Bittersweet Introduction at p. xxvi
“Life is a creative endeavor. It is active, not passive.”
Blessings (1998)
Context: Life is a creative endeavor. It is active, not passive. We are the yeast that leavens our lives into rich, fully baked loaves. When we experience our lives as flat and lackluster, it is our consciousness that is at fault. We hold the inner key that turns our lives from thankless to fruitful. That key is "Blessing."
“The student is to read history actively not passively.”
Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays
“Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.”
Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)
“Active Evil is better than Passive Good.”
1780s, Annotations to Lavater (1788)
“Every active deed is etched in the matrix of passivity.”
Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), p. 540
“Optimism is a passive virtue, hope is an active one.”
Book Sometimes you win Sometimes you Learn
“Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool.”
“Instead of reality being passively recorded by the brain, it is actively constructed by it.”
Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain
