The Second Mountain

A few lines worth keeping:

My core point is that happiness is good, but joy is better.

Freedom isn’t an ocean you want to spend your life in. Freedom is a river you want to get across so you can plant yourself on the other side—and fully commit to something.

When you ask people what experience made them the person they are, they never say, “I really was a shallow and selfish jerk until I went on that amazing vacation in Hawaii.” No, people usually talk about moments of difficulty, struggle.

The paradox of life is that people seem to deliberate more carefully over the little choices than the big ones. They slide incrementally into a career because someone gave them a job. They marry the person whom they happen to be living with.

Seeing well is not natural. It is an act of humility. It means getting your own self—your own needs and wishes—out of the way, so that you can see the thing you’re looking at as itself, and not just as a mirror of your own interests.