“Man is perishable. That may be; but let us perish resisting, and, if nothingness is what awaits us, let us not act in such a way that it would be a just fate.”

- Étienne Pivert de Senancour, French writer

“In the end, you know, we are very minor blips in a cosmic story. Aspirations for importance or significance are the illusions of the ignorant. All our hopes are minor, except to us; but some things matter because we choose to make them matter. What might make a difference to us, I think, is whether in our tiny roles, in our brief time, we inhabit life gently and add more beauty than ugliness.”

- James March", versatile Stanford business professor and polymath

Hat tip to Tom Ehrenfeld at 800-CEO-READ for the fantastic HBS article on James March that contains these quotes.