Roffino

“Our aim in telling these stories as stories is not to excuse ourselves from the rigor of social science, but to gain the positive advantages of storytelling. We believe that stories, with their specificity and ability to express the complex realities of particular people and places and their possibly unique ability to express thought and feeling simultaneously, are the appropriate medium for capturing a sense of how social-capital creation works in real life.”
― Robert D. Putnam, Better Together: Restoring the American Community

“they worship a deity made in their own image: white, American, Republican, male—and perpetually terrified of Muslims, immigrants, science, gay children, special counsel reports, mandalas, Harry Potter, Starbucks holiday cups, yoga, wind turbines—everything. While they declare this God’s staggering might at every opportunity, their defensive posture belies this confidence. They seem to feel the need to be armed to the teeth and to build impenetrable walls for protection, certain that others mean them harm and want to take what is theirs. They want to change gay couples and transgender teenagers themselves, because they don’t trust God to work within people as God desires. They seem burdened to hoard wealth, health insurance, and opportunity—because they subconsciously suspect the God they claim turned water into wine and fed thousands with a few fish and some leftover bread might not make enough for everyone.”
― John Pavlovitz, If God Is Love, Don't Be a Jerk: Finding a Faith That Makes Us Better Humans

“awe is triggered by two simultaneous perceptions: first, that what you are looking at is vast in some way, and, second, that you can’t fit it into your existing mental structures.[30] That combination seems to trigger a feeling in people of being small in a profoundly pleasurable—although sometimes also fearful—way. Awe opens us to changing our beliefs, allegiances, and behaviors.”
― Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

“A good human being,” the fishing cat said. “Imagine what one of those could do.” “They could do anything,” the snake said quietly. “Anything at all.”
― Lev Grossman, The Silver Arrow