Elizabeth May

“Unconscious learning happens automatically and unintentionally through experiences, observations, conditioning, and practice.4 We’ve been conditioned to believe we enjoy drinking. We think it enhances our social life and relieves boredom and stress. We believe these things below our conscious awareness. This is why, even after we consciously acknowledge that alcohol takes more than it gives, we retain the desire to drink.”
― Annie Grace, This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life

“A car's not the right place for showing off to a girl—the bed's the place for that. The consequences of a mistake there are more upsetting, but less tragic.”
― Sergei Lukyanenko, The Last Watch

“Scratching an itch is pleasurable, but you would never purposely sit in poison ivy just to scratch your ass.”
― Annie Grace, This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life

“Existentialist psychotherapist Irvin D. Yalom identified what he calls humans’ ultimate concerns: death, isolation (loneliness), freedom, and meaning.118 These concerns reflect our deep fundamental needs. We search to understand the meaning of life, but no question provokes more debate. We feel desperate to experience gratification, so much so that we often rob ourselves of it by overindulging”
― Annie Grace, This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life