Antares

“But human power is considerably limited and infinitely surpassed by the power of external causes, and therefore we do not have an absolute power of adapting things which are outside us for our use. But we shall bear with equanimity those things which happen to us contrary to that which a regard for our advantage postulates, if we are conscious that we have done that which we ought, and that we could not have extended the power we have to such an extent as to avoid those things, and moreover, that we are part of nature as a whole, whose order we follow. If we understand this clearly and distinctly, that part of us which is defined by our understanding, that is, the best part of us, will be wholly contented, and will endeavour to persist in that contentment. For in so far as we understand, we can desire nothing save that which is necessary, nor can we absolutely be contented with anything save what is true: and therefore in so far as we understand this rightly, the endeavour of the best part of us agrees with the order of the whole of nature.”
― Baruch Spinoza, Ethics

“The universe and the void: I’ll return to these two terms, between which swings the aim of literature, and which often seem to mean the same thing.”
― Italo Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium

“And to contend with the whole world is a comfort, but to contend with oneself dreadful.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

“The mind is by its nature free, not a slave; only what it does by itself and willingly is successful.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 2