“If someone is the street were entrusted with your body, you would be furious. Yet you entrust your mind to anyone around who happens to insult you, and allow it to be troubled and confused. Aren't you ashamed of that?”
Source: How to Be Free: An Ancient Guide to the Stoic Life
“We’re made of three parts, Maggie. Our mind, our heart, and our gut. When we listen to one of those parts, we lose our way. The heart isn’t cautious enough, so it leads us to try and find love where there is only emptiness. The mind is too rational, so it ignores the softer needs of the heart and doesn’t leave room for forgiveness. The gut is instinctive, but we ignore it because it causes quick flashes of reaction so deep inside that the heart and mind can easily swamp it. But it’s the gut we need to learn to listen to. It’s holds the deepest sense of what we need and will give us the quickest feeling about when something is right or wrong”
“Interestingly, pathological liars have atypically large amounts of white matter in the prefrontal cortex, indicating more complex wiring.”
Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
“Pretty straightforwardly, the more categories of adversities a child suffers, the dimmer his or her chances of happy, functional adulthood.”
Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
“It is debatable which one of us is the insane one.”
“It was spring, and while my new house was cramped and humble, it was on the sand and the ocean still came to the front door. At dawn I'd roll out of bed, not even bothering to change clothes, and walk. Squalls came and went. Storm surges carried huge swells into the cove, and as rain inebriated the coast, the thick stub of a rainbow pushed out of the sea like a green thumb on the horizon. After, the dark blue sheet of water turned metallic, and I wondered: What in nature is not a mirror, does not give back a true image of mind?”
Source: A Match to the Heart: One Woman's Story of Being Struck By Lightning
“Societies with frequent anonymous interactions tend to outsource punishment to gods. In contrast, hunter-gatherers' gods are less likely than chance to care whether we've been naughty or nice.”
Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
“Anthropologists, studying everyone from hunter-gatherers to urbanites, have found that about two thirds of everyday conversation is gossip, with the vast majority of it being negative. As has been said, gossip (with the goal of shaming) is a weapon of the weak against the powerful. It has always been fast and cheap and is infinitely more so now in the era of the Scarlet Internet.”
Source: Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
“Paranoia represents an inherent aspect of the mind, driven by the dread of annihilation. This is why, in moments of intense fear, we instinctively oppose transitioning from life to death.”
Source: The Beggars of the Mercury Lights: We the Other People
“There are many things which can not be expressed by words.
There are many words which can not be spelled by human tongue.
There are many tongues which utter one single truth.”
Source: My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut