"A friend is one who walks in when others walk out"

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.  When we consider what, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other.  Yet they honestly think there is no choice left.  But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear.  It is never too late to give up our prejudices.  No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.  What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion."

I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished.