Mental Efficiency Series Quotes

“He also possest, to realize them, great power and intelligence, great courage. He did for his egoism what he should have done for right alone. This is the reason that, in spite of all his energy, he only asserted himself transiently. Napoleon is the awkward, clumsy arriver, who sought for his own good at the expense of others, and who, once crusht to earth, is unable to rise again.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Be an adroit arriver. Leave nothing but satisfied people behind you, or indifferent ones. Be careful to displease no one. That which in an ordinary man becomes only the memory of a moment's irritation becomes in a celebrated one an arm for his enemies against him. Let your force exert itself, above all, against yourself. Exercise adroit caution. All confidences are dangerous. On earth nobody can be sure of his neighbor. Never tell any one a secret. Have strength enough to keep silent.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Conceit assumes the form of pride and, like it, dims clearness of vision. Good judges of themselves should reject these feelings, which, tho human, drag them at last to loss and failure. They tempt men to make idols of themselves and tyrannize over others.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“His life is a long succession of perfect actions, of struggle against evil, of success in what is good. By these qualities, which were in him and which he has carefully cultivated, he makes himself superior to all his fellows. He acts for himself, according to his own ideas. He does not bother with books, examples, or advice. He goes where his conscience — which is not built on fidelity to the rules of his childhood—leads him. It is made up of thoroughly original beliefs, impressions, deductions and inductions of his own. This man possesses what we call a moral personality. Men of this sort we deem philosophers. They do not see the world from the common viewpoint. They have one all their own, which varies greatly from the rules usually applied and the generalities usually taught, from which every one feeds his mind. They are called optimists if their mental attitude is more cheerful than the ordinary; pessimists, if it is more melancholy. They are simply people who think according to the turn of their character, the logic of their belief, the range of their intelligence and the sincerity of their nature. In a word they are themselves.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“But he who consumes himself in vain regret gives the lie to the happiness of the magical present and uses up his strength in deploring conditions that nothing can change.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“The gods of the past are considered simply as idols in our day and the virtues of the distant past would be, at present, moral defects which would prevent men from winning the battle of life, whose ideal is The Best for which all the faculties should strive.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“To define it exactly, one should call to mind the wise adage which says: Know thyself. “But this knowledge is rare. “Presumptuous persons readily imagine that they attract the eyes of every one, even if they be in the last rank. “Timid persons will hide themselves behind others and, notwithstanding, they are very much aggrieved not to be seen. “Ambitious persons push away the troublesome ones, in order that they themselves may get the first places. “Lazy persons just let them do it “Irresolute persons hesitate before sitting down in vacant places and are consumed with regrets from the time they perceive that others, better prepared, take possession of them; the more so as they no longer get back their own, for, during their hesitation, another has seated himself there. “Enthusiasts fight to reach the first rank, but are so fatigued by their violent struggles that they fall, tired out, before they have attained their object. “Obstinate people persist in coveting inaccessible places and spend strength without results, which they might have employed more judiciously.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“He who is determined to acquire common sense will use the following argument: “Doubt is a conflict between two conclusions. “So long as it exists it is impossible to adopt either. “Serenity is unknown to those whom doubt attacks. “To obtain peace, it is necessary to become enlightened, “However, it is wise always to foresee the least happy issue and to prepare to support the consequences”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Afterward the philosopher demonstrates to us the necessity of abstracting all personality from the exercises which combine for the attainment of common sense. “There is,” said he, “an obstacle against which all stupid people stumble; it is the act of reasoning under the influence of passion. “Those who have not decided to renounce this method of arguing will never be able to give a just decision. “There are self-evident facts, which certain people refuse to admit, because this statement of the truth offends their sympathies or impedes their hatreds, and they force themselves to deny the evidence, hoping thus to deceive others regarding it “But truth is always the strongest and they soon become the solitary dupes of their own wilful blindness.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“How many useless imprecations would be avoided,” adds the Shogun, “if it were given to men to know how to employ the arguments which common sense dictates, in order to distribute the weight of the mistakes committed among those who deserve the burden, without, at the same time, forgetting to assume our own share of the responsibility if we have erred. “Nothing is more sterile than regrets or reproaches, when they do not carry with them the resolution never again to fall into the same error.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Gracious divinities protect only wise people. “ ‘Now, I have acted like a fool. “ ‘It is, therefore, natural that they should turn away from me.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Experience itself depends on memory, which permits us to recall facts and to draw our conclusions from them, on which facts reasoning is based.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Common Sense is a science, whatever may be said; according to Yoritomo, it does not blossom naturally in the minds of men; it demands cultivation, and the art of reasoning is acquired like all the faculties which go to make up moral equilibrium.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“This quality,” said the philosopher, “is obscure and intangible, like the air we breathe. “Like the air we breathe, it is necessary to our existence, it surrounds us, envelops us, and is indispensable to the harmony of our mental life. “To acquire this precious gift, many conditions are obligatory, the principle ones being: “Sincerity of perception. “Art of the situation. “Attention. ‘‘Approximation. “Experience. “Comparison. “Analysis. “Synthesis. “Destination. “Direction. “And lastly the putting of the question.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Would one not say that these lines had been written yesterday ? More than ever our age of unrest makes us the prey of impulses, and to the majority of our contemporaries, the robe, half green and half yellow (by recalling to them the worship of common sense), will become a fetish, more precious than all the amulets with which superstition loves to adorn logic, or to incorporate fantastic outline in the classic setting of beautiful jewels.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Before discussing the advantages of conflict, he will instinctively resign himself to inertia. If, on the contrary, his temperament disposes him to anger, he will compromise an undertaking by a spontaneous violence, which patience and reflection would otherwise have made successful. It is possible also that a valiant soul is unable to obey a weak body, and that instinct, awakened by fear, leads one on to the impulsive desires of activity”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Impulse, on the contrary, only admits instinct as its source of existence. It is the avowed enemy of common sense, which counsels the escape from exterior insinuations that one may concentrate, in order to listen to the voice which dictates to us the abstinence from doing anything until after making a complete analysis of the cause which agitates us.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Impulsive people are those who allow themselves to be guided by their initial impressions and make resolutions or commit acts under the domination of a special consciousness into which perception has plunged them. Impulse is a form of cerebral activity which forces us to make a movement before the mind is able to decide upon it by means of reflection or reasoning. The Shogun deals with it at length and defines it thus “Impulse is an almost direct contact between perception and result. “Memory, thought, deduction, and, above all, reason are absolutely excluded from these acts, which are never inspired by intellectuality.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“They are willingly ironical, easily become pessimists, and villify life, without desiring to perceive that it reserved as many smiles for them as the happy people whom they envy. “All these causes of disappointment can only be attributed to the lack of equilibrium of the reasoning power and, above all, to the absence of common sense, hence we can not judge of relative values. “To give a definite course to the plans which we form is to prepare the happy termination, of them. “This is also the way to banish seductive illusion, the devourer of beautiful ambitions and youthful aspirations”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“That which is above all to be shunned,” said the philosopher, “is the encroachment of discouragement, the result of repeated failures. “Rare are those who wish to admit their mistakes. “In the structure of the mind, inaccuracy brings a partial deviation from the truth, and it does not take long for this slight error to generalize itself, if not corrected by its natural reformer — common sense.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Unhappiness and misfortune attend those who are voluntarily feeble. “Their defect deprived them of the joy derived from happy efforts. They will be the prey of duplicity and untruth. “They are the vanquished in life, and scarcely deserve the pity of the conqueror; for their defeat lacks grandeur, since it has never been aurioled by the majestic strength of conflict.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Unhappiness and misfortune attend those who are voluntarily feeble”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Common Sense such as we have just described it, according to Yoritomo, is the absolute antithesis of dreamy imagination, it is the sworn enemy of illusion, against which it struggles from the moment of contact. Common sense is solid, illusion is yielding, also illusion never issues victorious from a combat with it; during a struggle illusion endeavors vainly to display its subterfuges and cunning; illusions disappear one by one, crusht by the powerful arms of their terrible adversary — common sense.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“We may all possess wisdom if we are willing to be persuaded that the experience of others is as useful as our own.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Is it, then, necessary to have experienced pain in order to prevent or cure it? “The majority of physicians have never been killed by the disease they treat. “Does this fact prevent them from combatting disease victoriously?”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“To those who insist that nothing is equivalent to personal experience, We shall renew our argument, begging them to meditate on the preceding lines, drawing their attention to the fact that a just opinion can only be formed when personal sentiment is excluded from the discussion.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“What would be thought of one who prided himself on possessing bracelets when he had lost his two aims in war? “It is, therefore, necessary, not only to encourage young people to profit by lessons of wisdom and experience, but, still further, to indicate to them how they can accomplish the result of these lessons.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Of what benefit is wisdom resulting from experience if it can not preserve us from the unfortunate seduction of youth ? “Why should its beauty be unveiled only to those who can no longer profit by it?”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Reasoning is the art of fixing the relativeness of things. “It is by means of reasoning that it is possible to differentiate events and to indicate to what category they belong. “It is the habit of reasoning to determine that which it is wise to undertake, thus permitting us to judge what should be set aside.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]

“Common sense,” he continues, “takes good care not to assail violently those beliefs which tradition has transmuted into principles. “However, if direct criticism of those beliefs causes common sense to be regarded unfavorably, it will be welcomed with the greatest reserve and will maintain a certain prudence relative to this criticism, which will be equivalent to a proffered reproach.”
― Yoritomo-Tashi, Mental Efficiency Series: Ten Complete Self-Help Books - Opportunities; Perseverance; Timidity; Influence; Common Sense; Speech; Practicality; Character; Personality; Poise [Annotated]