“we feel too little of those creative emotions from which a good life springs”
From the conclusion of Bertrand Russell's 1948 Reith Lecture: We know too much and feel too little. At least we feel too little of those creative emotions from
“There is no place freer from stress than deep within your own soul”
From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (Book 4, Meditation 3): People seek special retreats for themselves such as country houses, seashores, mountains. And you too often long for these things.
“[M]editation is simple not easy:” Reading Pearl of Great Price
This weekend I read Laurence Freeman’s lovely short book, Pearl of Great Price. The book takes a couple hours to get through, and it’s available as a free
My sage advice to parents about technology and kids
From a piece about the book and its lessons for parenting and technology in the Huffington Post: “I think it’s every bit as legitimate as going outside and
First review of “The Distraction Addiction”
Publishers' Weekly, one of the major publishing industry magazines, has a review of The Distraction Addiction in its latest issue. The highlight (for me anyway): Pang’s methods will
What are you busy about?
“It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?” (Henry David Thoreau to H.G.O. Blake, 16 November 1857) (This is usually
“the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal”
From Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, 104-105: Mental health is based on a certain degree of tension, the tension between what one has already achieved and what
“And there were always choices to be made”
Viktor Frankl's reflection on choice in Auschwitz, from Man's Search for Meaning, p. 66: Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the
“Haste is universal because everyone is in flight from himself.”
From Nietzsche's Untimely Meditations, quoted in Damon Young's fine book Distraction: How we labor at our daily work more ardently and thoughtlessly than is necessary to sustain our
Quote of the Day: Nassim Taleb
"We practitioners and quants aren't too fazed by remarks on the part of academics – it would be like prostitutes listening to technical commentary by nuns." (From his