Sam Canty

“One of the roles of the arts, and literature especially, is to ferry us to other islands to learn what—and how—other islanders think. There is one more type of inner experience that Hurlburt has identified, and that is the absence of inner experience, or only traces of it. He has sampled a small number of people who have little or no inner experience at all. It’s not that there’s no one home; these people aren’t zombies. But they live in a world of pure perception and more or less automatic decision-making unruffled by thoughts. Should we feel sorry for them? Hurlburt doesn’t think so. “I think one can make the argument that it’s actually an advantage,” Hurlburt said. “Because it puts you in touch with the world the way the world actually is, as opposed to your own theoretical view.”
― Michael Pollan, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness

“The Ghost sighed. “A life without pain is not on the menu, lad. A life of avoiding pain becomes a life defined by pain. Pain and regret. And you have already lived through pain.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Train

“Most kingdoms or nations just say, ‘we rule because we’re strongest’ or ‘we rule because a god threw a thunderbolt and willed it so.’ We’re the country who said, ‘Here we are; let’s live by these principles and keep getting better at living up to them.”
― Kate Quinn, The Briar Club