«Really, the fundamental, ultimate mystery -- the only thing you need to know to understand the deepest metaphysical secrets -- is this: that for every outside there is an inside and for every inside there is an outside, and although they are different, they go together.»

«The story the Leavers have been enacting for the past three million years isn?t a story of conquest and rule. Enacting it doesn?t give them power. Enacting it gives them lives that are satisfying and meaningful to them. This is what you?ll find if you go among them. They?re not seething with discontent and rebellion, not incessantly wrangling over what should be allowed and what forbidden, not forever accusing each other of not living the right way, not living in terror of each other not going crazy because their lives seem empty and pointless, not having to stupefy themselves with drugs to get through the days, not having a new religion every week to give them something to hold on to, not forever searching for something to do or something to believe in that will make lives worth living. And ? I repeat ? this is not because they live close to nature or have no formal government or because they?re innately noble. This is simply because they?re enacting a story that works well for people ? a story that worked well for three million years and that still works well where the Takers haven?t yet managed to stamp it out.»

«The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.»

«So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.»

«Silence is better than unmeaning words.»

«Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life»

«No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean»

«There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.»

«That depends on what the meaning of 'is' is»

«Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend - or a meaningful day.»