The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives.

- Albert Schweitzer
philosopher, physician, musician
(1875-1965)

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

- Anatole France
novelist, essayist, Nobel laureate
(1844-1924)

It is no measure of mental health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. - Krishnamurti

In an insane world, a sane man must appear insane. - Spock

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. - Marcus Aurelius

When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane. - Hermann Hesse

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free. - Nikos Kazantzakis

Insanity - a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world. - R.D. Lang

Illumination, a poem by Eric Paul Shaffer

On those cold, clear winter mornings, I rise in the dark, and I sit

beneath a lamp with a pen and paper in a circle of light

barely bright enough for the work. The window beside me is black

and blank, and soon I'm staring only through the window of the page

at whatever I'm drawing from ink and concentration. Hours pass,

and, always when I least expect it, there's a sudden tide of light

as the sun crests the mountain. When the first rays flood the fields,

the thin yellow curtain behind me brightens, and the room swells

with light. Everything is suddenly golden and illuminated,

and for just that one moment, I make the glorious and forgivable

mistake of thinking it has something to do with me.

published in the August 2011 issue (Issue 428) of The Sun (http://www.thesunmagazine.org/)

The sacred is discovered in what moves and touches us, in what makes us tremble.

- Sam Keen

I have felt the swaying of the elephant's shoulders; and now you want me to climb on a jackass? Try to be serious.

- Mirabai

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it.

- Helen Keller (1880 - 1968)