Everyone ponders the meaning of life, some more than others. This book is a compilation of thoughts about life by some of the greatest thinkers in history, and others who just said something worth pondering. The purpose of this book is to take all these varied thoughts about life, treat them like pieces to a jig-saw puzzle, and assemble the pieces to form a composite picture. Everyone strives for a goal which is an end point by it-self. Many things we strive for beg the question of why? No one ever asks why we strive for contentment. That then, is the meaning of life—to reach as high a contented state as possible. It does not require a degree in philosophy or sociology or religion or any other specialty. The ability to be ethical is inherited just like other human characteristics. Our ethical nature needs practice and proper reasoning to maximally develop our ethical potential. Nothing in this book is written in stone. Each person has a unique genetic and environmental circumstance. Everything about our lives will always be in a state of flux as we pass through our formative, productive, and terminational years. Diversity, change, and luck will be a part of our individual ventures no matter the cards we are dealt at birth. All of us are subject to God’s created laws of nature, and none of us will get out of this world alive. In the pedagogics of living in a ‘little gleam of Time between two eternities’, we seek understanding about the meaning of our lives and how best to live our lives. We do not start from scratch in this search. Others before us have contributed meaningful insights about life, and our task is to combine these insights, together with our own insights and peculiar personalities, to achieve the most out of our life. Lincoln, as he oft has been the giver of best advice, put it this way: If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.
