People ask me, “What’s the use of climbing Mount Everest?” and my answer must at once be “It is of no use, there is not the slightest prospect of any gain whatsoever.”
Oh, we may learn a little about the behavior of the human body at the high...
After the inevitable “How many hours a day do you practice?”, and “Show me your hands”
The most common thing people say to me when they hear I’m a pianist is “I used to play the piano as a kid, I really regret giving it up.”
I imagine authors...
“Doublespeak is language designed to evade responsibility, make the unpleasant appear pleasant, the unattractive appear attractive. Basically, it's language that pretends to communicate, but really doesn’t. It’s language that’s designed to...
The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are.
And the ride goes up and down, around and around.
It has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly...
The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive’.
The honest men who just want to be left in peace.
Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves.
Those with no sides and no causes.
Those who...
Do not believe those who try to persuade you that composition is only a cold exercise of the intellect.
The only music capable of moving and touching us is that which flows from the depths of a composer’s soul when he is stirred by inspiration....
“I’m not very creative” doesn’t work.
There’s no such thing as ‘creative’ people and ‘non-creative’ people.
There are only people who use their creativity, and people who don’t.
Unused creativity doesn’t just disappear, it lives within us until...
For all of the most important things…
The timing always sucks.
Waiting for a good time to quit your job?
The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time.
The Universe doesn’t conspire against...
Accept what people tell you at face value.
Don’t question authority.
Go to college because you’re supposed to, not because you want to learn something.
Sit at a desk 40 hours a week for an average of 10 hours of productive work.
Go...
“As death is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and...
Throughout life, from childhood, from school until we die;
We are taught to compare ourselves with others.
Yet when I compare myself with another, I am destroying myself.
In an ordinary school where there are a lot of boys, when one boy is...
Our world sits in an imbalance, some inhabitants live in countries that are abundant in luxury, comfort and safety, while most of the third world and tropical countries have to struggle every day to survive. Rich countries have an average...
Nature loves courage.
You make the commitment, and nature will respond to that commitment, by removing impossible obstacles.
Dream the impossible dream, and the world will not grind you under.
It will lift you up.
This is the trick, this is what...
The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome.
The idea that such complexity can arise not only out of simplicity, but probably absolutely out of nothing, is the most fabulous...
A human being is part of a whole.
Called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space.
He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as though separated from the rest.
A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.
This delusion is a...