the pursuit of understanding

The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything.

A man needs a little madness, or else… he never dares cut the rope and be free.

Under peaceful conditions, the warlike man attacks himself.

It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly... Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them...throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you...trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly...on tiptoes and no luggage...completely unencumbered.

I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.

Everybody's wearing a disguise, to hide what they've got left behind their eyes.

If you're a true believer; if you have some pre-packaged philosophy then you're going to miss a great deal because you're pre-programmed to ignore what doesn't fit into your model. And it doesn't matter what your model is.

He who lives without discipline dies without honor.

Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.

To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.

Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.

It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

What did you do as a child that made the hours pass like minutes? Herein lies the key to your earthly pursuits.

He who created us without our help will not save us without our consent.

Does not everything depend upon our interpretation of the silence around us?

If you're thinking of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you're embarking on something, which will take the whole of you.