Anders

“Unlike animals, we are able to produce emotional states through thinking,” she says. “A zebra is only going to be horrendously stressed if a lion is chasing it, but my students can get themselves in the same state by worrying about their midterm.” And, she points out, it’s much easier for us to think ourselves into worry than into happiness. People”
― Kara Platoni, We Have the Technology: How Biohackers, Foodies, Physicians, and Scientists Are Transforming Human Perception, One Sense at a Time

“Tell him that we have fucking reprogrammed reality. Tell him that language is a virus and that religion is an operating system and that prayers are just so much fucking spam. Tell him that or I’ll fucking kill you,” said the young man mildly, from the smoke.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods: Tenth Anniversary

“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
― John Rogers

“I'll show you that I’m master.’

—How will you do that? Zeus has set me free. Do you really suppose that he would allow his own son to be turned into a slave? You’re master of my carcass, take that.”
― Epictetus, Discourses, Fragments, Handbook