One sure sign that farming is not congenial is that people throughout history have been determined to get other people to do it. Slavery does not exist among hunter-gatherers and apparently never did; it comes in with gardens and farms.
Indeed, it is now conventional wisdom among scholars that, as the physiologist Jared Diamond wrote some years ago in Discover magazine, “the adoption of agriculture, supposedly … [ Read more ]
Author: David Berreby | Subjects: Culture, History
I like very much the idea of being serious; it invites people to feel more and I think one of the things about the modern world where we are so overwhelmed by useless information and trivial stimulation is that people turn off and they don’t feel as much.
Author: Susan Sontag | Subjects: Life & Society, Perception | Observation
We must never forget that essentially we shall always live in a world of people rather than in a world of things, and that others can do for us more than we can do for ourselves.
Author: Paul G. Blazer | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society, Miscellaneous
Responsibility for every injustice that occurs is borne not only by the person who commits it but, also, by those who fail to prevent it.
Author: Erich Kästner | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society, Wisdom
How different our lives are when we really know what is deeply important to us, and keeping that picture in mind, we manage ourselves each day to be and to do what really matters most.
Author: Stephen Covey | Subjects: Life & Society, Wisdom
So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.
Author: Elbert Hubbard | Subjects: Culture, Politics & Public Policy
God has given us free will, but on the whole we are not very good at exercising the judgment that comes with it.
Author: Jeff Blum | Subjects: Culture, Freedom | Liberty, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior
Men grant and withdraw their love according to their whims, but fear is a hand that rests on their shoulders in a way they can never shake.
Author: Unknown | Subjects: Fear, Love
As [William F. ] May points out, parents give their children two kinds of love: accepting love and transforming love. Accepting love affirms the being of the child, whereas transforming love seeks the well-being of the child. Each aspect corrects the excesses of the other, he writes: “Attachment becomes too quietistic if it slackens into mere acceptance of the child as he is.” Parents have … [ Read more ]
Authors: Michael J. Sandel, William F. May | Subjects: Family & Friends, Love, Psychology | Behavior
To acknowledge the giftedness of life is to recognize that our talents and powers are not wholly our own doing, despite the effort we expend to develop and to exercise them. It is also to recognize that not everything in the world is open to whatever use we may desire or devise.
Author: Michael J. Sandel | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Religion
This is an uncomfortable fact for democratic societies. We want to believe that success, in sports and in life, is something we earn, not something we inherit. Natural gifts, and the admiration they inspire, embarrass the meritocratic faith; they cast doubt on the conviction that praise and rewards flow from effort alone. In the face of this embarrassment we inflate the moral significance of striving, … [ Read more ]
Author: Michael J. Sandel | Subjects: Ability | Skill, Culture, Psychology | Behavior
It’s not enough to have lived. We should be determined to live for something. May I suggest that it be creating joy for others, sharing what we have for the betterment of personkind, bringing hope to the lost and love to the lonely.
Author: Leo Buscaglia | Subjects: Life & Society, Love
Your children are not your children. …
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you. …
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
Author: Kahlil Gibran | Subject: Family & Friends
All inquiry, whatever its subject, has as its final object the matter of how to go about living.
Author: Mark Kingwell | Source: An old philosophical maxim | Subjects: Life & Society, Meaning, Thought | Inquiry
Our most basic choice, the one that grounds all the others, is this: Do we attend closely to the business of our choices, or do we flee from them, in arrogance, or fear, or boredom – or some combination of all three? That’s the only ultimate purpose or meaning that we can make sense of.
Author: Mark Kingwell | Subjects: Life & Society, Meaning, Psychology | Behavior
It is a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.
Author: W. Somerset Maugham | Subjects: Life & Society, Perception | Observation
Our driving addiction, combined with single-use zoning, which separates homes from public spaces and services that are crucial to real neighborhoods, has created the barren “bedroom community,” designed not around human needs but around three-car garages, wide streets, and highway access to shopping malls.
Author: James Kunstler | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Our greatest weakness is the habit of reducing the most complex issues to the most simplistic moralisms. About Communism. About Capitalism. About Crime. About Corruption […] It has made it difficult for Americans to think honestly and to some purpose about themselves and their problems. Moralism drives our thought.
[…]
We have acquired bad habits of speech and worse patterns of behavior, lurching from crisis to crisis … [ Read more ]
Author: Daniel Patrick Moynihan | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.
Author: Elie Wiesel | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society
Here’s to the Chef
Who makes sauces so dear,
And here’s to the Barkeep,
Who pours such good cheer.
To our friends and our families,
and anyone not here,
The Best of the Season,
and a Prosperous New Year!
Author: Unknown | Subjects: Gratitude, Life & Society, Miscellaneous