It's Good to Be Able to Know

Abraham Maslow, from PBS site

After you get over the pain, eventually self-knowledge is a very nice thing. It feels good to know about something rather than to wonder about it, to speculate about it. 'Maybe he didn't speak to me because I'm bad, maybe they behaved that way because I'm bad.' For the average man, life is just a succession of maybes. He doesn't know why people smile at him or why they don't. It is a very comfortable feeling not to have to guess. It is good to be able to know." 

This is a quote from Abraham Maslow, I think in Farther Reaches of Human Nature (1971), which I copied into a small notebook on a day of holiday airline flying in November of 2005. I love to be reminded of such wisdom.