A library of wisdom
Quotes — every concept, every voice
622 hand-picked quotes from the world's wisdom traditions, each linked to its source concept. Filter by concept below, or scroll through the whole library.
“Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable.”
“The first person to live to 150 has already been born.”
“What gets you the next ten years is the same thing that gets you to a hundred: sleep, food, movement, purpose, people.”
“In every Blue Zone, the centenarians do not exercise on purpose. The environment moves them.”
“Eat until you are 80 percent full. Hara hachi bu. The Okinawans say it before every meal.”
“Sleep is the foundation on which everything else stands. Lose sleep, lose health, lose years.”
“Routinely sleeping less than six hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubles your risk of cancer.”
“The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life.”
“Fasting is the most powerful longevity intervention we know — older than medicine, free, and within reach of everyone.”
“A 16-hour fast switches the body from growth to repair. Do it most days.”
“Morning sunlight in the first hour of waking sets the entire circadian system. There is no supplement that replaces it.”
“Zone 2 is boring. That is the point. The body needs the boring.”
“We did not evolve to exercise. We evolved to move when survival required it. We must now require it of ourselves.”
“Sitting is the smoking of our generation.”
“Sugar is not a calorie problem. It is a poison problem.”
“Eighty percent of chronic disease is preventable by lifestyle. Not most. Eighty percent.”
“Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.”
“Walking is a man's best medicine.”
“Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
“When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless.”
“Take care of your body. It is the only place you have to live.”
“I do not eat to live. I live to eat well, slowly, with people I love.”
“Move every day. Not because you want to live longer, but because you want today to feel like something.”
“The first thing I do in the morning is decide that I will get up. The rest follows.”
“You do not stop moving because you grow old. You grow old because you stop moving.”
“I have outlived three doctors. They told me to slow down. I never did.”
“I have not lied. I have not stolen. I have not caused another to weep. I have not pried into matters. I have not slandered. I have not been angry without cause. I have not eaten my heart with grudges.”
“Your heart is weighed on the scale against the feather of Maat. May it be found as light.”
“I am one whose heart is light. I have done what is loved by gods and men.”
“Maat is great and its effectiveness lasting. It has not been disturbed since the day of its creation.”