Autobiography of a Restless Mind is a fascinating, exceptionally diverse collection of observations and reflections written over the past twenty-five years by one of the most innovative thinkers, writers, and leaders of the past half century. Witty and wise, playful and profound, prophetic and immensely quotable, it is a companion no thinking, caring person should be without. Written in an unforgettable style reminiscent of Aurelius, Montaigne, Lao-Tse, and Bacon, it is a classic that will be read with pleasure and profit for generations to come.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY of a RESTLESS MIND

Reflection on the Human ConditionBy Dee Hock

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Dee Hock
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4759-6655-8

Chapter One

1

If you cornered the market on truth, you'd make a scant living selling it.

* * *

2

Happiness may be difficult, but it is simple. If you would be happy, dismiss desire, discard opinion, honor the past, trust the future, and treasure the moment.

* * *

3

Like fishermen, we constantly cast the lure of expectation ahead of us hoping to hook a desired piece of the future. Something unimaginable always takes the bait.

* * *

4

Flattery may be despicable, but it will never fetch you a punch on the nose.

* * *

5

There is no greater gift than to speak and write that which is useful to your own heart.

* * *

6

Reading academic prose is like trying to slake your thirst with a mud flow. There's moisture there, but getting at it is the rub.

* * *

7

Expecting to achieve all that we demand of ourselves is a love affair with disappointment.

* * *

8

If we would drive the harlot "more" from our bed and take "enough" to spouse, we could create a world fit for humanity and live in it as happily as a flea in the show ring of the kennel club.

* * *

9

The mass of people sense loss of control of their lives. They intuit the decline of community. They feel the growing emptiness of life. They perceive the earth around them dying. Their anxieties grow. Those who have most benefitted from the present order of things–the rich and powerful–they too know ... they know, they know! In our collective consciousness lies the problem. In our collective conscience lies the solution. It is in consciousness and conscience that the essential change must occur.

* * *

10

One should not read like a dog obeying its master, but like an eagle hunting its prey.

* * *

11

Academia has an incurable compulsion to explain that which is simple with something complex, that which is direct with something labyrinthine, that which is intuitive with something verbose, and that which is obvious with something obtuse.

* * *

12

In the soil of every satisfaction sprouts the seed of discontent.

* * *

13

Humility and generosity have no enemies.

* * *

14

Each of us is inseparable from the whole of the universe and affects it whether we wish to or not. We may use that power as we choose. Therein lies the meaning of life.

* * *

15

No one wants justice universally applied. Life would to punitive for even the best of us if our every word and deed resulted in immediate justice.

* * *

16

Every mountain is two mountains: the one that urges us to climb, and the one that punishes us when we do.

* * *

17

It is difficult to stand quietly and admire the heavens when you have a thorn in your foot.

* * *

18

It is not genius to express the simple profoundly, but rather to express the profound simply. It is not poetry to express the beautiful simply, but rather to express the simple beautifully.

* * *

19

The appetite of the wolf is the death of the rabbit. Look not to the rich and powerful for succor or justice.

* * *

20

A fool is no less a fool when a wise man errs.

* * *

21

Society will not progress until we cease endless discourse about right ideas and consider right values. It is not the mind of society that is weak; it is the soul.

* * *

22

All life arises and renews itself in opposition to the laws of entropy.

* * *

23

Where is the "away" into which we throw our billions of tons of toxic waste? Through the closed systems of nature, the "away" is our own liver, spleen, blood, bone, and brain!

* * *

24

Old truth hates nothing so much as new truth that contradicts it.

* * *

25

Old age is perpetually too backward, and youth is too forward. Moderate, middle-aged people are trapped between, usually as parents.

* * *

26

The pleasures of youth are the pains of old age, just as the pleasures of old age are the pains of youth.

* * *

27

Powerful writing should take one side and stick to it tenaciously, ignoring the other even though it may have merit. Objective writing is impotent.

* * *

28

Liberty without responsibility is like fire without a stove.

* * *

29

Money is the symbol of man's confidence in the universality of avarice.

* * *

30

Why prepare for death? Everyone seems able to do it the first time around.

* * *

31

As my grandfather used to say, "There's them as talks and them as does, and them as does gives them as talks a passel to natter about."

* * *

32

There is little to be said for growing old, except that there is no other way to have a long life.

* * *

33

If you never test your courage and strength, how can you measure the validity of your fears?

* * *

34

Most books are written not for readers but to scratch a writer's itch for money, fame, and immortality.

* * *

35

Commercial propaganda reminds one of a polar bear explaining to a seal why it is so desirable that it should be eaten.

* * *

36

Can anyone imagine human existence without the idea of love, or the love of ideas?

* * *

37

Condemnation debases the condemner far more than the condemned.

* * *

38

Criticism would pursue and destroy quality were it not so nearsighted, sore of foot, and asthmatic.

* * *

39

Do not get angry, stubborn, and imperious. Get curious.

* * *

40

He is such an inveterate businessman that he treats love as stock in the object of his affection.

* * *

41

It's much easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.

* * *

42

I am much too busy learning to have any desire to teach.

* * *

43

Knowledge devoid of nobility, beauty, and wisdom is a barren, wearisome thing.

* * *

44

Life began in defiance of the scientific "laws of nature." It does not care a fig for entropy or gravity, else no young would ever be born, and birds would be sucked to the center of the earth.

* * *

45

This day brought health, moderation, someone to love, work to be done, and a clear sky under which to do it all. What more could anyone want?

* * *

46

Much that cannot be calculated is true. Much that can be calculated is false. Nothing that can be calculated is beauty.

* * *

47

It is a tiny mind that worships measurement and submits to being circumscribed by it.

* * *

48

It is a grave mistake to think that small acts of compassion and generosity cannot change the world for the better, since they are the only things that ever have.

* * *

49

Books, like nature, never praise, never condemn, and never ignore me. I love them as much for that as for the edification and pleasure they bring.

* * *

50

People who set out to rule are never free. They are forever chained to the mob, whether it be rebellious or subservient.

* * *

51

That which is rising looks only ahead; that which is declining looks only behind.

* * *

52

The essential reward of anything well done is to have done it. Everything else is surfeit.

* * *

53

The fundamental law of unbridled capitalism is that the poor shall plow, the middle class shall plant, and the rich shall reap.

* * *

54

What is known is worthless until it is shared.

* * *

55

Truth, nature, and beauty are a trinity among which no meaningful distinction can be made. Man will either be in harmony with that trinity or on the path to misery and extinction.

* * *

56

When one has fallen among wild beasts and serpents, it is best to be alert, cautious, and quiet. This is particularly true in business.

* * *

57

Theory, like a showgirl, is seductive; but practice, like a good mother, is more giving and loving.

* * *

58

No evil seeks me out. My ignorance, foolishness, and desire put me in the way of it.

* * *

59

Those who despise people are the most desperate to be favorably recognized by them.

* * *

60

Fate is a putrid pool to the cowardly selfish. To the compassionately brave, it is a clear, sweet stream.

* * *

61

No one can prevent us from acting to the extent of our ability in accordance with the best that lies within. What god can do more?

* * *

62

To speak is craft; to listen, art.

* * *

63

Man has turned his mechanistic, dominator concepts of organization into cages with internal wheels on which we run like captive squirrels, never realizing that the wheel is driven ever faster by our frantic effort. We must escape the cage and develop new concepts of societal organization within which we can harmoniously coevolve–with one another, with nature, and with all other living things.

* * *

64

The insane desire to create machines superior to man is a death wish. It is a canker of the spirit and a cancer of the soul.

* * *

65

What we say, do, and write belongs to the world. Others will take meaning from us that we never imagined or intended. We can do no more than choose our words and actions with all the integrity, wisdom, and beauty we have at hand.

* * *

66

Society is awash with predatory money prowling about disguised as capitalism, free enterprise, and democracy. It is anything but.

* * *

67

Ethics pale when money growls.

* * *

68

Context is critical to understanding. When others seek us in our context, they come to know us far better than we know them. When we seek them in their context, we come to know them far better than they know us.

* * *

69

Constructive, humane behavior cannot be achieved by external force. It arises from within. It can be educed, but cannot be compelled. It is a rare leader who understands this simple fact, let alone puts it into practice.

* * *

70

Every thought and every act has its origin in the endless past and will affect the infinite future. Choice and consequence are life!

* * *

71

I pledge sorrow for the flag of the benighted State of America and for the republic for which it once stood. One nation, under mammon, clearly divisible, with power and profit for a few.

[This paraphrase is near enough the truth to evoke a volcano of rebuke.]

* * *

72

As fire is eternally inherent in all the inert stuff of the universe waiting to be evoked, so to is life inherent and inert, eternally waiting to be educed.

* * *

73

The formative principles of the universe distinguish everything yet separate nothing. They sustain nothing in perpetuity yet perpetually generate everything.

* * *

74

Who takes a step bereft of love walks to death in shrouds of calculation to lie forever embalmed by money in a mausoleum of things.

* * *

75

When life is frightening or distasteful, scholarship is always a suitable sanctuary.

* * *

76

We judge others harshly by the standards we profess rather than those we practice. Yet we resent it bitterly when they return the favor.

* * *

77

Arguing about such things as love, spirit, and soul is like pounding your finger with a rock to understand the sense of touch.

* * *

78

Wisdom finds humor in everything; old, barren Reason is deadly serious.

* * *

79

Language, no matter how carefully selected, is inadequate to fully convey what is in one's mind, and equally unsuitable for full comprehension by the minds of others.

* * *

80

Only an unimaginative man would think that mechanistic, command-and-control organizations could ever produce an equitable, enduring, free society. Only a thoughtless man would create them. Only an arrogant man would run them. Only a cruel man would perpetuate them.

* * *

81

Beyond the din and refuse of man, alone in undisturbed wildness, all distraction and distinction melt into seamless harmony, and I am at one with the universe.

* * *

82

A taste of the transcendent is more nourishing than a banquet of the banal.

* * *

83

There is no defense against absurdity. People either see it for what it is or they do not. To defend against absurdity is just another absurdity.

* * *

84

Advice is as abundant as help is rare. People who ask for advice more often need help but rarely get it. People who ask for help rarely need advice but often get it. It is a kindness to the world to be liberal with help and chary with advice.

* * *

85

Every word contains the image of its opposite without which it is incomprehensible.

* * *

86

There is nothing that can't be imposed on an indifferent many by a dedicated few

* * *

87

No longer do I find it tolerable to rent mind, body, or spirit to corporate merchants whose blind lust for wealth and power would destroy the world.

* * *

88

It is difficult to find a person at one with the universe ... someone who is peaceful and serenely content ... someone we should honor above all others for his or her art.

* * *

89

The world crawls with greedy people of narrow mind, brutal hand, and blind eye who would break the world apart for profit. This we call liberty? This we call progress? This we call prosperity? This we call just? The words burn a hole in the heart.

* * *

90

It is a wise man who knows whether he is in complete error or deluded by partial truth.

* * *

91

Beware of all people so arrogant they feel qualified to tell you how to pronounce your own name.

* * *

92

In the end, all those who lust to warm themselves at fame's flame will find themselves shivering alike beside the dying embers.

* * *

93

Politicians are addicted to mendacity, indecision, and inaction because they know that such things are rarely noticed, easily forgiven, and quickly forgotten, while a mistake is usually detected, seldom forgiven, and rarely forgotten.

* * *

94

Change is the speed with which we leave the place we think we are.

* * *

95

So unfold your life that none may mistake its meaning.

* * *

96

We may yet join with all other living things, including the earth, to enjoy together the gift of life and pass it on enhanced. That, for me, is quite enough to fill life with hope and meaning.

* * *

97

The aspiring politicians oath:
There is no promise I will not make
and none I will not break
to be elected.
There is no tactic I will not use,
not one will I refuse.
to be elected
There is no one I will believe
and none I will not deceive
to be elected
There is no vow I will not take
and none I will not forsake
to be elected.
There is no law I will not make
and none I will not break
to be elected
There is no vice I will not deplore
and none I will not explore
to be elected
All this do I solemnly swear ...
to be elected.

* * *

98

Community is virtue, not virtual. Virtual community is an oxymoron.

* * *

99

Courage is not commitment. Persistence and achievement are not commitment. Yet without commitment, courage, persistence, and achievement come but seldom, and weakly when they do.

* * *

100

Out of our tiny bit of the dispersed intelligence of the universe called consciousness we shape our becoming, and the universe, perforce, is the better or worse for it. As we dream, so shall society become. As it becomes, so shall the future be.

* * *

101

Money is not value. Beneficent, nonmonetary exchange centered in community and relationship is value. It is driven by generosity, not avarice. It is ethical, not mathematical.

* * *

102

No dream is so great as the person you might become by remaining true to it.

* * *

103

A corporation is a fiction of the rational mind, designed to separate people from the values they hold, the obligations they share, the liability for their acts, and the consequences of their behavior.

* * *

104

The problem is not that some men dare to commit colossal crimes, or that many dare to commit serious crimes, or even that most dare to commit minor crimes that society tolerates. The problem is that so many people admire crimes and criminals.

* * *

105

It is a pitiful, craven, malignant, little wanting that can be satisfied with money, material possessions, power, or fame. Such a narrow, starved life cannibalizes itself.

* * *

106

In all the universe, no two things are entirely alike, entirely different, or separable. Every distinction, comparison, and categorization we make is a crude approximation.

* * *

107

There is an unknown inner essence that determines the unconscious and directs the conscious. Beneath the dream is the dreamer. We are the dreaming, not the dreamer

* * *

108

As to such things as heaven, reincarnation, and immortality, I should be pleased to experience them; but there is so much to learn, do, and become in this mysterious, magnificent life that it seems foolish to waste the least bit of it mooning over another.

* * *

109

Strange semantics indeed to speak of "free schooling" when young people are compelled to attend and have nothing to say about their indoctrination while incarcerated.

* * *

110

Flattery is mental flatulence that makes a gaseous shambles of mind and a malodorous mess of character.

* * *

111

We need not be limited to small dreams or accept the notion that large dreams cannot be realized, providing we are willing to pay the price required for their realization. However, when one's spiritual purse from which the price must be paid is empty of all but small change, large dreams are an unaffordable luxury.

* * *

112

When ideas and passion drive words, there is literature. When words and ideas drive passion, there is revolution. When words and passion drive ideas, there is noise.

* * *

113

What is my life made of? Love of nature, love of literature, love of solitude, love of thought, and love of another. One could do much worse.

* * *

114

Without purpose, will is blind. Without will, purpose is impotent. Without values, both are barren at best and dangerous at worst.

* * *

115

Never in the history of language has there been a poem with a tenth the beauty of a hummingbird sipping nectar from a flower.

* * *

116

When there is failure, grab all the blame you can get. There may not be enough to go around.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from AUTOBIOGRAPHY of a RESTLESS MINDby Dee Hock Copyright © 2012 by Dee Hock. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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