Reflections of a Recreational Reader: Part III

I've never understood a society of want. We don't have a society of want--not on a general level. We have a society of total surplus: unwanted goods. Unwanted people.
--Studs Turkle, Hard Times

Finding yourself comes right after discovering your insignificance.
--Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

At the approach of danger there are always two voices that speak with equal force in the heart of man: one very reasonably tells the man to consider the nature of the danger and the means of avoiding it; the other even more reasonable says that it is too painful and harassing to think of danger, since it is not in a man's power to provide for everything and escape from the general march of events...In solitude a man generally yeilds to the first voice. In society, to the second.
--Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Any action that has self-glorification as its end point is bound to be a disaster.
--Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Happiness grows in direct proportion to acceptance and in inverse proportion to expectation.
--Michael J. Fox

It's better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of someone else's life with perfection
--Bhagavad Gita

Some people say, 'New York's a great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.' I say that about other places.
--Robert DiNiro

Whole foods and industrial foods are the only two food groups I'd consider including in any useful pyramid. We should simply avoid anything that has been processed to such an extent that it is more a product of industry than of nature.
--Michael Pollan, In Defense of Food

I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor--such is my idea of happiness.
--Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness

Risk is the cost of aggressive objectives.
--Andy Grove