"All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward—sometimes to death, but always to victory." — Ancient Greeks

• Notes:

People are not addicted to drugs and alcohol. They are addicted to escaping reality.

"Evil is whatever distracts.” — Franz Kafka

“Hell is other people.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

Even if not everything that we have learned is explicitly used, the accumulated knowledge gives a hidden resonance to our words, and this fullness earns the confidence it inspires. It is a great secret: to give radiance to an idea through the twilight that surrounds it. It is a further secret to preserve its power of convergence in spite of that radiance.

What you have failed in now will prepare you to succeed in something else—to succeed, ultimately, in the way that everyone who is worth anything, and who truly persists, is sure to do. — The Intellectual Life

Nietzsche’s Philosophy

Nietzsche was the one who did the job for me. At a certain moment in his life, the idea came to him of what he called “the love of your fate.” Whatever your fate is, whatever the hell happens, you say, “This is what I need.” It may look like a wreck, but go at it as though it were an opportunity, a challenge. If you bring love to that moment - not discouragement — you will find the strength is there. Any disaster you can survive is an improvement in your character, your stature, and your life. What a privilege! This is when the spontaneity of your own nature will have a chance to flow. Then, when looking back at your life, you will see that the moments which seemed to be great failures followed by wreckage were the incidents that shaped the life you have now. You’ll see that this is really true. Nothing can happen to you that is not positive. Even though it looks and feels at the moment like a negative crisis, it is not. The crisis throws you back, and when you are required to exhibit strength, it comes.

“Hell is other people.” — Jean-Paul Sartre