Category: Daily Wisdom

Today’s Teacher: Mary Oliver (1935 – 2019) The Teaching “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” — Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day” Who Was Mary Oliver? Mary Oliver was an American poet who spent most of her life in relative obscurity, walking in the woods, paying…

Today’s Teacher: Anne Frank (1929 – 1945) The Teaching “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” — Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl Who Was Anne Frank? Anne Frank was a Jewish girl born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929. When the Nazis came to power, her…

Today’s Teacher: Thích Nhất Hạnh (1926 – 2022) The Teaching “Wash the dishes to wash the dishes.” — Thích Nhất Hạnh, The Miracle of Mindfulness Who Was Thích Nhất Hạnh? Thích Nhất Hạnh (pronounced “Tick Naught Han”) was a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, poet, and one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the…

Today’s Teacher: C.S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) The Teaching “Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it’s thinking of yourself less.” — C.S. Lewis Who Was C.S. Lewis? Clive Staples Lewis was a British writer, scholar, and Christian apologist, best known for The Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity. Born in Belfast, Ireland, Lewis lost…

Today’s Teacher: Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) The Teaching “Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it…

Today’s Teacher: James Baldwin (1924 – 1987) The Teaching “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” — James Baldwin Who Was James Baldwin? James Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924, the eldest of nine children in a poverty-stricken family. His stepfather was a preacher…

Today’s Teacher: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) The Teaching “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you…

Today’s Teacher: Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) The Teaching “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” — Albert Einstein Who Was Albert Einstein? Albert Einstein is synonymous with genius. His name is used as shorthand for exceptional intelligence. He revolutionized physics with theories that fundamentally changed our understanding of space, time, energy,…

Today’s Teacher: Helen Keller (1880 – 1968) The Teaching “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” — Helen…

Today’s Teacher: Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) The Teaching “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its…

Today’s Teacher: Buddha (563 – 483 BCE) The Teaching “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” — Buddha Who Was Buddha? Siddhartha Gautama, who became known as the Buddha (meaning “the awakened one”), was born into royalty in what is now Nepal. His father, a king, was told by prophets that his son would either become…

Today’s Teacher: Socrates (470 – 399 BCE) The Teaching “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates, as recorded by Plato in The Apology Who Was Socrates? Socrates is arguably the most influential philosopher in Western history, yet he never wrote a single word. Everything we know about him comes from his students—primarily Plato—who…

Today’s Teacher: Derek Sivers (1969 – present) The Teaching “If more information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.”— Derek Sivers Who Was Derek Sivers? Derek Sivers is a musician, programmer, entrepreneur, and philosopher who accidentally built one of the most successful independent music distribution companies in history—CD Baby—and then gave…

Today’s Teacher: Confucius (551 – 479 BCE) The Teaching “The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” — Confucius, The Analects Who Was Confucius? Kong Fuzi (Master Kong), known in the West as Confucius, was an ancient Chinese philosopher, teacher, and political advisor whose ideas have shaped East Asian culture for…

Today’s Teacher: Viktor Frankl (1905 – 1997) The Teaching “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”— Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Who Was Viktor Frankl? Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust…

Today’s Teacher: Epictetus (50 – 135 CE) The Teaching “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.” — Epictetus, Discourses Who Was Epictetus? Epictetus was born into slavery in the Roman Empire. His name literally means “acquired one”—he was property, not a person. His master, a wealthy freedman who…

Today’s Teacher: Viktor Frankl (1905 – 1997) The Teaching “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” — Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning Who Was Viktor Frankl? Viktor Frankl was an Austrian…

Today’s Teacher: Lao Tzu (6th Century BCE) The Teaching “Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong.” — Lao Tzu,…

Today’s Teacher: Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 CE) The Teaching “You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Who Was Marcus Aurelius? Marcus Aurelius was the Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 CE, ruling during one of the most challenging periods in Roman history.…