Real life

Real life is found only in the present. If people tell you that you should live your life preparing for the future, do not believe them. We live in this life, and we know this life only, and therefore all our efforts should be directed toward the improvement of this life. Not your life in general but every hour of this life should be lived in the best way you know how.

~ Leo Tolstoy

slip:4a1173.


Departed

When I remember all
    the friends so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall,
    like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one who treads alone
    some banquet hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead,
    and all but he departed.

~ Tom Moore

slip:4a1172.


To see beauty

Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

~ Franz Kafka

slip:4a1136.


A cup of tea

These details may seem trivial to the foolish, but to the thoughtful they will not seem trivial. The proper, wise balancing of one’s whole life may depend upon the feasibility of a cup of tea at an unusual hour.

~ Arnold Bennett

slip:4a1171.


And then

You have to be myopic and completely focused and unbalanced in every way. Once you’ve achieved success, you’re free to do whatever you like.

~ Kevin O’Leary

slip:4a1135.


Ignorance

There are two types of ignorance, the pure, natural ignorance into which all people are born, and the ignorance of the so-called wise. You will see that many among those who call themselves scholars do not know real life, and they despise simple people and simple things.

~ Blaise Pascal

slip:4a1170.


The questions

The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.

~ Madeleine L’Engle

slip:4a1169.


Change, please

I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.

~ George Carlin

slip:4a1134.


Greed

Accursed thirst for gold! What dost thou not compel mortals to do?

~ Virgil

slip:4a1168.


New associations

Instead of feeling complacent about what you know, you must expand your knowledge to related fields, giving your mind fuel to make new associations between different ideas. You must experiment and look at problems from all possible angles. As your thinking grows more fluid, your mind will grow increasingly dimensional, seeing more and more aspects of reality. In the end, you will turn against the very rules you have internalized, shaping and reforming them to suit your spirit.

~ Robert Greene

slip:4a1132.