Neil Gaiman: "Be wise..."

"Be wise. Because the world needs more wisdom. And if you cannot be wise, pretend to be someone who is wise and then just behave like they would."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Wendy Mass: "An old man is teaching..."

An old man is teaching his grandson about life.

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other wolf is good. He is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old man replied simply, "The one you feed."

–Wendy Mass, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Margaret Mead: "I was wise enough..."

"I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had."

—Margaret Mead

W. Somerset Maugham: "If I ever acquire..."

"If I ever acquire wisdom, I suppose I shall be wise enough to know what to do with it."

—W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge

Alan W. Watts: "As the years go..."

"As the years go by, there seem to be fewer and fewer rocks to which we can hold – fewer things which we can regard as absolutely right and true and fixed for all time."

—Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

Laura Munson: "I've always been a..."

"I've always been a seeker of wisdom. I'm not picky where it comes from."

—Laura Munson, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is

Reinhold Niebuhr: "God, grant me the..."

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

—Reinhold Niebuhr

Laura Munson, "You might think all..."

"You might think all this would find me in a place of intense pain. panic, even. State of emergency. But I am choosing something else.  I am choosing not to suffer."


—Laura Munson, This Is Not The Story You Think It Is

Bill Withers: "You can't get to..."

"You can't get to wonderful without passing through alright."

—Bill Withers in Wisdom

Alan W. Watts: "You do not play..."

"You do not play a sonata to reach the final chord...
And if the meanings of things were simply in the ends,
composers would write nothing but finales."

—Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity