“As late as 1820, families made three quarters of all goods—food, clothing, tools—for their own use.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk Family Copy Share Image
“They saw him as he was, a full man whose griefs and solaces and talents ran together.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk Grief Copy Share Image
“Her brother-in-law Ninian Edwards said bluntly, “She could make a bishop forget his prayers.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk Bishop Copy Share Image
“In the early nineteenth century, a new culture—a new idea about what to hope for—emerged for many Americans, centered around the independent… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Nineteenth century Copy Share Image
“In particular, he named three kinds of troubles that could beset a person with a nervous temperament: poor weather, isolation or idleness,… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Copy Share Image
“It is a signal feature of depression that, in times of trouble, sensible ideas, memories of good times, and optimism for the… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Depression Copy Share Image
“The individuals in great dyads will be very different from each other and very much alike. These simultaneous extremes generate the deep… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Creativity Copy Share Image
“The American tradition of separation of church and state grew directly from the freethinking of the Founders. After political independence, they considered… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Church and state Copy Share Image
“People expected too much, pushed themselves too hard, and therefore brought strains upon their minds that they were constitutionally incapable of withstanding.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk Psychology Copy Share Image
“The Perspectives of Psychiatry, Paul R. McHugh and Phillip R. Slavney identify four approaches to a suffering person.” — Joshua Wolf Shenk Perspectives Copy Share Image
“Why is it that all men who have become outstanding in philosophy, statesmanship, poetry or the arts are melancholic,” — Joshua Wolf Shenk Art Copy Share Image
“Today, many people not only take the self for granted but struggle mightily to connect it to anything larger. In Lincoln’s time,… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Identity Copy Share Image
“The distinction is essential. Fault implies a failure or weakness for which a person should be held to account, if not outright… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Failure Copy Share Image
“Suffering was not a punishment from beyond or a malevolent infestation of the soul. Like the earth turning on its axis or… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Natural world Copy Share Image
“because of them, he worked all the harder in his thirties and forties to “make himself,” emotionally as well as materially, and… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Copy Share Image
“Whatever greatness Lincoln achieved cannot be explained as a triumph over personal suffering. Rather, it must be accounted for as an outgrowth… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Copy Share Image
“He arrived tentatively at his own idea, that melancholy arose from natural, sometimes beneficent forces. Talking about it in plain human terms… — Joshua Wolf Shenk First step Copy Share Image
“ONE OF THE REASONS that depression is so problematic—and deadly, leading to many of the forty thousand suicides in the United States… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Depression Copy Share Image
“A person with a melancholy temperament had been fated with both an awful burden and what Byron called “a fearful gift.” The… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Sad Copy Share Image
“Lincoln was raised in the thick of Old School Calvinism. In Kentucky and Indiana, his parents belonged to a fire-breathing sect called… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Calvinism Copy Share Image
“Indeed, nothing less than the understanding of God’s earth was in flux. For centuries, the church had censored scientific ideas that were… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Evolution Copy Share Image
“You say you are conservative—eminently conservative—while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Conservatism Copy Share Image
“creeping fear of madness often accompanies depression. Sufferers wonder if their black moods will ever lift, or if their feelings of alienation… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Depression Copy Share Image
“Yet a period’s character does affect individual character. Psychology, the study of what happens in our minds, is tightly interwoven with culture,… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Culture Copy Share Image
“In his seminal book, Man’s Search for Meaning, the psychiatrist Victor Frankl described the essence of what has come to be known… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Books Copy Share Image
“Lincoln's story confounds those who see depression as a collection of symptoms to be eliminated. But it resonates with those who see… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Depression Copy Share Image
“In the fourth century, John Cassian described a condition among his fellow monks that he called “acedia”: a “weariness or distress of… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Deadly sins Copy Share Image
“At the same time that “self-made” entered the nation’s lexicon, so did the notion of abject failure. Once reserved to describe a… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Conventional wisdom Copy Share Image
“One of the basic ideas of the evangelical movement in the early nineteenth century was that people could help themselves. Rather than… — Joshua Wolf Shenk Buddhism Copy Share Image
