The supreme good is like water, which nourishes all things without trying to.
—Laozi
The Tao gives birth to all beings, nourishes them, maintains them, cares for them, comforts them, protects them, takes them back
—Laozi
Just as food eaten without appetite is a tedious nourishment, so does study without zeal damage the memory by not assimilating what it absorbs.
—Leonardo Da Vinci
People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.
—Plato
When a man compares himself with others: thus measuring ourselves by ourselves, and comparing ourselves among ourselves, we show our folly and nourish our pride; but if any man will compare his own life with Christ’s, he will find abundant cause at every time to be humbled.
—John Flavel