Elif Batuman Quotes
Reading Epictetus, I realized that most of the pain in my life came not from any actual privations or insults but, rather, from the shame of thinking that they could have been avoided.
Quotes to Explore
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Whatever work you do, you think are you doing this for the good of the nation? That's the basic training. The other basic training is discipline. Your life should be disciplined. The other thing they say is what work you get, do it well.
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Money is in some respects life's fire: it is a very excellent servant, but a terrible master.
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I guess, for better or for worse, I am an American composer, and I've had a wonderful life being exactly that.
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I have a phone obsession. It's really hard on set sometimes because I'll be checking Instagram, and then I have to remember, 'Oh, crap, I have to shoot a scene or rehearse.' Every now and then, I have to turn it off and live my life.
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What has never changed, what is always present and what is, in the end, what sustains us is that energy that I talk about in 'Like Water for Chocolate...' that loving energy. Without that, I wouldn't have had the strength to keep going and enjoy life.
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When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways - either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength. Thanks to the teachings of Buddha, I have been able to take this second way.
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A lot of the time we think finances are immediately linked to experience, opportunities, image, and all sorts of important things that can progress us in life. Sometimes they're not. Finances can be completely irrelevant if you allow yourself to feel like things are going well.
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Where there is love there is life.
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Jazz is a constant theme in my life. My father is a jazz pianist, and from an early age I have been surrounded by it.
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New experiences give you new perspectives on life.
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Both music and acting are huge parts of my life - it's all about balance.
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My personal ambition remains the same - to be creative, to be modern, to stay one step ahead, to enjoy life.
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Nothing in my younger life could have told me I would have needed to know how to speak English.
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Habits in writing as in life are only useful if they are broken as soon as they cease to be advantageous.
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The sad thing about destroying the environment is that we're going to take the rest of life with us. The bluebirds will be gone, and the elephants will be gone, and the tigers will be gone, and the pandas will be gone.
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If you want to love your life more, you can begin by living and loving more of it - by zestfully living and loving every teeny-tiny, gorgeously-detailed minutiae moment!
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One woman came up to me at a lecture and observed that I was much fatter than on television; I think I look better onscreen than in real life. It's the lights.
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Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well.
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I started boxing because of my brother. And then I came to admire the all-time greats, like Roberto Duran and Muhammad Ali. I'd say I admired Ali more than any fighter in my life.
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The lower lip definitely states that all actors are cattle-including the authorǃ
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I think spirituality, even if there's no God, even if there's nothing - I consider myself relatively spiritual. I believe in a God. I don't know what it's like, but I do believe in it. It's the only thing that makes any sense. Maybe I'm just looking for order in the chaos. Though, I do believe in Evolution and I do believe in science.
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God already knows the naked truth about us, of course. Why not acknowledge it?
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Reading Epictetus, I realized that most of the pain in my life came not from any actual privations or insults but, rather, from the shame of thinking that they could have been avoided.
