All of man’s difficulties are caused by his inability to sit, quietly, in a room by himself.

Recommended reading: Pascal’s Pensees.

What we see of the world is only a sliver of what’s “out there.” There is much that is invisible to the eye, even when we augment our sensorial perception with telescopes, microscopes, and other tools of exploration. Like our senses, every instrument has a range. Because much of Nature remains hidden from us, our view of the world is based only on the fraction of reality that we can measure and analyze. Science, as our narrative describing what we see and what we conjecture exists in the natural world, is thus necessarily limited, telling only part of the story… We strive toward knowledge, always more knowledge, but must understand that we are, and will remain, surrounded by mystery… It is the flirting with this mystery, the urge to go beyond the boundaries of the known, that feeds our creative impulse, that makes us want to know more.

Recommended reading: The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Recommended reading: Conversations of Socrates.

The point is not to take the world’s opinion as a guiding star, but to go one’s way in life… neither depressed by failure nor seduced by applause.

Recommended reading: Gustav Mahler.

Every day we could think about the aggression in the world… everybody always strikes out at the enemy, and the pain escalates forever… we could reflect on this and ask ourselves, “Am I going to add to the aggression in the world?” Every day… we can ask ourselves, “Am I going to practice peace, or am I going to war?”

Recommended reading: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.

Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny… serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, or evil, can become a source of beauty, joy and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.

Recommended reading: Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch.

Life should be lived on the edge of life. You have to exercise rebellion: to refuse to tape yourself to the rules, to refuse your own success, to refuse to repeat yourself, to see every day, every year, every idea as a true challenge… and then you are going to live your life on a tightrope.

Recommended reading: Creativity: The Perfect Crime.

In a word, man must create his own essence. It is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling here, that he gradually defines himself.

Recommended reading: Being and Nothingness.

Life is made of moments, small pieces of silver amidst long stretches of tedium. It would be wonderful if they came to us unsummoned, but particularly in lives as busy as the ones most of us lead now, that won’t happen. We have to teach ourselves now to live, really live . . . to love the journey, not the destination.

Recommended reading: A Short Guide to a Happy Life.

You cannot be really first-rate at your work if your work is all you are… Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.

Recommended reading: A Short Guide to a Happy Life.