"We must learn to give ourselves permission to blunder, to fail, and to make fools of ourselves every day for the rest of our lives. We do so in any case."

Sheldon Kopp See all quotes by Sheldon Kopp →

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“Maintaining the illusion that I am in control is futile, lonely, and in the long run more always costly than the effort is worth.”

“One can choose life, or choose death. Having chosen life, I must live it as it is.”

“We make a mistake if we ask ourselves, "Am I good enough?" or "Is it worthwhile to be me?" … Whoever heard of a baby who was inadequate or a child who did not know just exactly how to be a child? How could it not be all right for me to be me? How could it not be just right for you to be you?”

“It has been a long time since I believed in Reality. I prefer the loveliness and the terror of my subjective experiences to those coldly scientific explanations which in the long run turn out to be no more real, and far less fun, than my own fantasies and musings.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The next thing you can learn from the woman who was a sinner, something she herself understood, is that with regard to finding forgiveness she is able to do nothing at all. P. 155"

— Søren Kierkegaard

Philosophy1813–1855

#knowledge

"What is happening in India is a mighty creative process.... But every other Indian knows precisely what is happening. Deep down he knows that a larger response is emerging to their historical humiliat…"

— V. S. Naipaul

Literature1932–2018

#knowledge

"For where is the man that has incontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns; or can say that he has examined to the bottom all his own, or other men'…"

— John Locke

Philosophy1943–2006

#knowledge

"The hordes of words that fill our books proclaim our ignorance, reveal the obscurities that flood our knowledge. If we were perfectly enlightened, our moral books would contain only maxims and our boo…"

— Joseph Joubert

Literature1754–1824

#knowledge