“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness and dies by chance.”

“The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is … the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence.”

John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) American politician, 6th president of the United States (in office from 1825 to 1829)

“Every weakness contains within itself a strength.”

Shūsaku Endō (1923–1996) author from Japan

“They say that in the second before our death, each of us understands the real reason for our existence, and out of that moment, heaven or hell is born.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

“In order for us to liberate the energy of our strength, our weakness must first have a chance to reveal itself.”

Paulo Coelho book The Witch of Portobello

“When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

“Late, I learned that when reason died, then Wisdom was born; before that liberation, I had only knowledge.”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

“Within itself the soul sees all things more truly than as they exist in different things outside itself. And the more it goes out unto other things in order to know them, the more it enters into itself in order to know itself.”

Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464) German philosopher, theologian, jurist, and astronomer

“You are born with two things: existence and opportunity, and these are the raw materials out of which you can make a successful life.”

Charles Templeton (1915–2001) Canadian cartoonist, evangelist, agnostic, politician, newspaper editor, inventor, broadcaster and author