Sometimes it might feel like one is starving for love, not sensual pleasure, but a pleasure that arising from knowing someone cares about you, your happiness, and is excited to see you. All day long, we are bombarded by negativity, a lot of people are really petty, then some of us come home to an empty house, wake up, repeat and do it all over again. However, love, in general, arises from the pleasure which all men and women naturally take in whatever they judge or perceive to be good and perfect. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 13

When I am feeling blue in the morning, and cannot escape from the thoughts of yesterday, I like to start my day off right by listening to a happy song, or reading something nice. I am nothing but a bundle of nerves dressed up to look like a man. It is foolish to demand complete success of those we want to love; we should rejoice when they rise for a moment above themselves and sympathize with them when they fall. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 13

We seldom find in men a strong desire of obtaining anything which depends on human power who have not been able to obtain it. It is the full involvement of flow, rather than happiness, that makes for excellence in life. When we are in flow, we are not necessarily happy, because to experience happiness we must focus on our inner states, and that would take away attention from the task at hand. So we are focused on our goal. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 13

There are many a way to win in this World, but none of them is worth much without good hard work back of it. If a rock climber takes time out to feel happy while negotiating a difficult move, he might fall to the bottom of the mountain. The neuro surgeon cannot afford to feel happy during a demanding operation, or a musician while playing a challenging score. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 13

Success is projects is everything. Only after the task is completed do we have the leisure to look back on what has happened, and then we are flooded with gratitude for the excellence of that experience—then, in retrospect, we are happy. However, one can be happy without experiencing flow. Agreeable circumstances, arising in a disagreeable prospect, convey the greatest happiness that can be imagined. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 13

We can be happy experiencing the passive pleasure of a rested body, a warm Sunshine, the contentment of a serene relationship. These are also moments to treasure, but this kind of happiness is very vulnerable and dependent on favourable external circumstances. That happiness that follows flow is of our own making, and it leads to increasing complexity and growth in consciousness. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 13

We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gaiety. Flow leads to personal growth. Suppose an individual is in the stage of arousal. This is not a bad condition to be in; in arousal an individual feels mentally focused, active, and involved—but not very strong, cheerful, or in control. How can one return to the more enjoyable flow state? #RyanPhillippe 7 of 13

Life is full of cares and anxieties; man has occasion for, and a right to make use of, many expedients to make it pass on with tolerable ease. The way to get back to your flow is by learning new skills. When an individual feels in control, this is a beneficial state of experience, where one feels happy, strong, satisfied. However, one tends to lack concentration, involvement, and a feeling that what one does is so important. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 13

So how does one get back to flow? By increasing challenges. Thus arousal and control are very important states for learning. The other conditions are less favourable. When a person is anxious or worried, for instance, the step to flow often seems too far, and one retreats to a less challenging situation instead of trying to cope. If a man live in the World, he must live like the World. #RyanPhillippe 9 of 13

Therefore, the flow experience acts as a magnet for learning—that is, for developing new levels of challenges and skills, in an ideal situation, an individual would be constantly growing while enjoying whatever he or she does. Alas, we know this is not the case. Usually we feel too bored and apathetic to move into the flow zone, so we prefer to fill out mind with readymade, prepackaged stimulation from Netflix or off the video shelf or some other kind of professional entertainment. #RyanPhillippe 10 of 13

Or sometimes we feel too overwhelmed to imagine we could develop the appropriate skills, so we prefer to descend into the apathy engendered by artificial relaxants like drugs or alcohol. It takes energy to achieve optimal experiences, and all too often we are unable, or unwilling, to put out the initial effort. Life is not governed by will or intention, but our actions.  #RyanPhillippe 11 of 13

Flow is generally reported when an individual is doing his or her favourite activity—gardening, listening to music, having a pleasant conversation, cooking a great meal. It also occurs when driving, and surprisingly often at work. However, very rarely do people report experiencing flows in passive leisure activities, such as watching television or relaxing. #RyanPhillippe 12 of 13

Yet, because almost any activity can produce flow provided the relevant elements are present, it is possible to improve the quality of life by making sure that clear goals, immediate feedback, skills balanced to action opportunities, and the remaining conditions of flow are as much as possible a constant part of everyday life. #RyanPhillippe 13 of 13

The greatest merit any person could have is to be good and useful. There are different species of love that go under the same name. There is lobe that begins in the head, and goes down to the heart, and grows slowly; but it lasts till death, and asks less than it gives. There is another love, that blots out wisdom, that is sweet with the sweetness of life and lives forever, and is worth having for an eternity. These exceptional moments are flow experience. The metaphor of my flow is one that describes effortless action one feels in the moments that stand out as the best in their lives. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 9

Athletes, like my favourite Philadelphia Eagles player, Kenjon Barner, refer to flow as being in the zone, religious mystics as ecstasy, artist like Post Malone refer to flow as an aesthetic rapture. Athletes, mystics, and artists do very different things when they reach their flow, yet their descriptions of the experience are remarkably similar. Who knows what opportunities a man in love may give against himself? An acknowledged love sanctifies every freedom; and one freedom begets another. However, a man without sensibility exhibits no sign of heart. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 9

There is a pleasure in writing, which only the man who writes knows. Yet no man would write, unless he expected somebody to read. His own reading would be small if he did not expect to have it found out that he had read. Thus self-love is, in a great degree, the spring of all things. Flow tends to occur when an individual faces a clear set of goals that require appropriate responses. It is easy to enter flow in games such as Quadrille, Speculation, Tressette, tennis, or basketball, because they have goals and rules for action that make it possible for the player to act without questing what should be done, and how. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 9

For the duration of the game the player lives in a self-contained Universe where everything has a set of rules to follow to reach their goals. The same clarity of goals is present if one performs a religious ritual, play a musical piece, weave someone’s hair, write a computer program, climb a mountain, or perform surgery. Activities that induce flow could be called flow activities because they make it more likely for the experience to occur. In contrast to normal life, flow activities allow a person to focus on goals that are clear and compatible. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 9

That glorified self-love requires the touch upon imagination of strangeness and unaccustomed grace, to subdue it and make it pardon an outrage to its temples and altars, and its happy reading of the Heavens, the Earth, too: Earth foremost, we ought perhaps to say. The secret of the heart is its pressing love of self. Self-preservation operates pretty equally through the whole species. Flow tends to occur when an individual’s skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenge that is just about manageable. Optimal experiences usually involve a fine balance between one’s ability to act and the available opportunities for action. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 9

Self-preservation first united mankind in civil society. The contempt of life is not meritorious in itself; on the contrary, self-preservation is enjoined by the law of nature. If challenges are too high one gets frustrated, then worried, and eventually anxious. If challenges are too low relative to one’s skills one gets relaxed, then bored. If both challenges and skills are perceived to be low, one gets to feel apathetic. However, when high challenges are matched with high skills, then the deep involvement that set flow apart from ordinary life is likely to occur. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 9

I cannot conceive anything better calculated to excite sympathy than the spectacle of a man devoting his life to self-worship. The climber will feel flow when the mountain demands all his strength, the singer when the song demands the full range of her vocal ability, the hair weaver when the design of the tapestry is more complex than anything attempted before, and the surgeon when he reconstructs the spinal cord because the operation involved new procedures and required unexpected variation. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 9

A typical day is full of anxiety and boredom. Flow experiences provide the flashes of intense living against this dull background. We seldom find in men a strong desire of obtaining anything which depends on human power who have not be able to obtain it. Victory depends upon ardor more than numbers. The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it is the finest in the World. When goals are clear, feedback relevant, and challenges and skills are in balance, attention becomes ordered and fully invested. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 9

Because of the total demand on psychic energy, an individual in flow is completely focused. There is no space in consciousness for distracting thoughts, irrelevant feelings. Self-consciousness disappears, yet one feels stronger than usual. The sense of times is distorted: hours seem to pass by in minutes. When an individual’s entire being is stretched in the full functioning of body and mind, whatever one does becomes worth doing for its own sake; living becomes its own justification. In the harmonious focusing of physical and psychic energy, life finally some into its own. #RyanPhillippe 9 of 9

The habitually and professedly cynical should not deliver themselves at length: for as soon as they miss their customary incision of speech they are apt to aim to recover it in loquacity, and thus it may be the survey of their ideas becomes disordered. In everyday life, it is rare the different contents of experience to be in synchrony with each other. At work, my attention may be focused, because the boss gave me a job to do that requires intense thinking. However, this particular job is not one that I ordinarily would want to do, so I am not very motivated intrinsically. At the same time, I am distracted by feelings of anxiety about my teenage son’s erratic behavior. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 7

There are a thousand familiar disputes which reason can never decide. So while part of my mind is concentrated on the task, I am not completely involved in it. It is not that my mind is in total chaos, but there is quite a bit of entropy in my consciousness—thoughts, emotions, and intentions come into focus and then disappear, producing contrary impulses, and pulling my attention in different directions. Must not an individual be capable of premeditated art who can sit down to write, and not write from the heart? Or, to consider another example, I may enjoy a drink with friends after work, but I feel shame about not going home to the family and mad at myself for wasting time and money. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 7

In long discourse, one good thing drive out another, till all is forgotten. Neither of those scenarios is particularly unusual. Everyday life is full of them: rarely do we feel serenity that comes when heart, will, and mind are on the same page. This innocent house: long have my ears been accustomed to such inversions of words. Conflicting desires, intentions, and thoughts jostle each other in consciousness, and we are helpless to keep them in line. Man does not speak by words alone. A mute glance of reproach has pierced the heart a tirade would have left untouched; and even an inarticulate cry may utter volumes. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 7

Time goes forward, and you go round. Speak to the point. Now, let us consider some alternatives. Imagine, for instance, that you are skiing down a slope and your full attention is focused on the movements of the body, the position of the skis, the air whistling past your face, and the snow-shrouded trees running by. It is not high flying, which usually ends in heavy falling. There is no room in your awareness for conflicts or contradictions; you know that a distracting thought or emotion might get you buried facedown in the snow. And who wants to get distracted? The run is so perfect that all you want is for it to last forever, to immerse yourself completely in the experience. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 7

When a man can say what he likes with the certainty that every word will be reported, and can speak to those around him as one manifestly their superior, he always looms large. If skiing does not mean much to you, substitute your favourite activity for this vignette. It could be singing at the Grammy’s, programming a computer, dancing at a nightclub, playing backgammon, reading a book. Or if you love your job, as many people do, it could be when you are getting immersed in a complicated surgical operation or close a business deal. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 7

Or this complete immersion in the activity may occur in a social interaction, as when good friends converse with each other, or when a mother plays with her baby. What is common to such moments is that consciousness is full of experiences, and these experiences produce harmony with each other. Contrary to what happens all too often in everyday life, in moments such as these what we feel, what we which, and what we think are in harmony. Whatever may be the general infelicity of man, one condition is more happy than another, and wisdom surely directs us to take the least evil in the choice of life. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 7

To know your own happiness, and that it is now, nor to leave it to after-reflection to look back upon the preferable past with a heavy and self-accusing heart, that you did not choose it when you might have chosen it, is all that is necessary to complete your felicity. There is knowledge and knowledge. Knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things; and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and love. They very perfect knight is a lamb among ladies and a lion among lances. Human scrutiny is neither to be solicited nor shunned. The lips pf the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 7

Pain of mind is relieved by an abstraction of solid thought. When it goes against the grain of emotions and motivations, concentration requires more effort. A student who strongly dislikes math will have a hard time focusing attention on a calculus textbook long enough to absorb the information it contains, and it will take strong incentives (such as wanting to pass the course) for him to do so. Usually, the more difficult a mental task, the harder it is to concentrate on it. However, when a person likes what he does and is motivated to do it, focusing the mind becomes effortless even when the objective difficulties are great. In vast cycles, age after age, the human mind marches on—like the ocean, receding here, but advancing there. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 8

The average intelligence is always shallow, and in electric climates very excitable. Generally, when the issue of thinking comes up, most people assume it must have to do with intelligence. They are interested in individual differences in thinking, such as: What is my Intelligence Quotient (IQ)? Or: He is a genius at math. Intelligence refers to a variety of mental processes; for instance, how easily one can represent and manipulate quantities in the mind, or how sensitive one is to information indexed words. However, it is important to realize the intelligence test may not be equally valid for all groups. Cultural values, traditions, and experiences can greatly affect performance on tests. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 8

It is possible to extend the concept of intelligence to include the ability to differentiate and to use all kinds of information, including muscle sensations, sounds, feelings, and verbal shapes. Some child(ren) are born with an above-average sensitivity to sound. They can discriminate tones and pitches better than others, and they grow up they learn to recognize notes and produce harmonies more easily than their peers. Similarly, small advantages at the beginning of life can develop into large differences in visual, athletic, or mathematical abilities. When people are inspired, the essence of all ideas are infused. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 8

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. Nonetheless, innate talents cannot develop into a mature intelligence unless a person learns to control attention. Only through extensive investments of psychic energy can a child with musical gifts turn into a musician, or a mathematically gifted child into an engineer or physicist. The endlessness, the intolerableness of all Earthly effort. It takes much effort to absorb the knowledge and skills that are required to do the mental operations an adult professional is supposed to perform. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 8

What may amuse a man is an important agent in his education. It is common for people who write treatises on education to give forth their rules and theories with a self-satisfied air, as if a human being were a thing to be made up, like a batch of bread, out of a given number of materials combined by an infallible recipe. Mozart was a prodigy and a genius, but if his father had not forced him to practice as soon as he was out of diapers, it is doubtful his talent would have blossomed as it did. What battle was ever won without an effort? What great act achieved without resolution? Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflowers is nothing but cabbage with a college education. By learning to concentrate, a person acquires control over psychic energy, the basic fuel upon which all thinking depends. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 8

Schooling and education are meant for this very purpose, to give us an ear for music—the music of birds as well as men, the music of the heart, as well as of the throat—music which fills the mind as well as the ear—music which is not only sweet, but wise—which not only pleases but makes good; for the great secret of education is to open all the ears—which we call sense—of a man, so that he can drink in all the harmonies of that World of music, which we commonly call life. It requires a great knowledge of books and sciences to instruct a pupil properly; nor will every soil take kindly the laborious cultivation. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 8

I think education is great, looking back on my school years, one of the biggest mistake I made in class was being shy and rushing to get home to watch cartoons. School is so very important, do not be afraid to ask a question in class. However, if you are shy, go after school and ask a teach or tutor for help. I promise you, your friends and cartoons will always be there, but time is so value and so are your grades. Everything you learn in school is important. Do your best, try hard, and be sure to learn so you can get into the college of your dreams and earn a degree that will help you get your dream job. Education will make life so much easier. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 8

Then when you are making a lot of money, you can take vacations, buy houses, nice cars, and watch all the television you want on the weekends because you will have enough money to pay your bills without worrying about where your next meal will come from. The eyes only sees that which brings with it the power of seeing. Gazing into the depths of his beautiful blue eyes, when he was in a contemplative mood, they seemed most placid yet unfathomable; but when illuminated by some lively emotion, they beamed upon a beholder like stars. It is so very rarely that facts hit that nice medium required by our own enlightened opinions and refined taste. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 8

Him whose name is but a syllable, but whose hand is all the Earth. If we are to have an active faith—the faith of God, instead of merely a faith in God—our thought must be centered in Universal mind where the faith of God grows by knowledge and experience. No matter that outside appearance, we must cling steadfastly to the knowledge that God is great, and God is all, underneath, above and roundabout.  I know in whim I have believed. Love leads to God, through art or in acts. God Almighty is just and gracious, and gives not His assent to rash and inhuman curses. Love of the Earth is also recognition of God. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 7

I know what a gentleman is, and what a gentleman is capable of. A gentleman can bear a shock, when it must come, boldly and steadily. A gentleman can make up his mind to stand up against almost any blow. The goals individuals undertake in life endorse and also determine one’s self-esteem. Self-esteem depends on the ratio of expectation to success. A person may develop low self-esteem either because he set his goals too high, or because he achieves too few successes. So it is not necessarily true that the person who achieves most will have the highest self-esteem. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 7

Sometimes people who achieve a lot have lower self-esteem than others, who are less successful, because proportionately their goals are set even higher than the success of others who may not have earned as much because their expectation still outpace their achievements. However, it is never good to lower your expectations to increase your self-esteem. It is no shame to use God’s gifts for our credits. Perseverance is the surest road to success. Great works are performed, not by strength, but persistence. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 7

Some individuals, however, have some misconceptions concerning goals and intensions. Some believe that one must give up their desires of being happy. These critics claim that only be relinquishing every desire, by achieving a goalless existence, can we hope to avoid unhappiness. This line of thought has influenced many individuals around the World to attempt to reject all goals, in the belief that only completely spontaneous and random behavior leads to an enlightened life. Ironically, these are the same people, when something goes wrong say it is a sign of the times, instead of correcting the erroneous behavior or discussing the proper way to handle the situation. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 7

After all, to try abolishing desire is itself a tremendously difficult and ambitious goal. Most of us are so thoroughly programmed with genetic and cultural desires that it takes an act of almost superhuman will to complete them all. Those who expect that by being spontaneous they will avoid setting goals, usually just follow blindly the goals set down for them by instincts and education. They often end up be so mean, lecherous, and prejudice as to make a man with good curly hair straighten out and look like Don King about the head. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 7

Most intentions we form spontaneously are to be mistrusted. To make sure of survival in an uncertain World, dominated by competition for resources, the genes of some individuals have been programmed to be greedy, to want power, to waste, and dominate over others. And if your goals and methods are dissimilar to the group, they will terminate you and/or your membership. For the same reason, the social group into which we are born teaches us that only those who are honest, and hardworking are trustworthy. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 7

How can that be trustworthy that teaches distrust? Truth is truth, whether one speaks it or not. Vanity plays lurid tricks with our memory, and the truth of every passion wants some pretense to make it live. Learning to manage one’s goals is an important step in achieving excellence in everyday life. The best solution to being successful is to understand the roots of one’s motivation, and while recognizing the biases involved in one’s desires, in all humbleness to choose goals that will provide order in one’s consciousness without causing too much dysfunction in the social or material environment. To try for less than this is to forfeit the chance of developing your potential, and to try for much more could be a challenge. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 7

The special private happiness of the free person comes from his finding ways that help him be present in what he is doing. When I feel most present, most unfree, it is usually because I am not there as me. I do not mean that I am not in what I am doing, necessarily, I mean that I am driving myself, treating myself as an object, a tool, an instrument. By loving others, being cooperative, and displaying motivation helps to share a larger vision of how great life is. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 13

There is a World, other individuals, our own self, and your own body. Many individuals take that for granted. However, how do you know? More, how do you know you know? What makes you sure of the truth of any of the ideas you have learned and the reality you have experienced in your life time? If an idea races through your mind, where does it go? What process is involved when you think, learn, imagine, dream of feel? #RyanPhillippe 2 of 13

I know that you believe you understand what you think I said. However, I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear, if the perception is not right, or my conversation is taken out of context.  We are always trying to understand or make sense out of our own and others actions and emotions.  One strives to find means everywhere, and usually succeeds. What we are doing when we interpret something, when finding means, is not entirely clear. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 13

Most of us have experienced the strong and dramatic feelings like anger, hate, joy, depression, passion, and ecstasy, and fear. However, the findings of psychologists remind us that most people go to their graves still infants when it comes to living their fullest and most interesting emotional experiencing. The experience to communicate something in hidden depths and heights reaches the mind, and we are starting to appreciate being able to openly express our emotions. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 13

Emotions refer to the internal states of consciousness. Negative emotions like sadness, fear, anxiety, or boredom produce psychic entropy in the mind, that is, a state in which we cannot use attention effectively to deal with external tasks because we require it to restore an inner subjective order. Hardship, which leads to psychic entropy can leave one feeling fragmented, unraveled, and paralyzed by self-conflict and worrying thoughts gnawing at the mind like a chain saw. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 13

Beneficial emotions like happiness, strength, or vigilance refers to a state of psychic negentropy because your energy and knowledge can be carried out in a productive manner, without waste and effort. A negagentropic system, whether it be physical, informational, or mental, is one in which the parts of your body and central nervous system function together in synergy, with minimal friction or disorder. You will feel good about yourself and others, experience happiness, friendliness, and good cheer. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 13

When we choose to invest attention in a given task, we say that we have formed an intention, or set a goal for ourselves. How long and how intensely we stick by our goal is a function of motivation. Therefore, intentions, goals, and motivation are also manifestations of psychic negentrophy. They focus psychic energy, establish priorities, and thus create order in consciousness. Without them mental processes become random, and feelings tend to deteriorate rapidly. The main thing is life is not to be afraid to be human. Our instinctive emotions can sometimes be those that we have inherited from a much more dangerous World, and contain, therefore, a larger portion of fear than they should. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 13

Goals are usually arranged in a hierarchy, from trivial one like getting to the corner store to buy something to whiten your teeth, to outstanding goals like risking one’s life for the country. In the course of an average day, about thirty-three percent of the time individuals will say that they do what they do because they wanted to do it, another thirty-three percent because they had to do it, and the remainder of individuals report they did something because they had nothing better to do. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 13

The proportions vary by age, gender, and activity: children feel they have more of a choice than their fathers, and men more than their wives; whatever a person does at home is perceived to be more voluntary than at work. Quite a bit of evidence shows that whereas people feel best when what they do is voluntary, they do not feel worst when what they do is obligatory. Psychic entropy is highest instead when individuals feel that what they do is motivated by not having anything else to do. #RyanPhillippe 9 of 13

We have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind.  No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof. Thus both intrinsic motivation (wanting to do it) and extrinsic motivation (having to do it) are preferable to the state where one acts by default, without having any kind of goal to focus attention. The large part of life many people experience as being thus unmotivated leave a great deal of room for improvement. #RyanPhillippe 10 of 13

Intentions focus psychic energy in the short-run, whereas goals tend to be more long-term, and eventually it is the goals that we pursue that will shape and determine the kind of self that we are to become. Without a consistent set of goals, it is difficult to develop a coherent self. It is through the patterned investment of psychic energy provided by goals that one creates order and experience. This order, which manifests itself in predictable actions, emotions, and choices, in time becomes recognizable as more or less unique self.  #RyanPhillippe 11 of 13

Perhaps the most important lesson the World has learned in the past century is that it is not true that human nature is unchangeable. Human nature, on the contrary, can be changed with the greatest ease and the utmost possible extent. If this lies huge potential danger, it also contains some of the brightest hopes that we have for the future of life on Earth. You started off as a cute little happy baby, who just wanted love and attention. However, experiences may have made you hard and angry. Yet, there is hope. #RyanPhillippe 12 of 13

The mind is a muscle, it is not a stone. A muscle can be reshaped and altered to revert back to something more relaxed, pleasant and beautiful. That is what I have been trying to do with you. I want to restore you to the person you once were, the excited, happy, fun, and brave young man you used to be. You are not a robot nor a puppet, and I admire you for more than just your body, face, hair, and work, I love your superb mind. There is nothing in love more requisite and delectable than pleasant and wise conference; neither can there arise any White Squall in the Albatross of love which by wit and determination is not turned to a calm. #RyanPhillippe 13 of 13

Both sit and understanding are trifles, without integrity. We have seen that work, maintenance, and leisure take up most of our psychic energy. However, one person might love to work and the other strongly dislike it; one person might enjoy free time and the other might be bored when there is nothing to do. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 14

So while what we do day in and day out has a lot to do with what kind of life we have, how we experience what we do is even more important. You have to love what you do to do it every day. Our actions obey an unknown law, implicit in ourselves, but which does not conform to our logic. Love gives insight, and insight often given to faith. The elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained shape long at a time. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 14

Energy is perhaps of all qualities the most valuable. What we feel matters much more than what we know. Emotions are in some respect the most subjective elements of consciousness, since it is only the person himself or herself who can tell whether he or she truly experiences love, shame, gratitude, or happiness. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 14

Yet an emotion is also the most objective content of the mind, because the gut feeling we experience when we are in love, or ashamed, or scared, or happy is generally more real to us than what we observe in the World outside, or whatever we learn from science or logic. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 14

Thus we often find ourselves in the paradoxical position of being like behavioral psychologists when we look at other people, discounting what they say and trusting only what they do; whereas when we look at ourselves we are like phenomenologist, taking our inner feelings more seriously than outside events or overt actions. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 14

If you boil it down to the impression which make it simply a feeling, personal feeling is not always in the wrong. However, there is a limit to the length of the inspection which a man can endure, under certain circumstances. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 14

Psychologists have identified up to nine basic emotions that can reliably be recognized by facial expressions among people living in very different cultures; thus it seems that just as all humans can see and can speak, so they also share a common set of feeling states. However, to simplify as much as possible, one can say that all emotions share in a basic duality: they are either beneficial and attractive, or they are negative and repulsive. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 14

It is because of this simple feature that emotions help us choose what should be good for us. Shallow sorrows and shallow loves live on. The loves and sorrows that are great are destroyed by their own plenitude. There are some feelings which are to tender to be suffered by the World. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 14

A baby is attracted to a human face, and is happy when he sees his father, because it helps him bond with a caretaker. We feel pleasure when eating, or when we have company because we probably could not survive without food or family. We feel an instinctive revulsion at the sight of snakes, insects, rotten smells, darkness—all things that in the evolutionary past might have presented serious dangers to survival. #RyanPhillippe 9 of 14

Providence seldom vouchsafes to mortals any more than just that degree of encouragement, which suffices to keep them at a reasonably full exertion of their powers. I never see a modest man, but I am sure that he has a treasure in his mind which requires nothing but the key of encouragement to unlock it, to make him shine. #RyanPhillippe 10 of 14

There is a point beyond which endurance becomes ridiculous, if not culpable. In addition to the simple genetically wired emotions, humans have developed a great number of subtler and tender, as well as debased, feelings. #RyanPhillippe 11 of 14

The evolution of self-reflective consciousness has allowed our race to toy with feelings, to fake or manipulate feelings in ways that no other being can. The songs, dances, masks of our ancestors evoked dreed and the same thing now. However, originally emotions served as signals about the outside World; now they are often detached from any real object, to be indulged in for their own sake. #RyanPhillippe 12 of 14

What an instrument is the human voice! How wonderfully responsive to every emotion of the human heart. There are some feelings which are too tender to be suffered by the World. Happiness is the prototype of the good emotions. Everything we do is officially aimed at experiencing happiness. #RyanPhillippe 13 of 14

We do not really want wealth, or health, or fame as such—we want these things because we hope that they will make us happy. However, happiness we seek not because it will get us something else, but or its own sake. If happiness is really the bottom line of life, what do we know about it? #RyanPhillippe 14 of 14

Real life never arranges itself exactly like a romance. Everyday life is defined not only by what we do, but also by who we are with. Our actions and feeling are always influenced by other people, whether they are present or not. Life is full of cares and anxieties; people have occasion for, and a right to make use of, many expedients to make it pass on with tolerable ease. #RyanPhillippe 1 of 10

Humans are social beings; physically and psychologically, we depend on the company of others. Cultures differ in terms of how much a person is influenced by others, or by the internalized opinions of others when they are alone. Never was a galley-salve so chained as we are to these four and twenty oars, at which we must tug day and night all our life long. #RyanPhillippe 2 of 10

In some cultures, people are not considered to be separate individuals as we think of them, but rather cubits in an extended social network. One’s identity was determined not so much by one’s unique thoughts and actions, but rather by whose child, sibling, cousin, parent one was. Let us reflect, that the highest path is pointed out by the pure Ideal of those who look up to us, and who, if we tread less loftily, may never look so high again. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 10

The human mind, in its eager, though too often unavailing, struggle after happiness, will still make the most of its means. In our time also, compared to most American child(ren), those from close knit families, Military, or religious backgrounds are considered much more aware of parental expectations and opinions even when they are alone—in psychoanalytic terms, we might say that they have a stronger sense of propriety. Such is the power of virtue over the heart, that even a long course of vice will not render us wholly invulnerable to its divine influence. #RyanPhillippe 4 of 10

However, no matter how individualistic a culture might become, other people still determine to a large extent the quality of a person’s life. Every village has its idiosyncrasy, its constitution, often its own code of morality. It was solemn, and a little ridiculous, too, as they always are, those struggles of an individual trying to save from the fire his idea of what his more identity should be.  There is something terribly morbid in the modern sympathy with pain. One should sympathize with the color, the beauty, the joy of life. The less said about life’s sores, the better. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 10

Most people spend roughly equal amounts of time in three social contexts. The first is made up of strangers, coworkers, or—for most young people—fellow students. This public space competes for resources, and where one might establish collaborative relationships with others. It has been reported that this public sphere of action is the most important for developing one’s potential, those one where the highest risks are run but the greatest growth occurs. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 10

The second context is made up of one’s family—for children their parents and siblings, for adults their partners, spouses, and children. While recently the very notion of family as a recognizable social unit has been severely criticized, and while it is true that no one kind of arrangement fits this definition in time and space, it is also true that always and everywhere there has been a group of people with whom one reckoned special bonds of kinship, with who one felt safer, and for whom one felt a greater sense of responsibility than for others. No matter how strange nowadays some of our reconstituted families are in comparison with an ideal nuclear family, close relatives still provide a unique kind of experience. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 10

Then there is the context defined by the absence of other people—solitude. It is a dreadful feeling that of being cut off from all one’s kind. I do not believe that any individual could long retain one’s reason in solitude. One begins doubting one’s own identity. In technological societies we spend about one-third of the day alone, a much greater proportion than in most tribal societies, where being alone is often considered to be very dangerous. Even for us being alone is undesirable; the vast majority of people try to avoid it as much as possible. One that lives well in the World is better than one that lives well in a monastery. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 10

Although it is possible to learn to enjoy solitude, it is a rare acquired taste. To a heart formed for friendship and affection the charms of solitude are very short lived. Not many of the obligations of daily life require for us to be alone: child(ren) have to study and practice by themselves, housewives and househusbands take care of the home alone, and many careers are at least in part solitary. #RyanPhillippe 9 of 10

So even if we do not enjoy it, it is important to learn to tolerate solitude, or else the quality of our lives is bound to suffer. However, perfect solitude can never be reconciled to a social mind, but when it relieves you from the company of those you strongly dislike. In solitude alone we can be free from the contagion of example, and enjoy a comparative felicity. However, the Lord said it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. I will never leave you nor forsake you. #RyanPhillippe 10 of 10