#avoidance

RIVETING TORPOR It is remarkable how far I am prepared to go In order to avoid doing the one thing that might Provide satisfaction, and it is remarkable to consider What I will do instead of it, purely for the pleasure Of being dissatisfied. When it is merely a matter Of sitting down for a few hours and dreaming That something of value might eventually arise From this routine of self-enforced boredom. ↗

— John Tottenham

#fear-of-failure #procrastination #self-doubt #dreams

What is meditation?... It is fleeing from the self, it is a short escape of the agony of being a self, it is a short numbing of the senses against the pain and the pointlessness of life. The same escape, the same short numbing is what the driver of an ox-cart finds in the inn, drinking a few bowls of rice wine or fermented coconut-milk. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#life

There is a devilishly direct relationship between the significance of an idea and how nervous we become at the prospect of having to think about it. ↗

— Alain de Botton

#decisions #ideas #life #significance #thinking

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues. ↗

— Theodore Roosevelt

#american politics #anything #avoidance #issues #politics

Job's avoidance of rebellion against God has nothing to do with God being good or wise or anything like that; it's strictly because God is so powerful, and you don't fight something when you are so much weaker than that which you would fight. ↗

— George C. Williams

#anything #avoidance #because #being #fight

Problem is, the bathroom pass can't help you escape life. It's still there when you come out. Problems and crap don't go away hiding in the can. ↗

— Simone Elkeles

#high-school #life

I often work by avoidance. ↗

— Brian Eno

#i #often #work

At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure. ↗

— Seamus Heaney

#authority #avoidance #figure #habit #home

The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward. ↗

— John Maynard Keynes

#any #avoidance #carries #intellectual #only

I'm always aware of writing around things I can't do, and I've come to think that that's actually what 'style' is - an avoidance of your deficiencies. ↗

— George Saunders

#always #around #avoidance #aware #come