“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits
in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
– Helen Keller
We live in fear. Fear of losing our televisions. Fear of losing our jobs, fear of losing our liberty. So we build these boxes around ourselves, limits beyond which we won’t venture. We mark these boxes “Fragile”, and “This side up”.
We think these limits we’ve created are safe. We trade our potential for safety. And then we deserve neither.
When did we become so timid?
Take up space. Scream “No more!” and stand up. Security is an illusion. Safety is a myth. Cast aside the boxes, and live like the free men and women we were meant to be.
No more!
“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing.”
– George Bernard Shaw
“Any man who selects a goal in life which can be fully achieved has already defined his own limitations.”
– Cavett Rober
“Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.”
– Erich Fromm
“A man dies still if he has done nothing, as one who has done much.”
– Homer
“There is no security on this earth. Only opportunity.”
– Douglas MacArthur
“Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.”
– Ella Williams
“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
– John F. Kennedy
“It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.”
– Phillip Adams
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
– Friedrich Engels
A friend sent me this quote after I quit my job: Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it. – Ellen Goodman.