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.
A. J. JACOBSI’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.
More A. J. Jacobs Quotes
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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 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 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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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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There’s a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great & powerful one
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Jealousy is a useless, time-wasting emotion that’s eating me alive.
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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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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 have little shame, no dignity – all in the name of a better cause.
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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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The best we can do, to paraphrase Pollan, is to eat whole foods, mostly plants, and not too much.
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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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Paintings! They’re like TV, but they don’t move.
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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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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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I am officially Jewish, but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.
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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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Taking the Bible too literally is a mistake. It should be read as a guidebook of wisdom and insight.
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Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one.
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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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Giulia Melucci has written a wonderfully funny and moving book. It’s like Eat, Pray, Love, with recipes.
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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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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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Its sort of my job to feel good.
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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 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.
A. J. JACOBS