The fool views himself as more unique and others as more generic; the wise views himself as more generic and other more unique.*
(Nassim Taleb)

We have the opportunity to expend the maximum effort on behalf of a worthy goal.**
(Seth Godin)

A life wasted and a life fulfilled can be one and the same thing seen, only seen from different perspectives.

Some thought Henri Nouwen was wasting his life when he became a member of the L’Arche community in Ontario. What he had done, though, was a beautiful thing.

To be able to change how we see is the work of wisdom in us, opening up the way of life and possibility:

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.^

(*From Nassim Taleb’s The Bed of Procrustes.)
(**From Seth Godin’s blog: The uncomfortable combination of effort and acceptance.)
(^George Bernard Shaw, quoted in Bernadette Jiwa’s The Right Story.)