“Consciousness does not just passively reflect the objective material world; it plays an active role in creating realityitself.”

“Our beliefs do not sit passively in our brains waiting to be confirmed or contradicted by incoming information. Instead, they play a key role in shaping how we see the world.”

“A border--the perimeter of a single massive or stretched-out use of territory--forms the edge of an area of 'ordinary' city. Often borders are thought of as passive objects, or matter-of-factly just as edges. However, a border exerts an active influence.”

“The difference between great people and everyone else is that great people create their lives actively, while everyone else is created by their lives, passively waiting to see where life takes them next. The difference between the two is living fully and just existing.”

“No matter what he does, every person on earth plays a central role in the history of the world. And normally he doesn't know it.”

“The world owes me a living'--that's passive. 'I owe the world and God a life'--that's active.”