After a while, if you’re committed, you start to believe in the things in which you’re praying. It’s just cognitive dissonance. You can’t live a completely religious life and not start to have it sink in.
A. J. JACOBSI’m not a fan of ‘write what you know.’ If you don’t know, find out. I knew nothing about the Bible before I started writing ‘The Year of Living Biblically.’ That was kind of the point – to learn.
More A. J. Jacobs Quotes
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My reading list grows exponentially. Every time I read a book, it’ll mention three other books I feel I have to read. It’s like a particularly relentless series of pop-up ads.
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The Bible talks a lot about thankfulness, and I’m more thankful than I ever was. I try to concentrate on the hundreds of things that go right in a day, instead of the three or four that go wrong.
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I was very good at sitting. But I just read so much research about how horrible sitting is for you. It’s like, it’s really bad. It’s like Paula-Deen-glazed-bacon-doughnut bad. So I now move around as much as possible.
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I know that you should always say yes to adventures or you’ll lead a very dull life.
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I find placebos uplifting and exhilarating. It means that taking action–no matter what the action is–might help you feel better.
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I love to live things, so I wanted to immerse myself and get into the mindset – and sandals – of my forefathers.
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The key to making healthy decisions is to respect your future self. Honor him or her. Treat him or her like you would treat a friend or a loved one.
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I know that knowledge and intelligence are not the same thing – but they do live in the same neighborhood. I know once again, firsthand, the joy of learning.
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Scrabble – The game is available in Braille. That’s a nice fact. This makes me feel better about humanity for some reason. I can’t really explain why.
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I grew up in a very secular home with no religion at all, so I was starting from zero.
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Since I was relatively new to the Bible, I was surprised by the Old Testament God. He’s wrathful, but at other times, He’s incredibly compassionate. He’s not a one-dimensional figure at all.
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When I went to Israel, it was a little disorienting, because there are so many people who look crazy and were dressed like me. There, I was just one of the apocalyptic crowd.
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When I was with the serpent-handlers in Tennessee, it was the most bizarre method of worship I could think of. Yet when you sit with these people, you can kind of see how it makes sense.
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Behavior shapes emotions.
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I was what they call ‘skinny fat’ – a body that resembled a python after swallowing a goat.
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I thought religion would eventually wither away and we’d all be worshiping at the altar of science.
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After decimating several vegetables, I decide juicing is my favorite form of food preparation. There’s something perversely appealing about subjecting an innocent plant to that much violence.
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I am officially Jewish, but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.
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I’m addicted to self-improvement. The thing is, there’s so damn much about myself to improve.
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Med students panic their first year when they learn all the diseases. It’s not until the second year that they learn the cures.
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How do you gag the voice in your head that says, ‘You don’t have to [do it] today. There’s always tomorrow.’?
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One of the interesting things to me is that God grows throughout the Old Testament. He evolves, sort of matures, and becomes kinder.
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I prefer the earlier birth control techniques, which ranged from the delicious (using honey as a spermicide) to the aerobic (jumping backward seven times after coitus).
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Its sort of my job to feel good.
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I thought religion would eventually wither away and we’d all be worshiping at the altar of science.
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Paintings! They’re like TV, but they don’t move.
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