“I have often noticed that these things, which obsess me, neither bother nor impress other people even slightly. I am horribly apt to approach some innocent at a gathering, and like the ancient mariner, fix him with a wild, glitt’ring eye and say, “Do you know that in the head of the caterpillar of the ordinary goat moth there are two hundred twenty-eight separate muscles?” The poor wretch flees. I am not making chatter; I mean to change his life.”
― Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
― Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
“Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.”
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“Some details in life may look insignificant but appear to be vital leitmotifs in a person's life. They may have the value of" Rosebuds "of Citizen Kane or" Madeleine cookies "of Marcel Proust or" Strawberry fields "of the Beatles. People regularly walk down the memory lane of their early youth. The paper boats of their childhood are recurrently floating on the waves of their mind and bring back the mood and the spirit of the early days. They enable us to retreat from the trivial, daily worries and can generate delightful bliss and true joy in a sometimes frantic and chaotic life. (" Paper boats forever ")”
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“Do good, live in the most positive and joyful way possible every day.”
― The Light in the Heart
― The Light in the Heart
“Happiness is an undercurrent of sensitivity and leads a surreptitious life: it is an internal eventuality. We can feel it in stillness and it stands the test of time. Joy is an eruption of cheerful moments and we want to express it: it is an external eventuality. We might shout it out, as it conveys a dynamic of fleeting instants. Joy gives voice to “en-joy-ment”. ( "The grass was greener over there" )”
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Ben’s 2023 Year in Books
Take a look at Ben’s Year in Books. The good, the bad, the long, the short—it’s all here.
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