"The best thing for being sad", replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then -- to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."

-- T.H. White, The Once and Future King

PS: I copied this para from "about me" of my friend Harsh Raju on Orkut.com.

Passion

Somehow, maybe while looking back or something, this thought came to my mind: words like determination, will power etc are great words and of course even greater attitudes if worn on the sleeves. But if you look closer you will realize that these are made for people who are in ‘other areas’. Yeah I will tell you what I mean by quote-n-quote other areas. By this phrase I mean fields other than where one wants to be. That one field can sum up in one feeling and the word which comes closest to that that feeling is PASSION. Yes I am one of those hippies who believe in passion. Infact most of us believe in passion when we are growing. When we are kids we do things we like (most of us not all of us) and then we grow up and start doing things to which we can relate at best but cant feel that way. And then come words like will power and determination. Yeah you need them when you are doing something you don’t like because then you have to push yourself every second. That’s how it is.

You know what the other way of living is from passion and if bolstered by discipline, it is heaven on earth. It is dream of everybody.

In the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if most of you disagree with me.