If someone really wants to change, to grow as a person, what is the best medicine? What are the most direct routes? How do you discover who you are? How do you find the courage to share it with the world once you know?

Reading is one. We read to understand. We read to learn, to find something we didn't even know we were looking for. We read to find community -- both with past and present authors, and with the others who read with us. We read to be enriched.

Meditating is another. Here you have, at your disposal, 365 different quotes and the books they came from, along with a question (or two or three) for meditation. The world does not need another grabbag of quotes. We wanted a book more like the kind it was influenced by. We wanted it to contain the transformative potential it celebrated, discussed, and meditated upon.

This book is designed to bring you clarity, not clutter. We live in the information age. Marcus Aurelius says, "What doesn't transmit light creates its own darkness." On the other hand, Erasmus points out, "Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself." We're infiltrated by information fighting for our attention, fighting to persuade us, to manipulate us, to shape who we are, how we think, believe, and behave. This book is intended -- with a focus on self-exploration and personal identity -- to help you construct who you are, and how you want to feel, think, believe, and behave for yourself.

The quotes inspire, comfort, and challenge. They represent a wide diversity of experiences and ideas. They are intended for you to actively think, reflect, feel, and meditate upon. This book meets you where you're at. The power of reading with a purpose, combined with meditating's transformative potential, will bear fruit in your life. What that fruit is, how long it will take you to arrive, how dedicated you are to the process, all that is up to you. It all depends on the seeker, the curious one, why you're seeking, and what you're going to do about what you discover. This book is a guide, a traveling companion. This book is about you.

How committed are you to yourself? Who do you think you are?