You’re not reading these quotes and doing these thought exercises for fun. Though they may be enjoyable and help you lighten up, their aim is to help you sculpt and improve your life. And because all of us have but one life and one death, we should treat each experience like a sculptor with his chisels, carving until, to paraphrase Michelangelo, we

Like a butterfly pinned to a table, however, happiness dies unless it is held lightly.

Be a spirit, rather than a dumpy, heavy, physical ego. Take life in a light-hearted way—

things don’t seem to be as heavy as we think they are, but they seem to be floating above the ground, and seemingly hilarious, funny, swift, and lucid.

But in the name of all sanity, let us be careless about the important things, such as marriage, or the fountain of our very life will fail.