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The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: Michael Finkel

Still, the ten days were enough for me to see, as if peering over the edge of a well, that silence could be mystical, and that if you dared, diving fully into your inner depths might be both profound and disturbing.

inner-self, silence

That silence intimidates puzzles me. Silence is to me normal, comfortable.” Later he added, “I will admit to feeling a little contempt for those who can’t keep quiet.

Not for a moment did he consider keeping a journal. He would never allow anyone to read his private thoughts; therefore, he did not risk writing them down. “I’d rather take it to my grave,” he said. And anyway, when was a journal ever honest? “It either tells a lot of truths to cover a single lie, ” he said, “or a lot of lies to cover a single truth.

journaling, lies, private-thoughts, truth

Silence, it appears, is not the opposite of sound. It is another world altogether, literally offering a deeper level of thought, a journey to the bedrock of the self.

deep-thought, self, silence, sound

Modern life seems set up so that we can avoid loneliness at all costs, but maybe it’s worthwhile to face it occasionally. The further we push aloneness away, the less we are able to cope with it, and the more terrifying it gets. Some philosophers believe that loneliness is the only true feeling there is.

facing-fears, loneliness, true-feeling

He never bothered listening to sports; the bored him, every one of them.

One’s desire to be alone, biologists have found, is partially genetic and to some degree measurable. If you have low levels of the pituitary peptide oxytocin–sometimes called the master chemical of sociability– and high quantities of the hormone vasopressin, which may suppress your need for affection, you tend to require fewer interpersonal relationships.

Knight, of course, felt that anyone’s willing assistance tainted the whole thing. Either you are hidden or you’re not, no middle ground. He wished to be unconditionally alone, exiled to an island of his own creation, an uncontacted tribe of one.

alone, assistance, creation, exile, exiled, hidden, island, middle-ground, one, tainted, tribe, unconditionally, uncontacted

Maybe, I thought, Knight would talk about the marrow. He sat quietly, whether thinking or fuming or both, it was hard to tell. But he eventually arrived at a reply. It felt like some great mystic was about to revel the meaning of life.”Get enough sleep,” he said.He set his jaw in a way that conveyed he wouldn’t be saying any more. This was what he had learned. I accepted it as truth.

meaning-of-life, sleep, wisdom

I’m not used to seeing people’s faces. There’s too much information there. Aren’t you aware of it? Too much, too fast.

faces, overwhelmed, people

It’s possible that Knight believed he was one of the few sane people left. He was confounded by the idea that passing the prime of your life in a cubicle, spending hours a day at a computer, in exchange for money, was considered acceptable, but relaxing in a tent in the woods was disturbed. Observing the trees was indolent; cutting them down was enterprising. What did Knight do for a living? He lived for a living.

acceptable, computer, confounded, cubicle, disturbed, enterprising, exchange, idea, indolent, life, lived, living, money, people, possible, prime, relaxing, sane, tent, woods