A primordial Greek proverb maintained that nobody could ever be called happy until they were dead. It was a favourite saying of Solon, an Athenian leader and one of the ‘Seven Wise Men’ of the Greeks. He once visited the fabulously wealthy king of Lydia,...
Another fundamental trait of human nature is its incredible capacity for adaptation. Polar bears and brown bears form two distinct species. Humans, by contrast, undertook long migrations both north and south; they did not mutate, but instead adapted. Inuits and Pygmies belong to the same...
Aside from the connection it posits between making money and being good, the modern ideal of a successful life imputes a further connection: between making money and being happy. This idea in turn rests on three assumptions. First, that to identify what will make us happy...
Confucius was born in China around the time of the Buddha in India and Pythagoras in Greece, 552 B.C. Like most of the truly great ethical and moral leaders, he wrote nothing. His teachings were recorded (by his disciples) into four major works a century after...
It is not unknown to me how many men have had, and still have, the opinion that the affairs of the world are in such wise governed by fortune and by God that men with their wisdom cannot direct them and that no one can...
This chapter is aimed at further exciting you about yourself and, through your example, at exciting those around you, especially your family members, about being a human being and being alive. I want to interest you in learning more about how your various parts work, and...
Jack Parr says a wonderful thing. He says, "My life seems like one long obstacle course, with me as the chief obstacle." Isn't that great? Buscaglia, in one of his speeches, includes the following piece, "Locked In": All of my life I lived in a coconut. Isn't that...
The sun is burning on your back, and the air shimmers like glass above the sand. Your gums feel like sandpaper. You drank your last drop of water two days ago and you’ve been on all fours ever since, crawling toward an oasis on the...
I’d like to introduce you to two people you know very well, although not by name: your experiencing self and your remembering self. Your experiencing self is the part of your conscious mind that experiences the present moment. In your case, it’s reading these words right...
It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it...
