“It is now nearly a quarter of a century since I was startled into a review of my own work on the surgery of the arteries, and led to the humiliating recognition of the fact that the conclusions obtained from a series of experiments on animals could not be applied to man, and that our efforts to adapt them were leading us into serious surgical blunders. An extended investigation into which I was further attracted by the rising discussion of this question forced upon me the opinion that Syme and Fergusson were right when they stoutly asserted that surgery had in no way been advanced by experiments on animals. I knew these two men intimately. . . . They were the two greatest surgeons I have ever known. . . . I decide altogether against vivisection, because it is inherently objectionable from my religious point of view, because it is clumsy and inexact, and because it has very frequently, if indeed it has not always, been found altogether misleading.— Prof. LAWSON TAIT (1896)”
Source: The Antivivisection Question
“The slowest way to fail is to do nothing.”
Source: The Myth of the Safe Path: How Playing Small Costs More Than Risk
“The journey of ego-Self separation and reunion is not a strictly linear process with a clear beginning and end. Similar to the heroic journey, it is a spiralling path that we navigate throughout our lives. We separate and reunite multiple times, at different depths and levels of consciousness. With each revolution of the spiral, we reconnect with deeper and vaster expanses of our authentic Self, without negating the role of the ego or our humanity. This lifelong journey is a continual unfolding and balancing of the paradox of the human and divine within us.”
Source: Awaken To Love: Reclaiming Wholeness through Embodied Nonduality with Jungian Wisdom, Psychosynthesis & Internal Family Systems
“Life is a succession of battles in a war that we cannot win.”
Source: The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide
“You can miss a day or two and you will not be set back to zero. An omission is not a license to cheat or keep failing. Your habit-in-formation is not so fragile that it requires perfection. If you miss a day or fall off the wagon, don’t despair. Instead, use it as an opportunity to make your context tighter, stronger, and clearer.”
Source: Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes That Stick
“If failing is the worst possible outcome, I welcome that over not trying at all.”
Source: If I Knew Then: Finding Wisdom in Failure and Power in Aging
“Failure is a step-child.”
“I’ve tried to live each day with purpose—have fallen short some days, made mistakes—but I learn from each experience. (Congress Needs Accountability: A Personal Call from Pulitzer-prize nominated author, Carlos Wallace – blog)”
“Lives dominated by impossible ideals – complete honesty, absolute knowledge, perfect happiness, eternal love – are lives experienced as continuous failure.”
Source: Darwin's Worms: On Life Stories and Death Stories
“This ploy is supposed to make the onlookers have sympathy with them if they ‘fail’ and it’s expected to bring greater rewards if they ‘win’. Actually this down-in-the-mouth attitude almost guarantees failure, and makes everyone fed up with them. No one has sympathy with an adult who takes such as attitude, but when they are children it probably worked.”
Source: Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre