Too busy to read?

A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. --L. P. Jacks...

We're in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it's all gone.

You and I are both battling a terminal illness with no cure and a 100% fatality rate. It is called Life. We will all be dead within a few decades. Deferring living adventurously is madness, albeit a madness so prevalent in society as to be regarded as standard. It astonishes me how few people rage against this. The risk of living a life that you do not want in the hope that it might eventually buy your freedom is a hell of a chance to take.

There is no correct route through life. There is no ideal lifestyle. There is not even one perfect way of life for you. It is better than that: there is an enticing abundance of intriguing possibilities. Don't be ashamed or afraid to pick an adventurous path that tickles your fancy, then go and explore it.

People who doubt that some kind of soul or spirit really survives their death therefore strive to leave behind something a bit more tangible. That 'something tangible' could take one of two forms: cultural or biological. I might leave behind a poem, say, or some of my precious genes. My life has meaning because people will still read my poem a hundred years from now, or because my kids and grandchildren will still be around. And what is the meaning of their lives? Well, that's their problem, not mine. The meaning of life is thus a bit like playing with a live hand grenade. Once you pass it on to somebody else, you are safe.

'Your time is limited,' Steve Jobs said. 'So don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.'

Life is busy. But it is also for living. You'll never have a life as good as this one again. Make the most of it.

'How we spend our days,' noted Annie Dillard, 'is, of course, how we spend our lives.'

'I have lived a good life. I made people happy. And I did what I thought was right.'

The way we are living, timorous or bold, will have been our life. Seamus Heaney

Life is a journey, not a destination. Ralph Waldo Emerson

when people ask about the meaning of life as if it were the job of our cosmos to give meaning to our existence, they're getting it backward: It's not our Universe giving meaning to conscious beings, but conscious beings giving meaning to our Universe.

"Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?"

"If you could do only one thing with your life right now, what would you do?"