đź’ Things to return to
At first, these adaptations make it possible to survive. But eventually, the methods you used to feel comfortable and safe rendered you increasingly defended, shut down, prone to escapism, resistant to reality, anxious, avoidant, neurotic, narcissistic, depressed, hopeless. This is true because when you function through a series of defenses,
... See moreAsk Polly • Are You a Settler?
Czech president and writer Vaclav Havel:
“Hope (...) is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we... See more
“Hope (...) is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpropitious the situation in which we... See more
“The anditode to doom is curiosity.”
-Ezra Klein
When we were very young, our bodies told us that we could break through the constraints of the mundane world and seize a more colorful, wild life for ourselves. As we grew older, we caught glimpses of lives that looked more exciting and full of promise than ours, through a million shiny portholes, and we began to define joy as something that lived
... See moreAsk Polly • Are You a Settler?
With that great countercultural courage of defying cynicism, Eiseley insists that it was the humans who nourished the highest in their nature by means of love, who lived with such exquisite tenderness for life in all of its expressions, that propelled our species from the caves to the cathedrals, from savagery to sonnets.
Maria Popova • Of Stars, Seagulls, and Love: Loren Eiseley on the First and Final Truth of Life
It may be that we are only here to learn how to love.
Maria Popova • Of Stars, Seagulls, and Love: Loren Eiseley on the First and Final Truth of Life
But that’s the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth the doing.”
Ray Bradbury • Fahrenheit 451: A Novel
“Sometimes life feels a certain way that we call “absurd”: nothing matters, all efforts are for naught, everything seems random and perverse, positive intention is perpetually thwarted. This stance communicates darkness and edginess, which can feel like wisdom. But we don’t live as if life is absurd; we live as if it has meaning and makes sense. We
... See more"the creator is an artist above all." yes, that’s what I think may be the most poetic way of stating this conclusion that the world, in large part, does embody beautiful ideas; that if you regard the world as a work of art — first of all, it helps you understand things, and secondly, it’s a pretty good work of art. It has tremendous beauty. It has... See more