The Comfort Book

by Matt Haig

Don’t worry about being cool. Never worry what the cool people think. Life is warmth. You’ll be cool when you’re dead. Head for the warm people. Head for life.

Other people are other people. You are you.

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” said Eleanor Roosevelt.

We are so blessed with an abundance of wonder on this planet, and in this universe, that we are numb to it. And it is often only in times of intense crisis that such things become apparent.

“Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.”

The control of accepting a lack of control. The control of response.

metaphor for our own misfortunes and struggles. The greatest changes stem from the darkest experiences. We fall apart to become new. We go through the dark to fly in the sun.

You are a cosmic miracle. You are the earth witnessing itself.

The cure for loneliness isn’t more people. The cure for loneliness is understanding who we are.

Forgiving other people is great practice for forgiving yourself when the time comes.

Rest is an essential part of survival. An essential part of us. An essential part of being the animals we are.

The only way, ultimately, to deal with uncertainty is to accept uncertainty. Because we can’t escape it.

if we are to reach any kind of constant comfort, we need to find comfort in uncertainty. And it is there. Because while things are uncertain, they are never closed. We can exist in hope, in the infinite, in the unanswered and open question of life itself.

The most powerful moment in life is when you decide not to be scared anymore.

It is impossible to grow in a world without struggle.

Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but—I hope—into a better shape.