Become a bright, flat surface. Cast no shadow.

He envisioned vast centers equipped with mics and headphones where people could speak in detail and at length about their experiences, thoughts, and feelings, delivering in the form of monologues what the eavesdroppers could gather only piecemeal.

a prelude to detainment and dismemberment, grimly fascinating to observe, potentially thrilling to oppose, but no cause for prescription sedatives.

I was coming to think of paranoia as a form of folk art, the poetic eruption of murky inklings

ferreting-out of secrets is merely one purpose of surveillance; it also disciplines, inhibits, robbing interactions of spontaneity and turning them into self-conscious performances

we don’t actually do anything; we only arrange what will be done, which is a flimsy basis for a life.

At some point, life’s defining struggle becomes the tyranny of tiny chores and petty decisions.

Customization can be surprisingly homogenizing.

The counterculture was about people’s need to express themselves, to fulfill their individual potential, to live in harmony with nature rather than constantly seeking to overcome its nuisances.

rich self-experience in a solitary state is far less likely to feel lonely when alone.”

“the value of solitude depends on whether an individual can find an interior solitude” within themselves, says Bowker. Everyone is different in that regard: “Some people can go for a walk or listen to music and feel that they are deeply in touch with themselves. Others cannot.”

Productive solitude requires internal exploration, a kind of labor which can be uncomfortable, even excruciating. “It might take a little bit of work before it turns into a pleasant experience. But once it does it becomes maybe the most important relationship anybody ever has, the relationship you have with yourself.”

“Your alone time should not be something that you're afraid of.”

“existentializing moments,” mental flickers of clarity which can occur during inward-focused solitude.

“When people take these moments to explore their solitude, not only will they be forced to confront who they are, they just might learn a little bit about how to out-maneuver some of the toxicity that surrounds them in a social setting.”

Aging itself is malleable; it is a moving target,”

“Every child needs at least one adult who is irrationally crazy about him or her,”

ere were positive ideals and goals and projects. People were aiming for something.

Today, if you use the word “progress,” you get laughed out of the room.

It is very hierarchical. It has an almost religious faith in science and expertise.

When humans are good, it says, we give ourselves license to be bad.

remember the moments that plumbed the depths of our emotional life, that made us feel most alive?

rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generated an advanced form of perceiving reality,

greater contemplation associated with intense experiences may increase the likelihood that we consider such events self-defining.

positive relationship between a quiet ego and self-compassion.

come to a deeper understanding of common humanity.

attempt to see reality as clearly as possible

nondefensive form of attention to the present