Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace.
Become who you are by learning who you are.
Understand: you are one of a kind. Your character traits are a kind of chemical mix that will never be repeated in history. There are ideas unique to you, a specific rhythm and perspective that are your strengths, not your weaknesses. You must not be afraid of your uniqueness and you must care less and less what people think of you.
Understand: people will constantly attack you in life. One of their main weapons will be to instill in you doubts about yourself – your worth, your abilities, your potential. They will often disguise this as their objective opinion, but invariably it has a political purpose – they want to keep you down.
You must always be prepared to place a bet on yourself, on your future, by heading in a direction that others seem to fear.
Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of others—that is too high a price to pay.
You have the power to think differently about who you are. You have the ability to turn off the critical voice inside of you. That's not you. That's coming from the culture. That's coming from the outside of you. You've internalized the voice of your parents, your teachers, your friends.
Man is brilliant at solving problems; but solving them only makes him the victim of his own childishness and laziness. It is this recognition that has made almost every major philosopher in history a pessimist.
Events, circumstances, etc. , have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
The best moment is when you walk into a bookstore and see a pile of your books - that is the oddest experience in the world!
Even when other powers have been lost and people may not even be able to understand language, they will nearly always recognize and respond to familiar tunes. And not only that. The tunes may carry them back and may give them memory of scenes and emotions otherwise unavailable for them.