Today I Learned

TIL, 2018-09-23, Blaise Pascal

The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You

Reference

  • Blaise Pascal: “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
    • We fear the silence of existence, we dread boredom and choose aimless distraction, and we can’t help but run from the problems of our emotions into the false comforts of the mind.
    • Never being alone is not the same as never feeling alone. The less comfortable you are with solitude, the more likely it is that you won’t know yourself. Worse yet, the less comfortable you are with solitude, the more likely it is that you won’t know yourself.
    • We are really addicted to a state of not-being-bored. Almost anything else that controls our life in an unhealthy way finds its root in our realization that we dread the nothingness of nothing. We look for entertainment, company, and highs.
  • The oldest philosophical wisdom in the world: “Know Yourself”.
  • Comments
    • Silence is gold, eloquence is silver. We learn from the silences, not the words. We learn from the spaces in between.
    • Aloneness is not loneliness. It is the difference between a state of being and a state of feeling. Solitude will not emerge on its own. We need to consciously seek its company by making it part of your daily routine, because the allure of daily distractions is often difficult to resist.

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