Failure seldom stops you;
what stops you is the fear of failure
Jack Lemmon
Now every mortal has pain
and sweat is constant.
But if there is anything dearer than being alive,
it’s dark to me.
Euripides, Hippolytus, 428 BC
It is not “human genius”
that makes us human, but an old love,
an old intelligence of the heart
we gather to us from the world,
from the creatures, from the angels
of inspiration, from the dead —
an intelligence merely nonexistent
to those who do not have it, but
to those who have it more dear than life.
Wendell Berry, Some Further Words (extract)
When you die, only three things will remain of you, since you will abandon all material things on the threshold of the Otherworld:
What you have taught to others,
what you have created with your hands,
and how much love you have spread.
So learn more and more in order to teach wise, long-lasting values. Work more and more to leave the world things of great beauty.
François Bourillon, A French Druid Triad
Just like the trees growing in the mountains, sacredness is always there. It is part of existence. The consequence of losing our connection with this truth can sometimes by quite dangerous. And when we lose this understanding, we develop a mechanical relationship with the world, within as well as without. We develop a mechanical relationship with ourselves and also with the outer world, the world of nature, and with humanity as a whole.
Anam Thubten, Embracing Each Moment