Amiya

The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. is bound to be noticed. -Anti-Climacus

If their love for you is an escape from their boredom, they will escape you when they get bored of that love.

One is getting wiser when their fears start paying them fewer visits in their dreams. In dreams, reason takes its leave and one’s desires and fears - which while awake are kept at bay through various distractions - take to the wind at full tilt and the only guard is one’s will, an inner voice which can’t be cheated. Can there be a true test of wisdom if not this where one is left open to assault of such earthly passions with so less to defend with and so much to defend against?

Most happiness is parasitic. People in heaven are happy because there are people in pain in hell. There is heaven because there is a hell. If there was no hell, no one in heaven would be happy. There are smiles in heaven because there are cries in hell. Happiness of people playing status games comes from unhappiness of those they derive status from. They need those people in the same way a parasite needs a prey. Anyone playing status game is either a parasite or a prey.

I find it better to write/read than to speak/listen for my thinking is more in lockstep and rhythm with the former than with latter. Also, former is active workout like wrestling where I can’t easily move forward without having first wrestled with what I have written/read, whereas, in latter, I become a passive recipient with me not doing anything and having things done upon me.

Exams don’t test knowledge/understanding, they test obedience.

I wonder why there is such emphatic focus on things like courage, hard-work, will-power, trying, and so on. These things are force. Why use force? Force is invoked (called upon) when there is conflict between two ideas. In this case- a) I think I can’t do something or that it is “difficult,” b) but at the same time think I should do that thing. These things are called upon when there is fear of failure. Where do these ideas come from - that I “should” do something, or that something is difficult and that I might fail. Its all second-hand narrative, stories, viruses we inherit growing up. I had the idea that I get this job, or someone, or something else; just having that idea kind of teleports me, and I see myself as someone already having that thing. That gives a high. Its new, is exciting, its just for an instance, a flash against minds eye, but a flash is enough. Its effect is same as drugs. Planning, forecasting, predicting - its all drugs. Drugs we take to bypass the pain of thinking, understanding, mistaking, drugs we take to conjure up a force field around our animalistic reality. Doesn’t mean we stop doing that altogether. At the end of the day we are just monkeys with plans. But as Oscar Wilde said, "Everything in moderation, including moderation."

From the famous SICP - Structure and Interpretation of Computer Program

The more one falls in love with the stage, the better an actor he becomes, the harder he finds finding his way back backstage.

Life is a game played alone but celebrated together.

To love is to gift a good memory

A good book is either an alarm or a tranquilizer.

The gap between an artist and a novice is of number of errors made and corrected.