A. J. Jacobs Quotes

Quotes about:

• Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Christian, Powerful, Inspiration

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.275, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Procrastination, Voice, Today

  A. J. Jacobs (2012). “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection”, p.245, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Water, Thank God, Meals

  A J Jacobs (2012). “The Year of Living Biblically”, p.165, Random House

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• I'm addicted to self-improvement. The thing is, there's so damn much about myself to improve.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Self, Improvement, Obsession

  "Drop Dead Healthy" by A.J. Jacobs, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 13, 2012.

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

  A. J. Jacobs

  Italian, Garden, Way

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.4, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Littles, Good Things

  A. J. Jacobs (2011). “A.J. Jacobs Omnibus: The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, My Life as an Experiment”, p.937, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Keys, Self, Decision

  A. J. Jacobs (2012). “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

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

  A. J. Jacobs

  Decision, Laziness, Twins

  A. J. Jacobs (2009). “The Guinea Pig Diaries: My Life as an Experiment”, p.87, Simon and Schuster

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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

  Coffee, Self, Guy

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Compassion, Years, Practice

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• 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

  Book, Reading, Three

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.29, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Nice, Grandma, Dark

  A. J. Jacobs (2011). “A.J. Jacobs Omnibus: The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, My Life as an Experiment”, p.791, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Nice, Feel Better, Games

  A. J. Jacobs (2004). “The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World”, p.305, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Vegetables, Preparation, Violence

  A. J. Jacobs (2012). “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection”, p.226, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Hate, Guy, Genius

  A. J. Jacobs (2004). “The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World”, p.58, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Sanctuary, Volume, Should

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• Behavior shapes beliefs.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Shapes, Belief, Behavior

  Interview with Jason Albert, www.avclub.com. November 9, 2007.

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• I'm still agnostic. But in the words of Elton Richards, I'm now a reverant agnostic. Which isn't an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there's a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred. The Sabbath can be a sacred day. Prayer can be a sacred ritual. There is something transcendent, beyond the everyday. It's possible that humans created this sacredness ourselves, but that doesn't take away from its power or importance.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Prayer, Believe, Everyday

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• Very few people changed the world by sitting on their couch.

  A. J. Jacobs

  People, Sitting, World

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• 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

  Powerful, Unconditional Love, Love Is

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.275, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Health, Years, Disease

  A. J. Jacobs (2012). “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

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• Behavior shapes emotions.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Shapes, Emotion, Behavior

  A. J. Jacobs (2008). “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible”, p.282, Simon and Schuster

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• 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

  Book, Utah, Should Have

  A. J. Jacobs (2004). “The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World”, p.56, Simon and Schuster

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• The Bible improved my ethical IQ. I started to act like a good person. I tried not to gossip, and lie, and covet, and just by pretending I was a good person, I think I actually became a little bit better of a person. I'm not Gandhi or Angelina Jolie, but it was a baby step.

  A. J. Jacobs

  Baby, Lying, Thinking

  Interview with Jason Albert, www.avclub.com. November 9, 2007.

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• 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

  Nice, Health, Southern

  A. J. Jacobs (2012). “Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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