“If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn’t tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record on to think about the story you’d seen. The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later, except you’d feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.
But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to be meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either”
― A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to be meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won’t make a life meaningful either”
― A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
“No other life forms know they are alive, and neither do they know they will die. This is our curse alone. Without this hex upon our heads, we would never have withdrawn as far as we have from the natural—so far and for such a time that it is a relief to say what we have been trying with our all not to say: We have long since been denizens of the natural world. Everywhere around us are natural habitats, but within us is the shiver of startling and dreadful things. Simply put: We are not from here. If we vanished tomorrow, no organism on this planet would miss us. Nothing in nature needs us.”
― The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
― The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
― Man's Search for Meaning
― Man's Search for Meaning
“It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.”
― The Trouble With Being Born
― The Trouble With Being Born
“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”
― No Country for Old Men
― No Country for Old Men
Willem’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Willem’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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