The Renaissance teaches us that the book of knowledge is not to be learned by rote but is to be written anew in the ecstasy of living each moment for the moment’s sake. Success in life is to maintain this ecstasy, to burn always with this hard gemlike flame. Failure is to form habits. To burn with a gemlike flame is to capture the awareness of each moment; and for that moment only. To form habits is to absent from those moments.
—Tom Stoppard The Invention of Love
We do not remember days, we remember moments.
—Cesare Pavese
Moments
If I could master just one art,
it would be the art of letting go:
of people I have known and loved,
of places I’ve traveled to and lived,
of sunsets and full moons I’ve witnessed.
I would let go of this moment
as quickly as it appears, faster if I could.
I would let go of things I wished for and
especially those wishes which came true.
I’d carry nothing from this moment into the next.
For each moment would have but one life
never preceded by a memory
never, ever, followed by a wish.