The Duke’s Mind

Sadly, most lives are fashioned on that pattern. Settling for what is possible; buying into the cliché because the towering dream is out of stock; learning how to avoid taking the risk of the dizzying leap. Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) wrote: “In order to attain the impossible one must attempt the absurd.”
– from Harlan Ellison’s introduction to Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman: Season of Mists

Don’t settle for what you can get. Take risks. Try to get at the unreachable. Push your limits. You’ll never really live if you don’t.

The mind is its own place, and in itself,
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
– John Milton, Paradise Lost