“Life is a miserable thing. I have decided to spend my life thinking about it.”

He had learned long ago that, in general, the easier it was for anxious patients to reach him, the less likely they were to call. (107)

Does a being who requires meaning find meaning in a universe that has no meaning?

I think my quarry is illusion. I war against magic. I believe that, though illusion often cheers and comforts, it ultimately and invariably weakens and constricts the spirit.

Reality always creeps in–the reality of our helplessness and our mortality; the reality that, despite our reach for the stars, a creaturely fate awaits us.

Heidegger makes the distinction between being absorbed in the way things are in the world and being aware that things are in the world.

Only the wounded healer can truly heal. (97)

A focus on this deep dissatisfaction is often the starting point in overcoming death anxiety.

Many people are in despair because their dreams didn’t come true, and they despair even more that they did not make them come true.

Therapists need to have a long experience in personal therapy to see what it’s like to be on the other side of the couch and see what they find helpful or not helpful. And if possible, get into therapy at different stages of their life with different kinds of therapists just to sample a bit.

A free man who lives among the ignorant strives as far as he can to avoid their favors. A free man acts honestly, not deceptively.

Death, however, does itch. It itches all the time. It is always with us, scratching at some inner door.

The more you fail to experience your life fully, the more you will fear death.

If I’m among men who don’t agree at all with my nature, I will hardly be able to accommodate myself to them without greatly changing myself.

You will search the world over and not find a nonsuperstitious community. As long as there is ignorance, there will be adherence to superstition. Dispelling ignorance is the only solution. That is why I teach.

A curious thought experiment. . . Nietzsche’s message to us was to live life in such a way that we would be willing to repeat the same life eternally

The act of revealing oneself fully to another and still being accepted may be the major vehicle of therapeutic help.

Youve never been to school, ever? If thats trueand youre right, i dont think it iswhat made you decide to come this year? You.

He gave marcie a spare to the jeepi should park this thing in the ocean, twenty feet under.

Think not I am what I appear.

Youve never been to school, ever? If thats true and youre right, i dont think it iswhat made you decide to come this year? You….Your eyes, nora. Those cold, pale gray eyes are surprisingly irresistible. He tipped his head sideways, as if to study me from a new angle. And that killer curvy mouth

I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.

Too often, people think that solving the world’s problems is based on conquering the earth, rather than touching the earth, touching ground.

All i can think about is bed. Were sharing the same thought. Youre thinking about bed too? Im thinking about you in my bed.

All rational action is in the first place individual action. Only the individual thinks. Only the individual reasons. Only the individual acts.