Echoes

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror — going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.

Nor less I deem that there are Powers / Which of themselves our minds impress; / That we can feed this mind of ours / In a wise passiveness.

The purpose of life...is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

People often say that I'm curious about too many things at once. But can you really forbid a man from harboring a desire to know and embrace everything that surrounds him?

I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.

...why did we wait for any thing? — why not seize the pleasure at once? — How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation!

Forget the years, forget distinctions. Leap into the boundless and make it your home!

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

How easy it is to repel and to wipe away every impression which is troublesome or unsuitable, and immediately to be in all tranquility.

If thou desire to profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faithfulness; nor even desire the repute of learning.

And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

The present moment contains past and future. The secret of transformation, is in the way we handle this very moment.

By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try, the world is beyond the winning.

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I have learned to use the word 'impossible' with the greatest caution.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few.

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now.

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

The secret to doing good research is always to be a little underemployed. You waste years by not being able to waste hours.