“Those who can be still are able to move; those who can be soft are able to be firm.” —the Neiye On the fifth of November, 1605, the greatest political coup of all time was thwarted. The Gunpowder Plot was a violent conspiracy hatched amongst a group of Catholic gentry rather than ordinary Londoners, in order to end the religious discrimination that followed the coronation of King James I. The plot was to blow up the entire Parliament building, including the assembly and the

“Dwell on the vastness of time and the smallness of your part in it.” -Marcus Aurelius Seventy-seven years is the average American lifespan, or roughly four thousand weeks. When seen through that lens, the brevity of life quickly comes to the fore, and difficult questions arise. How much of it have we already squandered? What do we still hope to accomplish? And how can we avoid discouragement as we march steadily toward our own endings? Humans have wrestled with these questio

“It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself.” — Henry David Thoreau Moby-Dick, one of the most iconic novels of American literature, follows the maniacal Captain Ahab in his single-minded quest to kill the great white whale. Ahab is driven by his lust for vengeance and is, in the end, consumed by it. For Ahab, the whale is the visible mask of invisible evil—the embodiment of every forc

“For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” -St. Francis of Assisi The tale of the Fisher King and the young knight Parzival lies at the heart of the Arthurian Grail myth. According to legend, the guardian of the Holy Grail — known as the Fisher King — becomes mysteriously wounded. Maimed and unable to heal himself, he loses the will to live but cannot die either. His kingdom falls into chaos

“To hold and fill to overflowing is not as good as to stop in time.” -Lao Tzu Miyamoto Musashi, Japan’s most celebrated swordsman, spent...

“So if you think your life is complete confusion Because your neighbors got it made Just remember that it's a Grand illusion And deep...

“Music is the silence between the notes.”  — Claude Debussy On June 11, 1963, Malcolm Browne, a reporter with the Associated Press,...

desiderata- (Latin) things desired; things to be wished for Desiderata By Max Ehrmann (1927) Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,...

decide: ( Latin : decidere , “to cut away”) On June 1, 1945, President Truman faced one of the toughest decisions that a human being...