Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.

Shyness is just egotism out of its depth.

Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope read more

Nothing exists until or unless it is observed. An artist is making something exist by observing it. And his hope for other people is that they will also make it exist by observing it. I call it "creative observation." Creative viewing.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he read more

If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he can't go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking -- one sport you shouldn't have to reserve a time and a court for.

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he read more

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his own work and in that work does what he wants to do.

When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can read more

When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.

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.

Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive read more

Man is so muddled, so dependent on the things immediately before his eyes, that every day even the most submissive believer can be seen to risk the torments of the afterlife for the smallest pleasure.

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.