Patrick

“There exists a myth that it’s hard to say no, whether to someone else or to your own ambition. The reality is that saying no isn’t so bad if you have hard evidence that it’s the only reasonable answer.”
― Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

“For Augustine, the human will is always moved in one direction or another by the object of its love. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were capable of moving either toward the love of God (amor Dei), or away from God and toward the love of self (amor sui). When they chose the latter, something disastrous happened both for them and for all their human descendents. Their free will was left intact in the sense that it was still they who acted and loved, and they who were therefore morally responsible for what they did; however, their free will was so distorted by sin that it was drawn away from the love of God, the true purpose for which they had been created. Now it was pulled in its innermost desires toward the love of self. In other words, human free will was so weakened by sin and the fall that it became "curved in on itself" (incurvatus in se).”
― Timothy George, Amazing Grace: God's Pursuit, Our Response

“Habit simplifies our movements, makes them accurate, and diminishes fatigue.”
― William James

“A person never knows what is next--I don't anyway. The surface of everything is thinner than we know. A person can fall right through, without any warning at all.”
― Leif Enger, Virgil Wander