Brendan Bernstein

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Aristotle
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
Aristotle

David Foster Wallace
“Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”
David Foster Wallace , This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Socrates
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
Socrates

Alan W. Watts
“The more a thing tends to be permanent, the more it tends to be lifeless.”
Alan Watts

Fran Lebowitz
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader

year in books
Jordan ...
65 books | 74 friends

Danielle
145 books | 60 friends

Maya
391 books | 226 friends

Margaret
467 books | 60 friends

Leah
98 books | 58 friends

Annie M...
72 books | 118 friends

James J...
624 books | 97 friends

James Yu
243 books | 146 friends

More friends…

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