he who does not obey himself is ruled by others. It is easier, far easier, to obey another than to command oneself.”

Your task is to accept yourself—not to find ways to gain my acceptance.”

He claims that in order to discover the truth, one must first know oneself fully. And to do that, one must remove oneself from one’s customary point of view, even from one’s own century and country—and then examine oneself from a distance!”

Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you will always find despair.”

The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud.

“Life—a spark between two voids. A nice image, Josef. And isn’t it strange how we are so preoccupied with the second void and never think upon the first?”

Also, he now alludes to the methods he uses to help himself—for example his “perspective-changing” approach in which he views himself from a more distant, cosmic perspective. He’s right: if we view our trivial situation from the long skein of our lives, from the life of the whole race, from the evolution of consciousness, of course it loses its ove

“Let us try a thought experiment. For tomorrow’s discussion, please consider this question: If you were not thinking these alien thoughts, what would you be thinking?”

I must change his trivial misery back into the noble misery it once was.