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.

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals.

I like nonsense -- it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way read more

I like nonsense -- it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope...and that enables you to laugh at all of life's realities.

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate ting, read more

Virtue is not the absense of vices or the avoidance of moral dangers; virtue is a vivid and separate ting, like pain or a particular smell. - Tremendous Trifles.

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; read more

It is a talent of the weak to persuade themselves that they suffer for something when they suffer from something; that they are showing the way when they are running away; that they see the light when they feel the heat; that they are chosen when they are shunned.

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.

He who dares not (reason), is a slave.

He who dares not (reason), is a slave.

There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite read more

There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation, and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language. - Aphorisms from His Bedside Teachings and Writings.

Pointing out the comic elements of a situation can bring a sense of proportion and perspective to what might otherwise read more

Pointing out the comic elements of a situation can bring a sense of proportion and perspective to what might otherwise seem an overwhelming problem.