Seneca Lucius Annaeus Seneca
c. AD 63 · Roman Empire · Advising him not to flit from book to book. A life spent travelling, he goes on, brings many lodgings and no friendships
He who is everywhere is nowhere.
Nusquam est qui ubique est.Letters to Lucilius 2
In the same thread
Henry David Thoreau
1854 · Massachusetts, USA
Hardly a man takes a half-hour's nap after dinner, but when he wakes he holds up his head and asks, "What's the news?" as if the rest of mankind had stood his sentinels.
Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"
Henry David Thoreau
1854 · Massachusetts, USA
I am sure that I never read any memorable news in a newspaper.
Walden, "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"
Mencius 孟子
4th century BC · Zou, Warring States China · Speaking of a chapter of the ancient Book of Documents, of which he says he accepts only two or three strips
"If you believe everything in the Book, it would be better to have no Book at all."
盡信書，則不如無書。Mencius, Jin Xin II
Thiruvalluvar திருவள்ளுவர்
about 2,000 years ago · Tamil country, South India
Whatever is said, and whoever says it, wisdom is to see the truth of the thing.
எப்பொருள் யார்யார்வாய்க் கேட்பினும் அப்பொருள் மெய்ப்பொருள் காண்ப தறிவு.
Tirukkural 423
Marcus Aurelius Μᾶρκος Αὐρήλιος
170s · Roman Empire
How much free time he gains who does not look at what his neighbour has said or done or thought, but only at what he himself is doing.
Ὅσην εὐσχολίαν κερδαίνει ὁ μὴ βλέπων τί ὁ πλησίον εἶπεν ἢ ἔπραξεν ἢ διενοήθη, ἀλλὰ μόνον τί αὐτὸς ποιεῖMeditations 4.18
Lewis Carroll
1865 · Oxford, England
‘If everybody minded their own business,’ the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, ‘the world would go round a deal faster than it does.’
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 6
1 in 100 Billion · The social network of those who came before us