolves howl. Some of us feel fear and anxiety, others reverence and rapture, still others feel mild curiosity about the auditory and ecological function of the wolf's vocalizations. Whatever we think and feel about a wolf's howl, it has an objective value only the mountain knows.

We are exchanging our true essence which is pure for the mind and body,
through identification with mind and body, we suffer.
Bring your awareness into daily activity and just be an observer of your thoughts and emotional state,
be witness, don´t engage yourself in detail elaboration why, what and how is this happening. Be present and
just admit it to appear.

"A wise man brings an umbrella on a dry day"

"Your smart to somebody else's stupid; is stupid to somebody else's smart"

I believe I've heard a lot of wise things but I cannot for the life of me pick one that I would label "the wisest." :laugh:

But, since I want to contribute something to the thread, I'll share this that I came across recently in one of my books.

Quick background: a solar eclipse was causing some panic among statesmen and many were wanting to leave and rush to their homes and families.

"Abraham Davenport, managed to keep his nerve and dignity. “Gentlemen,” he said, “either the Day of Judgment is here or it is not. If it is not, there is no occasion for alarm and lamentation. If it is, however, I wish to be found doing my duty. I move, therefore, that candles be brought.”"

maybe not the "wisest", but something that accompanies me my whole life (hope I find the right english words):

"only when you are really afraid of the next step true changes will occur."

"There is always some truth in jest..." A joke is never really just a joke. Humor allows insight to the innermost thoughts and feelings of the one employing it.

All that one must do to be hated in this world, is to always do, That which is Just and that which is Right. - Robert Johnson

Always act as if.. Always act as if someone is watching and if you'd be embarrassed to be seen doing whatever, then don't do it. - Robert Johnson