The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

by Eric Weiner

As we age, the balance shifts, from control to acceptance. Acceptance is not the same as resignation. Resignation is resistance masquerading as acceptance. Pretending to accept something is like pretending to love someone.

“There is a kind of magic in recollection, a magic that one feels at every age,” says Beauvoir. The magic traces its roots to the past but blooms in the present. We always experience our past, no matter how distant, in the now.

“I met everyone I needed to meet when I needed to meet them.”

friendship is one of our greatest sources of happiness. The quality of our relationships is the most important variable in the happiness equation.

Something curious and wonderful happens when we age. We no longer care what others think of us. More precisely, we realize they weren’t thinking of us in the first place.

two days in a new country are worth thirty in familiar surroundings. Travel enabled her to remain open to the world, receptive to its beauty. On the road, she was at peace.

We need habits. Without them, our lives threaten to splinter into a million meaningless pieces. Habits tether us to this world, to our world. Habits are useful, provided we recall why we formed them and continually question their value to us. We must own the habit, and not the other way around.

A habit is not a rut. Think of it as a container—or, if you will, a bag. A bag enables us to hold the pieces of our lives. This makes a bag useful. We get into trouble when we confuse a bag with its contents, habits with the meaning they contain.

Death makes philosophers of us all.

“All the wisdom and reasoning in the world boils down finally to this point: to teach us not to be afraid to die.”

He took a step back in order to see himself more clearly, the way one half-steps away from a mirror. We are too close to ourselves to see ourselves.

Death is not life’s failure but its natural outcome.

“If you do not know how to die, don’t worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do the job perfectly for you; don’t bother your head about it.”

An awareness of death enables us to live more fully.

Interesting word