Richard Feynman·1981I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything. There are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask "Why are we here?" I might think about it a little bit, and if I can't figure it out then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose — which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell. Possibly. It doesn't frighten me.
Rainer Maria Rilke·1899Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Pindar·476 BCDo not, my soul, seek immortal life, but exhaust the limits of the possible.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.
If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.
This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig down into yourself for a deep answer. And if this should be affirmative, if you may meet this earnest question with a strong and simple "I must," then build your life according to this necessity.
