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© 2026 Sam Radford

Fragments

Quotes

Lines worth keeping: beautiful, sharp, or simply hard to shake.

Featured Quote

Steeling yourself against reality

Frederick Buechner

The same steel that secures your life against being destroyed secures your life also against being opened up and transformed...

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More Quotes

13 posts

Quotes

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Writing is not about accumulating more experiences, because that often creates more pressure. It’s about paying better attention. It’s about awareness.

Anne Lamott

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14 May 2026

Quotes

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If you expect the worst, you’ll never be disappointed. If you assume everything is corrupt, you can’t be betrayed. But this protection comes at a terrible price.

Joan Westenberg

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11 May 2026

Quotes

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You may think that in everyday life, the things you see and hear influence what you feel, but it’s mostly the other way around: What you feel alters your sight and hearing.

Lisa Feldman Barrett

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6 May 2026

Quotes

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Angry people are always in search of others they can be angry at. Anger is unattractive. Anger is stupid. A person who is perpetually angry is always mishearing and misreading others.

David Brooks

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5 May 2026

Quotes

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When you give a depressed person advice on how they can get better, there’s a good chance all you are doing is telling the person that you just don’t get it.

David Brooks

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30 Apr 2026

Quotes

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The people who tell us that AI will dominate our future and take our jobs are the people who are hoping that will be true.

Elizabeth Lopatto

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27 Apr 2026

Quotes

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To be reasonable is to have the capacity to recognise that we aren’t the only ones making judgments of value…

Nikhil Krishnan

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26 Apr 2026

Quotes

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Our differences of perception are rooted deep in the hidden kingdom of the unconscious mind…

David Brooks

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26 Apr 2026

Quotes

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I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

Ralph Ellison

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25 Apr 2026

Quotes

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It was the nationalism of Britain that had humiliated India. This would not be resolved by yet another nationalism trying to counteract it.

Rabindranath Tagore

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19 Jun 2025

Quotes

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To not be able to see the stars is a deprivation of our inner world, and thus a diminishing of our imagination…

John Philip Newell

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15 Feb 2025

Quotes

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Your work is the very special thing that you add to this world. Your vision. Your light. Your love. What you share. What you create. How you make people feel.

Eso Tolson

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7 Feb 2025

Quotes

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Complexipacity is the capacity to thrive in complexity. It’s not about simplifying the world around us—it’s about expanding ourselves.

Alex McManus

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3 Jan 2025

Quotes | 14 May 2026

Writing is about noticing

Anne Lamott

Writing is not about accumulating more experiences, because that often creates more pressure. It’s about paying better attention. It’s about awareness.

→
Quotes | 11 May 2026

Cynicism is an emotional defence mechanism

Joan Westenberg

If you expect the worst, you’ll never be disappointed. If you assume everything is corrupt, you can’t be betrayed. But this protection comes at a terrible price.

→
Quotes | 6 May 2026

Feelings shape perception

Lisa Feldman Barrett

You may think that in everyday life, the things you see and hear influence what you feel, but it’s mostly the other way around: What you feel alters your sight and hearing.

→
Quotes | 5 May 2026

Anger is always in control

David Brooks

Angry people are always in search of others they can be angry at. Anger is unattractive. Anger is stupid. A person who is perpetually angry is always mishearing and misreading others.

→
Quotes | 30 Apr 2026

Advice can signal misunderstanding

David Brooks

When you give a depressed person advice on how they can get better, there’s a good chance all you are doing is telling the person that you just don’t get it.

→
Quotes | 27 Apr 2026

A robot servant must beat my dishwasher

Elizabeth Lopatto

The people who tell us that AI will dominate our future and take our jobs are the people who are hoping that will be true.

→
Quotes | 26 Apr 2026

Reasonableness recognises other evaluators

Nikhil Krishnan

To be reasonable is to have the capacity to recognise that we aren’t the only ones making judgments of value…

→
Quotes | 26 Apr 2026

Hard conversations reveal hidden differences

David Brooks

Our differences of perception are rooted deep in the hidden kingdom of the unconscious mind…

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Quotes | 25 Apr 2026

People refuse to see me

Ralph Ellison

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

→
Quotes | 19 Jun 2025

The idolatry of geography

Rabindranath Tagore

It was the nationalism of Britain that had humiliated India. This would not be resolved by yet another nationalism trying to counteract it.

→
Quotes | 15 Feb 2025

A deprivation of our inner world

John Philip Newell

To not be able to see the stars is a deprivation of our inner world, and thus a diminishing of our imagination…

→
Quotes | 7 Feb 2025

Work is our contribution to the world

Eso Tolson

Your work is the very special thing that you add to this world. Your vision. Your light. Your love. What you share. What you create. How you make people feel.

→
Quotes | 3 Jan 2025

Complexipacity

Alex McManus

Complexipacity is the capacity to thrive in complexity. It’s not about simplifying the world around us—it’s about expanding ourselves.

→