Yuval Noah Harari (February 24, 1976 -) One thing that history teaches us is that we should never underestimate human stupidity…It's one of the most powerful forces in the world…You can't trust humans and even human leaders to do what is best for humanity. You can hope for it, but it's not certain.
Henry David Thoreau On Solitude
Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) But alone in distant woods or fields, in unpretending sprout lands or pastures tracked by rabbits, even on a black and, to most, cheerless day, like this, when a villager would be thinking of his inn, I come to myself, I once more feel myself …
Stanley Kunitz On Language
Stanley Kunitz (July 29, 1905– May 14, 2006) I used to sit in that green Morris chair and open the heavy dictionary on my lap, and find a new word every day. It was a big word, a word like eleemosynary or phantasmagoria - some word that, on the tongue, sounded great to me, and …
Maria Popova On Communication
Maria Popova (July 28, 1984 -) Every act of communication is an act of tremendous courage in which we give ourselves over to two parallel possibilities: the possibility of planting into another mind a seed sprouted in ours and watching it blossom into a breathtaking flower of mutual understanding; and the possibility of being wholly …
Antonio Damasio On Culture And Life
Antonio Damasio February 25, 1944 -) What one hopes for and how one faces the life ahead depend on how the past has been lived, not only in objective, factually verifiable terms, but also in the experience or reconstruction of the objective data in one’s remembrances. Recollection is at the mercy of all that makes us …
Arthur Rimbaud On My Bohemian Life
Arthur Rimbaud (October 20, 1854 – November 10, 1891) I went off with my hands in my torn coat pockets; My overcoat too was becoming ideal; I travelled beneath the sky, Muse! and I was your vassal; Oh dear me! what marvelous loves I dreamed of! My only pair of breeches had a big …
Mark Boyle On Simplicity
Mark Boyle (May 08, 1979 -) Life is an unceasing trade-off between comfort and feeling fully alive. My experiences have taught me that perhaps the law of diminishing returns might apply to comfort – and the technologies that promise it – too. I love the simple, complex life. While it is not a realistic solution …
