“I’m a big believer in boredom. … All the [technology] stuff is wonderful, but having nothing to do can be wonderful, too.” Steve Jobs Boredom adds to the mystery of life. When we sit alone with our thoughts, the world breaks open. Nature comes alive. Time slows down and insights emerge from dormancy. The ransacking […]
Tag Archives: quotes
Anthony Bourdain’s tip for aspiring travelers
No Reservations: Around the World on an Empty Stomach (Amazon) was Bourdain’s sixth book. In it, he offered this sage advice to ambitious world travelers. “Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves mark […]
Against running with headphones
The host of NPR’s Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! wrote about the delights of running in our overconnected age and it looks fantastic. “If I don’t leave my headphones behind when I run, I wouldn’t spend a single minute of my waking life free from input. I have a friend who wears headphones on long solo […]
‘The test of a book is how much good stuff you can throw away’
“The test of a book is how much good stuff you can throw away,” he said. “When I’m writing it, I’m just as proud as a goddam lion. I use the oldest words in the English language. People think I’m an ignorant bastard who doesn’t know the ten-dollar words. I know the ten-dollar words. There […]
‘The writer feeds his book’
The writer feeds his book, he strengthens the parts of it which are weak, he protects it, but afterwards it is the book that grows, that designates its author’s tomb and defends it against the world’s clamour and for a while against oblivion. Marcel Proust
‘I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things’
I don’t paint things. I only paint the difference between things. Henri Matisse
‘We do not grow absolutely, chronologically’
We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, […]
‘When I wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’ I hated book burners and I loved libraries. So there you are’
“When I wrote ‘Fahrenheit 451’ I hated book burners and I loved libraries. So there you are.” Ray Bradbury
‘The more we know the less certain we are’
“The more we know the less certain we are.” Simon Critchley
‘The hippocampus’s main criterion for storage is repetition’
“The hippocampus’s main criterion for storage is repetition, so asking that question over and over gives the brain no choice but to pay attention and begin to create answers.” Robert Maurer, One Small Step Can Change Your Life
‘Genius hits a target that no one else can see’
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit, while genius hits a target that no one else can see.” Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation (Amazon) gif via Micaël Reynaud
America, the paperback version 🔖
“I think of Europe as a hardcover book, America as the paperback version” Don DeLillo, The Names (Amazon)
‘We must be ignorant of what we are looking for…’
“We must be ignorant of what we are looking for, or we would not go looking for it.” Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (Amazon)
‘I came to painting to hang my ideas on a nail’
“I came to painting to hang my ideas on a nail.” Georges Braque, “La musicienne, 1918”
Cold water courage
The quickest way to get used to cold water is to dive right in. The slowest and more painful way to get used to cold water is to go in gradually, dipping in each body part until it warms up. Most people take the gradual approach because they’re scared. As a result, they’re most likely […]