Jolted Awake

Enlightenment is the shocking realization that you exist.

Growing Pains

Suffering deepens the roots of our compassion and is as necessary for our growth as is the rain to the mighty trees of the forest.

Red Alert

We cannot become wise by reading. Repeating a truth we read in a book is not the same as understanding.

In fact, it might be worse because the repetition of the insight of others might deceive us into thinking that we know.

Mentally Unbalanced

If an egotist is, by that very fact, a madman then there is no such thing as mental health.

A Sober Thought

The fact that Hitler was a teetotaler is enough to drive a man to drink.

A Confident Aim

Confidence is a valuable personal trait and we should learn to cultivate it. But like any other quality, we can overshoot the mark.

When we do, the resulting overconfidence opens the door to folly.

Such a high opinion of our abilities is rooted in our ignorance and is ultimately the fruit of our presumption.

A Fateful Gift

There but for the grace of God, go I.

A lucky man is not necessarily a humble man.

Luck is the fickle gift of fate. True humility is the gift of Love.

A Death Sentence

Certainty kills curiosity.

Probably True

In any attempt to master reality, one must learn to let go of certainty and to live with probability.

Miscalculation

Virtue is not the product of luck and circumstance.

No Comparison

Comparing photography to great art is like comparing journalism to great literature.

A Reality Check

I have more in common with Walter Mitty than Admiral Spruance.