Michael Ventura

“Work is a sacrament. Don't despise anyone's.”

“He became a surgeon because he was afraid of knives. He got married because he was afraid of women. He had a child because he was afraid of responsibility. Now, his marriage over and his child no longer speaking to him, he turned off all the lights in the house because he was afraid of the dark”

“It's as absurd to expect a life to have meaning, in contrast to the vastness of the Universe, as it is absurd to take off your shoe and hang it from a tree, but both are wonderful in their way—for I assure you, if you could see that tree, you’d think it wonderful, you’d approve, you’d think that in a wacko way something had been done, something worth doing.”

“All paths cause pain, so to chose the safe over the audacious will not give you less pain, only less beauty.”

“To be physically astute and psychologically tended, yet morally insulated and conceptually blind--is to be crazy, not healthy.”

“In joy, our choices may appear to be few, but one's responses are anything but confined, they're inspired, expanded.”

“Our choices are truncated in evil's presence.”

“It may be that it is not given to us to know when we are angels. We may only be given to know when others are. This may be one of the reasons we need each other so.”

“That's what America's all about, man, if it's about anything. You can choose your own name.”

“Good is not the opposite of evil, joy is the opposite of evil.”

“They think I may be dangerous, and I am, but not in the way they fear. I have tasted of Paradise. Not because I wanted to. I didn't want to. But it has borne down upon me and there is no escaping it any more. All Things Are Possible. It bears down upon everyone and we run from it as hard as we can and many manage to keep it at bay, but I have not, I am condemned, now, never.... to settle... for the lesser.... ever... again. And yes, that makes me a dangerous man.They think I have become one of the wild animals at the zoo, and I have become one of the wild animals at the zoo.This is a great day.”

“Be careful how you choose your enemy, for you will come to resemble him. The moment you adapt your enemy's methods your enemy has won. The rest is suffering and historical opera. ”