Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Jennifer Michael Hecht

We think our version of a happy life as more like physics than like pop songs; we expect the people of the next century, say, to agree with our basic tenets — for instance, that broccoli is good for a happy life and that opium is bad — but they will not. Our rules for living are more like the history of pop songs. They make their weird sense only to the people of each given time period. They aren't true.

--speaking about her book The Happiness Myth: The Historical Antidote to What Isn't Working Today (2007)

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Julia Moskin

It’s a quandary: there is no such thing as a traditional Thanksgiving chocolate dessert. But at a big festive dinner, there will always be a demand for chocolate. You might paint a parbaked pie crust with melted chocolate before filling it. (This is good for pecan pie.)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

St. Augustine

Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage;
anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not
remain the way they are.

Monday, November 14, 2011

P.J. O'Rourke

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Martin Luther

When a friend wrote Luther a letter confessing that he was depressed, Luther had some advice for him: "Be strong and cheerful and cast out these monstrous thoughts. Whenever the devil harasses you thus, seek the company of men or drink more, or joke and talk nonsense, or do some other merry thing. Sometimes we must drink more, sport, recreate ourselves, aye, and even sin a little to spite the devil, so that we leave him no place for troubling our consciences with trifles. We are conquered if we try too conscientiously not to sin at all. So when the devil says to you: 'Do not drink,' answer him: 'I will drink, and right freely, just because you tell me not to.' One must always do what Satan forbids. What other cause do you think that I have for drinking so much strong drink, talking so freely and making merry so often, except that I wish to mock and harass the devil who is wont to mock and harass me. Would that I could contrive some great sin to spite the devil, that he might understand that I would not even then acknowledge it and that I was conscious of no sin whatever. We, whom the devil thus seeks to annoy, should remove the whole decalogue from our hearts and minds."