Wise Sayings to Remember From the Elderly

I thought I would help compile a list of some wise saying that I have come across which I find to be very meaningful and hopefully enlightening to be passed around. Sometimes, our parents or aged relatives share some good advice from time to time when there is a meet up. How often do we actually commit these to memory and how many actually practice on a daily basis?

Wise sayings to be remembered as you go through life:

• Do not hold bitterness in your heart especially to those who have wronged you in anyway. Do not expect anybody to treat you well. This is not about having a low opinion of others but to be prepared and expect that everybody else will be looking out for themselves first and foremost since the first human instinct is self-preservation. However, for those people who treat you well, family or friends or even total strangers (if it is possible in this day and age), you have to be grateful that life has given you a helping hand and cherish it but always be careful since everybody has a purpose in their dealings with you.
• Everyone and everything in the world is impermanent which includes any want or need. In the Buddhist philosophy, this is the paramount realization of enlightenment and by understanding this alone, you can start to live an uncomplicated life and taking things as they come since eventually at a certain point, they or it will leave you. This applies to relationships, materialistic things and even yourself.
• Life is too short to doing something that does not mean a lot to you. Don’t waste your life doing something you don’t love or have interest in doing. The earlier you realize that and what you are passionate about, the better you will enjoy what life has to offer you.
• The greatest emotion of love is simply a fleeting feeling. Again, this relates to the concept of impermanence where nothing in the world or the universe will last forever. Love with all its sweetness and bitterness are merely a strong emotional feeling which will pass with the passage of time. The only way it survives is what sort of additional assistance it receives from you to keep it burning. By understanding this, you will be able to love freely and be able to withstand the harshness that love comes with.
• You don’t have to receive good education in order to be successful in life (a lot of successful people made it without it) BUT that does not mean you can emulate their footsteps since for these people, a combination of determination, passion, preparation and a bit of luck happened to converge some point in their life which enabled them to be successful. The only way to prepare for success is to be ready with the right knowledge at the right time and that is where whatever knowledge you managed to learn before can help propel you to greater heights.
• Always honor your promises but never always expect others to keep theirs. You have the ability to choose to be good to other people but you don’t have control over whether they will return the favor. It is a blessing since you will be able to sleep easier knowing that you honored your side of the bargain and if they do return the favor, it is icing on the cake and a bonus to you.
• There is no such thing as a free lunch. You probably will have to earn your keep and work to the best of your abilities and just grind your teeth when the going gets rough. If you were hoping to make a fast buck gambling, the probability and odds are greatly stacked against you. Striking it rich through the lottery is just like hoping to be struck by lightning. The only way you can guarantee 100 percent that you will get a free lunch is when you work for it and you can call it your own.