eternity is now

If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration, but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present--the now.

To see a World in a grain of sand,

And a Heaven in a wild flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,

And Eternity in an hour.

- William Blake

selected quotes

The most expensive sex is free sex.

The master calmly said, that if he had to charge them, they would not be able to afford him.

Money as it turns out is very often the most expensive way to motivate people. Social norms are not only cheaper, but often more effective as well.

The more we have, the more we want.

perspectives, not truth

There are no facts. Only interpretations.

-Friedrich Nietzsche

memoir

We too can make a myth out of our meager circumstances.

response to denial of death

I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen. I would rather live on in my apartment.

- Woody Allen

borrowed time

Our life is a loan received from death with sleep as the daily interest on the loan.

- Arthur Schopenhauer

focus

less TV, more reading
less shopping, more outdoors
less clutter, more space
less rush, more slowness
less consuming, more creating
less junk, more real food
less busywork, more impact
less driving, more walking
less noise, more solitude
less focus on the future, more on the present
less work, more play
less worry, more smiles

breathe

- Zen Habits

what's the difference between unemployment and leisure

Do you live to work or work to live?

enlightenment or ignorance?

I cannot see the top of Mount Fuji because I am standing on top of it.

- Chinese proverb

passion

The heart has its reasons, of which reason does not know.

- Pascal

soul

I am what I am not and I am not what I am

- Jean-Paul Sartre

journey

The road is always better than the inn.

- Cervantes

cliches

The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial articulations of very good ones. The sun is often on fire at sunset and the moon discreet, but if we keep saying this every time we encounter a sun or a moon, we will end up believing that this is the last rather than the first word to be said on the subject. Clichés are detrimental insofar as they inspire us to believe that they adequately describe a situation while merely grazing its surface. And if this matters, it is because the way we speak is ultimately linked to the way we feel, because how we describe the world must at some level reflect how we first experience it.

- Alain de Botton

notable quotes

This is for all the people who majored in philosophy in undergrad:
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Stage 1: You feel excited because you’re learning fascinating new ideas.
Stage 2: You feel sad because you realize you don’t actually understand them.
Stage 3: You feel excited again, because you think you’ve finally really figured them out.
Stage 4: You feel depressed because yes, you have figured them out, and they mean your life is pointless.

"Money is like gasoline during a road trip. You don't want to run out of gas on your trip, but you're not doing a tour of gas stations. You have to pay attention to money, but it shouldn't be about the money."
- Tim O'Reilly

"The experience of nothingness is now the point from which nearly every reflective man begins his adult life.
- Michael Novak

"The intellectual problem of the modern world is how to be a relativist without being a nihilist."
- Wilfred Cantwell Smith

"We have heard that man is a being in search of meaning. We have seen that today his search is unsatisfied and thus constitutes the pathology of our age."
- Viktor Frank

Those who seek the truth deserve the penalty of finding it.
- Leo Tolstoy

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