A. J. Jacobs Quotes

31 Sourced Quotes

The key to making healthy decisions is to respect your future self. Honor him or her. Treat him or her like you would treat a friend or a loved one.

A. J. Jacobs
I've rarely said the word "Lord," unless it's followed by "of the Rings.

A. J. Jacobs
Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness.

A. J. Jacobs
Med students panic their first year when they learn all the diseases. It's not until the second year that they learn the cures.

A. J. Jacobs
I know that history is simultaneously a bloody mess and a collection of feats so inspiring and amazing they make you proud to share the same DNA structure with the rest of humanity. I know you'd better focus on the good stuff or you're screwed.

A. J. Jacobs
My immune system has always been overly welcoming of germs. It's far too polite, the biological equivalent of a southern hostess inviting y'all nice microbes to stay awhile and have some artichoke dip.

A. J. Jacobs
After decimating several vegetables, I decide juicing is my favorite form of food preparation. There's something perversely appealing about subjecting an innocent plant to that much violence.

A. J. Jacobs
I know that knowledge and intelligence are not the same thing - but they do live in the same neighborhood. I know once again, firsthand, the joy of learning.

A. J. Jacobs
How do you gag the voice in your head that says, 'You don't have to [do it] today. There's always tomorrow.'?

A. J. Jacobs
I've never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day.

A. J. Jacobs
A few weeks later, I'm in a fluorescent-lit classroom in Chelsea awaiting the start of the official Mensa test. I'm sitting next to a guy who's doing a series of elaborate neck stretches, like we're about to engage in a vigorous rugby match. He's neatly laid out four types of gum on his Formica desk: Juicy Fruit, Wrigley Spearmint, Big Red, and Eclipse. I hate this guy. I hope to God he's not a genius.

A. J. Jacobs
The whole bible is the working out of the relationship between God and man. God is not a dictator barking out orders and demanding silent obedience. Were it so, there would be no relationship at all. No real relationship goes just one way. There are always two active parties. We must have reverence and awe for God, and honor for the chain of tradition. But that doesn't mean we can't use new information to help us read the holy texts in new ways.

A. J. Jacobs
My reading list grows exponentially. Every time I read a book, it'll mention three other books I feel I have to read. It's like a particularly relentless series of pop-up ads.

A. J. Jacobs
The year showed me beyond a doubt that everyone practices cafeteria religion... But the important lesson was this: there's nothing wrong with choosing. Cafeterias aren't bad per se... the key is in choosing the right dishes. You need to pick the nurturing ones (compassion), the healthy ones (love thy neighbor), not the bitter ones.

A. J. Jacobs
This is what the Sabbath should feel like. A pause. Not just a minor pause, but a major pause. Not just lowering the volume, but a muting. As the famous rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, the Sabbath is a sanctuary in time.

A. J. Jacobs
There's a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great & powerful one

A. J. Jacobs
I thought religion would make me live with my head in the clouds, but as often as not, it grounds me in this world.

A. J. Jacobs
Scrabble - The game is available in Braille. That's a nice fact. This makes me feel better about humanity for some reason. I can't really explain why.

A. J. Jacobs
I know that you should always say yes to adventures or you'll lead a very dull life.

A. J. Jacobs
The best we can do, to paraphrase Pollan, is to eat whole foods, mostly plants, and not too much.

A. J. Jacobs
Think of negative speech as verbal pollution. And that's what I've been doing: visualizing insults and gossip as a dark cloud, maybe one with some sulfur dioxide. Once you've belched it out, you can't take it back. As grandma said, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. The interesting this is, the less often I vocalize my negative thoughts, the fewer negative thoughts I cook up in the first place.

A. J. Jacobs
I've started to look at life differently. When you're thanking God for every little you - every meal, every time you wake up, every time you take a sip of water - you can't help but be more thankful for life itself, for the unlikely and miraculous fact that you exist at all.

A. J. Jacobs
A 2002 Oxford study showed counting sheep actually delays the onset of sleep. It's just too dull to stop us from worrying about jobs and spouses.

A. J. Jacobs
I am officially Jewish, but I'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.

A. J. Jacobs
I love it when the Bible gives Emily Post-like tips that are both wise and easy to follow.

A. J. Jacobs
I always thought the name of Utah's major newspaper was some sort of weird misspelling of the word desert. But no, Deseret is the land of the honeybee, according to the Book of Mormon. I guess I should have figured they would have caught a typo in the masthead after 154 years.

A. J. Jacobs
Jealousy is a useless, time-wasting emotion that's eating me alive.

A. J. Jacobs
Plus, in one of his e-mails, the guy said he didn't like pancakes. What kind of asshole doesn't like pancakes?

A. J. Jacobs
"It's a different way of looking at the world. Your life isn't about rights. It's about responsibilities."—Mr Bill Berkowitz

A. J. Jacobs
It comes back to the old question: How can the Bible be so wise in some places and so barbaric in others? And why should we put any faith in a book that includes such brutality?

A. J. Jacobs