Tag Archives: philosophy & ethics

Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #72

Cultivating anger is ultimately self-destructive. It’s also a choice, not a necessity. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum’s book, Anger and Forgiveness: Resentment, Generosity, Justice, which I’ve recently read, provides a liberating framework for thinking about this topic. I’m sure I’m going to … Continue reading

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #66

The belief that there can only be one winner comes from only looking at one measure of success.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #65

We’re often presented with what appear to be binary choices–it has to be one thing or another. (This path/that path, good/bad, conserving/liberating.) The truth is that it is almost always both/and, not either/or.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #61

The people who most invoke strong feelings in you (anger, disgust, fear, hatred, etc.) are the ones who have the most to teach you.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #57

My friend Loyd once pointed out that taste is not a virtue.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #48

Any way of seeing is also a way of not seeing.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #39

In this life, we don’t get answers or proof. The best we can hope for is persuasive evidence.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #35

Our lives are not stories in the literary sense. There’s no plot or moral. There’s just, as someone said, one thing after another. We make events into stories after the fact to try to make sense of what happened.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #34

There’s always a backstory when people are mean, seemingly for no reason. It takes courage to meet anger and hatred with compassion and love. I wish I could remember this in the heat of the moment.

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Lessons I’ve learned the hard way #27

Questions are almost always more interesting than answers. Questions open up possibilities; answers do the opposite.

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