“Rooms can be vessels of psychologoical temporality, silently encouraging specific attitudes toward time: The furniture of the past: shelved books, dried flowers, windows facing west, antiques, old photographs and paintings, lamplight, miscellaneous articles, complicated space. The furniture of the present: chairs and tables chosen for utility, a bowl of fruit, an open book, current periodicals, windows to the south, overhead lights, cut flowers or potted plants, modern art, mirrors. The furniture of the future: bare walls, a skylight, windows facing east, much open space, a barometer, clear desk, sharpened pencils, blank pad, unopened book, unopened bottle of wine, skylights, light colors, large doorless openings to other rooms.”
Robert Grudin, Time And The Art Of Living (Page 6)
“When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal… For in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”
Hermann Hesse, via Siddhartha
“One way to stand out is to look for pockets of low competition. Wake up early—less traffic, fewer people. Go deeper or narrower in your field—less noise, more space. People are drawn to where it is crowded. Look for the quiet spaces inside your areas of interest. Excellence often hides at the edges.”
James Clear
“The Stoics remind us that everything has its compensation…if we choose to see it, if we choose to welcome it. The challenges we face as parents become our greatest teachers and guides. You’ll have moments at the dialysis center that years from now, you wouldn’t trade for anything. You’ll develop patience and resilience that you could have otherwise never imagined—and they will too. You’ll learn how to advocate for yourself and for them. You’ll come face to face with this thing called acceptance. You will understand what it means to love, to really love unconditionally.”
Ryan Holiday
“When I was writing, it was necessary for me to read after I had written. If you kept thinking about it, you would lose the thing that you were writing before you could go on with it the next day. It was necessary to get exercise, to be tired in the body, and it was very good to make love with whom you loved. That was better than anything. But afterwards, when you were empty, it was necessary to read in order not to think or worry about your work until you could do it again. I had learned already never to empty the well of my writing, in the deep part of the well, and let it refill at night from the springs that fed it.”
Ernest Hemingway, via A Moveable Feast
“In planning ahead we should remember that usable time is at best 80 to 85 percent of total time. Long unbroken periods contain more usable time than do short periods totaling the same length.”
Robert Grudin, Time And The Art Of Living (Page 3)
“Fast drivers can see no further than slow drivers, but they must look further down the road to time their reactions safely. Similarly, people with great projects afoot habitually look further and more clearly into the future than people who are mired in day-to-day concerns. these former control the future because by necessity they must project themselves into it; and the upshot is that, like ambitious settlers, they stake out larger plots and homesteads of time than the rest of us. They do not easily grow sad or old; they are seldom intimidated by the alarms and confusions of the present because they have something greater of their own, some sense of their large and coherent motion in time, to compare the present with.”
Robert Grudin, Time And The Art Of Living (Page 2)
“The 5am’er doesn’t mention they live alone with no children and go to bed at 9 PM. The side hustlers often have spouses handling everything else in their life. And the sugar-free folks don’t mention they have private chefs or a prepared food delivery services. I’m not saying these people aren’t working hard. I’m sure they are! But they’ve also (consciously or unconsciously) built environments that support their goals, instead of grinding away in environments that sabotage them.”
Justin Welsch
“Every time you dwell on a hurtful past experience today, put something heavy in your pocket, purse, or backpack. Feel how these items weigh you down, and then, as you remove each one at the end of the day, think, I am letting go of my pain and anger so I can be light and free.“
Lori Deschene, Tiny Buddha’s 365 Tiny Love Challenges (Page 125)
“Do you not find consciousness alone to be the most exhilarating thing? Here we are, in this incomprehensibly large universe, on this one tiny moon around this one incidental planet, and in all the time this entire scenario has existed, every component has been recycled over and over and over again into infinitely incredible configurations, and sometimes, those configurations are special enough to be able to see the world around them. You and I—we’re just atoms that arranged themselves the right way, and we can understand that about ourselves. Is that not amazing?”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 140)
“You’re an animal, Sibling Dex. You are not separate or other. You’re an animal. And animals have no purpose. Nothing has a purpose. The world simply is. If you want to do things that are meaningful to others, fine! Good! So do I! But if I watned to crawl into a cave and watch stalagmites with Frostfrog for the remainder of my days, that would also be both fine and good. You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live. That is all most animals do.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 138)
“We are made to believe that sensitivity is a crutch, a weakness, a liability—but sensitivity is dangerous. It’s as dangerous as a knife in the dark. It’s as dangerous as a black widow nesting in the mouth of a recently remembered garden glove. It’s as dangerous as a leopard trailing the man with the gun set on killing her. If you are particularly sensitive, do not stifle it. Do not hide it. Do not abandon it. Hone it. Wield it. Learn to control it. Your capacity to feel deeper than those around you will make you a fearsome foe, a devoted friend, a courageous lover, a compassionate human and—if you are in the arts or some neighboring vocation—fantastically rich. If not monetarily, spiritually.”
Cole Schafer
“We teach that purpose doesn’t come from the gods but from ourselves. That the gods can show us good resources and good ideas, but the work and the choice—especially the choice—is our own. Deciding on your purpose is one of the most valuable things there is. ‘And that purpose can change, yes?’ ‘Absolutely. You’re never stuck.'”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 136)
“If we want change, or good fortune, or solace, we have to create it for ourselves. And that’s what I learned in that shrine. I thought, wow, y’know, a cup of tea may not be the most important thing in the world—or a steam bath, or a pretty garden. They’re so superfluous in the grand scheme of things. But the people who did actually important work—building, feeding, teaching, healing—they all came to the shrine. It was the little nudge that helped important things get done.”
Becky Chambers, A Psalm For The Wild-Built (Page 135)
“The usual story is that people with ‘good genes’ are those with incredible athleticism or remarkable intelligence, but sometimes I wonder if the greatest genetic edge goes to the people with whatever genes encourage the desire to compete, the ability to stay focused, and the enjoyment of practice.”
James Clear
“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”
Richard Wright, Native Son