

“To all the talented young men who wander about feeling that there is nothing in the world for them to do, I should say: 'Give up trying to write, and, instead, try not to write. Go out into the world; become a pirate, a king in Borneo, a labourer in Soviet Russia; give yourself an existence in which the satisfaction of elementary physical needs will occupy almost all your energies.' I do not recommend this course of action to everyone, but only to those who suffer from the disease which Mr Krutch diagnoses. I believe that, after some years of such an existence, the ex-intellectual will fin that in spite of is efforts he can no longer refrain from writing, and when this time comes his writing will not seem to him futile.”
― The Conquest of Happiness
― The Conquest of Happiness

“Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.”
― The God Delusion
― The God Delusion

“Women who love themselves are threatening; but men who love real women, more so.”
― The Beauty Myth
― The Beauty Myth

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,'said Gimli.
'Maybe,'said Elrond,'but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring
'Maybe,'said Elrond,'but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.”
― The Fellowship of the Ring

“The mysteries of a universe made of drops of fire and clods of mud do not concern us in the least. The fate of humanity condemned ultimately to perish from cold is not worth troubling about. If you take it to heart it becomes an unendurable tragedy. If you believe in improvement you must weep, for the attained perfection must end in cold, darkness and silence. In a dispassionate view the ardour for reform, improvement for virtue, and knowledge, and even for beauty is only a vain sticking up for appearances as though one were anxious about the cut of one’s clothes in a community of blind men.”
― Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction
― Heart of Darkness and Selected Short Fiction

When anyone on the TODAY team is looking for a book recommendation, there is only one person to turn to: Jenna Bush Hager. Jenna will select a book a ...more
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