Julio Cortázar, “Instructions on How to Wind a Watch” from Cronopios and Famas

Death stands there in the background, but don’t be afraid. Hold the watch down with one hand, take the stem in two fingers, and rotate it smoothly. Now another installment of time opens, trees spread their leaves, boats run races, like a fan time continues filling with itself, and from that burgeon the air, the breezes of earth, the shadow of a woman, the sweet smell of bread.

What did you expect, what more do you want? Quickly, strap it to your wrist, let it tick away in freedom, imitate it greedily. Fear will rust all the rubies, everything that could happen to it and was forgotten is about to corrode the watch’s veins, cankering the cold blood and its tiny rubies. And death is there in the background, we must run to arrive beforehand and understand it’s already unimportant.

Walter Lippmann, c. 1930

The world will go on somehow, and more crises will follow. It will go on best, however, if among us there are men who have stood apart, who refused to be anxious or too much concerned, who were cool and inquiring, and had their eyes on a longer past and a longer future. — c. 1930, Walter Lippmann, syndicated columnist and twice Pulitzer Prize Winner

8 Great Anti-Hacks to Fundamentally Change Your Life, Clay Collins

There are no perspective hacks. None. You just have to suck it up, live a little, and wallow in the mud of life. You have to get your hands dirty with this beautiful business of living. You have to question, meditate, and fail often. You simply have to make space for perspective and hope that it will come eventually. You have to spend time in a manner that would seem self-indulgent to most.

http://zenhabits.net/8-great-anti-hacks-to-fundamentally-change-your-life/

Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse

Forgive me, I am speaking to you with a friend’s heart. I can see you are suffering. I can see you are troubled.

Samuel Strauss, from a 1924 Atlantic Monthly Essay

Consumptionism is bringing it about that the American citizen’s first importance to his country is no longer that of citizen but that of consumer.

Free Prize Inside!, Seth Godin, p. 46

The harder you try to play it safe, the more likely you are to fail.

Beyond the Limits, Donella Meadows

People don’t need enormous cars, they need respect. They don’t need closets full of clothes, the need to feel attractive and they need excitement and variety and beauty. People don’t need electronic equipment; they need something worthwhile to do with their lives. People need identity, community, challenge, acknowledgement, love and joy. To try to fill these needs with material things is to set up an unquenchable appetite for false solutions to real and never-satisfied problems. The resulting psychological emptiness is one of the major forces behind the desire for material growth.

Economies of small, Seth Godin

Don’t be small because you can’t figure out how to get big. Consider being small because it might be better.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/04/economies-of-smal.html

Your Money or Your Life, Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez, p. 8

So here we are, the most affluent society that has had the privilege to walk the face of the earth, and we’re stuck with our noses to the grindstone, our lives in a perpetual loop between home and job and our hearts yearning for something that’s just over the horizon.

Feeling Dressage, Ruth Sabine Schaefer. p. 20

There is an old saying: “Learning to ride means learning self-control.”