Quotes from Matt Haig

I think you only appreciate me when you don't have me, which is not a great trait to have.

Höflichkeit ist oft Angst, Liebenswürdigkeit ist immer Mut. Aber es ist das Mitgefühl, das dich menschlich macht. Hab mehr Mitgefühl, und du wirst menschlicher.

Had we been through some trauma we didn't know about? Was the noise and speed of modern life the trauma for our caveman brains? Or was life a kind of war most people didn't see?

Life isn't simply made of the things we do, but the things we don't do too.

We are made to feel poor on thirty thousand pounds a year. To feel poorly travelled if we have been to only ten other countries. To feel too old if we have a wrinkle. To feel ugly if we aren't photoshopped and filtered. No

Nu-ti irosi viata facandu-ti griji pentru lucrurile pe care le ratezi. N-as vrea sa sune ca o insemnare budista - desi, de acord, e oarecum budista-, dar viata nu e despre a fi fericit cu ceea ce faci, ci despre a fi fericit cu ceea ce esti.

De evolutionair psychologen zouden best eens gelijk kunnen hebben. Misschien zijn wij mensen inderdaad te ver doorgeëvolueerd en is de prijs die we betalen voor onze intelligentie, waardoor we de eerste soort zijn die zich volledig bewust is van de kosmos, het vermogen om een heel universum aan duisternis te voelen.

It frightened me, how close violence is to the civilized surface of a human being. It wasn't the violence itself that was the worry, it was the amount of effort they'd gone to conceal it.

I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what did not. -Camus

Dat is de grootste troost van 439 jaar oud zijn. Je doorgrondt de belangrijkste les van de geschiedenis: dat mensen niet van de geschiedenis leren. De 21ste eeuw kan uitdraaien op een slechte cover van de 20ste eeuw, maar wat kunnen we er aan doen? Over de hele wereld zijn de hoofden van mensen gevuld met utopieën die elkaar nooit overlappen. Een recept voor mislukking, maar eentje dat we al kennen, helaas. Vrede is van porselein gemaakt, zoals altijd.

Between life and death there is a library,' she said. 'And within that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

I needed books. They weren't a luxury good during that time in my life. They were a Class A addictive substance.

Happiness is not good for the economy.

According to science, you start off as coal and you end up as coal. Maybe that is the real life lesson.

Sa asculti muzica, mi-am dat eu seama, nu era altceva decat placerea de a numara fara sa iti dai seama ca numeri.

The girl put her hand in Nora's. It felt so small and warm and it made her feel sad, the way it relaxed into her, as natural as a pearl in a shell.

Avem nevoie de timpul pe care il avem deja

a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

If something is going to happen to me, I want to be there. -Camus

The past stays and echoes even as modernity roars ahead.

the mind-boggling bit is that the theory hints that the entire universe is just two-dimensional information on a cosmological horizon and that everything we think we see in three dimensions is really as much an illusion as a 3D movie, and it could all be a simulation. So really, the world (and everything) might be flat after all. And then again it might not be.)

we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful who we pretend to be.

Als er een uitweg is, een andere uitweg dan de dood, dan loopt de ontsnappingsroute via de woorden. Maar woorden helpen eerder om 'een' geest te verlaten dan dé geest, en ze geven ons de bouwstenen om een nieuwe geest op te bouwen, identiek maar beter, vlak bij de oude maar met een steviger fundament en heel vaak ook een beter uitzicht.

This, it seemed, was power. The power of fame. Like those pop icons she had seen on social media, who could say a single word and get a million likes and shares. Total fame was when you reached the point where looking like a hero, or genius, or god, required minimal effort.