Mann’s Search for Meaning

Mann’s Search for Meaning

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Search for Meaning

On the immortal implications of death
WILLIAM SAROYAN | “Everybody has got to die, but I have always believed an exception would be made in my case.”
On having someone who believes in you
URSULA K. LE GUIN | “You can’t try to live safely, there’s no such thing as safety. Stick your head out of your shell, then, and live fully.”
On the stories we tell
DORIS LESSING | “It is our stories that will recreate us, when we are torn, hurt, even destroyed. It is the storyteller, the dream-maker, the…
On caring
ELIE WIESEL | “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
On love, grief, and joy
C.S. LEWIS | “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.”
On the virtue of not knowing
GEORGE SAUNDERS | “Don’t be afraid to be confused. Try to remain permanently confused.”
On having faith in the ultimately benign
BEATRIX POTTER | “Believe there is a great power silently working all things for good, behave yourself and never mind the rest.”
On the serenity of knowing who you are
PAULO COELHO | “To realize one’s Personal Legend is a person’s only real obligation.”
On the virtues of ruined plans
JOSEPH CAMPBELL | “We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”
On letting go of grudges
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE | “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
On chasing your dreams
SUE GRAFTON | “If you want to do it, you better get down to it. There is no margin for neglecting your own dreams.”
On the breathtaking unlikeliness of our lives
JOHN le CARRÉ | “Please take comfort from this: I had an amazing life, against the odds.”
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