“You must determine where you are going in your life, because you cannot get there unless you move in that direction.”

You remember the past not so that it is “accurately recorded,” to say it again, but so that you are prepared for the future.

Aristotle defined virtues simply as the ways of behaving that are most conducive to happiness in life.

But we can aim too high. Or too low. Or too chaotically. So we fail and live in disappointment, even when we appear to others to be living well.

It is my firm belief that the best way to fix the world – a handyman’s dream, if ever there was one – is to fix yourself.

Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence.

People organize their brains with conversation. If they don’t have anyone to tell their story to, they lose their minds. Like hoarders, they cannot unclutter themselves.

Always place your becoming above your current being.

Question for parents: do you want to make your children safe, or strong?

Dare, instead, to be dangerous. Dare to be truthful. Dare to articulate yourself, and express (or at least become aware of) what would really justify your life.

If society is corrupt, but not the individuals within it, then where did the corruption originate? How is it propagated? It’s a one-sided, deeply ideological theory.

Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.

If you fulfill your obligations every day you don’t need to worry about the future.

If you are not willing to be a fool, you can’t become a master.

Begin by treating yourself as if you were someone you were responsible for helping.

We cannot navigate, without something to aim at and, while we are in this world, we must always navigate.

Dreams shed light on the dim places where reason itself has yet to voyage.