Belkacem

“Virtue is more to be feared than vice, because its excesses are not subject to the regulation of conscience.”
― Adam Smith

“Concentrate every minute like a Roman— like a man— on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions. Yes, you can— if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered , irritable. You see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life? If you can manage this, that’s all even the gods can ask of you.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.”
― Ludwig van Beethoven

“My taste runs to hourglasses, maps, seventeenth-century typefaces, etymologies, the taste of coffee, and the prose of Robert Louis Stevenson.”
― Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings