I am writing down these comments or suggested brush…
I am writing down these comments or suggested brush strokes or suggested musical notes only as a way to help you get started in painting this piece of art. You can, and you should add and subtract from my comments so that you're the exclusive artist making an exclusive beautiful painting. The only thing I do ask, is that you give consideration to the items that I mentioned and give them serious thought before eliminating them.
— from Before Takeoff (front matter) · Hebrew Ethical Wills by Israel Abrahams
In the book
I am only sketching a few suggested strokes to help you begin your own canvas; you are the exclusive artist of your life, free to add to mine and to paint right over it. I ask only one thing — that you give my strokes real thought before you wipe them away. Michelangelo said that his job as a sculptor was only to chip away the surrounding stone and let the figure that was already inside come out; you can shape yourself the same way, whether in freedom or in restraint. — Before Takeoff (front matter)
An artist builds a painting in layers, going over the work again and again, refining what is already there until it becomes something uniquely his. I am only sketching in a few suggested strokes to help you begin; you are the exclusive artist of your own canvas, free to add to mine and to paint over it — I ask only that you give my strokes serious thought before you wipe them away. If these pages do their work, I would like you to feel two things when you read them: enlightened, that you learned something of value, and uplifted, that some weight came off your shoulders. — Legacy / The Logbook (Legacy/Epilogue)