I have…..made a lot of mistakes in this case. Mistakes are almost inevitable in our profession. During every investigation, especially at the start we grope. Every step, no matter how carefully taken, can lead in the wrong direction. We can never be afraid to make mistakes. People who are afraid to make mistakes avoid making decisions. It begins with circumventing and ends in fearful inaction, something peace officers can not afford. No, Dick, I’ve never been afraid to make mistakes, never dodged decisions.

A.C. Baantjer,  DeKok and the Dead Harlequin, (p. 206). This quote is from DeKok, the famous Dutch detective hero, talking to Dick, his assistant, in the Dead Harlequin story, one of dozens of mysteries written by Baantjer.

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never knows. We guess. We may be wrong but we take leap after leap in the dark.

Agnes de Mille

When I am teaching in the West, people talk about self-loathing and self-aggression. That is coming from a sense of unworthiness…. Without a feeling of worthiness, human society and communication naturally become vehicles of manipulation and deception, and we use every activity to shore ourselves up or to outdo someone else. Through this false sense of power, life becomes a perpetual unfolding of doubt, which only confirms the inadequacies we perceive and elicits a feeling of alienation. My father called it the “setting sun”.  This term describes a time when humanities sense of dignity and purpose is diminishing, like sunlight at the end of the day.  What is setting is our ability to recognize our goodness.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche