It seems to me that if you or I must choose between two courses of thought or action, we should remember our dying and try so to live that our death brings no pleasure to the world.
"The only way to do great work is to love what you do."
"The novel is a form of exploration, a way of asking questions that don't have answers."
The world is in a constant state of flux. Nothing remains the same from one moment to the next. You can never step into the same river twice.