{"quotes":[{"text":"I don't trust anybody who isn't a little bit neurotic.","author":"Mohadesa Najumi","tags":["acceptance","ascension","bell-hooks","brain","connectedness","consciousness","crazy","embodiment","enlightenment","fetters","genius","happiness","heartbreak","life","loss","love","matrix","mental-power","mohadesa","mohadesa-najumi","najumi","neuroscience","normal","norms","osho","pain","philosophy","psycology","relationship","self-awareness","self-help","self-love","self-mastery","society","sociology","spirituality","third-eye","understanding"],"id":9566,"author_id":"Mohadesa+Najumi"},{"text":"Life is a useless passion, an exciting journey of a mammal in survival mode. Each day is a miracle, a blessing unexplored and the more you immerse yourself in light, the less you will feel the darkness. There is more to life than nothingness. And cynicism. And nihilism. And selfishness. And glorious isolation. Be selfish with yourself, but live your life through your immortal acts, acts that engrain your legacy onto humanity. Transcend your fears and follow yourself into the void instead of letting yourself get eaten up by entropy and decay. Freedom is being yourself without permission. Be soft and leave a lasting impression on everybody you meet.","author":"Mohadesa Najumi","tags":["acceptance-of-others","ascension","bell-hooks","brain","connectedness","consciousness","crazy","embodiment","enlightenment","fetters","genius","happiness","heartbreak","life","loss","love","matrix","mental-power","mohadesa","mohadesa-najumi","najumi","neuroscience","normal","norms","osho","pain","philosophy","psycology","relationship","self-awareness","self-help","self-love","self-mastery","society","sociology","spirituality","third-eye","understanding"],"id":41025,"author_id":"Mohadesa+Najumi"},{"text":"But are his needs any more shocking than the needs of any other animals and men? Are his deeds more outrageous than the deeds of the parent who drained the spirit from his child? The vampire may foster quickened heartbeats and levitated hair. But is he worse than the parent who gave to society a neurotic child who became a politician? Is he worse than the manufacturer who set up belated foundations with the money he made by handing bombs and guns to suicidal nationalists? Is he worse than the distiller who gave bastardized grain juice to stultify further the brains of those who, sober, were incapable of progressive thought? (Nay, I apologize for this calumny; I nip the brew that feeds me.) Is he worse, then, than the publisher who filled ubiquitous racks with lust and death wishes? Really, no, search your soul, lovie--is the vampire so bad?","author":"Richard Matheson","tags":["government","horror","norms","politics","prejudice","society","vampire"],"id":106828,"author_id":"Richard+Matheson"},{"text":"Literature should be a kind of revolutionary manifesto against established morality and established society.","author":"Guo Moruo","tags":["literature","morality","norms","revolution","society"],"id":137907,"author_id":"Guo+Moruo"},{"text":"Humans pursuing deep, complete connections respond to quite different incentives from those that influence self-interested utility maximizers. Rewards, monitoring, and punishments are less likely to be effective than engagement, communication, norms, socialization, identity, and common purpose. They share not out of a calculation of reciprocity but from a psychological pleasure in sharing. Those seeking connections make decisions from their hearts as well as their heads, influenced by emotion, fairness, empathy, and intuition. Their behavior, thoughts, feelings, and even personal attributes are highly socially contingent. The range of humanity includes individuals who display every possible combination of selfishness and sociability.","author":"Anne-Marie Slaughter","tags":["common-purpose","communication","emotion","empathy","engagement","fairness","identity","intuition","norms","socialization"],"id":205121,"author_id":"Anne-Marie+Slaughter"},{"text":"The path of the norm is the path of least resistance; it is the route we take when we're on auto-pilot and don't even realize we're following a course of action that we haven't consciously chosen. Most people who eat meat have no idea that they're behaving in accordance with the tenets of a system that has defined many of their values, preferences, and behaviors. What they call 'free choice' is, in fact, the result of a narrowly obstructed set of options that have been chosen for them. They don't realize, for instance, that they have been taught to value human life so far above certain forms of nonhuman life that it seems appropriate for their taste preferences to supersede other species' preference for survival.","author":"Melanie Joy","tags":["animals","carnism","meat","norms","veganism"],"id":231499,"author_id":"Melanie+Joy"},{"text":"Law is error, you see. It's an attempt to write down a lot of things everyone ought to know anyway.","author":"Nick Harkaway","tags":["criminals","law","norms","rules","society","structure","values"],"id":258923,"author_id":"Nick+Harkaway"},{"text":"The world is not ready for some people when they show up, but that shouldn't stop anyone.","author":"Ashly Lorenzana","tags":["difference","expression","freedom","individuality","life","norms","revolutionary","society","standards","uniqueness","world"],"id":262914,"author_id":"Ashly+Lorenzana"},{"text":"Custom is a shroud that conceals everything. Not without first encountering the uncustomary will we be able to recognize what is customary and, more importantly, to change it. Such is the impulse behind our conversation with the vampryoteuthis.","author":"Vilém Flusser","tags":["culture","norms","vampire-squid"],"id":277331,"author_id":"Vil%C3%A9m+Flusser"},{"text":"The trick for introverts is to honor their styles instead of allowing themselves to be swept up by prevailing norms.","author":"Susan Cain","tags":["introverts","norms","self-awareness","self-esteem","success"],"id":277931,"author_id":"Susan+Cain"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}