Yoav Blum > Quotes

“The difference is simple: happy people look at their lives and see a series of choices. Miserable people see only a series of sacrifices.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Love demands change. Love demands work. Love isn’t a piece of candy you get for being a good boy so you have something that makes you feel good. It’s hard work. The hardest in the world.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Love is not a boom, it’s not explosions and effects. It’s not fireworks in the sky or a plane flying by with a large banner. It’s slowly poured under your skin, quietly, without you even noticing, like anointing oil. You just feel a type of warmth, and one day you wake up and discover that under your skin you are wrapped with someone else.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“When the right person is beside you, you feel a sense of belonging anywhere.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Most of the big things in the world didn’t happen because someone was particularly wise, brave, or talented, but because there was someone who didn’t give up.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“I think you'll be satisfied if you become disappointed in yourself,' she said quietly. 'It would further support the conclusion that you've already drawn anyway. It would reinforce your negative opinions about yourself. You don't do enough and then become angry at yourself for not doing enough.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Perhaps when you helped someone to achieve happiness that you yourself would no longer experience, you also gained a small piece of that happiness.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“At the far left ... are all of the people who really think that everything is completely coincidental ... And on the other end are all of the people who are sure that there's a reason for everything ... The people standing at the two extremes are the happiest people in the world. At both ends. Do you know why? because they they don't ask why. Never. Not at all. There's no point, because either they believe there's no answer, or they believe that someone is responsible for the answer and that it's none of their business. But these people aren't even one-thousandth of the population. Most people stand in the range between them. No, they don't stand. They go, they move. They constantly move in one direction and then the other. They think they're on one of the sides, but occasionally, nonetheless, they ask themselves why and don't understand that they'll be happy only if they let go of this question, for whatever reason.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“(M)aking any choice also means relinquishing its alternative... The choice to do nothing is also a choice... The correct choice is usually also the most frightening choice because a bit more courage is needed in order to choose it.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“....you couldn’t allow yourself to be in a bad mood or show despondency. You had to take the little spoon of your personality and dig deep in the cold ground until you reached water that you could serve to someone else despite your own thirst.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Every choice entails giving something up, and the courage required to make that sacrifice depends on how much you want something.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Има два вида хора на този свят: едните виждат във всеки избор възможността да спечелят нещо, а другите виждат във всеки избор компромиса, който трябва да направят.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Love derives from friction between two people. Like matches, like an ice skate, like falling stars that light up when they scratch the air, we need friction in order for something to happen in our lives.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“It's strange, she thought, how we're able to turn one specific thing into everything that drives us in life, and how we convince ourselves that without this thing there is no meaning in anything. And it's even stranger how quickly we get used to the opposite thought.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Our role is to be exactly on the border, to stand in the gray area between fate and free will, and to play Ping-Pong there.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Хората се отнасяха към любовта като към нещо, в което се вярва, сякаш става въпрос за религия. И "символ верую" на тази религия бе, че между хората съществува космическа връзка, която в същността си е различна от останалите взаимовръзки във Вселената, и че в рамките на тази връзка човек се посвещава на това да боготвори другия. Хората имаха нужда да вярват в нещо по-голямо от тях самите, размишляваше той. Религията невинаги им осигуряваше това, което те винаги бяха търсили и което им предостяваше идеята за любовта – дълбок смисъл, който не е рационален и се простира отвъд обикновения живот.
Без да го осъзнават, хората бяха превърнали любовта просто в поредното нещо в този свят, подменило даването с получаването. Голяма къща, нова кола, изключителна любов. И ако не си притежавал такава любов, животът ти е пропилян.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Some... understand that the correct choice is indeed the more frightening one. In order to avoid this fear, they create a complex mechanism of self-deception that leads them to both fear the incorrect choice and choose it.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“There's always a broader picture. There's always something beyond the system you're concentrating on. Never forget that. There are no clear boundaries. Life doesn't stop at the boundaries of the table. And there are always more than six pockets you can fall into. There is always something beyond. Always, always, always.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“You don't always have to decide. You can simply feel, flow with what is happening and the decision will emerge on its own.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“First of all, you are secret agents. Except all the others are first of all agents and then secondly secret, but you are first of all secret and to a certain extent, also agents.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“What was the specific point when I realized that I was in love with you? What was the equilibrium point, before which you like someone and after which he's the center of your universe?”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Everything had to happen quickly now, before she changed her mind. Before she felt optimistic again. Half-depressed people always worried that hope would catch them unprepared, and all that despair would go to waste.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“You're not desperate, you're not even really alone. You're longing....”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Happy people look at their lives and see a series of choices. Miserable people see only a series of things they sacrificed.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“קל יותר לפתח שרירי גוף מאשר שרירי נפש. להישען על משהו ופשוט לדחוף. אבל מה עושים עם מה שבפנים, כשאין אפילו דבר אחד יציב להישען עליו?”
― Yoav Blum, המדריך לימים הקרובים

“Love is not a boom; it's not explosions and effects. It's slowly poured under your skin, quietly, without you even noticing. And one day you'll wake up and discover that under your skin you are wrapped with someone else.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“There were women who could only be good friends, right? You'll never fall in love with them, because they lacked the presence that resonated in your heart and they didn't linger with you after they left.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“É impossível amar alguém que faz e diz tudo o que você quer, que responde a cada um de seus pensamentos ocultos. (...) O amor deriva do atrito entre duas pessoas. Como fósforos, como patins no gelo, como estrelas cadentes que arranham o céu, nós precisamos do atrito para que alguma coisa aconteça em nossa vida.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Някой ден в бъдеще ще чуеш какви ли не неща за това какво е любовта. Не вярвай на казаното. Любовта не е гръм от ясно небе или експлозия с последици. Не идва с фанфари и фойерверки. Тя се просмуква бавно под кожата, без дори да забележиш. Просто усещаш топлина и когато един ден се събудиш, откриваш, че дълбоко в себе си си свързан с някой друг.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers

“Starting from a certain threshold and above, a multiplicity of possibilities harms our ability to make a good choice and does not help us, and it significantly raises the likelihood of making mistakes.”
― Yoav Blum, The Coincidence Makers