After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, read more

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.

In the last analysis, our only freedom is the freedom to discipline ourselves.

What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and read more

What difference is there, do you think, between those in Plato's cave who can only marvel at the shadows and images of various objects, provided they are content and don't know what they miss, and the philosopher who has emerged from the cave and sees the real things?

Concentrating on the essentials. We will then be accomplishing the greatest possible results with the effort expended.

Concentrating on the essentials. We will then be accomplishing the greatest possible results with the effort expended.

The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.

The glory that goes with wealth is fleeting and fragile; virtue is a possession glorious and eternal.

You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories.

You can close your eyes to reality, but not to memories.

We are becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity. Nice and snug in the social, our historic passions read more

We are becoming like cats, slyly parasitic, enjoying an indifferent domesticity. Nice and snug in the social, our historic passions have withdrawn into the glow of an artificial coziness, and our half-closed eyes now seek little other than the peaceful parade of television pictures.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.