You have to be bloody-minded, and you have to be awkward. You have to be, like, “I’m doing it like this.” It doesn’t matter what everyone’s saying it should be like. Every artist you’ve ever loved has done that.
– Richard Russell
Equality vs. Individual Freedom
Ever since the French Revolution, people throughout the world have gradually come to see both equality and individual freedom as fundamental values. Yet the two values contradict each other. Equality can be ensured only by curtailing the freedoms of those who are better off. Guaranteeing the every individual will be free to do as he wishes inevitably short-changes equality. The entire political history of the world since 1789 can be seen as a series of attempts to reconcile this contradiction.
– Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Pretty good
“If you can give up on grace, you can give up on the fall. You can start enjoying stuff that’s only pretty good.” – Rebecca Solnit