“A fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning.”

 

Oxford Languages

 

What we Believe/Principles to Live By

 

• Human Empathy and Compassion should be embraced

 

• Survival of our species and protecting our habitat from destruction is of the highest priority

 

• We value hard work and productivity in collaboration with mutual prosperity

 

• Accept/Embrace science as the closest understanding of the truth that we have

 

• Ignorance and Greed are the greatest threats to Humankind

 

• Advocate and defend Human Rights

 

• Working toward a better quality of life for everyone benefits us all, regardless of our differences

 

• There is a solution to every challenge, and we will work toward creating a clear vision and plan to achieve all of the above.

 

Utopian Way of Life

 

Wisdom is achieved through life experiences. Sometimes we gain wisdom in the moment of an experience, and gain the greatest meaning and understanding. In some cases, long after the experience, we may have that moment of clarity and understanding. Regardless of how we learn, over time sometimes we forget what was learned. Depending on the type of person you are, the lesson may not be as hardwired in your brain as you would like. Below is life advice to stay vigilant, to learn, to practice, be aware of, and work towards wisdom, so it becomes ingrained in your thinking and being.

 

It’s not enough to simply agree with our principles, you must also do your best to practice self-discipline. Discipline is what allows us as human beings to be the greatest version of ourselves, by learning to take control over what we face in life.  

 

Knowledge and Self-Discipline to Practice

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• Do your best to never intentionally harm others. Harming others is only understandable and acceptable as a last resort in self-defense.

 

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.

 

― Dalai Lama XIV

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• Use a balance of rational thinking and emotion when making decisions. Sometimes moments require more rational thinking than others. Rational thinking does not need to be used exclusively, like when creating art or exploring other ideas.

 

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

 

― Albert Einstein

 

Logic is invincible, because in order to combat logic it is necessary to use logic.

 

— Pierre Boutroux

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• Form healthy habits, eat well, exercise, ignore intrusive thoughts, etc.

 

 All people are the same; only their habits differ.

 

―  Confucius

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• Hone your skills with Practice and Perseverance

 

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Practice makes perfect. After a long time of practicing, our work will become natural, skillful, swift, and steady.

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―  Bruce Lee

 

Excellence is not an art. It is the habit of practice.

 

― Aristotle

 

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is practice. 

 

― Vladimir Horowitz

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• Be Aware of your Environment

 

Alertness and courage are life's shields.

 

― Indian Proverb

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• Take time to learn and to think every day about something new if possible.

 

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

 

― Mahatma Gandhi

 

I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

 

— Abraham Lincoln

 

The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.

 

― B.B. King

 

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

 

― Benjamin Franklin

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• Be Tolerant and Understanding of Others

 

Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself.

 

― Marcus Aurelius

 

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

 

― Dalai Lama

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• Take care of your health, respect your mind and body, appreciate being well

 

It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.

 

― Mahatma Gandhi

 

 Happiness is the highest form of health.

 

— Dalai Lama

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• Be Kind. Be a good person/human being. 

 

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.

 

―  Aesop

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• Try not to make assumptions. Don’t race to conclusions, if possible do research first before making an assessment.

 

Assumptions are made and most assumptions are wrong

 

― Albert Einstein

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• Focus on the Present, Embrace the now, every moment

 

Life is very short and anxious for those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear the future.

 

― Seneca  

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• Manage your Emotions, don’t let your anger or other negative emotions lead to negative actions to others or yourself.

 

Control your emotions or they will control you.

 

― Chinese proverb

 

A Rattlesnake, if Cornered will become so angry it will bite itself. That is exactly what the harboring of hate and resentment against others is - a biting of oneself. We think we are harming others in holding these spites and hates, but the deeper harm is to ourselves.

 

― E. Stanley Jones

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• Respect Life

 

Whoever does not respect life, does not deserve it. 

 

― Leonardo da Vinci

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• Be Grateful. Do not take things for granted. Appreciate life and what you have.

 

No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.

 

― Seneca

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• Be Responsible with the Power you do have. Make it your duty to help those without power.

 

With great power there must also come great responsibility

 

― Quote from the fourth century BC in the allusion of the Sword of Damocles

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• Even if you feel happy and content, strive to accomplish more.

 

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him.

 

― Viktor Frankl 

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• Be a good communicator. Listen well, don’t interrupt, pay attention to emotions, and try not to pass judgment.

 

I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid. 

 

― Cato  

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• Be Self Aware and Honest With Yourself and Others. Don’t lie to yourself to justify your negative behaviors.

 

If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, ‘He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would have not mentioned these alone.' 

 

― Epictetus

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• Stay vigilant with what you have learned, remind yourself so you do not forget what was learned, continue to stay aware.

 

That’s why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should.

 

― Epictetus 

 

Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.

 

―  Benjamin Franklin

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• Learn from other people’s mistakes and negative behavior. Don’t sink to their level.

 

The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.

 

― Marcus Aurelius

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• You cannot control everything, life will not happen as you want, accept this in order to find peace with life and fully embrace the experience, regardless of your wishes and approval of reality.

 

Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will—then your life will flow well.

 

― Epictetus

 

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own…

 

―  Epictetus

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• Live your best self/life now, don’t procrastinate when it comes to being the person you know you can be.

 

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

 

― Epictetus

 

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

 

― Epictetus

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• We all need to deal with our life challenges, but we must do it in a healthy way, and not obsess about negative events that have occurred to us; we must move forward.

 

How does it help…to make troubles heavier by bemoaning them?

 

― Seneca

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• Treat adversity (life challenges) as an opportunity to become stronger, knowledgeable, and have a greater appreciation for life, order, and stability.

 

I judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you. 

 

― Seneca

 

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

 

― Viktor Frankl

 

Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors.

 

― African Proverb

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• You must know what you want to achieve before you can properly get to work reaching your goal.

 

If a man knows not which port he sails, no wind is favorable.

 

― Seneca 

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• Do not spend your life in fear, that is not living, that is coping. Be aware of things that you fear, but don’t live with fear/paranoia.

 

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality. 

 

― Seneca

 

He who fears death will never do anything worth of a man who is alive.

 

― Seneca  

 

Fear is the enemy of logic. 

 

― Frank Sinatra

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• Be a good role-model, lead by example

 

Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be One.

 

― Marcus Aurelius

 

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.

 

― Epictetus

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• Always do what is right

 

Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.

 

― paraphrase of a Charles Marshall quote in Shattering the Glass Slipper

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• Be Professional, Organized, and Prepared.

 

A professional is one who does his best work when he feels the least like working.

 

― Frank Lloyd Wright

 

Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.

 

― Theodore Roosevelt 

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• Be careful what you say

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Three things to think about before you say anything: Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me now?

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― Craig Ferguson

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• Be more aware of your own mortality in a way that enhances your life’s meaning.

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Don't fear your mortality, because it is this very mortality that gives meaning and depth and poignancy to all the days that will be granted to you.

 

― Paul Tsongas

 

As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings happy death. 

 

― Leonardo da Vinci

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• Be self reliant, do not rely on others any more than is absolutely necessary.

 

Everyone wants to be strong and self sufficient, but few are willing to put in the work necessary to achieve worthy goals.

 

— Mahatma Gandhi

 

The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings.

 

— Theodore Roosevelt

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• Do your best to not create problems, and even more so to solve problems.

 

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. 

 

― Albert Einstein.

 

Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.

 

― Henry Ford

 

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

 

― Voltaire

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• Be willing and able to change if necessary

 

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change. 

 

― Charles Darwin

 

 

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Virtues To Practice

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Definition of Virtues: behavior showing high moral standards.

 

Definition of “Morals”

 

1. concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.

 

1. holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct.
    

 

Virtues of Utopian Survivalism

 

Our Virtues are not unlike those of many religious organizations. There is an extra emphasis on the survival aspect of our beliefs, which may not be the traditional interpretation of Virtues. We think of these extended virtues as good behavior, as it helps strengthen our existence and continuity as a people and a culture. 

 

Discipline

 

Patience / Tolerance

 

Empathy / Compassion

 

Generosity

 

Kindness

 

Pursuit of Knowledge / Learning

 

Hard Work / Perseverance

 

Creativity

 

Bringing Joy to Others

 

Healthy Lifestyle

 

Appreciation / Gratefulness

 

Respect

 

Honesty / Integrity

 

Resourcefulness

 

Communication Skills / Listening / Understanding Others

 

Vigilance / Prudence

 

Planning / Strategy

Adaptability

 

Courage / Fortitude

 

Open-Minded

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Learn more by viewing the Frequently Asked Questions page here

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