“
It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.
”
”
John Green (Paper Towns)
“
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
”
”
Confucius
“
Kaz leaned back. "What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?"
"Knife to the throat?" asked Inej.
"Gun to the back?" said Jesper.
"Poison in his cup?" suggested Nina.
"You're all horrible," said Matthias.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
“
The easiest way to steal a man’s wallet is to tell him you’re going to steal his watch. You take his attention and direct it where you want it to go.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
“
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.
”
”
Richard P. Feynman
“
The easiest lies to tell are the ones you want to be true.
”
”
Holly Black (White Cat (Curse Workers, #1))
“
The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don't let them put you in that position.
”
”
Leo F. Buscaglia
“
Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.
”
”
Mark Twain
“
To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul - would you understand why that's much harder?
”
”
Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
“
Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it's the easiest thing. Unfurl your fingers one by one until your hand is open.
”
”
Gayle Forman (Where She Went (If I Stay, #2))
“
Always tell the truth. It's the easiest thing to remember.
”
”
David Mamet
“
I mean, most people want to escape. Get out of their heads. Out of their lives. Stories are the easiest way to do that.
”
”
Victoria Schwab (This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, #1))
“
The easiest way to steal something, is for it to be given willingly.
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
“
Oh, and the easiest way to make someone furious is to tell her to calm down.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Siege and Storm (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #2))
“
And we hate people for making mistakes so much more than we love them for doing good that the easiest way to live is to do nothing, say nothing, and love no one.
”
”
Sally Rooney (Beautiful World, Where Are You)
“
Love is the most beautiful thing in the world. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest things in the world to hold on to, and one of the easiest things to throw away.
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Point of Retreat (Slammed, #2))
“
Anyone can give up; it is the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone would expect you to fall apart, now that is true strength.
”
”
Chris Bradford (The Way of the Sword (Young Samurai, #2))
“
The single easiest way to find out how you feel about someone. Say goodbye.
”
”
Phil Knight (Shoe Dog)
“
It's twilight. It’s the safest time of day for us. The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way...the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don’t you think?
”
”
Stephenie Meyer (Twilight (The Twilight Saga, #1))
“
Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it's the easiest thing. Unfurl your fingers one by one until your hand is open. But my hand has been clenched into a fist for three years now; it's frozen shut.
”
”
Gayle Forman (Where She Went (If I Stay, #2))
“
I can accept anything, except what seems to be the easiest for most people: the half-way, the almost, the just-about, the in-between.
”
”
Ayn Rand
“
You can fool yourself, you know. You'd think it's impossible, but it turns out it's the easiest thing of all.
”
”
Jodi Picoult (Vanishing Acts)
“
The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.
”
”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“
Because who you are is supposed to be the easiest question in the world answer, right?
”
”
Jennifer Brown (Hate List)
“
One thing I've learned about people is that the easiest way to get them to like you is to shut up and let them do the talking.
”
”
Jesse Andrews (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl)
“
A novel seemed the easiest way to get what I had had in my head into the inside of other people's heads. Books are good that way.
”
”
Neil Gaiman
“
Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple. So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. The second thing that happens is that we seek out facts that confirm what we want to believe - comforting facts, ones that permit life to go on as normal. The third is that we dehumanize our enemy.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (Beartown (Beartown, #1))
“
The easiest way to solve a problem is to deny it exists.
”
”
Isaac Asimov
“
The easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
”
”
Socrates
“
It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.
”
”
Herman Melville (Moby Dick oder Der Wal)
“
People who need to bully you are the easiest to push around.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (Dirk Gently, #2))
“
Before success comes in any man’s life, he is sure to meet with much temporary defeat, and, perhaps, some failure. When defeat overtakes a man, the easiest and most logical thing to do is to quit. That is exactly what the majority of men do. More than five hundred of the most successful men this country has ever known told the author their greatest success came just one step beyond the point at which defeat had overtaken them.
”
”
Napoleon Hill (Think and Grow Rich)
“
Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death; - the last, much the easiest to bestow, O Guillotine!
”
”
Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)
“
The stuff adults tell you not to do is the easiest.
”
”
Ned Vizzini (It's Kind of a Funny Story)
“
I am convinced that the act of thinking logically cannot possibly be natural to the human mind. If it were, then mathematics would be everybody's easiest course at school and our species would not have taken several millennia to figure out the scientific method.
”
”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist)
“
Falling in love should be the easiest thing in the world, but it's not.
”
”
Rachel Hawthorne (Full Moon (Dark Guardian, #2))
“
The easiest way to increase happiness is to control your use of time. Can you find more time to do the things you enjoy doing?
”
”
Daniel Kahneman (Thinking, Fast and Slow)
“
The best way to waste your life, is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate.
”
”
Chuck Palahniuk
“
You should always be trying to write a poem you are unable to write, a poem you lack the technique, the language, the courage to achieve. Otherwise you're merely imitating yourself, going nowhere, because that's always easiest.
”
”
John Berryman
“
Change is freedom, change is life.
It's always easier not to think for oneself. Find a nice safe hierarchy and settle in. Don't make changes, don't risk disapproval, don't upset your syndics. It's always easiest to let yourself be governed.
There's a point, around age twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.
Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I'm going to go fulfil my proper function in the social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.
”
”
Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia)
“
The first person you should be careful not to fool is yourself. Because you are the easiest person to fool".
”
”
Richard P. Feynman
“
True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.
”
”
Alexander Pope (An Essay On Criticism)
“
Falling in love with the wrong person is easy. Falling in love with the right person is easier. But falling in love with your soul mate is easiest.
”
”
Mia Asher (Arsen: A Broken Love Story)
“
The easiest way to do anything is properly.
”
”
K.J. Parker (The Proof House (Fencer Trilogy, #3))
“
For crying out loud, stop comparing and start living! And you'll be happier with your life, I guarantee. This is crucial: the most difficult thing in the world is to be who you are not. Pretending and trying to be someone else is the official pastime of the human race. And the easiest thing in the world is to be yourself. Be happy. Live! There must be a reason why God made you tall or short or fat or thin or bumpy all over. Love who you are!
”
”
Bo Sánchez (You Have The Power to Create Love: Take Another Step on the Simple Path to Happiness)
“
the easiest way to keep a woman over your shoulder is with a hand on her ass, and the other between her legs.
”
”
Cherise Sinclair (Master of the Mountain (Mountain Masters & Dark Haven, #1))
“
I'd spend about an hour, my room darkening around me, wondering what the hell happened to make me so unsure of who I even was. Because who you are is supposed to be the easiest question in the world to answer, right? Only for me it hadn't been easy for a very long time.
”
”
Jennifer Brown (Hate List)
“
Kate, I admit that we aren’t in the easiest of situations. But are you always this . . . complicated?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but Vincent shook his head, grinning. “Actually, don’t answer that. Of course you are. I wouldn’t be so totally into you if you weren’t.
”
”
Amy Plum (Until I Die (Revenants, #2))
“
Letting go of someone who owns your heart is hard. Sometimes holding on to that person is even harder. I know I'm not the easiest person to love, but you are.
”
”
J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
“
Love is the easiest thing there is. It's the layers of doubt, fear, and expectation that make it complicated.
”
”
Luanne Rice (Beach Girls)
“
The easiest way to get touch with this universal power is through silent Prayer. Shut your eyes, shut your mouth, and open your heart. This is the golden rule of prayer. Prayer should be soundless words coming forth from the centre of your heart filled with love.
”
”
Amit Ray (Om Chanting and Meditation)
“
Queenie: People are easiest to read when they're hurting.
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay)
“
What’s the easiest way to steal a man’s wallet?”
“Knife to the throat?” asked Inej.
“Gun to the back?” said Jesper.
“Poison in his cup?” suggested Nina.
“You’re all horrible,” said Matthias.
Kaz rolled his eyes. “The easiest way to steal a man’s wallet is to tell him you’re going to steal his watch. You take his attention and direct it where you want it to go. Hringkälla is going to do that job for us. The Ice Court will have to divert resources to monitoring guests and protecting the royal family. They can’t be looking everywhere at once. It’s the perfect opportunity to spring Bo Yul-Bayur.” Kaz pointed to the prison gate in the ringwall. “Remember what I told you at Hellgate, Nina?”
“It’s hard to keep track of all your wisdom.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
“
In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest.
”
”
Henry Miller
“
Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people's weaknesses. Avoid being one of the mob who indulges in such pastimes. Your life is too short and you have important things to do. Be discriminating about what images and ideas you permit into your mind. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest. It is the easiest thing in the world to slide imperceptibly into vulgarity. But there's no need for that to happen if you determine not to waste your time and attention on mindless pap.
”
”
Epictetus (The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness)
“
The easiest way to gain someone's trust is to deserve it. This should be pretty easy, assuming you're just being you and being real. Minimal effort too.
”
”
Ashly Lorenzana
“
I know that I'm not the easiest person to live with. The challenge I put on myself is so great that the person I live with feels himself challenged. I bring a lot to bear, and I don't know how not to.
”
”
Maya Angelou (phenomenal woman)
“
Coming up with ideas is the easiest thing on earth. Putting them down is the hardest.
”
”
Rod Serling
“
Always remember, child" her first teacher had impressed on her, "that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever-increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that need disipline –training- is about. So train your mind to dwell on sweet perfumes, the touch of this silk, tender raindrops against the shoji, the curve of the flower arrangement, the tranquillity of dawn. Then, at length, you won't have to make such a great effort and you will be of value to yourself,…
”
”
James Clavell (Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1))
“
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.
”
”
Richard P. Feynman (Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character)
“
Being polite is not only the right way to respond to people but also the easiest. Life is so filled with unavoidable conflict that I see no reason to promote more confrontations.
”
”
Dean Koontz (Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas, #1))
“
The easiest way to solve a mystery is to decide that there is no mystery to solve.
”
”
John Green (Paper Towns)
“
The world's most funniest and easiest thing is to give an advice...
”
”
Chetan Bhagat
“
Those who appeared to be victims were always the easiest to victimize.
”
”
Morgan Rhodes (Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms, #1))
“
As centuries of dictators have known, an illiterate crowd is the easiest to rule; since the craft of reading cannot be untaught once it has been acquired, the second-best recourse is to limit its scope.
”
”
Alberto Manguel (A History of Reading)
“
Loving you is the easiest thing I've ever done.
”
”
Talia Hibbert (Take a Hint, Dani Brown (The Brown Sisters, #2))
“
Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
”
”
Richard P. Feynman
“
the easiest way for us to gain happiness is to learn how to want the things we already have.
”
”
William B. Irvine (A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy)
“
You give a lot of great advice about what to do. Do you have any advice of what not to do?
Don’t do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to do. Don’t stay when you know you should go or go when you know you should stay. Don’t fight when you should hold steady or hold steady when you should fight. Don’t focus on the short-term fun instead of the long-term fall out. Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore. Don’t seek joy at all costs. I know it’s hard to know what to do when you have a conflicting set of emotions and desires, but it’s not as hard as we pretend it is. Saying it’s hard is ultimately a justification to do whatever seems like the easiest thing to do—have the affair, stay at that horrible job, end a friendship over a slight, keep loving someone who treats you terribly. I don’t think there’s a single dumbass thing I’ve done in my adult life that I didn’t know was a dumbass thing to do while I was doing it. Even when I justified it to myself—as I did every damn time—the truest part of me knew I was doing the wrong thing. Always. As the years pass, I’m learning how to better trust my gut and not do the wrong thing, but every so often I get a harsh reminder that I’ve still got work to do.
”
”
Cheryl Strayed (Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar)
“
I ran this through my "girl talk" translator and said, "I could eat him, if either of you'd like. Seems like it might be the easiest thing to do."
-Bram to Nora & Pamela
”
”
Lia Habel (Dearly, Departed (Gone with the Respiration, #1))
“
The easiest way to get brainwashed is to be born. All of the above principles then immediately go into action, a process which social psychologists euphemistically call socialization.
”
”
Robert Anton Wilson (Prometheus Rising)
“
Of all human activities, writing is the one for which it is easiest to find excuses not to begin – the desk’s too big, the desk’s too small, there’s too much noise, there’s too much quiet, it’s too hot, too cold, too early, too late. I had learned over the years to ignore them all, and simply to start.
”
”
Robert Harris (The Ghost)
“
She’d learned early that it was quicker to bond with another person over what you didn’t like than what you did, and that the easiest way to feel close to someone was to do something transgressive together. That’s why smokers always made friends.
”
”
Coco Mellors (Cleopatra and Frankenstein)
“
The easiest way to make money is -create something of such value that everybody wants and go out and give and create value, the money comes automatically.
”
”
Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street (The Wolf of Wall Street, #1))
“
Letting go. Everyone talks about it like it's the easiest thing.
”
”
Gayle Forman (Where She Went (If I Stay, #2))
“
Perhaps the easiest people to fall in love with are those about whom
we know nothing. Romances are never as pure as those we imagine during
long train journeys, as we secretly contemplate a beautiful person who is
gazing out of the window – a perfect love story interrupted only when the
beloved looks back into the carriage and starts up a dull conversation
about the excessive price of the on-board sandwiches with a neighbour or
blows her nose aggressively into a handkerchief.
”
”
Alain de Botton (On Love)
“
I am a man who, from his youth upwards, has been filled with a profound conviction that the easiest way of life is the best.
”
”
Herman Melville (Bartleby the Scrivener)
“
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions - especially selfish ones.
”
”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“
The easiest way to get from point A to point B is with a vehicle that runs on alphabet soup.
”
”
Jarod Kintz (Great Listener Seeks Mute Women)
“
I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize that He is able to carry out His will for me. It does not matter where He places me, or how. That is for Him to consider, not me, for in the easiest positions He will give me grace, and in the most difficult ones His grace is sufficient.
”
”
James Hudson Taylor
“
Spiritual realization is theoretically the easiest thing and in practice the most difficult thing there is. It is the easiest because it is enough to think of God. It is the most difficult because human nature is forgetfulness of God.
”
”
Frithjof Schuon (Spiritual Perspectives and Human Facts)
“
The cleanest souls are the easiest to soil.
”
”
Jasper Fforde (The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next, #1))
“
The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.
”
”
Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne, #1))
“
And as paralyzing and upsetting as all the never agains were, the final leaving felt perfect. Pure. The most distilled possible form of liberation. Everything that mattered except one lousy picture was in the trash, but it felt so great. I started jogging, wanting to put even more distance between myself and school.
It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.
”
”
John Green (Paper Towns)
“
One of the easiest ways to dominate a man is to demand something he cannot supply.
”
”
Gene Wolfe (Sword & Citadel)
“
The easiest way to disregard a woman’s voice is to package her as a scold.
”
”
Michelle Obama (Becoming)
“
Maybe innocence makes its way easiest through the elemental chaos of this world...
”
”
Franz Kafka
“
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. —RICHARD FEYNMAN
”
”
Ryan Holiday (Ego Is the Enemy)
“
Loving another soul and devoting life to a loved one’s happiness is the easiest way to enlightenment.
”
”
Raz Mihal (Just Love Her)
“
I would say that music is the easiest means in which to express, but since words are my talent, I must try to express clumsily in words what the pure music would have done better.
”
”
William Faulkner
“
I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others.
”
”
Iain Banks (The Bridge)
“
We do what we must, we do what we are told, we do what is easiest. What else can we do but solve one sordid problem at a time? Then one day we look up and find that we are . . . this.
”
”
Joe Abercrombie (Last Argument of Kings (The First Law, #3))
“
But the memories that hang heaviest are the easiest to recall. They hold in their creases the ability to change one's life, organically, forever. Even when you shake them out, they've left permanent wrinkles in the fabric of your soul.
”
”
Julie Gregory (Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood)
“
Life's simplest answers are often the easiest to overlook.
”
”
Stephen King (11/22/63)
“
It was the easiest thing in the world for Arya to step up behind him and stab him. “Is there gold hidden in the village?” she shouted as she drove the blade up through his back. “Is there silver? Gems?” She stabbed twice more. “Is there food? Where is Lord Beric?” She was on top of him by then, still stabbing. “Where did he go? How many men were with him? How many knights? How many bowmen? How many, how many, how many, how many, how many, how many? is there gold in the village?
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3))
“
And then we ease him out of that worn-out body with a kiss, and he's gone like a whisper, the easiest breath.
”
”
Mark Doty
“
The temptation was great to muster what force we could and put up a fight. It's the easiest way out, and the most satisfactory to self-respect--but, nearly invariably, the stupidest.
”
”
Isaac Asimov (Foundation (Foundation, #1))
“
Hate can be a deeply stimulating emotion. The world becomes much easier to understand and much less terrifying if you divide everything and everyone into friends and enemies, we and they, good and evil. The easiest way to unite a group isn’t through love, because love is hard. It makes demands. Hate is simple.
”
”
Fredrik Backman (Beartown (Beartown, #1))
“
Is that . . . has it all been for that? The tea party, the letters, what you said at the festival . . . all of it, no more than an attempt to steal my heart so you could take it back to your queen?’
‘The easiest way to steal something,’ Jest murmured, ‘is for it to be given willingly.
”
”
Marissa Meyer (Heartless)
“
When you have two paths, both that end in pain, there isn’t really a choice. You just have to choose which one you can live with the easiest.
”
”
Bella Jewel (Knights' Sinner (The MC Sinners, #3))
“
Liver failure is the easiest way to say 'no' to alcohol.
”
”
Bauvard (Some Inspiration for the Overenthusiastic)
“
The easiest kind of lying is when you leave things out of a story rather than make them up.
”
”
Ransom Riggs (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, #1))
“
Evil conquered?' said Gwydion. 'You have learned much, but learn this last and hardest of lessons. You have conquered only the enchantments of evil. That was the easiest of your tasks, only a beginning, not an ending. Do you believe evil itself to be so quickly overcome? Not so long as men still hate and slay each other, when greed and anger goad them. Against these even a flaming sword cannot prevail, but only that portion of good in all men's hearts whose flame can never be quenched.
”
”
Lloyd Alexander (The High King (The Chronicles of Prydain, #5))
“
Possibly. Basically,everything that happens in our life is our fault and ours alone. A lot of people go through the same difficulties we went through, and they react completely differently. We looked for the easiest way out: a separate reality.
”
”
Paulo Coelho (Veronika Decides to Die)
“
How many times in her life has she said yes to a boy or a man just because it was the easiest thing to do? How many times has she let a man take what he wanted, instead of taking something for herself?
”
”
Liz Moore (The God of the Woods)
“
The easiest way of making others believe in you is by believing in yourself.
”
”
Pooja Agnihotri (17 Reasons Why Businesses Fail :Unscrew Yourself From Business Failure)
“
I'm saying that death is the easiest thing in the world. It's only dying that's terrible.
”
”
Gavin Extence (The Universe Versus Alex Woods)
“
The easiest way to get old is to be technologically behind...
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry)
“
I’m sorry someone let you believe you were hard to love, because, Blue, it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done.” I shake my head.
”
”
Liz Tomforde (The Right Move (Windy City, #2))
“
I know I'm not the easiest person to love, but you are.
”
”
J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
“
As soon as we open our hearts up to love, we show the universe the easiest way to break them in half.
”
”
Christina Lauren (Dark Wild Night (Wild Seasons, #3))
“
Life is terrifying. None of us have a rule book. None of us know what we're doing here. So, the easiest way to stare reality in the face and not utterly lose your shit is to believe that you have control over it. If you believe you have control, then you believe you're at the top. And if you're at the top, then people who aren't like you... well, they've got to be somewhere lower, right? Every species does this. Does it again and again and again. Doesn't matter if they do it to themselves, or another species, or someone they created.
”
”
Becky Chambers (A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2))
“
A memorable heart is the easiest way to immortality.
”
”
Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
“
How'd you get him to stop tripping us up at practice the other day?" Neil whittled it down the barest, easiest truth. "I asked." "You asked," Matt said.
”
”
Nora Sakavic (The King's Men (All for the Game, #3))
“
And to think you consider yourself hard to love.” I kiss her temple. “Loving you is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.
”
”
Sarah Adams (Beg, Borrow, or Steal (When in Rome, #3))
“
But, of course, putting yourself out there takes vulnerability. Vulnerability is hard, and we, as a rule, tend to go for what’s easy; by that logic, closing ourselves off is the easiest thing in the world. We quote the words of others to do our talking for us, send each other links to articles and stories in lieu of actual conversation, post pretty pictures to adequately convey our current state of mind, all to avoid having to proffer a single identifiable human emotion. We keep in touch with relatives by emailing them mawkishly inspirational chain letters once in a while. We regurgitate memes to approximate the feeling of being in the loop.
”
”
Phil Roland
“
The easiest way to be reborn is to live and feel life everyday
”
”
Munia Khan
“
Revenge is the easiest of emotions to understand and to manipulate.
”
”
David Anthony Durham (Acacia: The War with the Mein (Acacia #1))
“
For even the most wretched and simple-minded man could be a surprise, even a fool could have a soul whose torments were a constant source of amazement. Why are we so slow to see this, and why do we assume that it is the easiest thing in the world to know and judge another?
”
”
Sabahattin Ali (Kürk Mantolu Madonna)
“
so here i sit. a sum of the parts. about a third way down this wonderful path, so to speak. and i've been thinking lately about a friendship that fell apart with time, with distance, and with the misunderstanding of youth. i'm trying not to confuse sadness with regret. not the easiest thing at times. i dont regret that certain things happened. i understand that perhaps i had a choice in the matter, or perhaps i believe in fate. probably not, but so far actions as small as the quickest glance to events as monumental as death have pushed me slowly along to right here, right now. there was no other way to get here. the meandering and erratic path was actually the straightest of lines. take away a handful of angry words, things once thought of as mistakes or regrets, and i'm suddenly a different person with a different history, a different future. that, i would regret. so here i sit. thinking about a person i once called my best friends. a man who might be full of sadness and regret, who might not give a damn, or who might, just might, remember the future and realize that's where its at.
”
”
Chris Wright
“
The easiest way to steal a man´s wallet is to tell his you're going to steal his watch.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
“
What she craved and really felt herself entitled to was a situation in which the noblest attitude should also be the easiest.
”
”
Edith Wharton (The House of Mirth)
“
One of the easiest ways to discover if someone is compatible with you is to gauge their emotional intelligence. Are they a kind and sensitive person? Will they be respectful towards your sensitivities? Or, are they emotionally stunted? Remember, we tend to attract narcissistic types who lack empathy.
”
”
Aletheia Luna (Awakened Empath: The Ultimate Guide to Emotional, Psychological and Spiritual Healing)
“
Here is the easiest way to explain the genius of Johnny Cash: Singing from the perspective of a convicted muderer in the song "Folsom Prison Blues,: Cash is struck by pangs of regret when he sits in his cell and hears a distant train whistle. This is because people on that train are "probably drinkin' coffee." And this is also why Cash seems completely credible as a felon: He doesn't want freedom or friendship or Jesus or a new lawyer. He wants coffee. Within the mind of a killer, complex feeling are eerily simple. This is why killers can shoot men in Reno just to watch them die, and the rest of us usually can't.
”
”
Chuck Klosterman (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto)
“
The great sage Thales once put the general matter succinctly "Oh master," he was asked, "what is the most difficult thing to do?" "To know thyself", he replied. "And the easiest?" "To give advice to others.
”
”
Robert Trivers (Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others)
“
You want to do it?"
"I might. If you offer me enough."
"Howard—anything you ask. Anything. I'd sell my soul..."
"That's the sort of thing I want you to understand. To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul—would you understand why that's much harder?
”
”
Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
“
Yeah, I mean, most people want to escape. Get out of their heads. Out of their lives. Stories are the easiest way to do that.
”
”
Victoria Schwab (This Savage Song (Monsters of Verity, #1))
“
Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength.~ Oliver Wilkins
”
”
Evangeline Love
“
The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.
”
”
Seth Godin (Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us)
“
Suze, your whole life," my dad went on, not without sympathy, "you've always made the right decisions. Not necessarily the easiest ones. The right ones. Don't mess that up now, when you're facing what's probably the most important decision you'll ever have to make.
”
”
Meg Cabot (Twilight (The Mediator, #6))
“
I’m simply saying they were all too happy to believe the lie I was selling them. And of course, that’s the easiest lie to tell, one you know the other person desperately wants to be true.
”
”
Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
“
The contemporary proliferation of bullshit also has deeper sources, in various forms of skepticism which deny that we can have any reliable access to an objective reality and which therefore reject the possibility of knowing how things truly are. These "anti-realist" doctrines undermine confidence in the value of disinterested efforts to determine what is true and what is false, and even in the intelligibility of the notion of objective inquiry. One response to this loss of confidence has been a retreat from the discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness to a quite different sort of discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal of sincerity. Rather than seeking primarily to arrive at accurate representations of a common world, the individual turns toward trying to provide honest representations of himself. Convinced that reality has no inherent nature, which he might hope to identify as the truth about things, he devotes himself to being true to his own nature. It is as though he decides that since it makes no sense to try to be true to the facts, he must therefore try instead to be true to himself.
But it is preposterous to imagine that we ourselves are determinate, and hence susceptible both to correct and to incorrect descriptions, while supposing that the ascription of determinacy to anything else has been exposed as a mistake. As conscious beings, we exist only in response to other things, and we cannot know ourselves at all without knowing them. Moreover, there is nothing in theory, and certainly nothing in experience, to support the extraordinary judgment that it is the truth about himself that is the easiest for a person to know. Facts about ourselves are not peculiarly solid and resistant to skeptical dissolution. Our natures are, indeed, elusively insubstantial -- notoriously less stable and less inherent than the natures of other things. And insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bullshit.
”
”
Harry G. Frankfurt (On Bullshit)
“
Kitten,
Letting go of someone who owns your heart is hard.
Sometimes holding on to that person is even harder. I
know I'm not the easiest person to love, but you are.
I'ts not that I can't live without you; it's that I don't want to. There's a difference. We all make choices in life and I choose you.
My heart belongs to you. And I'm not asking for it back, even if you don't want it anymore. I'm just asking for the chance to have yours again. I promise I'll be more careful with it this time.
Love Always,
Jack
”
”
J. Sterling (The Perfect Game (The Perfect Game, #1))
“
To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline and training is all about.
”
”
James Clavell
“
But who ever said the easiest path
is the one you should choose?
”
”
Ellen Hopkins (Rumble)
“
The exhausted mind is obsession's easiest prey.
”
”
Stephen King (Lisey's Story)
“
The easiest thing to do on earth is not write…But this is life on earth, you can't have everything.
”
”
William Goldman
“
Humans have a tendency to look for things in the places where it is easiest to search for them rather than in the places where the truth is more likely to be found.
”
”
Esther Perel (The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity)
“
Perhaps the easiest way of making a town's acquaintance is to ascertain how the people in it work, how they love, and how they die.
”
”
Albert Camus (The Plague)
“
The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you are right. As one grows older, this is easier still.
”
”
Robert Ludlum (The Bourne Identity (Jason Bourne, #1))
“
Maybe touching someone is the kindest thing you can do; making a person feel like it's okay to touch them, that they're touchable and not disgusting, is the easiest and best way to make a person feel good in the world.
”
”
Ainslie Hogarth (Motherthing)
“
But mostly, I remembered what I’ve always believed. What my mom taught me. That while some things are just plain awful, most things in life can be seen either tragic or comic. And it’s your choice. Is life a big, long, tiresome slog from sadness to regret to guilt to resentment to self-pity? Or is life weird, outrageous, bizarre, ironic, and just stupid?
Gotta go with stupid.
It’s not the easy way out. Self-pity is the easiest thing in the world. Finding the humor, the irony, the slight justification for a skewed, skeptical optimism, that’s tough.
”
”
Katherine Applegate (The Proposal (Animorphs, #35))
“
It's so hard to leave-until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world...Leaving feels too good, once you leave.
”
”
John Green (Paper Towns)
“
You've had it the easiest. What good is all your privilege, you soft, spoiled thing, if you can't stand on your own legs?
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater
“
Dharma is easiest to spot by its absence: the Mahabharata employs the pedagogical technique of teaching about dharma via its opposite, adharma
”
”
Gurcharan Das
“
It would be the easiest thing in the world to lose everything,
”
”
Claire Keegan (Small Things Like These)
“
The best way to waste your life is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate. Let Big Brother do the singing and dancing for you. Be a reporter. Be a good witness. A grateful member of the
audience.
”
”
Chuck Palahniuk (Lullaby)
“
I stared at them in disbelief. "You meant to get caught?"
"Turns out the easiest way to schedule a meeting is to get arrested.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Ruin and Rising (Shadow and Bone, #3))
“
The easiest thing in the world is to be what you are, what you feel. The hardest thing to be is what other people want you to be.
”
”
Leo F. Buscaglia
“
The easiest way to steal a man's wallet is to tell him that you're going to steal his watch.
”
”
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
“
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.
”
”
Russell "Russ" Roberts (How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness)
“
I want to give you whatever elusive, impossible, goddamned mysterious thing it is you need in order to be happy. Does that frighten you? Well, it frightens the hell out of me. Don't you think I'd stop feeling this way if I could? It's not as if you're the easiest woman in the world to—" He checked himself suddenly.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Then Came You (The Gamblers of Craven's, #1))
“
It is said that peace is the basic tenet of all religion. Yet it is in the name of religion that there has been so much disturbance, bloodshed and persecution. It is indeed a pity that even at the close of the twentieth century we've had to witness such atrocities because of religion. Flying the flag of religion has always proved the easiest way to crush to nothingness human beings as well as the spirit of humanity.
”
”
Taslima Nasrin (Lajja: Shame)
“
This is what I want and what I've chosen," Alec said. "How dare you tell me it's a tragedy? Magnus pretended he never tried to fool me into thinking it would be easy, but choosing Magnus is one of the easiest things I've ever done.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices, #2))
“
Gansey... instead gave himself over to feeling sorry for himself, that he should have so many friends and yet feel so very alone. He felt it fell to him to comfort them, but never the other way around.
As it should be, he thought, abruptly angry with himself. You’ve had it the easiest. What good is all your privilege, you soft, spoiled thing, if you can’t stand on your own legs?
”
”
Maggie Stiefvater (The Dream Thieves (The Raven Cycle, #2))
“
The way you are self-sabotaging: Mindlessly scrolling through social media as a way to pass the time. What your subconscious mind might want you to know: This is one of the easiest ways to numb yourself, because it is so accessible and addictive. There is a world-altering difference between using social media in a healthy way versus as a coping mechanism. Mostly, it has to do with how you feel after you’re finished. If you don’t put the phone down feeling inspired or relaxed, you’re probably trying to avoid some kind of discomfort within yourself—the very discomfort that just might be telling you that you need to change.
”
”
Brianna Wiest (The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery)
“
Sometimes silence was easiest, when the only word left was good-bye.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Dream Lake (Friday Harbor, #3))
“
You need to recognize when you’re making a choice that requires willpower; otherwise, the brain always defaults to what is easiest.
”
”
Kelly McGonigal (The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It)
“
Eyes on me", he calls. It's the easiest part of all this. Eyes on Tyler ? Ha. They hardly ever rest on anything else.
”
”
Estelle Maskame (Did I Mention I Need You? (DIMILY, #2))
“
Planting a tree is the easiest way to align yourself with the cosmic rhythm.
”
”
Amit Ray (Yoga The Science of Well-Being)
“
MEETING THE EYE
You'll probably find
that it suits your book
to be a bit cleverer
than you look.
Observe that the easiest
method by far
is to look a bit stupider
than you are.
”
”
Piet Hein
“
For most of his life, Sam had found it difficult to say I Love You. It was superior, he believed, to show love those one loved. But now, it seemed like one of the easiest things in the world Sam could do. Why wouldn't you tell someone you loved them? Once you loved someone, you repeated it until they were tired of hearing it. You said it until it ceased to have meaning. Why not? Of course, you goddamn did.
”
”
Gabrielle Zevin (Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow)
“
And you're not leaving," she said. "Promise me."
It was as if she had asked him to promise to keep breathing, to notice sunshine, to permit the spinning of the earth. What choice did he have? Even if he left her, she would be camped in his heart, an insistent and willful presence. She would match her strides to his on any journey he ever took; she would lie beside him on any bed.
Amalie, he said, "that's the easiest promise I've ever had to make.
”
”
Sharon Shinn (Reader and Raelynx (Twelve Houses, #4))
“
Humans tend to segregate the world: enemies on one side, friends on the other. Friends are people we know. Enemies are the Other. You can do just about anything to the Other. It doesn't matter if this Other is actually guilty of any crimes, because it's a matter of emotion, not logic. You see, angry people aren't interested in justice. they just want an excuse to vent their rage. And once you become their Other, you're no longer a person. You're just an idea, an abstraction of everything that's wrong with their world. Give them the slightest excuse, and they will tear you down. And the easiest way for them to target you as this Other is to find something that's different about you.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, #5))
“
children who are praised for “being smart” often believe that every encounter is a test of whether they really are. So to avoid looking dumb, they resist new challenges and choose the easiest path. By contrast, kids who understand that effort and hard work lead to mastery and growth are more willing to take on new, difficult tasks.
”
”
Daniel H. Pink (Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us)
“
The secret of this kind of climbing, is like Zen. Don't think. Just dance along. It's the easiest thing in the world, actually easier than walking on flat ground which is monotonous. The cute little problems present themselves at each step and yet you don't hesitate and you find yourself on some other boulder you picked out for no special reason at all, just like zen.~ Japhy
”
”
Jack Kerouac (The Dharma Bums)
“
No two people will ever see or feel things in the same way, Merry. The challenge is to be truthful when you write. Don't approximate. Don't settle for the easiest combination of words. Go searching instead for those that explain exactly what you think. What you feel.
”
”
Kate Morton (The Distant Hours)
“
This inner peace of mind occurs on three levels of understanding. Physical quietness seems the easiest to achieve, although there are levels and levels of this too, as attested by the ability of Hindu mystics to live buried alive for many days. Mental quietness, in which one has no wandering thoughts at all, seems more difficult, but can be achieved. But value quietness, in which one has no wandering desires at all but simply performs the acts of his life without desire, that seems the hardest.
”
”
Robert M. Pirsig
“
One day old Thrashbarg said that Almighty Bob had declared that he, Thrashbarg, was to have first pick of the sandwiches. The villagers asked him when this had happened, exactly, and Thrashbarg said it had happened yesterday, when they weren't looking. 'Have faith,' Old Thrashbarg said, 'or burn!'
They let him have first pick of the sandwiches. It seemed easiest.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1-5))
“
Believe me when I tell you this: the easiest choice is always the wrong one. Choose the path that matters in the long term, the choice that would never hurt others. It might seem difficult at this point, but the right choice is the one that takes the most courage. Its the one that seems impossible at first.
”
”
J.C. Reed (Treasure Your Love (Surrender Your Love, #3))
“
Wouldn't it be most logical for her to change herself into a living thing, like a cat or dog, a bird or mouse?'
That would be the easiest transformation, but Risto is above doing something simple.'
Still, I'd be happier if Dibl would quit eating those bugs. Dibl, stop it. You might eat Gilda.
”
”
Donita K. Paul (DragonQuest (DragonKeeper Chronicles, #2))
“
Always remember, child... that to think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one onf the things that discipline - training - is about.
”
”
James Clavell (Shōgun (Asian Saga, #1))
“
Though these young men unhappily fail to
understand that the sacrifice of life is, in many cases, the easiest of
all sacrifices, and that to sacrifice, for instance, five or six years of
their seething youth to hard and tedious study, if only to multiply
tenfold their powers of serving the truth and the cause they have set
before them as their goal--such a sacrifice is utterly beyond the strength
of many of them.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
“
Zombies will try to scale any surface no matter how unfeasable or even impossible. In all but the easiest situations, these attempts have met with failure. Even in the case of ladders, when simple hand-over-hand coordination is required, only one in four zombies will succeed.
”
”
Max Brooks (The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead)
“
History teaches us that Literary Book Awards have always been the quickest and easiest way to achieve global fame. They have helped countless authors to shoot to stardom. But this fame usually fades away after their death, unlike William Shakespeare, Jane Austen or Charles Dickens who never won any awards, yet they continue to be read, quoted and remembered as the greatest writers of all time.
”
”
Mouloud Benzadi
“
Angels can fly because they can take themselves lightly. This has been always the instinct of Christendom, and especially the instinct of Christian art. Remember how Fra Angelico represented all his angels, not only as birds, but almost as butterflies. Remember how the most earnest mediaeval art was full of light and fluttering draperies, of quick and capering feet. It was the one thing that the modern Pre-raphaelites could not imitate in the real Pre-raphaelites. Burne-Jones could never recover the deep levity of the Middle Ages. In the old Christian pictures the sky over every figure is like a blue or gold parachute. Every figure seems ready to fly up and float about in the heavens. The tattered cloak of the beggar will bear him up like the rayed plumes of the angels. But the kings in their heavy gold and the proud in their robes of purple will all of their nature sink downwards, for pride cannot rise to levity or levitation. Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One "settles down" into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness. A man "falls" into a brown study; he reaches up at a blue sky. Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton
“
Why Is It So Hard to Lose Weight?
Body fat is hard to lose because the body automatically burns the easiest energy source first—blood glucose; when blood glucose gets too low, the body then uses the next easiest source of energy—glycogen in the liver—which converts back to glucose and goes into the bloodstream. Then and only then, after the liver is depleted of glycogen, does the body begin to use body fat. That is why body fat is so hard to get rid of. It’s the last source of energy used and is also a very stable molecule that is hard to break down.
You can gain weight easily simply by putting more glucose in your bloodstream than you need for your current activity or inactivity. But it’s harder to lose weight because body fat is the last source of energy your body uses. This is the very reason that you can gain weight quickly, but losing weight takes longer.
”
”
Rick Mystrom (Glucose Control Eating: Lose Weight Stay Slimmer Live Healthier Live Longer)
“
My whole life I wanted to be normal. Everybody knows there's no such thing as normal. There is no black-and-white definition of normal. Normal is subjective. There's only messy, inconsistant, silly, hopeful version of how we feel most at home in our own lives. But when I think about what I have, what I strived to reach my whole life, it's not the biggest or best or easiest or prettiest or most anything. It's not the Manor or the laundry closet. Not the multi-million dollar inheritance or the poorhouse. It's not superstardom or unemployment. It's family and love and safety. It's bravery and hope. It's work and laughter and imperfection. It's my normal.
”
”
Tori Spelling
“
A revolution on a world scale will take a very long time. But it is also possible to recognize that it is already starting to happen. The easiest way to get our minds around it is to stop thinking about revolution as a thing — “the” revolution, the great cataclysmic break—and instead ask “what is revolutionary action?” We could then
suggest: revolutionary action is any collective action which rejects, and therefore confronts, some form of power or domination and in doing so, reconstitutes social relations—even within the collectivity—in that light. Revolutionary action does not necessarily have to aim to topple governments. Attempts to create autonomous communities in the face of power (using Castoriadis’ definition
here: ones that constitute themselves, collectively make their own rules or principles of operation, and continually reexamine them), would, for
instance, be almost by definition revolutionary acts. And history shows us that the continual accumulation
of such acts can change (almost) everything.
”
”
David Graeber (Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology (Paradigm))
“
I closed my eyes. “Seth—”
"And when I was there and Erik sent me wherever he did, I felt…well, it was beyond anything I’d experienced. At first, I was so confused and disoriented. I didn’t get what they were saying about finding you. It seemed surreal. Then, it was the easiest thing in the world. I just looked for you, and there you were. In all that space and all that chaos, reaching you was like looking into myself. We were so close…it defied physics and every rule of nature I knew. It didn’t seem real that I could be together with anyone like that.
And when it was over, it’s like I said—I wasn’t sure what I’d just been a part of. But I knew that I had never experienced any bond like that with any other woman. Maybe you’re the only one, maybe there’s another…but regardless, I didn’t have it with Maddie. She’s amazing. I do love her. But in that situation again? I would never find her. And I knew it wasn’t fair to lead her into a life without that connection. You and I…I don’t understand what’s between us, but I’d rather spend my life alone than with someone who isn’t you.
”
”
Richelle Mead (Succubus Shadows (Georgina Kincaid, #5))
“
Any single historical event is too complex to be adequately known by anyone. It transcends all the intellectual capacities of men. Our practice is to wait until a sufficient number of details have been forgotten. Of course things seem simpler then! Our memories work that way; we retain the facts which are easiest to think about.
”
”
B.F. Skinner (Walden Two (Hackett Classics))
“
Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend or lapse into taking one's self gravely, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.
”
”
G.K. Chesterton
“
I killed little Esmerelda because I felt I owed it to myself and to the world in general. I had, after all, accounted for two male children and thus done womankind something of a statistical favour. If I really had the courage of my convictions, I reasoned, I ought to redress the balance at least slightly. My cousin was simply the easiest and most obvious target.
”
”
Iain Banks (The Wasp Factory)
“
I keep everything hidden because there's nothing about my true self that anyone likes. I'm not difficult, Sebastian. I'm the easiest person around. I don't belong, and I spend all my time pretending I do. Sometimes I get weary of it, and that makes me angry.
It's not fair to the people around me when I lose my temper. I say awful things when I'm angry. But it's not fair to me, either, that I was made this way.
”
”
Courtney Milan (The Countess Conspiracy (Brothers Sinister, #3))
“
The easiest thing in the world to do when you don't want to look inside yourself is to find escape hatches. You can always make it someone else's fault, it takes a lot of courage to admit that the fault -- or rather the responsibility -- is yours alone. And yet, as I've said before, this is the only way to go forward. If life's a road we travel, it's uphill all the way.
”
”
Susanna Tamaro (Follow Your Heart)
“
Being grateful all the time isn’t easy. But it’s when you feel least thankful
that you are most in need of what gratitude can give you: perspective.
Gratitude can transform any situation. It alters your vibration, moving you
from negative energy to positive. It’s the quickest, easiest, most powerful
way to effect change in your life—this I know for sure.
”
”
Oprah Winfrey (What I Know for Sure)
“
It's easiest to judge from distance. That's why the Internet has turned us all into armchair critics, experts at the cold dissection of gesture and syllable, sneering self-righteously from the safety of our screens. There, we can feel good about ourselves, validated that our flaws weren't as bad as theirs, unchallenged in our superiority. Moral high ground is a pleasant place to preach, even if the view turns out to be rather limited in scope.
”
”
Janelle Brown (Pretty Things)
“
Undoubtedly, our path is not of the easiest; but, just as undoubtedly, we are not to be frightened by difficulties. Paraphrasing from the well-known words of Luther, Russia might say: ‘Here I stand on the frontier between the old, capitalist world and the new, socialist world. Here on this frontier I unite the efforts of the proletarians of the West and of the peasantry of the East in order to shatter the old world. May the god of history be my aid!
”
”
Joseph Stalin
“
The lines between his brows smooth. “I need you to know that no matter what information I hold, you trust me, love me enough to realize I’d never let it hurt you. I’m not the easiest person to know, but I’ve learned my lesson, believe me. Even if it’s classified, I won’t withhold any information that affects your agency.” He swallows, then balances his weight on one arm and runs the back of his hand down the side of my cheek. “I need to know you won’t run, that you know you’ll never have to.
”
”
Rebecca Yarros (Iron Flame (The Empyrean, #2))
“
You'll be my wife," he said inexorably.
"You want to own me!" she accused, trying to crawl away from him.
"Yes." He flung her down on the bed and flattened his weight on her. As he spoke, his hot breath fanned
her mouth and chin. "Yes. I want other people to look at you and know you're mine. I want you to take
my name and my money. I want you to
live with me. I want to be inside you . . . part of your thoughts . . . your body . . . all of you. I want you to
trust me. I want to give you whatever elusive, impossible, goddamned mysterious thing it is you need in
order to be happy. Does that frighten
you? Well, it frightens the hell out of me. Don't you think I'd stop feeling this way if I could? It's not as if
you're the easiest woman in the world!!
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Then Came You (The Gamblers of Craven's, #1))
“
There are two ways of being happy: We may either diminish our wants or augment our means- either will do- the result in the same; and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which happens to be the easiest. If you are idle or sick or poor, however hard it may be to diminish your wants, it will be harder to augment your means. If you are active and prosperous or young and in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means than to diminish your wants. But if you are wise, you will do both at the same time, young or old, rich or poor, sick or well; and if you are very wise you will do both in such a way as to augment the general happiness of society.
”
”
Benjamin Franklin
“
Contrary to what most people think, making a decision is one of the easiest decisions in the world, as is more than proved by the fact that we make decision upon decision throughout the day, there, however, we run straight into the heart of the matter, for these decisions always come to us afterward with their particular little problems, or, to make ourselves quite clear, with their rough edges needing to be smoothed, the first of these problems being our capacity for sticking to a decision and the second our willingness to follow it through.
”
”
José Saramago (The Double)
“
he was partly a young man of our time - that is, honest by nature, demanding the truth, seeking it and believing in it, and in that belief demanding immediate participation in it with all the strength of his soul; demanding an immediate deed, with an unfailing desire to sacrifice everything for this deed, even life. Although, unfortunately, these young men do not understand that the sacrifice of life is, perhaps, the easiest of all sacrifices in many cases, while to sacrifice, for example, five or six years of their ebulliently youthful life to hard, difficult studies, to learning, in order to increase tenfold their strength to serve the very truth and the very deed that they loved and set out to accomplish - such sacrifice is often almost beyond the strength of many of them.
”
”
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamozov)
“
With modern technology it is the easiest of tasks for a media, guided by a narrow group of political manipulators, to speak constantly of democracy and freedom while urging regime changes everywhere on earth but at home. A curious condition of a republic based roughly on
the original Roman model is that it cannot allow true political parties to share in government. What then is a true political party: one that is based firmly in the interest of a class be it workers or fox hunters. Officially we have two parties which are in fact wings of a common
party of property with two right wings. Corporate wealth finances each. Since the property party controls every aspect of media they have had decades to create a false reality for a citizenry largely uneducated by public schools that teach conformity with an occasional advanced degree in consumerism.
”
”
Gore Vidal
“
One of the easiest things in life is to judge others. One of the simplest things we can ever do is to tell how wrong people are. One of the most thoughtless things we can ever do is to show people their faults unconstructively. It is always so easy and common to do such things but, before you do that, find the uncommon reasons for the faulty life.Yes! before you do that, identify how to correct a faulty life and before you do that, think of what drives and invokes the joy, slothfulness or the melancholy in people. Until you go through what people have been through, until you experience what has become a part of people, until you understand what drives the real interest of people and until you become fully aware of the real vision, aspirations, desires and the needs of others, ponder before you criticize!
”
”
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
“
And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my death punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you. Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; accusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are younger they will be more severe with you, and you will be more offended at them. For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure, to the judges who have condemned me.
”
”
Socrates Plato (Apology)
“
As soon as teenage girls start to profess love for something, everyone else becomes totally dismissive of it. Teenage girls are open season for the cruelest bullying that our society can dream up. Everyone's vicious to them. They're vicious to each other. Hell, they're even vicious to themselves. It's terrible.
So if teenage girls have something that they love, isn't that a good thing? Isn't it better for them to find some words they believe in, words like the 'fire-proof and fearless' lyrics that Jacqui wrote? Isn't it better for them to put those words on their arm in a tattoo than for them to cut gashes in that same skin? Shouldn't we be grateful when teenage girls love our work? Shouldn't that be a fucking honor?
It's used as the cheapest, easiest test of crap, isn't it? If teenage girls love a movie, a book, a band, then it's immediately classified as mediocre shit. Well, I'm not going to stand for that. Someone needs to treat them like they're precious, and if nobody else is ready to step up, I guess it's up to us to put them on the path to recognizing that about themselves.
”
”
Mary Borsellino (The Devil's Mixtape)
“
People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress; they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory; they condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates; they think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable, for the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads, to reflect on and judge what one reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning (and even destroys certain automatic qualities of memory and observation). But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and to consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps 90 percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word, or, conversely, reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe—or disbelieve—in toto what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda.
”
”
Jacques Ellul (Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes)
“
You frequently state, and in your letter you imply, that I have developed a completely one-sided outlook and look at everything in terms of science. Obviously my method of thought and reasoning is influenced by a scientific training – if that were not so my scientific training will have been a waste and a failure. But you look at science (or at least talk of it) as some sort of demoralizing invention of man, something apart from real life, and which must be cautiously guarded and kept separate from everyday existence. But science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. Science, for me, gives a partial explanation of life. In so far as it goes, it is based on fact, experience and experiment. Your theories are those which you and many other people find easiest and pleasantest to believe, but so far as I can see, they have no foundation other than they leaf to a pleasanter view of life (and an exaggerated idea of our own importance)...
I agree that faith is essential to success in life (success of any sort) but I do not accept your definition of faith, i.e. belief in life after death. In my view, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall come nearer to success and that success in our aims (the improvement of the lot of mankind, present and future) is worth attaining. Anyone able to believe in all that religion implies obviously must have such faith, but I maintain that faith in this world is perfectly possible without faith in another world…
It has just occurred to me that you may raise the question of the creator. A creator of what? ... I see no reason to believe that a creator of protoplasm or primeval matter, if such there be, has any reason to be interested in our significant race in a tiny corner of the universe, and still less in us, as still more significant individuals. Again, I see no reason why the belief that we are insignificant or fortuitous should lessen our faith – as I have defined it.
”
”
Rosalind Franklin
“
I got into heated arguments with brothers and sisters who claimed that the oppression of black people was only a question of race. I argued that there were Black oppressors as well as white ones. Black folks with money have always tended to support candidates who they believed would protect their financial interests. As far as i was concerned, it didn't take too much to figure that black people are oppressed because of class as well as race, because we are poor and because we are Black. It would burn me every time some body talked about Black people climbing the ladder of success. Anytime you're talking about a ladder, you're talking about a top and a bottom, an upper class and a lower class, a rich class and a poor class. As long as you got a system with a top and bottom, Black people are always going to end up at the bottom because we're easiest to discriminate against. That's why i couldn't see fighting within the system. Both the Democratic and Republican party are controlled by millionaires. They are interested in holding on to their power while i was interested in taking it away. They were interested in supporting fascist dictatorships in South and Central America, while i was interested in seeing them overthrown. They were interested in seeing racist, fascist regimes in Africa while i was interested in seeing them overthrown. They were interested in defeating the Viet Cong and i was interested in seeing their liberation.
”
”
Assata Shakur (Assata: An Autobiography)