A person's looking for a simple truth to live by, there it is. CHOICE. To refuse to passively accept what we've been handed by nature or society, but to choose for ourselves. CHOICE. That's the difference between emptiness and substance, between a life actually lived and a wimpy shadow cast on an office wall.
Tom RobbinsI could say I believe in every drop of rain that . . . Well, I believe life is a Zen koan, that is, an unsolvable riddle. But the contemplation of that riddle--even though it cannot be solved--is, in itself, transformative. And if the contemplation is of high enough quality, you can merge with the divine.
Tom RobbinsLet us, rather, gather facts, all the facts, regardless of aesthetic appeal or theoretical social worth, and spread those facts before us not as the soothsayer spreads the innards of a turkey but as a newspaper spreads its columns. Let us be journalists, then. And like all good journalists, we shall present our facts in an order that will satisfy the famous five W's: wow, whoopee, wahoo, why-not and whew.
Tom RobbinsMy personal motto has always been: Joy in spite of everything. Not just [mindless] joy, but joy in spite of everything. Recognizing the inequities and the suffering and the corruption and all that but refusing to let it rain on my parade. And I advocate this to other people.
Tom RobbinsOh God, are there so many of them in our land! Students who canโt be happy until theyโve graduated, servicemen who canโt be happy until they are discharged, single folks who canโt be happy until theyโve found a mate, workers who canโt be happy until theyโve retired, adolescents who arenโt happy until theyโre grown, ill people who arenโt happy until theyโre well, failures who arenโt happy until they succeed, restless who canโt wait until they get out of town, and in most cases, vice versa, people waiting, waiting for the world to begin.
Tom Robbins