Coincidence

Our day-to-day life is bombarded with fortuities or, to be more precise, with the accidental meetings of people and events we call coincidences. “Co-incidence” means that two events unexpectedly happen at the same time, they meet. We do not even notice the great majority of such coincidences. [...] Human lives are composed in precisely such a fashion. They are composed like music. Guided by this sense of beauty, an individual transforms a fortuitous occurrence into a motif, which then assumes a permanent place in the composition of the individual. [...] Without realizing it, the individual composes his life according to the laws of beauty even in times of greatest distress.

It is wrong, then, to chide the novel for being fascinated by mysterious coincidences, but it is right to chide man for being blind to such coincidences in his daily life. For he thereby deprives his life of a dimension of beauty.

- The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 1982, by Milan Kundera

Reason and Passion

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas. For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

-The Prophet, 1923, Kahlil Gibran

The 12 Principles of character

The 12 Principles of character:

1. Honesty
2. Understanding
3. Compassion
4. Appreciation
5. Patience
6. Discipline
7. Fortitude
8. Perseverance
9. Humor
10. Humility
11. Generosity
12. Respect

- Kathryn B. Johnson