Quote of Whenever I Feel Like It: Life Imitating Art

“…who we are and how we relate to each other grows out of the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves and about each other. In a very real sense, who I am is the way I’ve lived out my story about myself, and how I treat you is the way I live out the story I have about you. These are stories that talk about where we’ve come from, where we are going, and how we plan to get there.”

–Mira Kirshenbaum, talking about Michael White talking about his book with David Epston, Narrative Means to Therapeutic Ends. Go read this for more.

Quote of the Week: This is why I love Murakami

“Sometimes when I look at you, I feel as if I’m gazing at a distant star. It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn’t even exist anymore. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”

–Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

He can describe exactly what I’m feeling-or a more poetic version of it-even when I think it would be completely indescribable.

Quote of the Week: On the Bright Side…

‘What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.’

–Seneca

This is why I don’t turn to philosophy to cheer me up when I’m on one of my mood swings. This might also be why my mood swings are so bad.

Quote of the Week: And Why Not?

“The world is a banquet, and you should not have only caviar or only twinkies. You should have caviar-filled twinkies.”

— Guillermo del Toro

Quote of the Week: A Fundamental Problem

“The thing we value most of all is youth, which means that life automatically becomes depressing, because life consists, on the whole, of getting old.”

–Michel Houellebecq

From this interview, which I found “charming throughout” (to channel Tyler Cowen). I don’t know why, really, because it was not that interesting, and he isn’t that nice. But there’s a certain…boring truth to what he says that I found quite refreshing.

Quote of the Week: Herding the Flock

All religions are equally sublime to the ignorant, useful to the politician and ridiculous to the philosopher.

–Lucretius

Quote of the Week: I’ll Believe it When I See it

This is stolen from last week’s quote on Confessions of a Philosophy Junkie. Sorry, couldn’t resist.

“Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”

— Anton Chekhov

Quote of the Week: An Old Tip, but it Works

I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is’.

–Kurt Vonnegut

Quote of the Week: Time is an Extensible Metaphor

Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.

–Jorge Luis Borges

I haven’t actually read any of his works, but the wikiquote page seems very interesting.

Quote of the Week: The Best Way Out

The best way out is always through.

–Robert Frost

I know, I know. I have no discipline.