Lyceum — Quotes
Lyceum

Quotes

I feel myself driven towards an end that I do not know. As soon as I have reached it, as soon as I shall become unnecessary, an atom will suffice to shatter me. Until then, all the forces of mankind can do nothing to stop me.

There is no such thing as talent. There is only a history of one's self that is so easily forgotten. A history full of experiences - or a history devoid of them. A history of exposure to some things over others. So relax. You're not special. You're not uniquely ungifted. You're just showing up to a jousting match armed with a bow and arrow, and don't yet fully understand the difference. But you will, if you're willing to get knocked down to the ground over and over again. You're allowed to feel down on yourself, and you're allowed to cry over your scrapes. Just don't forget: rather than talent, it is another t-word that makes a master. Tenacity.

But he did not understand the price. Mortals never do. They only see the prize, their heart's desire, their dream... But the price of getting what you want is getting what you once wanted.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.

Never risk what you have and need for what you don’t have and don’t need.

When you want to gladden your heart, think of the good qualities of those around you; the energy of one, the modesty of another, the generosity of a third. For there is nothing more heartening than the images of the virtues shining forth in the characters of those around us.

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine whats true.

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music

Though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on the plot of ground that is given to him to till.

A person should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across their mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages