"Many pleasures of life come from contemplation that improves with age. Every smaller pleasure is compounded by wisdom. Pleasures begin with the senses, but they dwell the longest in contemplation. Optimism and faith and imagination tend to arrive together. The pessimist is an unobservant man, mistaking lack of belief for confidence."

— Simon Sarris, Creatures of Temperament (2025)

"Humility is the virtue of seeing each sunrise as truly new. Little children have no trouble with this perspective, they could not live any other way. Everything is visceral to them, and they carry this visceral interiority everywhere."

— Simon Sarris, Dispatches from Childhood (2023)

"I find it ideal to always have more ambitions, plans, and projects than one could possibly accomplish. Aspirations — even unlikely ones, maybe especially unlikely ones — are an essential part of living well. When we are at our most ailing, we are reduced to thinking and talking only of our ailments. When we are at our most vigorous, our most alive, we think and talk of our goals and aspirations. Over long time frames, the pessimist becomes an unobservant man, and the optimist creates the world."

— Simon Sarris, Efforts and Goals and Joy (2023)

"Self image is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will do as you expect yourself to do—this is why stubbornness is such a powerful trait. Sometimes all you need is relentless self belief and a specific aim to get what you want."

"Good fortune feels good when it comes to you, but it can be taken away just as easily as it has been granted—and the more we let good fortune influence us, the more pain we feel on its way out. Thus, it is only when you develop a strong self image independent of your wealth, status, money, power, public perception, that you actually become fortunate."

"Ultimately, the world is light, dark, and everything in between. What we see is all a matter of focus—a matter of what our lens is trained to fixate on."

— Isabel Unraveled, Self Image (2022)

"better to be cringe and earnest than overly self-aware and cynical. the enemy in this world is apathy and it is infinitely easier to be a cynic than naively earnest."

— David Jiang