"Smiling suppresses the gag reflex." -- Sara Sidle, CSI "Man's happiness is the highest aspiration. If you are unhappy, you are subhuman and do not deserve life. Now go have fun." -- A.R. I like to please people who did not expect to be pleased. -- Larry Wall G. K. Chesterton: "Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed." If I hurt you, I want you to know how much I'm enjoying it. That's what makes it worthwhile. Nobody should have to die like that pointlessly. -- Roger Williams, The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output. -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang "Essays on Mind and Matter" Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains - Aleister Crowley, Liber AL vel Legis People who have lost their dreams no longer think that life is a grand adventure, as children see their lives, but instead they live something of a tired day-to-day existence, caught in duties and allegiances and baggage and they ask only very little of life. Dead dreams poison our psychological selves infecting every aspect of our lives. When our dreams are dead, no longer do we see the big picture. -- Amara Graps There is no right and wrong. There's only fun and boring. -- Hackers The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. - Ellen Parr One pointer to an answer, though, might be to ask oneself: 'what is the source of my strength?'. If it's inside.... that's good. If it's outside... well that's OK too, but then, what if that external agent disappears? If it's both internal and external, then maybe that means that one is building bridges between oneself and the rest of humanity (life). Asking oneself these questions from time to time over decades is helpful to note one's personal growth too. -- Amara Graps "For every man, the world is as fresh as it was the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them." --Aldous Huxley If you can breathe you can live If you can think you can do If you can sleep you can dream If you can sit you can play If you can crawl you can walk If If you can walk you can dance If you can talk you can sing If you can draw you can write If you can write you can draw If you can feel you can do anything Just do something. Hurry up...you only have today" Lani Picard "Creativity is a celebration of one's grandeur, one's sense of making anything possible. Creativity is a celebration of my life. It is a bold statement: I am here! I love life! I love me! I can be anything! I can do anything!" Joseph Zinker, therapist, painter, sculptor, and poet we all create life, some of us with wombs, some with smiles, some with patient hands. we are all gods, if we choose to be. -kitten. There is a differerence between being different and being new, a difference between questioning social customs and just being rude, a difference between being daring and simply breaking rules. Most people do not understand this difference. It makes them easy to tell them apart. -Jessica Marrell Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit. -W. Somerset Maugham "Adrenaline means more than fear," said Fireweed. "And divine love is more then adrenaline and dopamine." "Certainly. There's phenylethylamine and oxcytocin. Love is a most complex and difficult probblem." Joan Slonczewski, Brian Plague Yes, the universe was delicious. - Scott Westerfeld, Evolution's Darling "Look at a day when you are supremely satisfied at the end. It's not a day when you lounge around doing nothing. It's when you've had everything to do, and you've done it." -- Margaret Thatcher łAmnesia is not knowing who one is and wanting desperately to find out. Euphoria is not knowing who one is and not caring. Ecstasy is knowing exactly who one is ‹ and still not caring.˛ -----Amanda Ziller, from *Another Roadside Attraction* by Tom Robbins "Anger is creative; depression is useless" - Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe, 1979, p. 26. "Dum vivimus, vivamus!" "While we live, let us LIVE!" "Meditation is very good for peace of mind," Camden Benares said to me one day, and then added "provided you have the peace of mind to meditate." "Anyone can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way; this is not easy." Aristotle I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is over self. Aristotele As a transhumanist, I am a first born every day of my life. Natasha Vita More Dorothy Parker quipped: The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." "Creativity is a drug I cannot live without." Cecil B. DeMille "How does it feel, being seven thousand years old?" "That depends." "On what?" "On how I want it to feel." Greg Egan, Permutation City be in love with your life every detail of it -JACK KEROAC "We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about." -- Albert Einstein Emotions and the feelings are not a luxury, they are a means of communicating our states of mind to others. But they are also a way of guiding our own judgments and decisions. Emotions bring the body into the loop of reason. Antonio Damasio For as you think in your heart so will your life be. Edgar Cayce ENTHUSIASM Enthusiasm - is a reason gone mad to achieve a definate, rational objective. Enthusiasm is inflamed by opposition, but never converted; it is the leaping lightning that blasts obstacles from its path. Enthusiasm is the X-ray of the soul, that penetrates and reveals the invisible. Enthusiasm is a contagion that laughs at quarantine and inoculates all who come in contact with it. Enthusiasm is the vibrant thrill in your voice that sways the wills of others into harmony with your own. Enthusiasm is the "philosopher's stone" that transmutes dull tasks into delightful deeds. Enthusiasm is a magnet that draws kindred souls and with irresistible force and electrifies them with the magnatism of its own resolve. - Unknown Courtesy of Pat & Rob at SOL Live without dead time! Enjoy without constraint! Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. Helen Keller, Let Us Have Faith "What do you want then, Presence?" "I want what I already have! Eternal wonder, eternally fulfilled... Not the eternal, even, just the Indefinite, that is where all beauty is... I'll wait out the heat-death of the Universe to see what happens next! And in the meantime, isn't it something, all of it?" Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix "If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world, and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." E. B. White We have to choose which we value more: truth or happiness. In making this decision, consider that truth is immutable, while happiness is not, i.e. what makes you happy can change to conform to reality, but reality will never change to conform to what makes you happy. Bradley Felton I MAY HAVE ALLOWED MYSELF SOME FLICKER OF EMOTION IN THE RECENT PAST, BUT I CAN GIVE IT UP AT ANY TIME I LIKE. Death, in _Soul Music_ by Terry Pratchett Why be depressed, dumb and agitated when you can be happy, smart and tranquil? "He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder." - M.C. Escher "Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be." -Unknown Exuberance is Beauty. William Blake "the dullard sees no eros in fine champagne; the sorcerer can fall intoxicated on a glass of water" -Hakim Bey > Martijn Faassen email:faassen@phil.ruu.nl > Pessimist's Definition of Optimism : Failing to learn from life. > Optimist's Definition of Pessimism : Failing to learn to live. Astonishment is the only realistic emotion. Celia Green Of all our human resources, the most precious is the desire to improve. Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life. - Burton Hills "Live like a bourgeois, think like a demigod" - Flaubert Unexpected anger ==> Sacred Cow Alert Twirlip of Greymist There are TWO kinds of selfishness: the kind that says, "I must do what will make me happy," and the kind that says, "YOU must do what will make me happy." The first is good, the second is bad. From: ksinner@solaria.sol.net (Kenton E. Sinner) "Charlie...remember what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted... He lived happily ever after." Willy Wonka - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Medieval Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, said to be unbeatable, wrote down some of his techniques in his Book Of Five Rings. One, the Fire and Stones Cut, was simply a vertical strike down onto the opponent; but a kenjutsu adept was to execute it with such complete force, such totality of being, that even when blocked the cut would knock down the opponent's guard or open it to attack. Imagine if we went at our goals that way. According to Sun Tzu's The Art Of War, that ancient Chinese masterpiece of strategy, to know oneself and one's enemy opens the way to sure victory. Implication: self and enemy are not, perhaps, so different at the core. The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. - Albert Einstein Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. - Mark Twain To believe is to be strong. Doubt cramps energy. Belief is power. And to those who say: "Summa nulla est," I say: "Fac ut vivas." sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky Aliens could never be as alien as another human. Eva Eriksson Email:eva.eriksson@halmstad.mail.telia.com