People prefer to stay comfortable: they resist the tendency to change themselves. They would rather change the world then change themselves. Tantum Validus Superstes.
But the world only bends for so long, and if you have not learned how to make yourself flexible, learned the art of bending back, the world will break you.
Though my feelings are original, my words and thoughts are not: they are merely arranged to fit the structure of my experience.
I gauge how well I’m doing if no one understands me. I consider it a luxury to be misunderstood.
My aspiration is that my words invoke a resonating reaction in people that is repelling, like moths to light: the glow entices, but the flame licks bitterly. So they run. I know I’m doing a good job if people disagree with me. The status quo is too apathetic. If the majority shared my thoughts there’d be more love in the world, no novelty, more creativity.
It takes wisdom to know wisdom: we see people as we are, the world as we are. If we are to know wisdom, we should be wise. And wisdom is not knowledge. It is a humble pride in your ignorance. Anyone can be wise if he believes himself to be insufficient in understanding. If you have it all figured out, what hope is there for you? If you lead yourself to believe that it’s okay for the world to remain unknown so long as you believe you are known to yourself, you are the most hopeless of all. The void does not exist in the world: it exists in us. We know nothing. We should look into ourselves with the most introspective of all eyes. Not fearing failure, not fearing our ignorance, but embracing it as a permanent feature of progress. It is only then can we overcome ourselves, the ignorance inherent to us. If you know yourself to be a common man, you are the most uncommon of all.
William Dare 