It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.
The mind that is not baffled is not employed.
The impeded stream is the one that sings.
Wendell Berry
We are too much in awe of those who succeed
and far too dismissive of those who fail.
And, most of all, we become much too passive.
We overlook just how large a role we all play—
and by “we” I mean society—
in determining who makes it and who doesn’t.
Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success
If nothing matters,
it should not matter that nothing matters,
and yet it does matter.
Irvin D. Yalom, Existential Psychotherapy
A memory is a complicated thing,
a relative to truth, but not its twin.
Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
I don't think writers are sacred, but words are.
They deserve respect.
If you get the right ones in the right order,
you might nudge the world a little or make a poem
that children will speak for you when you are dead.
Tom Stoppard, The Real Thing
You live your life at the time you live it —
you don't have much of an overview
when what's happening to you is still happening.
John Irving, In One Person: A Novel
True perfection consists in the love of God and our neighbour,
and the better we keep both these commandments, the more perfect we shall be.
Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle