The aim and the way

Yesterday was my birthday. To commemorate the occasion, my friend Jenn treated me to dinner at my favorite Thai restaurant. (Thanks, Jenn!) The bill arrived with the requisite fortune cookies, and mine read as follows:

The aim is useless without the way.

Deep.

I think.

(Seriously, my first response upon reading this was, "Huh?")

Meanwhile, here are a few inspirational quotations I stumbled across recently which seem appropriate to cite on the occasion of having completed almost four full decades on earth:

The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do. —Walter Bagehot

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. —Eleanor Roosevelt

Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows. —Michael Landon

And then there's this one:

Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." —John 14:5-7

Hm.

The aim is useless without the way.