📚Marginalia

Time helps give dimension to every living thing. It allows you to put off chores that you know can be done later. It makes you rush to set up camp before it gets dark. It makes a general act to get his defenses in place before the enemy arrives. It makes a woman want to have children while she still has time. Time is one element that helps shape the nature of everything. Even a moth that emerges from its cocoon to live a life with wings for only a single day must mate in that day and lay eggs or there will be no more of its kind.

Appearance, after all, was a reflection of what a person thought of themselves and therefore, by extension, of others. A person crippled by self-loathing or self-doubt reflected those feelings in their appearance. Such visual clues did not inspire confidence in others because, and while not always completely accurate, for the most part they did reflect the inner person-whether or not that person realized it. No self-respecting bird in good health would allow its feathers to look ruffled. No confident cougar would let its fur long remain matted and dirty. A statue meant to represent the nobility of man did not convey that concept by portraying him disheveled and dirty.

Don’t ever make the mistake of thinking that such self-interest is wrong. Self-interest is survival. Self-interest is the substance of life.

Truth does not depend on the person who says it. The truth is still the truth even if stated by someone you don’t respect.

Love is a passion for life shared with another person. You fall in love with a person who you think is wonderful. It’s your deepest appreciation of the value of that individual, and that individual is a reflection of what you value most in life. Love, for sound reasons, can be one of life’s greatest rewards. You shouldn’t be ashamed or embarrassed about being in love.

We are the sum of all we have done added to the sum of all that has been done to us. there is no escaping that, not for any of us.

Just because you don’t know how to do something, that does not mean it’s impossible. It only means that you don’t know how it can be done.

Destiny is usually around the corner. Like a thief, like a hooker, or a lottery vendor: its three most common personifications. But what destiny does not do is home visits. You have to go for it.

A secret’s worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.

I was raised among books making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.