“Christopher Knight, you could argue, is the most solitary known person in all of human history.” — Michael Finkel History Copy Share Image
I'd lied many times: to bolster my credentials, to elicit sympathy, to make myself appear less ordinary. — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I committed pretty much the worst thing you can do, which is defraud the readers. — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
“Lao-tzu’s Tao Te Ching (I recommend the Red Pine translation), and started swimming from there. Excellent” — Michael Finkel Heaven and earth Copy Share Image
Not to get too maudlin, but I think all mistakes are tests for one's mettle. — Michael Finkel Failure Copy Share Image
“Knight's disdain for Thoreau was bottomless - 'he had no deep insight into nature'...” — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
“Those with less become content,” says the Tao, “those with more become confused.” The” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“The life inside a book always felt welcoming to Knight. It pressed no demands on him, while the world of human interactions… — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
“Japanese researchers at Chiba University found that a daily fifteen-minute walk in the woods caused significant decreases in cortisol, along with a… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I firmly believe that if we all just took a little time - like 10 or 15 minutes a day - to… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Virtually every natural feature in Maine, pond to peak, has a proper name, but Knight saw such titles as human impositions and… — Michael Finkel Maine Copy Share Image
“Our whole lives, Jefferies said, are wasted traveling in endless small circles; we are all “chained like a horse to an iron… — Michael Finkel Life Copy Share Image
“Knight, of course, felt that anyone's willing assistance tainted the whole thing. Either you are hidden or you're not, no middle ground.… — Michael Finkel Alone Copy Share Image
“I have only in my life carried to an extreme what you have not dared to carry halfway, and what’s more, you… — Michael Finkel Cowardice Copy Share Image
Modern life, especially with young children, so often seems like a mad rush... We so rarely take time to just do nothing… — Michael Finkel Children Copy Share Image
My advice for telling someone else's story is to try not to consciously bend the story in any particular direction - to… — Michael Finkel Advice Copy Share Image
“If you’re born a human oddity,” says the introductory chapter of Very Special People, “every day of your life, starting in infancy,… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“He was confounded by the idea that passing the prime of your life in a cubicle, spending hours a day at a… — Michael Finkel Computers Copy Share Image
“Not for a moment did he consider keeping a journal. He would never allow anyone to read his private thoughts; therefore, he… — Michael Finkel Honest Copy Share Image
“The first great literary work about solitude, the Tao Te Ching, was written in ancient China, likely in the sixth century B.C.,… — Michael Finkel Solitude Copy Share Image
“Perceptive and valuable personal explorations of time alone include A Book of Silence by Sara Maitland, Party of One by Anneli Rufus,… — Michael Finkel Books Copy Share Image
“One’s desire to be alone, biologists have found, is partially genetic and to some degree measurable. If you have low levels of… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“The uncertainty wore on him. The conditions in jail--the handcuffs, the noise, the filth, the crowding--mangled his senses. It's likely that, if… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Soon he essentially stopped talking. "I am retreating into silence as a defensive mode," he mentioned. Eventually, he was down to uttering… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Two of life’s greatest pleasures, by my reckoning, are camping and reading—most gloriously, both at once.” — Michael Finkel Greatest pleasures Copy Share Image
I never do formal interviews. I don't use a tape recorder. I take notes but occasionally. — Michael Finkel Interview Copy Share Image
“reaching through time and speaking directly to him: Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground. “I recognize myself” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Noise harms your body and boils your brain. The word "noise" derives from the Latin word nausea.” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
I'm always theoretically opposed to capital punishment as a matter of policy; like, I don't believe a state should put its citizens… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“survive, and neither do the strong. Life is a constant, merciless fight that everyone loses.” — Michael Finkel Life Copy Share Image
My fight-or-flight mechanism... had served me well in Gaza, in Afghanistan, and all the places I'd been. — Michael Finkel Afghanistan Copy Share Image
“The only book Knight didn't steal was the one he most often saw. 'I had no need for a Bible,' he said.” — Michael Finkel Bible Copy Share Image
“Everyone dreams of dropping out of the world once in a while. Then you get in the car and drive back home.” — Michael Finkel Dreams Copy Share Image
“life isn’t about searching endlessly to find what’s missing; it’s about learning to live with the missing parts.” — Michael Finkel Learning Copy Share Image
“The fact that Longo himself was a skilled liar seemed to engender in him an ancillary condition in which he was distrustful… — Michael Finkel Distrustful Copy Share Image
“Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk, wrote that nothing can be expressed about solitude “that has not already been said better by the… — Michael Finkel Pine trees Copy Share Image
There have always been hermits: people who want to get away from other humans. Literally, some of the first extant books and… — Michael Finkel Alone Copy Share Image
“He has seen the bottomless nonsense of our world and has decided, like most of us, to simply try to tolerate it.… — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
“Socrates may have concluded that his most valuable possession was his leisure. “Beware the barrenness of a busy life” is a quote… — Michael Finkel Busy life Copy Share Image
“The American essayist William Deresiewicz wrote that “no real excellence, personal or social, artistic, philosophical, scientific, or moral, can arise without solitude.” — Michael Finkel Copy Share Image
