"A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey"
- traditional Sufi quote which I came across in Andrew Austin's excellent book "The Rainbow Machine: Tales From A Neuro-Linguist's Journal", certainly the best NLP book of the last five years or so and one which should be required reading for therapists, counsellors and particularly mental health professionals. Review to follow!
Image from the Portland Mercury for some reason
I never thought I'd be quoting the famously grumpy Sir Alan on an emotional intelligence blog, but here he is:
"You've got to be happy, it's not just about making money and all that
stuff. There should be no drudgery in work. You have to enjoy what
you're doing, and if you don't, you'd better get out and do something
else because you're not going to be a success."
- Sir Alan Sugar, interviewed by Liz Hoggard for the London Evening Standard, 26 March 2008
Note for non-UK readers: Sir Alan Sugar fills the Donald Trump role in the UK version of The Apprentice, and it's riveting viewing!
"Much wickedness stems from our failure to imagine other people as fully human, and as our equals"
- Hilary Mantel in 'Expanding Our Sympathies', an interview published as an extra in the paperback edition of her brilliant novel 'Beyond Black'.
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows." - Epictetus
The most accessible account of the stoic philosophy of Epictetus is probably in Tom Wolfe's superb novel A Man In Full - an immensely vivid and readable account of all classes in the American South in the nineties.
"How many things I have no need of" - Socrates
Postcard by Public Domain - you can buy it at gatheredimages.com
A wise man should have money in his head, but not in his heart
- Jonathan Swift
In most meetings, pride or caution still forbids one to say what one feels most deeply.
- Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History Of Humanity
I think he's talking about 'meetings' in the sense of everyday human encounters, but it's probably at least as true about business meetings.
... freedom is not just a matter of rights, to be expressed in law. The right to express yourself still leaves you with the need to decide what to say, to find someone to listen, and to make your words sound beautiful; these are skills which need to be acquired.
- Theodore Zeldin, An Intimate History of Humanity
This is the book I'm reading at the moment, and I highly recommend it. Zeldin has an amazing talent for creating profound aphorisms - sometimes two or three to a page!
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