“This wasn't the person he'd thought he was, or would have chosen to be if he'd been free to choose, but there was something comforting and liberating about being an actual definite someone, rather than a collection of contradictory potential someones.” IfsPersonsChosenCollectionsDefiniteComfortingLiberatingContradictory Book:Freedom: A Novel Source: Freedom: A Novel
“But she was seventeen now and not actually dumb. She knew that you could love somebody more than anything and still not love the person all that much, if you were busy with other things.” IfsPersonsStillsBusyDumbSeventeen Book:Freedom: A Novel Source: Freedom: A Novel
“Since our technology is really just an extension of ourselves, we don’t have to have contempt for its manipulability in the way we might with actual people. It’s all one big endless loop. We like the mirror and the mirror likes us. To friend a person is merely to include the person in our private hall of flattering mirrors.” PeopleWayPersonsBigsMightTechnologyMirrorsEndlessLikesHallsContemptNarcissismExtensionsFlatteringLoops Book:Farther Away Source: Farther Away
“Love is about bottomless empathy, born out of the heart’s revelation that another person is every bit as real as you are. And this is why love, as I understand it, is always specific. Trying to love all of humanity may be a worthy endeavor, but, in a funny way, it keeps the focus on the self, on the self’s own moral or spiritual well-being. Whereas, to love a specific person, and to identify with his or her struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of your self.” IfsWayTryingWellsHeartMayPersonsRealSelfSpiritualJoyHumanityBitsBornLove IsMoralStruggleFocusEmpathyWorthySurrenderWell BeingRevelationsEndeavor Book:Farther Away: Essays Source: Farther Away: Essays
“[T]o love a specific person, and to identify with his or her struggles and joys as if they were your own, you have to surrender some of your self.” IfsLovePersonsSelfJoyStruggleSelf LoveSurrender Author:Jonathan Franzen
“Our visual cortexes are wired to quickly recognize faces and then quickly subtract massive amounts of detail from them, zeroing in on their essential message: Is this person happy? Angry? Fearful? Individual faces may vary greatly, but a smirk on one is a lot like a smirk on another. Smirks are conceptual, not pictorial. Our brains are like cartoonists - and cartoonists are like our brains, simplifying and exaggerating, subordinating facial detail to abstract comic concepts.” MayPersonsFacesIndividualBrainAmountEssentialsMessagesConceptsAngryDetailsComicAbstractVisualsMassiveFearfulVaryCartoonistFacialPictorialExaggeratingSmirk Book:The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History Source: The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History
“I look at my father, who was in many ways an unhappy person, but who, not long before he got sick, said that the greatest source of satisfaction in his life had been going to work in the company of other workers.” WayLooksPersonsLongSaidFatherCompanySourceSickWorkersSatisfactionUnhappyGoing To WorkHappy PersonUnhappy Person Author:Jonathan Franzen
