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Arthur Schopenhauer
“When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teacher has outlined in pencil: so in reading; the greater part of the work of thought is already done for us. This is why it relieves us to take up a book after being occupied with our own thoughts. And in reading, the mind is, in fact, only the playground of another’s thoughts. So it comes about that if anyone spends almost the whole day in reading, and by way of relaxation devotes the intervals to some thoughtless pastime, he gradually loses the capacity for thinking; just as the man who always rides, at last forgets how to walk. This is the case with many learned persons: they have read themselves stupid.”
arthur schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms

Epictetus
“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
Epictetus

Terence McKenna
“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed.”
Terence McKenna

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
Rumi

David Hume
“Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return? ... I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, environed with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty.

Most fortunately it happens, that since Reason is incapable of dispelling these clouds, Nature herself suffices to that purpose, and cures me of this philosophical melancholy and delirium, either by relaxing this bent of mind, or by some avocation, and lively impression of my senses, which obliterate all these chimeras. I dine, I play a game of backgammon, I converse, and am merry with my friends. And when, after three or four hours' amusement, I would return to these speculations, they appear so cold, and strained, and ridiculous, that I cannot find in my heart to enter into them any farther.”
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

68524 Misc Brahs — 212 members — last activity May 13, 2026 05:37PM
Members must be miscers: - Must be CEO'n 10K/day - Must not lift - Must bang 10/10s - Must be green - Must be aware 52 books in 52 weeks challenge - ...more
35422 Mindful Reading Club — 196 members — last activity May 21, 2020 11:48AM
A group in Oxford, MS that reads works dealing with mindfulness, spirituality, meditation, and yoga.
501 The Brain and Mind — 4514 members — last activity Jul 25, 2026 05:43PM
This is a group for readers to recommend and discuss books related to real and/or artificial brains. Categories include but are not limited to: neuros ...more
83543 LessWrong — 592 members — last activity Dec 18, 2016 12:38AM
Users of Less Wrong, a community blog dedicated to refining the art of human rationality.
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