Its sort of my job to feel good.
A. J. JACOBSAfter 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.
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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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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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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I thought religion would eventually wither away and we’d all be worshiping at the altar of science.
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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 love to live things, so I wanted to immerse myself and get into the mindset – and sandals – of my forefathers.
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My immune system has always been overly welcoming of germs. It’s far too polite, the biological equivalent of a southern hostess inviting y’all nice microbes to stay awhile and have some artichoke dip.
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I don’t believe that prayers actually change God’s mind – if there is a God – but I liked praying for people in need. It was like moral weightlifting. I tend to be self-obsessed, and it was nice to get out of my brain once in a while.
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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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A 2002 Oxford study showed counting sheep actually delays the onset of sleep. It’s just too dull to stop us from worrying about jobs and spouses.
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It’s a different way of looking at the world. Your life isn’t about rights. It’s about responsibilities.”–Mr Bill Berkowitz
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It comes back to the old question: How can the Bible be so wise in some places and so barbaric in others? And why should we put any faith in a book that includes such brutality?
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If my former self and my current self met for coffee, they’d get along OK, but they’d both probably walk out of the Starbucks shaking their heads and saying to themselves, “That guy is kinda delusional.”
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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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Behavior shapes emotions.
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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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Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness.
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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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Taking the Bible too literally is a mistake. It should be read as a guidebook of wisdom and insight.
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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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I’ve never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day.
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I’d recommend learning to accept rejection. Become friends with rejection. Be nice to rejection, because it’s a huge part of being a writer, no matter where you are in your career.
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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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Jealousy is a useless, time-wasting emotion that’s eating me alive.
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I found there were things about religion that I really loved; things like the sense of gratefulness that it brings.
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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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