From the first time I saw him perform I loved the deadpan comedy of Steven Wright. His view of life is coldly objective and sometimes skewed, but always funny. Here are a few of my favorite one-liners, some of which are relevant to the ongoing conversations here at DI. Last…
In the interests of discussion concerning the election and some ideas that get bandied about here from time to time, I thought I’d post one of my very favorite quotes. This comes from a wonderful book about the Heroic Myths of the Greeks, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony by…
I collect quotes (who doesn’t?). Really, it’s a good hobby. It’s cheap and often interesting. When they are really good quotes, it’s like a novel condensed to a mere sentence.
The first two of this set are about one of my favorite topics, rampant materialism. The others all relate closely to one another, but only if you have a wild imagination or if you think of a very broad topic like “meaning of life.” Without further ado:
Who is content with nothing possesses all things.
— Nicolas Boileau Despreaux
Wealth is the number of things one can do without.
— Feodor Dostoyevsky
The trouble is that you think you have time.
— Zen Master
Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults.
— Antisthenes
A hole is nothing at all, but you can break your neck in it.
— Austin O’Malley
War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
–Anonymous
Never mistake motion for action.
— Ernest Hemingway
What is truth? Such a timely topic these days, now that we seem to be in the post-truth era. I gathered these quotes on the meaning of truth from my favorite quote site, The Quotations Page. In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George…
I’m constantly learning valuable new lessons, but I generally find it difficult to recall any particular good lessons at any particular moment. I got the same problem with jokes. I’ve heard a lot of good jokes in my life, but if I’m put on the spot, I’m at a loss to remember more than one or two.
I thought it might be a good time to dig deep to try extra hard to remember a few of those lessons that have taken deep root with me. One shortcut would be to cite some of the books I have read which have provided some good lessons. For me, one of those books has been Inner Peace for Busy People, by psychologist Joan Borysenko (2001). She divided her book into 52 chapters, each of them offering a strategy for holding things together and finding peace in one’s life.
In chapter 1 Borysenko recommends that we pay attention to the Yerkes-Dodson law, which holds that increased stress makes us more productive only to a point, while further increases decrease productivity. Borysenko argues that many highly productive people operate “on the descending limb of the stress/productivity curve.” In short, they could be more productive if they could only push themselves a bit less, which would reduce the toll they are putting on their overstressed bodies.
In chapter 2 (of her 52 chapter book), Borysenko draws on the Buddhist saying that “Peace is like a sun that’s always shining in your heart. It’s just …