21st Century Courage

“I have always been interested in writing about happiness, in large part because it's extremely difficult to do. The French writer Henry de Montherlant famously said, "Le bonheur écrit à l'encre blanche sur des pages blanches." Happiness writes in white ink on white pages. In other words, you can't make it appear on the page. It's invisible. It doe

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” George Orwell from 1984

“He was coming in hard and low: a squat missile. I got to my feet and watched him come. I didn't try to run. I was transfixed.

It had been thirty-three and a half years since the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's notorious death order against me and all those involved in the publication of The Satanic Verses, and during those years, I confess, I had som

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we sho

"Every moment, every circumstance, is another chance to experience things as they are, rather than as we wish or fear them to be." - Joan Sutherland

“Perfection of character: to live your last day, every day, without frenzy, or sloth, or pretense.” Marcus Aurelius

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Tim Ferriss from Tribe of Mentors

“Douglas firs, cedars, hemlocks, and big-leaf maples surround the house so tightly they take away the horizon. Some-times, when their crowns sway in the wind, I have the sense that I'm living at the bottom of a kelp forest. The expanse of this montane forest, like the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, is something I feel, and against this volume of spa

"The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts”

- Marcus Aurelius