There’s only one thing that will save us: the ability to achieve a better balance, to overcome our obsession with more, appreciate the unlimited complexity of reality, and learn to enjoy the things we have.

As the German philosopher Arthur Schoppenhauer wrote, "Dreams are brief madness and madness a long dreams.

Passion rises when we dream of a world of possibility and fades when we are confronted by reality

Albert Einstein once said, "My passionate sense of social justice and social responsibility has always contrasted oddly with my pronounced lack of need for direct contact with other human beings and human communities". And "I love Humanity but I hate humans." The abstract concepts of social justice and humanity came easily, but the concrete experience of encountering another person was too hard.

But most people don’t bother to engage in acts of creation, like drawing pictures, making music, or building model airplanes. There’s no practical reason to do these things. They’re hard, at least in the beginning, and they probably won’t earn us money or prestige or guarantee us a better future. But they might make us happy.

Having a confident expectation of success can make obstacles melt before your eyes.

Success inspired confidence; confidence produced success.

We develop emotional relationships with characters in stories. If it's a well-written story, the feelings we have for the characters may be very similar to the feelings we have for real people.

It’s not enough to just imagine the future. To bring an idea to fruition we must struggle with the uncompromising realities of the physical world. We need not only knowledge but also tenacity.

It’s better to be smart than strong.