“This winter I have been realizing a copy-book commonplace, which is at the same time a metaphysical profundity, viz.: that the present is all that is and it is not. One of the crowning metaphysical paradoxes. Of course the present is not. While you are uttering now, it is fled — it never existed.”

Reflecting on the elusive nature of the present moment · Letter, winter 1896–97

• Philosophy
• Reality
• Time

“One should learn that it is not life that should be taken seriously, but living. In that way, one gets pleasure if not happiness.”

Distinguishing the process of living from abstract notions of life itself · Letter to Sturgis Bigelow, April 1900

• Attitude
• Happiness
• Life

“Pretty much everybody believes I'm a crank or a fool, or asks when I'm going to begin to do something; — to which question, by the way, I invariably respond — never!”

Defiantly rejecting conventional expectations of productive achievement · Letter to Marjorie Nott, September 1899

• Attitude
• Independence
• Society