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Quote by Paul Kalanithi

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When Breath Becomes Air

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Paul Kalanithi

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“Life's true aim is not happiness. We are told otherwise and sold a fleeting dream. Life’s true aim lies in equanimity—in perfect balance. It is a state of being where the relentless chase for happiness ceases, and the resistance against sorrow dissolves. It is a harmonious dance with the present, unburdened by the pursuit or avoidance of things that are ultimately transient.”

“Discipline is of no use whatsoever, since things are naturally eliminated by discernment without it being necessary for us to treat them brutally. Even in the course of the technique known as “letting-go”, a faint shadow of discipline is implied, for letting-go of an object implies a certain discipline. Only an effortless and choiceless, I repeat choiceless reaction, is the hallmark of liberation.”

“Because I have no natural gifts, shall I on that account give up my discipline? Far be it from me! Epictetus will not be better than Socrates, but if only I am not worse, that suffices me. For I shall not be a Milo, either, and yet I do not neglect my body, nor a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my property, nor, in a word, is there any other field in which we give up the appropriate discipline merely from despair of attaining the highest.”