If you want to fix the community, start by fixing yourself.

A woman’s greatness shows in big moments, but she’s tiny in the little ones.
Hardly any woman tries to win you over with wit, let alone soul or kindness...
She’ll talk romance with Alcibiades or philosophy with a handsome Lysander, but she won't give even a second to an old, ugly Socrates.
A woman might forgive a guy for his worst sins, but she won't forgive another woman for her best virtues.
She loves you most when she’s the one doing the forgiving.
Nick thinks worse of women than the guy who’s already head over heels for one.
I judge a man by what he says, and a woman by everything she leaves unsaid.
Men have childhoods, youth, and old age, but a woman stays a kid forever—treating everything like a toy.
Men are brave facing death, but women are brave facing life: men face other men, while women face destiny itself.
Nothing kills love faster than a man being too nice... if you want a woman to love you, you gotta act like a man.
A man in love wonders how to share his luck, while a woman figures out how to double it.
Women are the ultimate spark for human creation... 😳 They’re the peak of a man's thoughts and actions, and we owe all human genius to them.
Youth and love... that's really all there is.
Only in love and death can people be equals, where the last one to arrive hits the first.
There are two kinds of marriages: one for the young and their prime, and one for the old and their decline... 😛 One to split the joy and the grief, the other to split the misery and the sickness.
Two real tragedies in life: having no health and having no friends.
The best people are those hardest on themselves, forgiving others for things they'd never excuse in themselves. People who share the same virtues love each other, just like those with the same flaws hate each other.
Great men judge others by their virtues; small men judge by their flaws.
Talk about someone good for half an hour, and you’ll feel peaceful, maybe even proud of how good you feel.
Crude words and manners come from the poor, but deep malice and dark vendettas? That’s high-society stuff.
Old age, sickness, and poverty... combined, they're the ultimate disaster for anyone.
People rarely have evil goals; it's usually just evil methods.
A person can never say as much wisdom as they can through silence.
It's a myth that everyone is the architect of their own happiness; honestly, we're more like the architects of our own misery.
Society only tolerates an old man if he's funny or loaded.
The one thing men won't forgive another man for is having a hotter wife.
It's a tragedy when you don't know what you want, but a total catastrophe when you don't know what you're capable of.
Sometimes a path looks righteous because you see an atheist getting rich and successful. Man, if only they could see where that road ends.
The atheist fears a sudden death, the thief fears a burglar, the killer fears the blade, the narcissist fears shame, and the slanderer fears the truth coming out.
Whatever the godless man fears... that's exactly what's going to find him.
God didn't make us to perish, but to be saved. Does a gardener plant veggies just to watch them wither and die? God only has one wish: that everyone turns away from evil.
If someone knew the number of stars, the names of every fish, the blades of grass, and the habits of wild animals, but still had no fear of God, their knowledge would be as useless as water in a sieve.
If someone could guess every human thought, predict every fate, and reveal every secret hidden deep in the earth, but lacked fear of God, their knowledge would be like milk poured into a dirty cup—spoiled instantly.
Even the hairs on your head are counted, so why worry about friends or enemies on this earth? Don't stress about having too many friends or too many enemies. Don't worry about enemies overcoming you, and don't expect your friends to save you. Just try to keep God as a friend and don't fear anything.
Fighting monsters is easy. We have tools they don't... But fighting evil spirits? Harder. They play by rules we can't even touch.
Money isn't life. It's just some accessory for this short stint on earth.
Physical marriage is just a shadow of a spiritual one. In the physical kind, you get the good stuff first, then the bitter part. Spiritual is the opposite... pain first, joy later.
A bag of dust doesn't make a single grain of gold worth more.
Wolves have been hunting lambs forever. No lamb ever killed a wolf, yet there are way more lambs than wolves out there...
Conquering your own anger is basically what being a soldier of Christ is all about. Usually, we get pissed at people we're trying to save from sin, or at our haters. We forget that anger is a death trap... trying to save others just ends up losing us instead.
Don't covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. Once you want it, you've already planted the seed of evil. It grows, spreads, and starts driving your hands, feet, eyes, and tongue to do wrong. The body is just the soul's tool. If the soul wants it, the body follows... if not, it won't.
The boss of the soul is also the boss of the body.
Nick isn't great if he isn't standing behind someone bigger...
Do something good and bury it under a rock. That rock will find its own voice and tell everyone.
There’s nothing harder than trying to explain spiritual stuff to people who only care about the material world.
The Devil wouldn't even have a job if people didn't keep him busy...
Treat every day like a whole lifetime. Live it as one complete unit, not just a fragment. Make sure every day passes like a whole person you'd actually want to meet again—someone you could show off to the universe without feeling ashamed.
Laziness is just against human nature. Nature wants to build, work, move. Being lazy is just a sign that someone's nature is totally warped.
Laziness is a deadly sin because it kills the soul. A lazy body is a nest for vices, and a lazy soul is where the Devil sets up shop.
If someone can't handle our little mistakes, they don't love us. And the person who won't forgive us when we repent doesn't love us either. Least of all the one who won't celebrate our progress.
You get the kind of friends you give out.
Loving your parents is the foundation. You can't move past that without learning how to love properly first.
Don't act like you're wise. Not with someone else's wisdom, and definitely not your own... because once you start acting wise, it means you haven't got much left.
History tracks two kinds of heroes: the ones who die for their ideals, and the ones who kill others for theirs.
Someone pretending they know everything is actually beneath the guy who knows nothing.
Wanna fix the world? Fix yourself first.
Wanna fix the country? Fix yourself first.
Wanna fix the nation? Fix yourself first.
Wanna fix the small town? Fix yourself first.
Starting with yourself and fixing yourself first—that's

Man, you really went on a tear there, I have to hand it to you. You managed to touch on absolutely everything under the sun, didn't you?😁

It’s true that if you want to see any real change, you have to start by looking inward, whether that’s through changing your own ways or just trying to set a better example for others... because honestly, there isn't really any other way to make it work. A person has both the ability and the fundamental right to change nothing but themselves.

But I have to disagree with the idea that a Woman stays a child her whole life or treats everything like some kind of toy. If we’re being honest, that description sounds much more like something you'd say about a man. 😉

...🤔 all in all pretty interesting.
you really went all out🙂

The title itself is this grand, sweeping concept—truly majestic, really. But everything else? It’s just a mess of contradictions. Honestly, were you perhaps a bit tipsy when you decided to pluck a few verses from the Bible and toss them into a blender with some articles from Cosmopolitan, only to hurriedly stir it all together?

lonecrane42 said:A woman’s greatness shows in big moments, but she’s tiny in the little ones.
Hardly any woman tries to win you over with wit, let alone soul or kindness...
She’ll talk romance with Alcibiades or philosophy with a handsome Lysander, but she won't give even a second to an old, ugly Socrates.
A woman might forgive a guy for his worst sins, but she won't forgive another woman for her best virtues.
She loves you most when she’s the one doing the forgiving.
Nick thinks worse of women than the guy who’s already head over heels for one.
I judge a man by what he says, and a woman by everything she leaves unsaid.
Men have childhoods, youth, and old age, but a woman stays a kid forever—treating everything like a toy.
Men are brave facing death, but women are brave facing life: men face other men, while women face destiny itself.
Nothing kills love faster than a man being too nice... if you want a woman to love you, you gotta act like a man.
A man in love wonders how to share his luck, while a woman figures out how to double it.
Women are the ultimate spark for human creation... 😳 They’re the peak of a man's thoughts and actions, and we owe all human genius to them.
Youth and love... that's really all there is.
Only in love and death can people be equals, where the last one to arrive hits the first.
There are two kinds of marriages: one for the young and their prime, and one for the old and their decline... 😛 One to split the joy and the grief, the other to split the misery and the sickness.
Two real tragedies in life: having no health and having no friends.
The best people are those hardest on themselves, forgiving others for things they'd never excuse in themselves. People who share the same virtues love each other, just like those with the same flaws hate each other.
Great men judge others by their virtues; small men judge by their flaws.
Talk about someone good for half an hour, and you’ll feel peaceful, maybe even proud of how good you feel.
Crude words and manners come from the poor, but deep malice and dark vendettas? That’s high-society stuff.
Old age, sickness, and poverty... combined, they're the ultimate disaster for anyone.
People rarely have evil goals; it's usually just evil methods.
A person can never say as much wisdom as they can through silence.
It's a myth that everyone is the architect of their own happiness; honestly, we're more like the architects of our own misery.
Society only tolerates an old man if he's funny or loaded.
The one thing men won't forgive another man for is having a hotter wife.
It's a tragedy when you don't know what you want, but a total catastrophe when you don't know what you're capable of.
Sometimes a path looks righteous because you see an atheist getting rich and successful. Man, if only they could see where that road ends.
The atheist fears a sudden death, the thief fears a burglar, the killer fears the blade, the narcissist fears shame, and the slanderer fears the truth coming out.
Whatever the godless man fears... that's exactly what's going to find him.
God didn't make us to perish, but to be saved. Does a gardener plant veggies just to watch them wither and die? God only has one wish: that everyone turns away from evil.
If someone knew the number of stars, the names of every fish, the blades of grass, and the habits of wild animals, but still had no fear of God, their knowledge would be as useless as water in a sieve.
If someone could guess every human thought, predict every fate, and reveal every secret hidden deep in the earth, but lacked fear of God, their knowledge would be like milk poured into a dirty cup—spoiled instantly.
Even the hairs on your head are counted, so why worry about friends or enemies on this earth? Don't stress about having too many friends or too many enemies. Don't worry about enemies overcoming you, and don't expect your friends to save you. Just try to keep God as a friend and don't fear anything.
Fighting monsters is easy. We have tools they don't... But fighting evil spirits? Harder. They play by rules we can't even touch.
Money isn't life. It's just some accessory for this short stint on earth.
Physical marriage is just a shadow of a spiritual one. In the physical kind, you get the good stuff first, then the bitter part. Spiritual is the opposite... pain first, joy later.
A bag of dust doesn't make a single grain of gold worth more.
Wolves have been hunting lambs forever. No lamb ever killed a wolf, yet there are way more lambs than wolves out there...
Conquering your own anger is basically what being a soldier of Christ is all about. Usually, we get pissed at people we're trying to save from sin, or at our haters. We forget that anger is a death trap... trying to save others just ends up losing us instead.
Don't covet anything that belongs to your neighbor. Once you want it, you've already planted the seed of evil. It grows, spreads, and starts driving your hands, feet, eyes, and tongue to do wrong. The body is just the soul's tool. If the soul wants it, the body follows... if not, it won't.
The boss of the soul is also the boss of the body.
Nick isn't great if he isn't standing behind someone bigger...
Do something good and bury it under a rock. That rock will find its own voice and tell everyone.
There’s nothing harder than trying to explain spiritual stuff to people who only care about the material world.
The Devil wouldn't even have a job if people didn't keep him busy...
Treat every day like a whole lifetime. Live it as one complete unit, not just a fragment. Make sure every day passes like a whole person you'd actually want to meet again—someone you could show off to the universe without feeling ashamed.
Laziness is just against human nature. Nature wants to build, work, move. Being lazy is just a sign that someone's nature is totally warped.
Laziness is a deadly sin because it kills the soul. A lazy body is a nest for vices, and a lazy soul is where the Devil sets up shop.
If someone can't handle our little mistakes, they don't love us. And the person who won't forgive us when we repent doesn't love us either. Least of all the one who won't celebrate our progress.
You get the kind of friends you give out.
Loving your parents is the foundation. You can't move past that without learning how to love properly first.
Don't act like you're wise. Not with someone else's wisdom, and definitely not your own... because once you start acting wise, it means you haven't got much left.
History tracks two kinds of heroes: the ones who die for their ideals, and the ones who kill others for theirs.
Someone pretending they know everything is actually beneath the guy who knows nothing.
Wanna fix the world? Fix yourself first.
Wanna fix the country? Fix yourself first.
Wanna fix the nation? Fix yourself first.
Wanna fix the small town? Fix yourself first.
Starting with yourself and fixing yourself first—that's

Look, I’ve got an extra tailor's tape lying around at my place. And a decent little scale, too. You want to buy them?😬

Gregory Lewis37 said:The title itself is this grand, sweeping concept—truly majestic, really. But everything else? It’s just a mess of contradictions. Honestly, were you perhaps a bit tipsy when you decided to pluck a few verses from the Bible and toss them into a blender with some articles from Cosmopolitan, only to hurriedly stir it all together?

Yeah, drunk—honestly, dead. 😬
Google says these are actually quotes by the poet T.S. Eliot. 🙂

"A man goes through childhood, youth, and old age, while a Woman stays a child forever and, just like any kid, treats everything like a toy."
Isn't it actually kind of the other way around?

"It’s not quite right to say every man is the architect of his own fortune; if anything, a man is always the sole architect of his own misery."
That's just not true, positive thinking actually triggers positive outcomes...

I didn't really have the patience to read the whole thing from start to finish, though, because those opening lines alone... you'd have to be a total chauvinistic pig to write that garbage 🙂
The rest was alright, and the title is actually pretty spot on, it's just that nobody seems to notice—everyone is too busy nitpicking everyone else's flaws just to make themselves feel superior

I might be able to change myself, I suppose, but that isn't going to fix the whole town. You can't really mend things on an individual level without working on fixing the entire community at the same time.

If you want to fix the town, start by fixing yourself.

I believe self-improvement should be a constant, regardless of what's happening in the community around us. 🙂 The problem arises when people use the excuse "to err is human" not as a way to find strength after a setback, but as a permanent excuse to stay stagnant... and never actually bother to change.

People often mistake this for an illusion—specifically, a widespread misconception regarding the core claim of this topic and its various interpretations

The crux of the matter is that "self-improvement"—if you'll excuse my use of the jargon—inherently demands outward action in that same spirit of betterment. Calling it "fixing oneself" sounds a bit clunky, doesn't it? It would be more accurate to call it service, or simply helping others.

There is this pervasive illusion that one must first achieve total self-mastery—resolving every single internal conflict and personal hurdle, if you catch my drift—before they can finally step out and make a practical contribution to improving the world or their immediate community.

However, if we all waited until we were completely flawless or problem-free before acting, no one would ever step up, and the state of our world would be even bleaker than it is today. Besides, the journey toward "perfection," or that process of self-refinement, is actually inseparable from serving others. They go hand in hand, naturally...

I might have overcomplicated things there, but I hope the nature of this illusion—which, much like any illusion, is ultimately quite damaging—has become clear...

To all sounds like pure apologetics to me—it’s the same pattern every time someone feels the need to point it out: first they focus on themselves (though, honestly, how far does that go? No one ever defines the limit...), and then they pivot to "society."
It strikes me as an excuse used by those who claim to be "persistently" working on self-improvement—or perhaps they’ve truly had that "epiphany" where they believe changing oneself is enough, and that you don't actually need to, say, 😬"stop screwing people over and start helping them because I'm busy working on my inner self"—but in any practical, physical sense, when it comes to actually sharing the fruits of that growth, they tend to lag behind. Whether it's due to inertia, laziness, complacency, or that specific illusion I mentioned earlier, they just stall out.

I don't know about you all, but I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about how we approach certain topics—you know, the ones that seem to spark such intense debates whenever they come up in conversation. It’s funny how one person’s perspective can feel like an absolute truth to them, while someone else sees it as nothing more than noise. It reminds me of those old philosophical debates you read about—kind of like how Socrates used to peel back the layers of an argument just to see what was actually underneath. It isn't just about being right or wrong, though. It feels more like we're all looking at the same mountain from different sides of the valley. One person sees the sunlight hitting the peak, while another is stuck dealing with the shadows in the trees below. Both are technically correct, right? But if you try to force them to agree, you just end up with a lot of frustration and very little progress. I think we could all stand to be a little more deliberate with our words. Instead of jumping straight to a conclusion—which, let's be honest, is what most of us do when we're scrolling through a feed—maybe we should take a beat. A little breathing room goes a long way. It’s like when you’re trying to fix something around the house; if you just start hammering away without measuring first, you’re probably going to end up with a mess on your hands. Slowing down helps you see the actual shape of the problem. kaže:
...🤔 All things considered—looking at the big picture here—it really just comes down to that. That’s an interesting way to look at it—definitely gives me something to chew on..
You really went all out on this one.🙂

I’ve been thinking about trying to pull together a collection of everything T.S. Eliot ever wrote—you know, just gathering all those profound statements and insights in one place. 🙂

Edit: Looks like mistyfox812 already caught on to that one.

Gregory Lewis37 said:The title itself is this grand, sweeping concept—truly majestic, really. But everything else? It’s just a mess of contradictions. Honestly, were you perhaps a bit tipsy when you decided to pluck a few verses from the Bible and toss them into a blender with some articles from Cosmopolitan, only to hurriedly stir it all together?

Well, look, maybe you’re just missing the point.

Some of these lines, people agree with them, some they tear apart, and others they just think are complete and utter nonsense.

I mean, I'm kind of doing the same thing... 😬

But, honestly, maybe there’s a logic to it all after all..
it’s just that we don’t get some of them, right? 😳

Because, see, these ones really hit home for me 🙏

A Woman will forgive a man even his most terrible vices, but she won't forgive another woman even her greatest virtues.

It’s rare for a person's goal to be evil; usually, it's just the methods that go wrong.

If someone knew the number of stars in the sky, the names of every fish in the ocean, the count of blades in a field, or the habits of beasts in the woods, yet still had no fear of God, then their knowledge would be as useless as water in a sieve.

Even the hairs on your head are numbered, let alone your friends and enemies here on Earth! So don't worry about having too many friends or too many enemies; don't worry about your enemies overpowering you, and don't bank on your friends to save you. Just make sure you have God as a friend, and you won't have to fear anything.

It's easy enough for people to fight against wild animals—humans have weapons that animals don't. But it's damn hard to fight against spirits of evil, because they use weapons that humans simply don't possess.

Physical marriage is just a symbol of a spiritual union. In a physical marriage, you hit the joys first and the bitterness later, whereas in a spiritual one, it's the bitter parts first followed by the joy.

No one is truly great unless they hold onto someone greater than themselves.

The Devil wouldn't even have a job if people didn't keep him busy.

Laziness is basically the opposite of human nature. Nature is active; it wants to build, to act, to work. Laziness is just a clear sign that a person's nature has gone totally haywire.
Laziness is one of those deadly sins because it just numbs a person's soul. A lazy body is a breeding ground for vice, and a lazy soul is where the Devil sets up camp.

If you want to fix the world, start by fixing yourself.

And you gotta remember, these are the thoughts of a man... he doesn't know everything, obviously. 😳
if he were a Woman, maybe he’d actually pay attention to how men think...

I guess that part about women is just a tough pill to swallow. 😬

A Woman's true greatness shows up in life's massive milestones, though in those tiny, trivial moments, she might seem small.

But really, she’s always enough.

It's rare to find a Woman who wants to win someone over through intellect, let alone through her soul or her kindness.
She’ll talk about romance with Alcibiades or dive into deep philosophy with the charming Lysander, but she won't spare a single word on love or wisdom for an old, unattractive Socrates.

Instead, she’ll discuss the concept of aging or the majesty of a human spirit that transcends time—speaking from some timeless peak where his essence shines through the light of her own love and beauty.

A Woman will forgive a man for even his most terrible vices, yet she finds it nearly impossible to forgive another Woman, even for her greatest virtues.

In those moments, she fails to see any virtue at all; she only finds the capacity to forgive when she recognizes her own weaknesses reflected in another woman. That's when true virtue actually surfaces—in the act of forgiving—assuming there was ever a reason to forgive in the first place.
She’ll overlook a man's darkest flaws, with one major exception: if he simply doesn't care about her forgiveness.

A Woman loves you most when she is the one doing the forgiving, rather than the other way around.

I can see everything I just said above. 🙂

No one thinks more poorly of Women than a man who is already hopelessly, blindly in love with one.

And honestly, plenty of Women would love to be the partner of such a madly devoted man (provided, of course, that she is the one he's crazy about). 🙂

( to be continued... )

If you want to fix the world, first focus on fixing yourself.

I’m not really feeling that bolded part, to be honest.
It feels like we can only truly work on our own lives, hoping that our tiny grain of sand eventually joins up with others to make a real difference.

To me, it ties directly back to that idea: if I’m not happy, there’s just no way I can make the people around me happy either.

...I haven't finished the whole thing yet, but yeah, it's pretty obvious we have to fix ourselves before we even think about fixing anyone else. We totally miss that part all the time, though. It just leads to a massive mess because we end up stuck doing this endless, exhausting Sisyphus routine instead of actually making progress.

I’m still of the opinion that there’s a widespread illusion at play here.

If we could move past that misconception, I truly believe people would focus more on lifting others up rather than just looking out for themselves.

Furthermore—and I say this quite deliberately—I think these two things run in parallel, rather than following one strict sequence after the other.
In my view, if someone wants to be practical and precise about it—just how much "self-care" is actually required before we can reasonably turn our attention to helping others?