Matt

“Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, there hasn’t been a single natural way of life for Sapiens. There are only cultural choices, from among a bewildering palette of possibilities.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

“When, as Shakespeare’s Prospero puts it, “every third thought shall be my grave,” there’s no risk of getting caught up in petty matters or distractions. Instead of denying our fear of death, let’s let it make us the best people we can be. Today.”
― Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

“Only in laziness can one achieve a state of contemplation which is a balancing of values, a weighing of oneself against the world and the world against itself. A busy man cannot find time for such balancing. We do not think a lazy man can commit murders, nor great thefts, nor lead a mob. He would be more likely to think about it and laugh. And a nation of lazy contemplative men would be incapable of fighting a war unless their very laziness were attacked. Wars are the activities of busy-ness.”
― John Steinbeck, The Log from the Sea of Cortez

“Most of the infectious diseases that have plagued agricultural and industrial societies (such as smallpox, measles and tuberculosis) originated in domesticated animals and were transferred to humans only after the Agricultural Revolution.”
― Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind