Excerpts From Great Minds- What Does Goethe Mean?

"To have more, you must first be more."

- Johann Goethe

This is the second part of the Excerpts from Great Minds series. You can read that of Socrates here.

I love this quote from Goethe and I wonder what his source of inspiration was. When I first read it, a picture came to my mind: I saw a small tea cup asking for the same amount of content as that of a jug. How possible is that?

The important thing the tea cup didn't realize is that it was limited.

Are you a tea cup asking to be a jug?

Be The First To Know That You Are Unique

"The person you see is the person you will be."

- Jim Cathcart

A few days ago, my brother and I were just chatting about how we missed those days when we were young with no responsibilities. We had nothing to worry about and had lots of childhood friends to play with. It was then that our family doctor came to my mind. His family were close friends with ours and there was a name my dad always called him which was peculiar to him alone. Whenever they meet or speak over the phone, he'd say "nobody like you". I never really knew why he gave our doctor that name, but I always wondered what it meant.

Excerpts From Great Minds- What Does Socrates Mean?

"An unexamined life is not worth living."

- Socrates

Hmmm... This quote sounds kind of harsh, right? I don't think anyone likes to hear that they're worthless. But, in the actual sense, I don't think it really means that.

Personal development gurus always talk about separating time to do some self examination. The reason for this is simply to know what you're made up of (spiritually, mentally, psychologically, etc.). I'm not talking about purpose here but just self knowledge. What do you have on the inside of you and what can you offer to the society? 

Worth simply means value. You only regard something as valuable if it's of use to you.
Take this scenario as an example:

A New Year Theme- Do You Have One?

“Your problem is to bridge the gap between where you are now and the goals you intend to reach.”

- Earl Nightingale

It seems like just yesterday when we celebrated 2011 as a new year, how time flies. It feels good to know that we passed through and experienced all the joy, troubles and challenges and now have the opportunity to say goodbye to all that and start anew. Like this year, we start every other year expectant and hopeful that the year would be the best year ever. As we know, this is not how the year always turns out to be.

Every year comes with a couple of life assignments for you to take home. These assignments present their own form of trials but your job is to complete and present them at the end of the year for assessment.

How did you do in your previous assignment? Did you achieve all you set out to do?

As for me, the answer to the above question is no, but I had a pretty good grade. It's a ritual for us as achievers to set New Year resolutions for ourselves. In 2011, mine didn't live to see the first of February. Why?