Michael

“Wise men in their bad hours have envied
The little people making merry like grasshoppers
In spots of sunlight, hardly thinking
Backward but never forward, and if they somehow
Take hold upon the future they do it
Half asleep, with the tools of generation
Foolishly reduplicating
Folly in thirty-year periods; the eat and laugh too,
Groan against labors, wars and partings,
Dance, talk, dress and undress; wise men have pretended
The summer insects enviable;
One must indulge the wise in moments of mockery.
Strength and desire possess the future,
The breed of the grasshopper shrills, "What does the future
Matter, we shall be dead?" Ah, grasshoppers,
Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made
Something more equal to the centuries
Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness.
The mountains are dead stone, the people
Admire or hate their stature, their insolent quietness,
The mountains are not softened nor troubled
And a few dead men's thoughts have the same temper.”
― Robinson Jeffers

“Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei.

For the glory of God is the living man, and the life of man is the vision of God.”
― Saint Irenaeus, Five Books of S. Irenaeus: Bishop of Lyons, Against Heresies

“Almighty God hath created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion...No man shall be compelled to frequent or support religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. I know but one code of morality for men whether acting singly or collectively.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Steps to become a positive deviant:
1. Ask unscripted questions
2. Don't complain
3. Count something that interests you
4. Write something... Anything
5. Change yourself. Change something”
― Atul Gawande, Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance