“Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.” – Andre Dumas
“Those born to wealth, and who have the means of gratifying every wish … know not what is the real happiness of life: just as those who have been tossed on the stormy waters of the ocean on a few frail planks can alone estimate the value of a clear and serene sky.” – Edmond Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo
“There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live…..” – Edmond Dantes, The Count of Monte Cristo
“For every man there exists a bait which he cannot resist swallowing.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
“It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought.” – Aristotle
“If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.” – Margaret Thatcher
“Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.” – Benjamin Disraeli
R: Perfection of the Mind
According to Rene Descartes the perfection of the mind is found in three things:
1. Promptitude of thought– Thought that reacts to the immediate situation, that can be formed and dismissed without any great hesitation, that can be analytical and critical and yet at the same time be vulnerable to the spontaneity that only great minds can offer.
2. Clearness and distinctness of imagination – Not strictly speaking originality but the ability to think beyond that which is presented to you, beyond the tangible answers and things of pure clarity. To be able to ask those questions which are most vital, even if they are questions of nonsense and banality–for sometimes it is a question that seems so simple, so plain, so uninspired and unproviding, that can reward us with the most breadth and depth of understanding (given we pursue the ends of such questions with such fervor and depth, given we overturn every possibility, and glance up every tree and down every root, branch, and leaf, given we sleep not in the search for such answers. given we have resolve enough to see the question through whatever unexpected, obstructing paths and discoveries that are to be hand, that we have resolve enough to reach the ultimate resolution untainted by cowardice or indecision.)
3. Fullness and readiness of memory – To be able to recall that which has happened, to be able to retain more, and then to be able to exert and extract the fundamental lessons provided at the core of each memory.
This is what makes a great mind.