You teach best what you most need to learn.
Words are never 'only words'; they matter because they define the contours of what we can do.
Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.
The threat today is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to "be active", to "participate", to mask the Nothingness of what goes on.
Love is what makes sex more than masturbation. If there is no love even if you are really with a partner you masturbate with a partner.
If you have reasons to love someone, you don’t love them.
What if the way we perceive a problem is already part of the problem?
Become like a sheet of blotting paper and soak it all in. Later on you can figure out what to keep and what to unload.
I can't seem to fathom that the things important to me are not important to other people as well, and so I come off sounding like a missionary, someone whose job it is to convert rather than listen.
As president, I'm committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.
As you continue the work of acknowledging and claiming the gifts of your past and standing in the power of your present, you are freeing up enormous reserves of creative energy.