“Burying one’s self is not saving one’s self. The worst fate of all is to be stricken from the roster of the living before you die.” —Seneca

“In a living place with a plum tree, you have the plums dropping from the trees onto the paving stones, the plums rotting, swept away by water or eaten by birds. The path under it is a pleasant place for people to wander, to think, arm in arm. 

“How different this is from the developer’s commercial ‘paradise.’ The clean paving stones; the perfectly manicured place, which will keep people’s confidence up as they spend money; the place which never, ever, shows something out of place; the place which avoids ordinary things like plum trees because they have the nuisance of leaves and blossoms and plums dropping, and instead goes towards special plants chosen because they look natural yet need no maintenance, because they seem almost natural yet create no debris, need no birds to look after them, and give little sustenance to lovers strolling quietly arm in arm.” 

—Christopher Alexander, A Vision of a Living World

“Everyone accelerates life’s pace, and is sick with anticipation of the future and loathing of the present. But the person who puts all of his time to his own uses, who plans every day as if it were his last, is neither impatient for the morrow nor afraid of it.” —Seneca

“You have all the time in the world because the only time is NOW.” —Alan Watts

I hope someday to make something as good as this Haydn symphony I’m listening to.