Instructions For Living

Instructions For Living   link

By Rabbi Noach Weinberg, ZT'L
At Aish.com

The battle for life is a battle for sanity.

The essence of wisdom is to know yourself.

The key to greatness is doing a spiritual accounting. Every day, set aside time to ask yourself: What am I living for? What do I need to change?

Infatuation is blind. Love is a magnifying glass. Who loves you more than anyone in the whole world? Your parents. Who knows your faults better than anyone in the whole world? Your parents.

Love is the pleasure of focusing on the virtues of another.

It is a greater pleasure to love than to be loved. So why spend so much energy on gaining the approval of others? Work on loving them instead.

The opposite of pain is no pain (i.e. comfort). Equating comfort with pleasure is the definition of decadence.

The Talmud says that every person must say, "The world was created just for me." That means each of us is responsible for the entire world.

The essence of free will is to choose to be a soul, not a body. The battle is to do what your soul wants, not what your body feels like doing.

We all want greatness. No one says, "I wish to be mediocre." Everyone harbors the secret desire to save the world.

Torah is not a history book. It is Toras Chaim – literally Instructions for Living, God's manual teaching on how to fulfill our potential and get the most out of life.

God is our father in Heaven. Like a father, all He wants is for us to get the maximum pleasure in life.

"I can't" is idolatry. If the Almighty helps us, we can change the world. And if He doesn't help, we can't do anything.

Happiness is choosing to take pleasure in what you have.

The natural state of every human being is joy. We learn how to make ourselves miserable.

When people say, "You'll grow up," what they really mean is, "You'll give up like I did."

Every effort is a success, even if you don't see the results.

There are no accidents. The Almighty is always sending us messages, and He's a very articulate teacher.

If you don't know what you are willing to die for, you haven't really begun to live.

If being good is worth dying for, then it is worth living for. And if it is worth dying and living for, then it is certainly worth enjoying.