A. J. Jacobs - The Year of Living Biblically (2007)

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If my former self and my current self met for coffee, they'd get along OK, but they'd both probably walk out of the Starbucks shaking their heads and saying to themselves, That guy is kinda delusional.

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

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

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
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 rarely said the word "Lord," unless it's followed by "of the Rings.

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
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
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
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
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 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
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