Matthew Lancaster > Matthew's Quotes

“The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

“Ultimately, happiness comes down to choosing between the discomfort of becoming aware of your mental afflictions and the discomfort of being ruled by them.”
― Robert Wright, Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

“The best books... are those that tell you what you know already.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.”
― George Orwell, 1984

“When shit brings you down, just say 'fuck it', and eat yourself some motherfucking candy.”
― David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

“All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Slaughterhouse-Five

“He knew everything there was to know about literature, except how to enjoy it”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“Well, he died. You don't get any older than that.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“Reading and writing are in themselves subversive acts. What they subvert is the notion that things have to be the way they are, that you are alone, that no one has ever felt the way you have.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Armageddon in Retrospect

“the worst troll is the one that lives in your head.”
― Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

“The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.”
― Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

“to be “interest-ing” is to be curious and attentive, and to practice “the continual projection of interest.” To put it more simply: If you want to be interesting, you have to be interested.”
― Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

“I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. If you f---ing like something, like it.” —Dave Grohl”
― Austin Kleon, Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

“Overall, on average, happier people earn more money, get higher performance ratings, make better decisions, negotiate sweeter deals, and contribute more to their organizations. Happiness alone accounts for about 10 percent of the variation between employees and job performance.”
― Adam Grant, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success

“The principle of optimal distinctiveness: we look for ways to fit in and stand out. A popular way to achieve optimal distinctiveness is to join a unique group.... Studies show that people identify more strongly with individuals and groups that share unique similarities. The more rare a group, value, interest, skill, or experience is, the more likely it is to facilitate a bond. And research indicates that people are happier in groups that provide optimal distinctiveness.”
― Adam Grant, Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success

“The "deliberate amateur"... "A paradox of innovation and mastery is that breakthroughs often occur when you start down a road, but wander off for a ways and pretend as if you have just begun," ...Be careful not to be too careful, or you will unconsciously limit your exploration.”
― David Epstein, Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World / Messy / The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

“Buddha believed that the less you judge things—including the contents of your mind—the more clearly you’ll see them, and the less deluded you’ll be.”
― Robert Wright, Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

“In fact, one big lesson from Buddhism is to be suspicious of the intuition that your ordinary way of perceiving the world brings you the truth about it.”
― Robert Wright, Why Buddhism is True: The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment

“Normalcy is the antithesis of evolution.”
― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History

“The point is this: if you cannot separate the phenotype of mental illness from creative impulses, then you cannot separate the genotype of mental illness and creative impulse.”
― Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Gene: An Intimate History

“One of history’s few iron laws is that luxuries tend to become necessities and to spawn new obligations.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“This is the essence of the Agricultural Revolution: the ability to keep more people alive under worse conditions.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“happiness does not really depend on objective conditions of either wealth, health or even community. Rather, it depends on the correlation between objective conditions and subjective expectations.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“The most common reaction of the human mind to achievement is not satisfaction, but craving for more.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

“History isn’t a single narrative, but thousands of alternative narratives. Whenever we choose to tell one, we are also choosing to silence others. Human”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow

“Morality doesn’t mean ‘following divine commands’. It means ‘reducing suffering’. Hence in order to act morally, you don’t need to believe in any myth or story. You just need to develop a deep appreciation of suffering.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“Silence isn’t neutrality; it is supporting the status-quo.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century

“One of the greatest fictions of all is to deny the complexity of the world and think in absolute terms:”
― Yuval Noah Harari, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century