Autobiography of Restless Mind

Every mountain is two mountains: the one that urges us to climb and the one that punishes us when we do.

The ferocity with which a dog defends its bone tells us a great deal more about the nature of the dog than the quality of the bone.

Habits are never in a hurry.

Nature will never take direction from us no matter how much havoc we create in the attempt.

Despite the desperate effort of parents to teach their children good behavior, children continue to behave pretty much like their parents.

Politicians are addicted to mendacity, indecision, and inaction because they know that such things are rarely noticed, readily forgiven, and quickly forgotten, while a mistake is usually detected, seldom forgiven, and rarely forgotten.

The pleasures of youth are the pains of old age, just as the pleasures of old age are the pains of youth. - Dee Hock

To speak is craft; to listen is art.

We judge others harshly by the standards we profess rather than those we practice. Yet we resent it bitterly when they return the favor.

Vice and virtue have one thing in common: the more people have of either, the less they think they have.

Without purpose will is blind. Without will purpose is impotent. Without ethical and moral content both are barren at best and dangerous at worst.

It is not more answers we need, but better questions. It is not more action we need, but deeper reflection. It is not more knowledge we need, but profounder wisdom. It is not more technology we need, but greater aspirations.

Those who despise people are the most desperate to be favorably recognized by them.

Ignorance is a great deal more eager to instruct wisdom than wisdom is to instruct ignorance.

The world of Homo sapiens is, indeed, a fantasyland, for we seek to control organizations, peoples, economies, and nature with minds that can’t control their own thoughts and emotions for thirty seconds.

Love, share, accept, care; what else matters?

Fear, when it adds nothing to safety, is pain without utility.

It is incomparably more difficult to gain acceptance of a new idea than it is to discover it.

Envy is admission of inferiority.

Communication would be vastly improved if everyone who wrote and spoke were content to be understood without needing to be admired.

A recognized and corrected error vanishes leaving two things of great value—experience of error, and how to rise above it.

Delaying what we must do eventually does nothing but lengthen the time and distance we must carry the burden.

Those born poor who become rich are eager to tell us what good fortune it was to be forced to struggle with adversity. One wonders why they take the utmost pains to deprive their children of the same opportunity

Critics often make us out to be so bad we are compelled to wonder why they select such rotten subjects.

Knowledge is never in doubt. Wisdom is never certain.

Once fame is necessary to our happiness, power to make us miserable lies in the hands of everyone.

It is a prudent man who never reveals how little he thinks of others or how much he thinks of himself.

Vision without effort is impotent. Effort without vision is blind.

Oh, how we love to judge ourselves by our good intentions and others by their bad performances.

One may be old in experience who is young in time, just as another may be young in experience and old in time.

Trust is far less expensive and more reliable than compulsion.

Introspection is both the curse and blessing of life.

His mind is like a wagon that believes it drives the harness that pushes the horse.

Grief shared is halved, happiness shared is doubled.

As one approaches the end of life, that which truly matters emerges sharp and clear—family, love, generosity, peace, nature, comfort.

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