I had, by thirteen, developed a sort of Taoist hubris about my ability to control via non-control.

Why not? Why not?Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?

Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot or will not exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed.

Dostoevski informs everybody; or he ought to.

God seems to have a kind of laid-back management style I’m not crazy about.

The truth is that the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theatre. The grand gesture, the moment of choice, the mortal danger, the external foe, the climactic battle whose outcome resolves all--all designed to appear heroic, to excite and gratify and audience. Gentlemen, welcome to the world of reality--there is no audience. No one to applaud, to admire. No one to see you. Do you understand?Here is the truth--actual heroism receives no ovation, entertains no one. No one queues up to see it. No one is interested.

The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.