Laughing.

This girl.

Wisdom

Since I have a lot more time on my hands these days, I do things like google "quotes" and read what follows. Here are some of my favorites from my hour of quote reading last night:

Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart.

Be content to seem what you really are.

-Marcus Aurelius

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.

Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side, for God is always right.

-Abraham Lincoln

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.

-Confucius

Concern for man and his fate must always form the chief interest of all technical endeavors. Never forget this in the midst of your diagrams and equations.

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

Information is not knowledge.

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Love is a better teacher than duty.

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.

-Albert Einstein

Meaning.

A funny thing happens when you aren't sharing your thoughts. They either tend to lose meaning or you tend to lose them altogether. So, here I am sharing my thoughts in hopes that they will always be meaningful to me.

I've been thinking a lot about "meaning" lately. "Purpose" might also serve as a useful synonym, but I like "meaning" even more. It feels more fundamental. Where do we get purpose and meaning in our lives? I'd realized sometime last week that my life didn't feel very meaningful. Going to DC this past weekend made me realize why that was.

I think meaning in life is derived from the level to which we give ourselves to others. We are infants when it comes to trying to supply our own lives with meaning. We need the help and support of others if we want to feel like life has any purpose. When others are absent from our lives, the meaning we felt when they were present disappears slowly after their leaving.

But life feels so meaningful now!

A promise to an amazing girl is filling my life with so much purpose right now that I can hardly contain it! I am lucky to be loved. I am lucky to be able to love. And love her I do.

And love is the greatest meaning I can possibly imagine.