Thus Spoke Herman

No one of you separately is capable of doing anything real at all; therefore, even for the sake of only an egoistic aim, help one another in this newly formed group which might also be called a brotherhood. The more sincere you are with one another, the more useful you will be to one another.

Of course, be sincere only here in the group, and in questions concerning the common aim.

Sincerity with everyone in general is weakness, slavery and even a sign of hysteria.

Although normal man must be able to be sincere, yet he must also know when, where and for what purpose it is necessary to be sincere.

(All and everything, from Fifth Talk, Third Series)

Now, when ordinary people attempt to find happiness, I’m not sure that the happiness found is really happiness or not. I study what ordinary people do to find happiness, what they struggle for, rushing about apparently unable to stop. They say they are happy, but I am not happy and I am not unhappy either. Ultimately, do they have happiness or not? I regard actionless action as worthy of being called happiness, though the ordinary person regards it as a great burden. It is said ‘Perfect happiness is not happiness, perfect glory is not glory’.
The whole world is incapable of judging either right or wrong. But it is certain that actionless action can judge both right and wrong. Perfect happiness is keeping yourself alive, and only actionless action can have this effect. This is why I want to say:
‘Heaven does without doing through is purity
Earth does without doing through its calmness.’

Just a couple from the master.

“While ordinary people rush busily around, the sage seems stupid and ignorant, but to him all life is one and united. All life is simply what it is and all appear to him to be doing what they rightly should.”

“Do not do what is good in order to gain praise.
If you do what is bad be sure to avoid the punishment.”

Maths. Something special about maths. The stern hard coldness, with a soggy centre. The awe-inspiring complexity sitting alongside the beautiful simplicity. I really don’t like equations. They don’t look good. They are a symbol in the true sense. Idolatry wrapped in formalism. The ideas and fancies they represent, what they describe on the other hand is something that fills me with a strange mix of excitement, wonder and despair. Do we not know enough? I know we know nothing, and at the same in us all is the capacity to know it all. It is a shame that as with most science, it is couched in prejudice, mistrust, mystery and even scorn. The swirls of fashion have repeatedly left this essential and most liberating of arts outside of mainstream culture and that is a true shame, in the fullest possible sense of the word.