Michael Foley Quotes

• Day offers two equally necessary sacraments - the benediction of morning and the absolution of dusk. In the morning coffee blesses and in the evening wine absolves.

  Michael Foley

  Morning, Coffee, Wine

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• But who, in the Western world, has not been deranged by a toxic cocktail of dissatisfaction, restlessness, desire and resentment? Who has not yearned to be younger, richer, more talented, more respected, more celebrated, and, above all, more sexually attractive? Who has not felt entitled to more and aggrieved when more was not forthcoming? It is possible that a starving African farmer has less sense of injustice than a middle-aged Western male who has never been fellated.

  Michael Foley

  Desire, Cocktails, Males

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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• It is not possible to be original by trying to be original - those who attempt this in the arts will be merely avant-garde. Originality is the product of an impulse to intense and overwhelming that it bursts the conventions and produces something new - again more by accident than design.

  Michael Foley

  Arte, Diseño, Intento

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.10, Simon and Schuster

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• However, the serious seeker of detachment will have to embrace the Holy Trinity of Ss - Solitude, Stillness and Silence - and reject the new religion of Commotionism, which believes that the meaning of life is constant company, movement and noise.

  Michael Foley

  Believe, Silence, Solitude

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.77, Simon and Schuster

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• Put any two people together and each will seek ways of feeling superior to the other. If a ship went down in the Pacific and a single sailor managed to swim to a desert island, would he be pleased to see, ten minutes later, another sailor emerging from the surf? Quite possibly - but only if the new arrival accepted that the first man was now a landed aristocrat while he himself was an illegal immigrant.

  Michael Foley

  Men, Islands, Two

  Michael Foley (2012). “Embracing the Ordinary: Lessons From the Champions of Everyday Life”, p.254, Simon and Schuster

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• Employees hate meetings because they reveal that self-promotion, sycophancy, dissimulation and constantly talking nonsense in a loud confident voice are more impressive than merely being good at the job - and it is depressing to lack these skills but even more depressing to discover one's self using them.

  Michael Foley

  Depressing, Jobs, Hate

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• It may well be that an analysis of figures would reveal a law - the duration of a marriage is inversely proportional to the cost of the wedding. Or, to put it another way, any union celebrated with personalized toasting flutes is doomed.

  Michael Foley

  Wedding, Law, Analysis

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.140, Simon and Schuster

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• La década de 1970 fue la década de la liberación, de la rabia ante la injusticia y de las demandas de reconocimiento y derechos. Pero con el tiempo, la demanda de derechos específicos se degradó en un sentimiento generalizado de derecho, la demanda de reconocimiento específico en una demanda generalizada de atención y la rabia por la injusticia específica en un sentimiento generalizado de agravio y resentimiento. El resultado es una cultura del derecho, la búsqueda de atención y la queja.

  Michael Foley

  Rights, Feelings, Culture

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.26, Simon and Schuster

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• The happiness state, when examined more closely, turns out not to be a point but a range, with contentment at the bottom and exaltation at the top...there are probably as many forms of happiness as there are of depression.

  Michael Foley

  Contentment, Exaltation, States

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• So the absurdity of happiness is that it is embarrassing to discuss or even mention, impossible to define or measure, may not be achievable at all - or, at best, only intermittently and unconsciously - and may even turn into its opposite if directly pursued, but that it frequently turns up unexpectedly in the course of pursuing something else. There is no tease more infuriating...It is tempting to forget the whole thing and simply fall back on the couch with a remote control in one hand and a beer in the other.

  Michael Foley

  Fall, Beer, Hands

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• But there is a compelling reason to develop a personal strategy for living. Rejecting issues, which often feels liberating, is actually enslavement. Those who do not produce their own solutions must be using someone else's. As Nietzsche warned 'he who cannot obey himself will be commanded'.

  Michael Foley

  Issues, Compelling Reason, Strategy

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• Snobbery management is as difficult and necessary as anger management.

  Michael Foley

  Anger Management, Management, Difficult

  Michael Foley (2012). “Embracing the Ordinary: Lessons From the Champions of Everyday Life”, p.255, Simon and Schuster

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• After a lifetime of engaging in long, passionate discussions I have come to the conclusion that it is a waste of time trying to convince anyone of anything.

  Michael Foley

  Long, Trying, Passionate

  Michael Foley (2012). “Embracing the Ordinary: Lessons From the Champions of Everyday Life”, p.186, Simon and Schuster

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• And a sensible work strategy might be: surrender to the task but not to the taskmaster, become absorbed in the work itself but never absorb the work ethos.

  Michael Foley

  Ethos, Tasks, Might

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.129, Simon and Schuster

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• Ser constantemente el centro de una red de interrupciones potenciales proporciona la emoción y la importancia de la gestión de crisis. Además de la falsa sensación de eficacia de la multitarea, está la falsa sensación de urgencia del tratamiento de múltiples interrupciones.

  Michael Foley

  Multitasking, Management, Excitement

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.72, Simon and Schuster

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• The talent for self-justification is surely the finest flower of human evolution, the greatest achievement of the human brain. When it comes to justifying actions, every human being acquires the intelligence of an Einstein, the imagination of a Shakespeare, and the subtlety of a Jesuit.

  Michael Foley

  Flower, Self, Imagination

  Michael Foley (2010). “The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life makes it Hard to be Happy”, p.42, Simon and Schuster

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