Echoes

Those who are slaves to their appetites cannot preserve their reason, their memory, or their senses in their full vigour; for a full belly does not produce a fine mind.

Excessive eating is like a deadly poison to the body and is a principal cause of all illness.

The food which a temperate man leaves upon his plate is more beneficial than that which a glutton eats.

A person should not eat until his stomach is full. Rather, he should eat until he has consumed approximately three quarters of his fill.

An immoderate diet is unhealthy, but a temperate one preserves strength.

One should not eat unless one is hungry, nor drink unless one is thirsty.

To the quiet mind all things are possible.

To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

Everything in excess is opposed to nature.

Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.

As long as a person exercises, exerts himself greatly, does not eat to the point of being overly full, and keeps his bowels soft, illness will not come upon him and his strength will increase.

To eat when you are sick is to feed your illness.

I can only think while walking; as soon as I stop, I no longer think, and my mind only moves with my feet.

I eat only what is enough to sustain my life. My food is bread, soup, an egg, and a little meat. And the amount I eat is no more than my body can easily digest.

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

Mind is the king of the senses; breath is the king of the mind.

If you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man. Study cannot be helpful unless you take pains to live simply; and living simply is voluntary poverty.

The five colors blind the eye. The five tones deafen the ear. The five flavors dull the taste. Racing and hunting madden the mind. Precious things lead one astray. Therefore the sage is guided by what he feels and not by what he sees. He lets go of that and chooses this.

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.

Sleep and watchfulness, both of them, when immoderate, constitute disease.

The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company.

We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.

There are two sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated to the usages of man's life: "Know thyself," and "Nothing too much;" and upon these all other precepts depend.

If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.

When breath is unsteady, the mind is unsteady. When breath is steady, the mind is steady. The yogi should therefore restrain the breath.