A quote from The Prophet

"You must cultivate activities that you love. You must discover work that you do, not for its utility, but for itself, whether it succeeds or not, whether you are praised for it or not, whether you are loved and rewarded for it or not, whether people know about it and are grateful to you for it or not. How many activities can you count in your life... See more

Writing on methods for gathering ideas, Seneca, the great stoic, suggests that authors should imitate the bees. Like a bee flying among the flowers, we ought to vary our reading and extract useful material from various sources.

"Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one's garden."

- Voltaire

But it may be, too, that my initial proposition requires a qualification. Let’s put it this way: you and I have exactly as much attention as we need at any given moment provided that at that moment we also know what it would be good for us to do.This qualification also stems from Illich’s insights, so allow me to elaborate. His crusade against the ... See more

We also, I say, ought to copy these bees, and sift whatever we have gathered from a varied course of reading, for such things are better preserved if they are kept separate; then, by applying the supervising care with which our nature has endowed us, – in other words, our natural gifts, – we should so blend those several flavours into one delicious... See more