“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 Independent Self 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 Lincoln 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 Eternal life 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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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
“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 Person Nervous 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
“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
“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
“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 Lincoln 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
“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
