"The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone."
- Henrik Ibsen
"We are whiplashed between an arrogant overestimation of ourselves and a servile underestimation of ourselves."
- Parker Palmer
"To live is to battle the demons in the heart as well as the brain. To write is to preside at judgement day over one’s self."
- Henrik Ibsen
"There is no more beautiful life than that of a carefree man; Lack of care is a truly painless evil."
- Sophocles
"You know that you are. Don’t burden yourself with names, just be. Any name or shape you give yourself obscures your real nature."
"Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the ‘transcendent’ and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you."
- Christopher Hitchens, Letters to A Young Contrarian
"You’re going to discover that conversations are best at 4am. The heavier the eyelids, the sincerer the words. Those are the talks you’ll remember. It’s ok not to know the answer and silence is not awkward. It’s shared, so share it more often than not."
"I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you."
"If I love you, what business is it of yours?"
- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe