“These five values are both unconventional and uncomfortable. But, to me, they are life-changing. The first, which we’ll look at in the next chapter, is a radical form of responsibility: taking responsibility for everything that occurs in your life, regardless of who’s at fault. The second is uncertainty: the acknowledgement of your own ignorance and the cultivation of constant doubt in your own beliefs. The next is failure: the willingness to discover your own flaws and mistakes so that they may be improved upon. The fourth is rejection: the ability to both say and hear no, thus clearly defining what you will and will not accept in your life. The final value is the contemplation of one’s own mortality; this one is crucial, because paying vigilant attention to one’s own death is perhaps the only thing capable of helping us keep all our other values in proper perspective.”
― The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
― The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
“They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”
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“...Everything I had learned or assimilated from my parents I now regarded as unreliable, and needing to be rethought from scratch. In fact, I probably went further-I felt that everything my parents believed was by definition wrong, and that if I ever felt myself in agreement with my parents I should immediately recant. Everything... needed to be jettisoned. But in a way what they said wasn't the problem: what I was more worried about was the attitudes, prejudices, beliefs I might have picked up from them subconsciously or before I was old enough to even know what I was learning. Effectively, I had to question everything I believed, and never accept my own instincts. It required constant vigilance; it was intellectually exhausting.”
― An Education
― An Education
“please believe that things are good with me, and even when they're not, they will be soon enough. And i will always believe the same about you.”
― The Perks of Being a Wallflower
― The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“It takes constant vigilance not to slip into negativity or simple apathy. It takes courage to believe over any given period of time that we are getting better and not sliding into decline.”
― Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
― Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
J Bailey’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at J Bailey’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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