Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
— Saint Augustine
What is the secret to a richer, longer life? It is the long view.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/in-praise-...
The consequences of our actions are not measured simply by how they affect our lives, nor just the lives of those around us, but instead in how they impact the lives of all future generations, and whether they honor the effort of generations past.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/the-white-...
Greg Jackson expresses something I've felt but couldn't name: the unsettling emptiness when you finally turn off the noise. And not just silence, but the realization that you've been avoiding your own company.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/news-cycles
secularmornings.substack.com/p/clippys-ad...
They have taken with them to the grave their powers, their honours, and their errors; but they have left us their adoration.
- John Ruskin
secularmornings.substack.com/p/central-ga...
There was someone I loved who grew old and ill
One by one I watched the fires go out.
There was nothing I could do
except to remember
that we receive
then we give back.
- Mary Oliver
secularmornings.substack.com/p/river-clar...
So be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf — seek out the most efficacious anti-selfishness medicines, energetically, for the rest of your life.
- George Saunders
secularmornings.substack.com/p/kindness
We’re just as culpable in neglecting our own duties to alleviate suffering, and even in our everyday habits of shying away from uncostly acts of kindness.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/comission-...
Change is risky, and passivity is easy. But change is a necessary component of making our lives particular and real.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/particular...
There are natural laws — laws of causality, yes, but also mathematical laws that are true in their own right but manifest throughout the world.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/higher-forms
We don’t have to look others in the eyes, we’re often granted quasi-anonymity, and we’re constantly performing for everyone else.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/internet-a...
The patterns of human nature will emerge, however strange the world we create is, so long as we remain.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/online-vil...
I guess the impulse to record is born out of thinking that I’m seeing something really special — and as such, I’d better record it, or else I’m losing it forever.
But trying to run from that is futile.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/the-stream
Our attitudes are less about who we are, and more about the environment around us. And our environments can change quickly.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/on-optimis...
secularmornings.substack.com/p/humanitys-...
One of the best things about humanity is that our capacities are made, not granted.
Something I’ve wanted forever from the internet, and which theoretically should exist but I haven’t yet found, is a space that feels like being lost deep in the stacks at my university library.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/vellichor
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secularmornings.substack.com/p/rain
secularmornings.substack.com/p/my-crow
To intellectualize the horrors of the world is to deny a part of my own humanity.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/the-unimag...
The death of pets is, perhaps, one of the most regular (and visceral) reminders the world gives us of what it means to be mortal.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/unlike-snow
I’ll forever have affinities to “external brain” note-taking and life management systems. Humans simply aren’t adapted to the many responsibilities of modern life, but with the right tools, we can outsmart ourselves.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/not-enough...
The relationship between intelligence and the world is a two-way street.
secularmornings.substack.com/p/data-exhaust
Trace the arc of your anger deep enough, and the bottom falls out. Your mind passes through “enemy” to body, neurons, genes, atoms, and on into some more naked and primordial source, where the fingers of blame falter and un-grip.
- Joe Carlsmith
secularmornings.substack.com/p/the-worlds...
