Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive read more

Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive believer can be seen to risk the torments of the afterlife for the smallest pleasure.

The suspicious believe everybody to be suspicious; the liar feels secure in the thought that he is not so foolish read more

The suspicious believe everybody to be suspicious; the liar feels secure in the thought that he is not so foolish as to believe that there is such a phenomenon as a strictly truthful person; the envious see envy in every soul; the miser thinks everybody is eager to get his money;...and the abandoned sensualist looks upon the saint as a hypocrite

Habits are safer than rules; you don't have to watch them. And you don't have to keep them either. They read more

Habits are safer than rules; you don't have to watch them. And you don't have to keep them either. They keep you. - Essays.

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.

Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win. Channel your energy. read more

Get out of the blocks, run your race, stay relaxed. If you run your race, you'll win. Channel your energy. Focus.

The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find read more

The man who will follow precedent, but never create one, is merely an obvious example of the routineer. You find him desperately numerous in the civil service, in the official bureaus. To him government is something given as unconditionally, as absolutely as ocean or hill. He goes on winding the tape that he finds. His imagination has rarely extricated itself from under the administrative machine to gain any sense of what a human, temporary contraption the whole affair is. What he thinks is the heavens above him is nothing but the roof.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

It takes a kind of shabby arrogance to survive in our time, and a fairly romantic nature to want to.

Personality is born out of pain. It is the fire shut up in the flint. - Letters to His Son, read more

Personality is born out of pain. It is the fire shut up in the flint. - Letters to His Son, W. B. Yeats and Others.

If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he read more

If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he can't go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking -- one sport you shouldn't have to reserve a time and a court for.