Can > Can's Quotes

“The Greeks argued with the Armenians over the division of the Virgin’s Tomb. The Armenians
feuded with the Syriac Jacobites over the cemetery on Mount Zion and ownership of the St. Nicodemus Chapel in the Church, where the Orthodox and Catholics fought over the use of the northern staircase at Calvary and ownership of a strip floor at the eastern arch between the Orthodox and the Latin chapels there. The Armenians fought the Orthodox over the ownership of the staircase on the east of the main entrance—and over the right to sweep it. The Copts fought the Ethiopians over the latter’s precarious rooftop monastery.”
― Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography

“Lessons of the Balance
1. The relentless pursuit of pleasure (and avoidance of pain) leads to pain.
2. Recovery begins with abstinence.
3. Abstinence resets the brain’s reward pathway and with it our capacity to
take joy in simpler pleasures.
4. Self-binding creates literal and metacognitive space between desire and
consumption, a modern necessity in our dopamine-overloaded world.
5. Medications can restore homeostasis, but consider what we lose by
medicating away our pain.
6. Pressing on the pain side resets our balance to the side of pleasure.
7. Beware of getting addicted to pain.
8. Radical honesty promotes awareness, enhances intimacy, and fosters a
plenty mindset.
9. Prosocial shame affirms that we belong to the human tribe.
10. Instead of running away from the world, we can find escape by immersing ourselves in it.”
― Anna Lembke , Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence