Stray Lines. Found Wisdom.
Last Updated: 8.23.2025, 7:22 a.m.
Rhythm
"[Chicago Bulls coach Phil] Jackson wanted his teams to function like a jazz ensemble in 4/4 time. 'The basic rule was the player with the ball had to do something with it before the third beat,' he said. 'Either pass, shoot, or start to dribble. When everyone is keeping time, it makes it easier to harmonize.'"
-Rich Cohen, When the Game Was War: The NBA's Greatest Season, p. 86 (2024, paperback edition)
Action
“My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it — all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary — but love it.”
-Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals / Ecce Homo
Growth
"Why should you want to exclude from your life all unsettling, all pain, all depression of spirit, when you don't know what work it is these states are performing within you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where it all comes from and where it is leading? You well know you are in a period of transition and want nothing more than to be transformed."
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (Charlie Louth translation, 2011)
Persistence
"When it appears that people other than yourself in your world do not act toward you as you would like, it is not due to reluctance on their part but a lack of persistence in your assumption of your life already being as you want it to be. Your assumption to be effective cannot be a single isolated act; it must be a maintained attitude of the wish fulfilled."
-Neville Goddard, The Power of Awareness (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions, 23rd printing, 2012)
Wit
"On February 14, 1986, during a game against the Trail Blazers, in an effort to both work on craft and fight tedium, [Larry] Bird played forty-eight minutes and scored 47 points using only his left hand. Explaining himself to the press, he said, 'I'm saving my right hand for the Lakers.'"
-Rich Cohen, When the Game Was War: The NBA's Greatest Season, p. 71 (2024, paperback edition)
Love
When I leaned over this morning
to get a closer look at the ants
circling the edge of the sink
in the usual ant parade,
I realized they were much too tiny
to slip on a bathrobe,
read a magazine, or wear a wedding ring.
A dog, on the other hand,
will sometimes allow itself to be dressed up
whenever its owner indulges in a bit
of anthropomorphic skylarking.
Yes, the same creature known
to bolt through a screen door
or dig up a bed of petunias with its nose
may sit still on occasion,
playing doctor in a white lab coat,
or pose chin-strapped to a birthday hat,
candles dancing in the background.
In Colorado, I once saw a dog in a tuxedo
walk down an aisle and give the bride away.
But dogs are happiest when on their own,
stepping on their water bowls,
staring up at the mystery of a closed door,
walking from room to room
before making three circles
like the odd number of flowers in a vase.
And I'm happiest every morning
when my dog steers me
into the kitchen where I slowly
open yet another can of dog food,
as we hold our mutual gaze,
me reading his mind and he reading mine.
-Billy Collins, "All Dressed Up," The New Yorker (June 23, 2025)
Confidence
"The image of the dummy, the hick, is one more thing that [Larry] Bird uses to his advantage, like his jump shot, or, more to the point, his head-fake. 'Like I tell people,' he says, 'I'm not the smartest guy in life, but on the basketball court I consider myself an A-plus. Not that I'm dumb. I can keep up with 90 percent of the people in this world. I just don't explain myself to people. I want to keep 'em guessing. The way they take me is the way they take me."
-John Papanek, "Gifts That God Didn't Give," Sports Illustrated (November 9, 1981)
Devotion
"It had gone beyond her, beyond everything. He had thrown himself into it with a creative passion, adding to it all the time, decking it out with every bright feather that drifted his way. No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
Self-Correction
"One thing you do learn with flying is, when you’re off course a little bit, my instructor always said, ‘small adjustments normalize the situation.' In basketball, life, and basketball coaching, small adjustments and normalizing the situation as much as possible have a lot to do with problem-solving.”
-Rick Carlisle, coach of the Indiana Pacers, as quoted by David Aldridge, "Pacers Coach Rick Carlisle Keeps Looking to Improve Himself in ‘Ultimate Crucible,' The Athletic (June 4, 2025)
Love
-Cartoon, The New Yorker (June 9, 2025)
Identity
"7,000 RPM. That's where you meet it. You feel it coming. It creeps up on you, close in your ear. Asks you a question. The only question that matters: Who are you?"
-Carroll Shelby, played by Matt Damon, Ford v Ferrari (2019)
Environment
"What's remarkable, though, isn't just the aesthetics. It's that the neighborhoods where these lots have been turned into green spaces have seen twenty-nine-percent drop in gun violence. Twenty-nine percent! The people haven't changed. The pathologies haven't changed. The police force still patrols the neighborhood. The only new variable is that someone comes to mow the lawn once or twice a month."
-Malcom Gladwell, "The Heat of the Moment: To Stop Violent Crime, We Need to Grasp What Really Drives It," The New Yorker (June 9, 2025)
Clarity
"Environment matters just as much as effort. You're motivated, but it's hard to stay consistent when surrounded by distractions, clutter, or chaos. Clear the path – physically, mentally, emotionally — so your energy isn't pulled away from what matters."
-Horoscope, Minnesota Star Tribune (June 8, 2025).
Conversation
"Self-disclosure feels as good in our brains as eating chocolate or having sex."
-Alison Wood Brooks, author of Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves, as quoted by Lesley Alderman of The Washington Post in "Dealing With People Who Talk Too Much," published in the Minnesota Star Tribune (June 8, 2025).
Presence
"Of course, it's no accident that things are more likely to go your way when you stop worrying about whether you're going to win or lose and focus your full attention on what's happening right this moment."
-Phil Jackson (and Hugh Delehanty), Sacred Hoops: Spiritual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior (1995)
Self
“… the mission of life is to live that potentiality. How do you do it? My answer is, ‘Follow your bliss.’ There’s something inside you that knows when you’re in the center, that knows when you’re on the beam or off the beam. And if you get off the beam to earn money, you’ve lost your life. And if you stay in the center and don’t get any money, you still have your bliss.”
-Joseph Campbell (with Bill Moyers), The Power of Myth, p. 285 (1991)
Growth
A recent loss of memory
A shadow in the family
The baby waves bye-bye
And I'm trying, I'm flying
-Paul Simon, "Further to Fly," The Rhythm of the Saints (1990)
Detachment
-J.D. Salinger, Franny & Zooey, pp. 198-202 (1989, Back Bay Books edition)
Solitude
"Think, dear sir, of the world inside you — be it remembrance of your childhood or longing for your future. Only be attentive to what is arising in you and value it above all that you notice around you. Your innermost experience is worthy of all your love; you must focus your work on that and not waste too much time or courage explaining your position to anyone else. Why do you need to?"
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy translation, 2021)
Self
"The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume the form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances. This centre is not felt or thought of as the ego but, if one may so express it, as the self. Although the centre is represented by an innermost point, it is surrounded by a periphery containing everything that belongs to the self — the paired opposites that make up the total personality."
-Carl Jung, The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, as quoted in Individuation for Adult Replacement Children: Ways of Coming Into Being by Kristina E. Schellinski (2020).
Trust
"Nearly four-fifths of Americans, when polled in the early sixties, said that they trusted the government to do the right thing at least most of the time. (That number now hovers near one-fifth.)"
-Daniel Immerwahr, "Doctor's Orders: It Used To Be Progressives Who Distrusted Experts — What Happened?," The New Yorker (May 26, 2025)
Patience
"To be an artist means not to count or reckon but to ripen like the tree that does not force its sap and, trustingly, stands through the storms of spring without the fear that summer will not come. It will come. But it comes only to the patient ones, who stand there with eternity stretching around them, quiet, vast, and free of worry. I learn this every day, learn it amid struggle, for which I am thankful. Patience is all!"
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy translation, 2021)
Ideas
"Kennedy's rise represents a growing epistemological rift in the country. Increasingly, 'left' and 'right' don't just describe divergent political judgments but also sealed-off understandings of what is true and how we know it."
-Daniel Immerwahr, "Doctor's Orders: It Used To Be Progressives Who Distrusted Experts — What Happened?," The New Yorker (May 26, 2025)
Patience
"Let every impression and every kernel of a feeling complete itself in the dark, in the unsayable, unconscious, unreachable by the daylight mind. With humility and patience, await the hour when a new clarity is delivered. This is what it means to be an artist, in your understanding as well as in your creating."
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy translation, 2021)
Presence
"There are times that one treasures for all one's life, and such times are burned clearly and sharply on the material of total recall. I felt very fortunate that morning."
-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America (1997)
Self-Trust
"In Spanish there is a word for which I can't find a counter-word in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere but doesn't greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction."
-John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley in Search of America (1997)
Patience
"'Never make a decision just to get something done,' he says."
-John McPhee, quoting Frank L. Boyden, "The Headmaster," as reprinted in The John McPhee Reader (1992)
Expression
"Writing a first draft is painful work for any writer, whether it moves like lightning or like glue. McPhee spends twelve-hour stints at his office, not writing constantly, but 'concentrating' and distilling his research into prose. Some authors overwrite and later boil down; he culls before ever typing a phrase. He likens this method to the sport of curling, where great effort is spent sweeping the ice clean to advance each shot. With writing comes the need for endless decisions, mostly on what not to say, what to eliminate. The process is nerve-racking and lonely."
-William H. Howarth, "Introduction," The John McPhee Reader (1992)
Control
"Contrary to the popular image, the Stoics do not suggest that people can or should become unfeeling blocks of stone. All humans will experience what Seneca calls ‘first movements.’ These are when we are moved by some experience, and we might feel nervous, shocked, excited or scared, or we might even cry. All these are quite natural reactions; they are physiological responses of the body, but not emotions in the Stoic sense of the word. Someone who is upset and momentarily contemplates vengeance, but does not act on it, is not angry according to Seneca, because he remains in control. To be momentarily scared of something, but then remain firm, is not the emotion of fear, either. For these ‘first movements’ to become emotions proper would require the mind judging that something terrible has happened and then acting on it. As Seneca puts it, ‘fear involves flight, anger involves assault.’
There are thus three stages to the process, as Seneca suggests: first, an involuntary first movement, which is a natural physiological reaction out of our control; second, a judgment in response to the experience, which is within our control; third, an emotion that, once created, is out of our control. Once the emotion is there, there is nothing we can do but wait for it to subside.”
-John Sellars, Lessons in Stoicism: What Ancient Philosophers Teach Us About How to Live (2019)
Acceptance
"Don't try to make your own rules."
-Epictetus, Manual for Living: A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell (1994)
Humor
"Why are they so mean? It's just advertising."
-Bob Cabana, played by Jerry Seinfeld, speaking to Don Draper (John Hamm) and Roger Sterling (John Slattery), Unfrosted (2024)
Persistence
"'But there's no remaking reality,' he said, softly, rubbing [his daughter's] back and stroking her hair and rocking her gently in his arms. 'Just take it as it comes. Hold your ground and take it as it comes. There's no other way.'"
-Philip Roth, Everyman (2006)
Control
"Don’t be afraid of verbal abuse or criticism.
“Only the morally weak feel compelled to defend or explain themselves to others.
Let the quality of your deeds speak on your behalf. We can’t control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character.
“So if anyone should tell you that a particular person has spoken critically of you, don’t bother with excuses or defenses. Just smile and reply, ‘I guess that person doesn’t know about all my other faults. Otherwise he wouldn’t have mentioned only these.’ ”
-Epictetus, Manual for Living: A New Interpretation by Sharon Lebell (1994)
Wisdom
"Men of few words are the best men."
-Shakespeare, Henry V (Act 3, Scene 2), as delivered by Boy during a production at the Guthrie Theater, May 12, 2024
Patience
"The ripest fruit first falls."
-Shakespeare, Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1), as delivered by King Richard during a production at the Guthrie Theater, April 27, 2024
Self-Trust
-Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, pp. 146-147 (1991)
Humor
"she drives into the parking lot while
I am leaning up against the fender of my car.
she's drunk and her eyes are wet with tears:
'you son of a bitch, you fucked me when you
didn't want to, you told me to keep phoning
you, you told me to move closer into town,
then you told me to leave you alone.
"It's all quite dramatic and I enjoy it.
'sure, well, what do you want?'
"'I want to talk to you, I want to go to your
place and talk to you ...'
"'I'm with somebody now, she's in getting a
sandwich.'
"'I want to talk to you ... it takes a while
to get over things. I need more time.'
"'sure. wait until she comes out. We're not
inhuman. we'll all have a drink together.'
"'shit,' she says, 'oh shit!'"
-Charles Bukowski, "Turnabout," The Pleasures of the Damned (2007)
Strength
"We were not born to sue, but to command."
-Shakespeare, Richard II (Act 1, Scene 1), as delivered by King Richard during a production at the Guthrie Theater, April 27, 2024
Truth
The need to "police group members' beliefs so as to ferret out deviants, along with the fact that the expression of heretical opinion may be the best available evidence of deviance, creates the possibility for what I call self-censorship: members whose beliefs are sound but who nevertheless differ from some aspect of communal wisdom are compelled by a fear of ostracism to avoid the candid expression of their opinions."
-Glenn Loury, “Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of 'Political Correctness' and Related Phenomena,” Rationality and Society, Vol. 6, No. 4, p. 430 (October 1994)
Self-Knowledge
-Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926)
Love
“To care about the world you must love at least a piece of it. One person, perhaps even a landscape, might be enough.”
-Susan Neiman, Left is Not Woke (2023)
Self
-Steven Wright, Harold, p. 216 (2023)
Inspiration
“[America] is the first nation in the world that was ever established on the basis of reason instead of simply warfare.”
-Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, p. 31 (1991)
Humor
“Empty vessels make the loudest sound.”
-Shakespeare, Henry V (Act 4, Scene 4), as delivered by Boy during a production at the Guthrie Theater, May 12, 2024
Boldness
-A fictional Carl Sagan, speaking to the 7-year-old title character of the novel Harold, p. 228 (2023) by Steven Wright
Effort
"... it's another thing you think you can't do. And maybe you can, maybe you can't. That's irrelevant. That's irrelevant. You can or you can't. What's relevant is that you dive in. That's relevant. Because however it comes out, it is worth it. Failure is just as worth it as success."
Why?
"Because everything contains a reward of some kind. It's your job to find it."
-Jerry Seinfeld, "The Blocks with Neal Brennan"
Gratitude
Cars are "the poor-man's miracle."
-Charles Bukowski, "Eulogy," The Pleasures of the Damned (2007)
Humility
"... as small men rant at things they cannot do."
-Charles Bukowski, "A Poem is a City," The Pleasures of the Damned (2007)