People are engaged in all kinds of important activities they consider respectable, but they almost never spend time on the one thing which they alone are meant to do and which encompasses everything else: the improvement of one’s soul, the liberation of the soul’s divine source. That this is precisely what a human being is meant to do can be seen by the fact that this is the only goal for which there are no barriers to its attainment.
When people are young, they believe that the virtue that we desire for ourselves and for others is possible, that the purpose of a human being lies in constant self-perfection, and that it is possible and even easy to fix the whole of humanity, to destroy every vice and misfortune. These dreams are not ridiculous. On the contrary, there is more truth in them than in the opinions of old people who had been bogged down in temptations, who, having lived all their lives in a way that is unnatural for a human being, advise others that they should not be wishing or searching for anything, that they should carry on living as they are now. The mistake of youthful dreams lies only in the fact that young people transfer self-perfection, the improvement of one’s soul, onto other people, and also in wanting to see immediately that which must happen in the future.
I think that there is no better way to live than to constantly try to improve yourself, and that there is no greater pleasure than the feeling of real improvement. I have continued to experience this happiness until now, and my conscience tells me that this happiness is real.
— Socrates
We must thank those who point out our faults. Although the pointing out of our faults does not make them disappear, because we have so many of them, becoming aware of our faults begins to disturb our soul and preoccupy our conscience, and this forces us to try to correct ourselves and free ourselves from them.
— Pascal
The state of our consciousness means more to us than the judgement of the whole of the external world, for we live in our consciousness continuously and always. Our happiness or unhappiness depends not on what other people think of us, but what we think of ourselves. By improving yourself, your soul, you will do what is best both for you and for others.
— Lucy Mallory
The ultimate happiness is to feel oneself worthier at the end of the year than at the beginning.
— Thoreau
“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This means: keep trying to liberate the divine source of your life within you.
You cannot perfect yourself while living constantly in the bustle of the world, and even less so while living constantly in solitude. The most profitable condition for self-perfection is to develop and assert one’s worldview in solitude, and then to practice it while living in society.
