Musing

"7. Never value anything as profitably that compels you to break your promise, to lose your self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything that needs walls or curtains; for he who has preferred to everything else his own intelligence and daimon [soul] and worship of its existence, acts no tragic part, does not groan, will not need either solitude or much company; and, what is chief of all, he will live without either pursuing or flying from death; but whether for a longer time or a shorter time he shall have the soul encased in the body he cares not: for even if he must depart immediately, he will go as readily as if he were going to do anything else that could be done with decency and order; taking care of this only all through life, that his thoughts abide with the concerns of an intelligent animal and a member of a civil community." "12. If you apply yourself to the task before you, following right reason seriously,...

Once again, I give you Ayn Rand. "Mr. Reardon," said Francisco, his voice solemnly calm, "if you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of this strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?" "I ...don't know. What ...could he do? What would you tell him?" "To shrug."