“Living in the moment can become a moralistic principle, a burden rather than a way to intensify life. The difference might depend on who takes the lead in the dance and who chooses the music. The soul is a community of many interior persons, many of them capable leaders. The ego is only one among them and probably should not always run the show. A good dancer or musician allows the music to take over, becomes absorbed in the complex harmonies and tempos, and is the servant of the materials at hand. The secret of a soul-based life is to allow someone or something other than the usual self to be in charge.”
Thomas Moore, Original Self | ★ Featured on this book list.
“Today many people live the external life exclusively, and when the inner world erupts or stirs, they rush to a therapist or druggist for help. They try to explain profound mythic developments in the language of behavior and experience. Often they have no idea what is happening to them, because they have been so cut off from the deep self. Their own soul is so alien to them that they are unaware of what is going on outside the known realm of fact. Former methods of keeping in touch with the inner life have gone out of mode. Diaries, letters, and deep conversations help focus attention on developments and materials that lie beneath the surface. Only one hundred years ago, without benefit of typewriters and word processors, people kept elaborate, long and detailed diaries and notebooks. We seem to have left behind these methods of reflection in favor of technologies for action.”
Thomas Moore, Original Self | ★ Featured on this book list.
“In my own experience, it is often the brief, simple, original books that turn out to be the most useful. The books I have on my special shelf—books for personal, lifelong use—are all brief and untraditionally structured. They are almost all illustrated, and they have considerable blank space on a page. These are not sources of information but books for meditation. A book is virtual space that invites contemplation and perusal. In this space one tarries and looks around, absorbing the atmosphere, and then leaves, the author hopes, happy to have visited.”
Thomas Moore, Original Self | ★ Featured on this book list.
“When we teach a child to make good decisions, we benefit from a lifetime of good decisions. When we teach a child to love to learn, the amount of learning will become limitless. When we teach a child to deal with a changing world, she will never become obsolete. When we are brave enough to teach a child to question authority, even ours, we insulate ourselves from those who would use their authority to work against each of us. And when we give students the desire to make things, even choices, we create a world filled with makers.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Let’s define dumb as being different from stupid. Dumb means you don’t know what you’re supposed to know. Stupid means you know it but make bad choices. […] Dumb used to be a by-product of lack of access, bad teachers, or poor parenting. Today, dumb is a choice, one that’s made by individuals who choose not to learn. If you don’t know what you need to know, that’s fixable. But first you have to want to fix it.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“In the connected age, reading and writing remain the two skills that are most likely to pay off with exponential results. Reading leads to more reading. Writing leads to better writing. Better writing leads to a bigger audience and more value creation. And the process repeats.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“School is at its best when it gives students the expectation that they will not only dream big, but dream dreams that they can work on every day until they accomplish them – not because they were chosen by a black-box process but because they worked hard enough to reach them.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“The two pillars of a future-proof education: Teach kids how to lead; help them learn how to solve interesting problems.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“What we can’t do is digitize passion. We can’t force the student to want to poke around and discover new insights online. We can’t merely say, ‘here,’ and presume the students will do the hard (and scary) work of getting over the hump and conquering their fears. Without school to establish the foundation and push and pull our students, the biggest digital library in the world is useless.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Dreamers don’t have special genes. They find circumstances that amplify their dreams.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“If there’s information that can be written down, widespread digital access now means that just about anyone can look it up. We don’t need a human being standing next to us to lecture us on how to find the square root of a number or sharpen an ax. (Worth stopping for a second and reconsidering the revolutionary nature of that last sentence.) What we do need is someone to persuade us that we want to learn those things, and someone to push us or encourage us or create a space where we want to learn to do them better. If all the teacher is going to do is read her pre-written notes from a PowerPoint slide to a lecture hall of thirty or three hundred, perhaps she should stay home. Not only is this a horrible disrespect to the student, it’s a complete waste of the heart and soul of the talented teacher. Teaching is no longer about delivering facts that are unavailable in any other format.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“The universal truth is beyond question – the only people who excel are those who have decided to do so. Great doctors or speakers or skiers or writers or musicians are great because somewhere along the way, they made the choice.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“We can teach people to desire lifelong learning, to express themselves, and to innovate. And just as important, it’s vital we acknowledge that we can unteach bravery and creativity and initiative. And that we have been doing just that. School has become an industrialized system, working on a huge scale, that has significant by-products, including the destruction of many of the attitudes and emotions we’d like to build our culture around.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“As soon as we associate reading a book with taking a test, we’ve missed the point.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“The passionate worker doesn’t show up because she’s afraid of getting in trouble; she shows up because it’s a hobby that pays. The passionate worker is busy blogging on vacation, because posting that thought and seeing the feedback it generates is actually more fun than sitting on the beach for another hour. The passionate worker tweaks a site design after dinner because, hey, it’s a lot more fun than watching TV.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“People don’t believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Just about every great, brave, or beautiful thing in our culture was created by someone who didn’t do it for the money.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“Waiting for inspiration is another way of saying that you’re stalling. You don’t wait for inspiration; you command it to appear.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“One option is to struggle to be heard whenever you’re in the room… Another is to be the sort of person who is missed when you’re not. The first involves making noise. The second involves making a difference.”
Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
“We make a difference to other people when we give gifts to them, when we bring emotional labor to the table and do work that matters. It’s hard for me to imagine that this way of living and working is available to only a few. Yes, the cards are unfairly stacked against too many people. Yes, there are too many barriers and not enough support. But no, your ability to create and contribute isn’t determined at birth. It’s a choice.” ~ Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?
