Everybody worships

 --- David Foster Wallace, from a speech given by David Foster Wallace to Kenyon College's 2005 graduating class, on YouTube.

From the transcript, courtesy Captain_Unremarkable on Reddit:

[time code 17:53] Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive.

If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you.

On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.

When you argue with reality, you always lose - but only 100 percent of the time

 --- Byron Katie, passim (wasn't able to find original)

A journey of self-discovery starts with a single step… But so does falling down a flight of stairs.

 --- Kathy Lette, quoted in "The meaning and origin of the expression: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" on The Phrase Finder

From the article

The proverb 'A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step' is first found in the Tao Te Ching, which is a classical Chinese Taoist text usually credited to Laozi (a.k.a. Lao Tzu), and probably written between the 4th and 6th century BC. The original text is:

"A journey of a thousand li [a Chinese mile] starts beneath one's feet"

. . . 

The 'self-help' nature of the phrase has led to some parody, including this from the Anglo/Australian writer Kathy Lette:

A journey of self-discovery starts with a single step… But so does falling down a flight of stairs.

I have nothing to say. Only to show.

---  Walter Benjamin, from the Arcades Project

From opensourceguinea.org: 

"Methode dieser Arbeit: literarische Montage. Ich habe nichts zu sagen. Nur zu zeigen. Ich werde keine geistvollen Formulierungen mir aneignen, nichts Wertvolles entwenden. Aber die Lumpen, den Abfall, den Abfall: die will ich nicht beschreiben sondern vorzeigen."

Gessamelte Schriften, Band V2, page 1030, {O° 36}.

Translation by opensourceguinea.org (Enrique Martino?): "Method of this project: literary montage. I have nothing to say. Only to show. I wont attempt any spirited expressions, no pilfering of valuables. But the tatter, the waste, the abject: Them I don't want to describe, but just demonstrate."

The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive

 --- Bill Watterson, in a speech to the 1990 graduating class at Kenyon College

In context

When it seemed I would be writing about "Midnite Madness Sale-abrations" for the rest of my life, a friend used to console me that cream always rises to the top. I used to think, so do people who throw themselves into the sea.

I tell you all this because it's worth recognizing that there is no such thing as an overnight success. You will do well to cultivate the resources in yourself that bring you happiness outside of success or failure. The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive. At that time, we turn around and say, yes, this is obviously where I was going all along. It's a good idea to try to enjoy the scenery on the detours, because you'll probably take a few.

For more excerpts and Watterson gems (and a few of the strips), see Maria Popova's piece "Advice on Life and Creative Integrity from Calvin and Hobbes Creator Bill Watterson" in The Marginalian (formerly Brain Pickings), via Pocket.