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I think optimism springs from nature. I'm a gardener. Nature has taught me about rhythm, the essence of every art. With so much that is terrible, nature gives me pleasure.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss, even though the subject can still be very sad. Because there's the triumph of coming through and understanding that you have, and that you did it the way only you could do it. You didn't do it the way somebody told you to do it.

If you're feeling emotional when you're creating something, it'll sound that way.

There is no greater joy than that of feeling oneself a creator. The triumph of life is expressed by creation.

I feel like the one insight that's extremely comforting to me about the world is that we all share the same pool of emotion that we draw from.

Optimism is the foundation of courage.

The current of emotion, which was formerly directed to gaining eternal bliss, is turned in socialism - in the same degree as the latter is permeated by evolutionism - towards the perfecting of earthly life.

We are biological creatures. We are born, we live, we die. There is no transcendent purpose to existence. At best we are creatures of reason, and by using reason we can cure ourselves of emotional excess. Purged of both hope and fear, we find courage in the face of helplessness, insignificance and uncertainty.

Rather than being a luxury, emotions are a very intelligent way of driving an organism toward certain outcomes.