Per Nissilä > Per's Quotes

“Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“There are so many more important things to worry about than how you're perceived by strangers.”
― Dennis Lehane

“It had to be Death. No-one else went around with empty eye sockets and, of course, the scythe over one shoulder was another clue.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic

“His words drifted across Death's scythe and split tidily into two ribbons of consonants and vowels.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Colour of Magic

“There was something called democracy. As though men were more than physico-chemically equal.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley. He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by instinct. As if one believed anything by instinct! One believes things because one has been conditioned to believe them.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“I have always felt,” he said, “that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, and empty threats the final sanctuary of the terminally inept.” Mr.”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“Can I help you?” said the footman. Richard had been told to fuck off and die with more warmth and good humor. “Down”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“May you be allowed to walk freely, without let or hindrance . . . and so on and so forth . . . et cetera . . . blah blah blah,” he trailed off, vaguely. “Thanks,”
― Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

“Bereaved people who make the most effort to avoid feeling grief, research suggests, take the longest to recover from their loss.”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“Pessimism, when you get used to it, is just as agreeable as optimism. –”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“Is it other people that bother me? Or the judgment I make about other people?”.”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“Pain is inevitable, from this perspective, but suffering is an optional extra, resulting from our attachments, which represent our attempt to try to deny the unavoidable truth that everything is impermanent.”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“But the deeper truth remains: many of us are perpetually preoccupied with plans. It”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“how deeply uncomfortable we are made by feelings of uncertainty. Faced with the anxiety of not knowing what the future holds, we invest ever more fiercely in our preferred vision of that future – not because it will help us achieve it, but because it helps rid us of feelings of uncertainty in the present.”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“It is alarming to consider how many major life decisions we take primarily in order to minimise present-moment emotional discomfort.”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“One of the more distasteful aspects of positive thinking – and of conventional approaches to happiness in general – is the way in which they seem to encourage self-absorption. Then again, ‘selfless’ approaches to happiness”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“You’re vastly more likely to be killed as the result of a car crash than an air crash, and vastly more likely to die of heart disease than at the hands of a violent intruder. But if you react to news stories about air terrorism by taking the car when you’d otherwise have taken a plane, or if you spend time and energy protecting your home from attackers that you could have spent on improving your diet, you’ll be letting your biases guide you towards a greater feeling of security at the expense of your real safety. Psychologists”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“perfectionism, at bottom, is a fear-driven striving to avoid the experience of failure at all costs. At its extremes, it is an exhausting and permanently stressful way to live.”
― Oliver Burkeman, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

“You know, one time I saw Tiger down at the waterhole: he had the biggest testicles of any animal, and the sharpest claws, and two front teeth as long as knives and as sharp as blades. And I said to him, ‘Brother Tiger, you go for a swim, I’ll look after your balls for you.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods