在修辞学家眼中，箴言（Maxim）被当作一种“辞格”，也就是说话表达的格调或者风格，但是亚里士多德并不是这么看待箴言的，他认为箴言是一种公共说理手段，在《修辞学》第二部分第二十一章里有针对箴言的专门讨论。对于任何一个合格的公民来说，公共说理是一种必备的能力，因此箴言作为一种说理的手段也应当得到我们每个人的重视。

On MIND LIKE WATER

There is on thing we can do, and the happiest people are those who can do it to the limit of their ability. We can be completely present. We can be all here. We can give…our attention to the opportunity before us. (Mark Van Doren)

Life is denied by a lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece. (Nadia Boulanger)

Trying too hard sabotage boat speed. Trying becomes striving and striving undoes itself. Social climbers strive to be aristocrats but their efforts prove them no such thing. Aristocrats do not strive; they have already arrived. Swing is a state of arrival. (Craig Lambert)

Your ability to generate power is directly proportional to your ability to relax.

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything; it is open for everything. (Snhunryu Suzuki)

Clearing the mind to being open and appropriately response is the key. Imagine throwing a pebble into a still pond. Water is what it is, and does what it does. It can overwhelm, but it’s not overwhelmed. It can be still, but it is not impatient. It can be forced to change course, but it is not frustrated.

Anything that cause you to overreact or underreact can control you, and often does. Most people give either more or less attention to things than they deserve.

On CAPTURE & REMINDER

You must use your mind to get things off your mind.

Rule your mind or it will rule you.

There is usually an inverse relationship between how much something is on your mind and how much it’s getting done.

There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice, unless you like that thought.

Everything you’ve told yourself you ought to do, it thinks you should be doing right now. Frankly, as soon as you have two things to do stored only in your mind, you’ve generated personal failure, because you can’t do them both at the same time.

On CLARIFY & ORGANIZE (Outcome/Next Action)

Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.(Henry Bergson)

The ancestor of every action is a thought. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

People think a lot but most of that thinking is of a problem, project , or situation——not about it. Thinking toward outcome and action does not happen without a consciously focused effort. Reacting is automatic, but thinking is not.

In knowledge work , the task is not given; it has to be determined. ‘What are the expected results from this work？’ is the key question in making knowledge workers productive. And it is a question that demand risky decisions. There is no right answer; there are choice instead. (Peter Drucker)

We need to transform all the** “stuff”** we’ve attracted and accumulated into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information.

Thought is useful when it motivates action and a hindrance when it substitutes for action.