The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles.
Jack Kerouac, On the Road
A Life of Virtue: An Introduction – A Life of Virtue: Philosophy as a Way of Life
The objective of A Life of Virtue Blog
I turn my heart towards the mad ones, those who reject the temptations of conformity and the allure of sameness. They venture into the wild and carve their own path. They walk into and embrace the darkness, without any direction home. They follow the burning light inside of them, their torch ablaze, illuminating the cave to new ways of being. 'Zombies, zombies everywhere!' they whisper in my ear with caution. Nothing terrifies them more than the 'cult of normal', they tell me. These humans, they say, are pre-programmed with a similar code, with identical thoughts, goals and aspirations. They are stamped, dated, and come off the assembly line in a timely manner. One after the other after the other. Mass production. Cookie-cutter hearts, Cookie-cutter minds, Cookie-cutter souls. Let us not forget that the trailblazers throughout history, from Socrates, Jesus, the Buddha and Gandhi, were all initially dismissed by the conformists, the dogmatic masses. We laughed, scolded and persecuted them with our childish arrogance. It is only in retrospect in which we fully appreciate their greatness. Blessed are the weird ones! Let us turn our hearts to those who have no shame in living out their authentic selves. So I tell you, dear reader, throw away the script, corrupt the code, follow Truth, Beauty and Goodness wherever it may lead you. Embody courage, Live as a free-spirit, But more importantly, be human - all too human.
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A Life of Virtue: Philosophy as a Way of Life 
Beautiful and encouraging words. One deserves to be the way one knows best. Conforming to stereotypes or squeezing into set patterns isn’t what life should boil down to. It’s an experience that should emerge from unique thoughts, incomparable circumstances, and everchanging experiences. Step away from the familiarity to realize that it’s simply boredom exaggerating itself. The human mind is so much more than a fat cow grazing in a green field. It needs to be dared, tempted, and pushed to its expandable limits. Your words always set the mind free. Wonderful! 🙂
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Reblogged this on Emerging From The Dark Night and commented:
What a wonderful post.. Could not have expressed it better.
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I love this. I was having this conversation with MarK’s friend at zia Lisa yesterday when he said his job is going to be replaced by robots and I told him if we become all robots what is the purpose of humans on earth. Too bad I didn’t have his email ________________________________
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Yes, this! Listen with your heart and do (as much as possible) only the things that resonate inside you … pay attention and live in the way only you can do
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Reblogged this on A Life of Virtue: Philosophy as a Way of Life and commented:
You can now listen to the audio version of this poem by clicking on the link embedded in the post!
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Lovely… Simply beautiful 👍🏿❤️
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I stumbled across this blog in an effort to discover kindred spirits to follow and hopefully inspire me to stick around and keep posting this time. Your writing reminds me very much of the spirit of my younger self, when I first discovered this passion in me for creating…I wish you all the best on your journey in this life. If you haven’t heard of him, maybe google alan watts if you get bored, something tells me if you haven’t heard of him you might like him.
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