Maria Popova on universal human longing #quote #whosaidthat

This: Among our most universal human longings is to affect the world with our actions somehow, to leave an imprint with our existence. Maria Popova I am not sure if this is a universal human longing. Universal human longings are much more basic: survival. Sex (reproduction… and therefore, survival…). Belonging (which is essential for survival…). But. For those

Maria Popova on developing your own barometer of self-worth #quote

Today, this: Develop an inner barometer for your own value. Resist page views and likes and retweets and all those silly-sounding quantification metrics that will be obsolete within the decade. … They can’t tell you who you are and what you’re worth.

Alain de Botton on how sex will never be simple or nice

Despite our best efforts to clean it of its peculiarities, sex will never be either simple or nice in the ways we might like it to be. It is not fundamentally democratic or kind; it is bound up with cruelty,