Ethan Armstrong

“Believing is a disposition. We could tire ourselves out thinking, if we put our minds to it, but believing takes no toll.”
― Willard Van Orman Quine

“The greatest scientific discovery was the discovery of ignorance. Once humans realised how little they knew about the world, they suddenly had a very good reason to seek new knowledge, which opened up the scientific road to progress.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

“And you look down, and you find yourself perched on a chair. and there is the sense that the chair doesn't have to be there, but it is anyway. and there is only gratitude for it all. you look down, and my goodness, there is a chair there, offering itself, supporting you unconditionally, asking nothing of you. what grace! the chair doesn't care who you are. who you think you are. it doesn't care what you've done or haven't done. it doesn't care what you've achieved, or haven't achieved. what you believe or don't believe. it doesn't care if you're a success or failure. if you've reached your goals, or not. it doesn't care whether or not you think you're enlightened. it doesn't care what you look like, what clothes you are wearing. it doesn't care whether you are sick or healthy, whether you are a buddhist or a jew, or a christian. whether you are young, or old. whether you understand or don't understand. it only offers itself, unconditionally. this message isn't complicated. it's there in something as simple and common place as a chair. and not just the chair, but all things. all things offer themselves unconditionally. the secret is this: life is not life at all. it is an offering. and right now, it offers THIS, the present moment.”
― Jeff Foster, An Extraordinary Absence: Liberation in the Midst of a Very Ordinary Life

“The partition between love and anger is thin. I suppose it's a need to protect the self from further wounding that makes people scream at the one they love.”
― Sebastian Faulks, Where My Heart Used to Beat