Making money is of very limited value; the ability to buy comfort through material things pales against the ability to find comfort on an essential level, the level of the mind, of purpose, of art, of spirit, of emotion.

Time is finite. Strive to meet the greatest challenges before your time runs out.

Lying is giving up a part of oneself; it is to become cheap, untrustworthy, to sacrifice the limb for the vestiment.

How we live is all we have; our actions determine the sum total of our existence. What we say -- even when we lie -- is trivial compared to this.

You may convince yourself of the greatest lie. But the smallest shred of truth, within or without, will doom you to failure in the pursuit of your falsehood.

To find the easy, comfortable path is to give up. You may do it while you heal wounds, while you reconnect with your essence, while you seek self-understanding. But you have the obligation, to yourself, to put yourself in a difficult situation, to endure pain, to grow, and to constantly strive to improve as a human being. Specific skills are tools in this journey, not ends in themselves. To seek comfort, pleasure, and ease of life to the exclusion of all else is to become lazy, complacent, to sacrifice one's own ability to grow in exchange for the non-pain of being static. It is cowardly. Forgive this cowardice in everyone except yourself. Excuse it in no-one but yourself.

Listen carefully to what your friends tell you, specially when it hurts; don't put too much stock into other people's opinions if they don't know you. Open yourself to them; befriend your most ardent critics, through commonalities, through humbleness, through sheer positive irrepressible kindness and involvement.

Learn from everyone around you. Pay close attention when you think you have learned a lesson, for that is the moment in which you can do the most learning.

Set yourself up for failure every once in a while; it helps reconnect you with your desire to improve, and it provides the opportunity for more growth.

Accept the utter randmoness of life and the lack of purpose, but never let those things make you random or purposeless.

Pursue your passions and never question them, but never confuse your desires with your passions, and question the former whenever they lead you away from the latter.