"We do not choose to be born.We do……" — Joseph Epstein
"We do not choose to be born.We do not--most of us, choose to die, or the times or conditions of our death. But within all this realm of choicelessness, we do choose how we shall live--Courageously or in cowardice, Honorably or dishonorably, With purpose or adrift. We decide what is important and what is trivial. What makes us significant is what we DO, Or REFUSE TO DO. WE DECIDE and WE CHOOSE--and so we give definition to our lives."
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Joseph Epstein
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46 Quotes by Joseph Epstein
Joseph Epstein has 46 quotes on this site.
A few more worth reading:
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Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful…
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All men and women are born, live, suffer and die; what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams, whether…
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A cat is the only domestic animal I know who toilet trains itself and does a damned impressive job of…
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One serious drawback about letters is that, in order to get them, one must send some out. When it comes…
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What all great teachers appear to have in common is love of their subject, an obvious satisfaction in rousing this…
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Of the seven deadly sins, only envy is no fun at all.
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I myself think anti-Semitism is about envy.
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In recompense, envy may be the subtlest - perhaps I should say the most insidious - of the seven deadly…
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Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly.
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High standards generally -- about workmanship and creation of objects, about what is owed in friendship, about the quality of…
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I was recently asked what it takes to become a writer. Three things, I answered: first, one must cultivate incompetence…
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I am afraid I am one of those people who continues to read in the hope of sometime discovering in…
See all 46 quotes by Joseph Epstein »
More Adrift Quotes
This quote is filed under Adrift Quotes,
one of 48 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:
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Tell us what it is to be a woman so that we may know what it is to be a…
— Toni Morrison
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[Our goal] is to help revive America's traditional values: faith, family, neighborhood, work and freedom. Government has no business enforcing…
— Ronald Reagan
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Some people think we're adrift without any guidelines. I don't. I think we've had instruction on how to live.
— Jon Voight
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Weird Weekends set out to discover the genuinely odd in the most ordinary setting. To me, it's almost a privilege…
— Louis Theroux
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Men are beginning to realize that they are not individuals but persons in society, that man alone is weak and…
— Dorothy Day
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Either order in the cosmos is real, or all is chaos. If we are adrift in chaos, then the fragile…
— Russell Kirk
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A sign that a peace association is going adrift is its exclusion of other political parties, with whom it could…
— Fredrik Bajer
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Sometimes I have experienced God in extraordinary ways - in dramatic surprises or soul-expanding insights or unexplainable mystical encounters. More…
— Brian D. McLaren
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True individualists are always at odds with the universe. Set adrift by their peculiar tastes and interests, they spend their…
— Rick Bayan
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With spirit we are all children of the cosmos; Without it we are orphaned and adrift.
— Deepak Chopra
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I find myself regarding existence as though from beyond the tomb, from another world; all is strange to me; I…
— Henri Frederic Amiel
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Just as at sea those who are carried away from the direction of the harbor bring themselves back on course…
— Gregory of Nyssa
See all 48 Adrift Quotes »