In a previous post I mentioned the important role books play in my life and promised to share a few "gold nuggets" I discovered in my reading. In no particular order, here are a few thoughts from 3 books I've recently read.
From Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman:
"When you read silently, only the writer performs. When you read aloud, the performance is collaborative. One partner provides the words, the other the rhythm." (page 133)
From The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho:
"If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man." (page 85)
"If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve upon the present. what comes later will also be better." (page 103)
"People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams. because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them." (page 130)
"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure." (page 141)
". . . when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too." (page 150)
From Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert:
". . . each of us is a part-time resident of tomorrow." (page 16)
"Forestalling pleasure is an inventive technique for getting double the juice from half the fruit." (page 17)
". . . one of the many things that distinguishes us from rats and pigeons is that we respond to the meanings of . . . stimuli and not to the stimuli themselves." (page 156)
" . . . a psychological immune system . . . defends the mind against unhappiness in much the same way that the physical immune system defends the body against illness . . . A healthy psychological immune system strikes a balance that allows us to feel good enough to cope with our situation but bad enough to do something about it." (page 162)
"There are many good things about getting older, but no one knows what they are." (page 196)
Stay tuned for more to come . . .
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