# Life's Simple Lessons Man is born into the world without asking. He finds himself here, surrounded by others like himself, all equally bewildered. The first lesson life teaches is this: you are here, and you must make of it what you can. When a child learns to walk, he falls countless times. No one tells him to stop falling, to give up the attempt. The world expects him to rise again. This is the second lesson: failure is not disgrace; it is the price of learning. We spend our early years collecting things—toys, books, accomplishments. We believe that more will bring us nearer to happiness. Then one day, we realize that a man can own very little and still be rich, or own everything and die poor. The wealthy man is not he who has much, but he who needs little. We mistake busyness for purpose. We fill our days with noise to escape the silence within. But it is in silence that we hear ourselves. It is in stillness that the world becomes clear. The busiest man is often the loneliest. We hurt those we love most easily, because they are closest to us. A stranger's rudeness we can forgive; our mother's coldness cuts us to the bone. This teaches us that intimacy carries both the greatest joy and the deepest wound. To love is to risk sorrow. Age brings a peculiar wisdom. The young believe they can change the world; the old know the world changes them. Neither is wrong. The world is changed by the young, and the young are changed by the world. In the end, all things are transformed by their meeting. We fear death, yet we live as though we have forever. If we truly knew we had but a day left, we would spend it differently. Perhaps the greatest lesson is this: to live as if we might die tomorrow, yet to build as if we will live forever. In this paradox lies a life well-lived. The simple lessons are these: that we are here by accident, that falling is part of rising, that less can be more, that silence speaks, that love wounds, that change is constant, and that death gives life its meaning. These are not profound discoveries. They are written in the lives of billions before us, and will be written again in the lives of billions to come.

One. In a mental hospital, the doctor is often the greatest lunatic of all; there, the mad are the normal ones, the healthy. Surrounded by a hundred lunatics, should they force the doctor to stand trial before them, he will spend his whole life proving himself mad among them, never able to be deemed a normal man—for the doctor's cardinal error lies in this: he has taken it upon himself to treat a madness where even the judge himself is hopelessly insane! Where the judge is himself mad or prejudiced, to expect justice is the height of foolishness.

Two. If we dwell willingly in hell, there is nothing wrong with finding happiness there; but if we are forced into heaven itself, it will still make us miserable. Against the mind's resistance, even nectar becomes poison in the belly. Better to keep someone in a cottage by their choice than to send them to a palace against their will. Heaven or hell—both live within the human heart! Poison or nectar—both rest upon the human tongue!

Three. Dependence is not a one-way street. If we wish to make someone dependent upon us, it remains impossible until that person willingly chooses to depend on us. If we ourselves do not, of our full consent, depend upon another, then no one else can make us depend upon them. Yet another thing occurs. Sometimes this dependence flows both ways. How? I am dependent upon someone, and therefore they become dependent upon me; or they are dependent upon me, and therefore I become dependent upon them—either of these can happen.

Four. There is no greater mistake in this world than trying to please everyone. Whoever attempts to please all, whoever tries to adapt themselves to everyone, whoever wishes to see all content, whoever hopes for recognition and praise from every quarter, whoever endlessly strives to see a smile on every face—such a person is the greatest hypocrite of all. To love all mankind and yearn for everyone's happiness is something only a supreme hypocrite can manage. One who understands everything, who knows everyone's heart, who reads all minds—such a person is, in truth, a bastard at heart.

Five. If you wish to die, then obey everyone. And if you wish to live, then use your own reason and conscience. Learn to say 'no' to those whose words you are not bound to follow.

Six. Most of the time, what we think we know is trivial. What we believe we understand is hardly understanding at all. Contented in this blindness, we pass our whole lives as the blind do.

Seven. I never knew life's secrets, not once. There was no need. But now I understand: walking the path of life, you cannot trust everything visible. Better to live by disbelief than to die by belief. Many will say otherwise, perhaps, but remember this—when you die believing, you will find none of them beside you; you must bear all the agony of death alone. There are many people in this world who treat even those they consider enemies with kindness.

Eight. There is no greater sin in this world than to seek understanding of everyone’s troubles. Whoever’s burden you try to shoulder will be the first to recognize your weakness—and, mark this well, the first to fashion a pathway to push you deeper into ruin should you stumble.

Nine. The one who breaks another’s trust digs a pit for himself alone, and into that very chasm of his own making he tumbles first of all. How does this come to pass? You must wait. Patience is required if you wish to witness time’s fitting answer. Time gives all its answers in due course—it always does.

Ten. Should those near you ever come to understand that you love them with a fierce and burning love, they will seize upon that very ardor as opportunity. They will exploit it. And in the end, you will become to them nothing more than a beast of burden—though they may never reveal this to your face, even as they smile to themselves in secret satisfaction.