My entire life, beautifully organized.

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

The Second Mountain — David Brooks · Readwise · 2026-08-23

“For many, the big choices in life often aren’t really choices; they are quicksand. You just sink into the place you happen to be standing.”

The Second Mountain — David Brooks · Readwise · 2026-08-18

““Lucky is the man who does not secretly believe that every possibility is open to him,” Walker Percy”

The Second Mountain — David Brooks · Readwise · 2026-08-13