Following

The square, perfected, has no corner;
Music, perfected, has no melody;
Love, perfected, has no climax;
Art, perfected, has no meaning.

“Taoteching.org is a non-profit site created to distribute the Tao Te Ching over the Internet.”.

Grok

To understand something intuitively or by empathy.

“We must look to Robert Anson Heinlein for the origins of this word, which he invented for his science-fantasy book Stranger in a Strange Land in 1961.
In this, Valentine Michael Smith, a human being raised on Mars, returns to Earth with psi powers given him by the Martians and is transformed into a messiah.”.
(Michael Quinion)

worldwidewords.org: “Michael Quinion writes on international English from a British viewpoint.”.

“One of the main ideas on the book is that acting like a demeaning jerk isn’t just a personality characteristic that some people have and others don’t.
There is a lot of evidence that, when any of us are around nasty people, we – without realizing it – start mimicking their nastiness, and suffer from asshole poisoning as well.
Management gurus are constantly ranting about the importance of commitment.
But if you work with people who treat you like dirt, they have not earned your passion and commitment. Practice going through the motions without really caring.”.
(Robert Sutton)

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.

“Since at the beginning of an attraction that will become limerent, you feel both free and happy
(you walk on air), it is hard to resist once it starts.”.
“….And although it resembles a disease in some ways, I see it as a normal adaptation, an instinctual reaction, if you will, that through the course of evolutionary history proved valuable to species endurance.”.
(Dorothy Tennov, Q and A on Limerence)

Limerence:

“an involuntary cognitive and emotional state in which a person feels an intense romantic desire for another person.”.
(from Wikipedia)

“In the summer of 1969, when I was 11, I bought a stereo system at the local hi-fi shop.

It cost all of the $100 I had earned weeding neighbor’s gardens that spring at 75 cents an hour.
My father made me a proposition: he would buy me a pair of headphones if I would promise to use them when he was home.

Those headphones changed the way I listened to music forever.”.

This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession , by Daniel J. Levitin.

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“We created DailyLit because we spent hours each day on email but could not find the time to read a book.
Now the books come to us by email. Problem solved.

This works incredibly well not just on your computer but also on whatever the PDA of your choice.”.

DailyLit. “Too busy for books? Read them by email.”.

“Can you read people’s thoughts just by looking at them?”.

“Mustard now comes in dozens of varieties. Why has ketchup stayed the same?”.

“When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions.
Well, Blink is a book about those two seconds.”.
(Malcom Gladwell)

Gladwell dot com: “Malcolm Gladwell, blink, tipping point and New Yorker articles.”.

One Bag, by Doug Dyment: all about packing, luggage, and travelling light.

Clothing:

“Natural fabrics can be cooler, but wrinkle more easily, dry more slowly, and are generally heavier than synthetics.”.

Lunch:

“Cost savings aside, a lunch in the park, with fresh bread, cheese, yogurt, and fruit from the local shops, is likely to be more memorable than another tourist trap pizza.”.

Online books, poems, short stories.
“Read Print, your free online library.
Our website offers thousands of free books for students, teachers, and the classic enthusiast.”.

My choice: James Joyce, A Painful Case.

“He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor her voice touch his ear.
He waited for some minutes listening.
He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent.
He felt that he was alone.”.

“We here at Book-A-Minute have come up with a solution.
In just one minute, you can read entire books and learn everything your teachers will expect you to know.”.

Here an example, Don Quixote ultra-condensed by Scott Kvizdos:

Don Quixote: “Chivalry demands I destroy that evil thing.”

Sancho Panza: “No, master. It is something ordinary and harmless.”

Don Quixote: (falls down)

THE END

“We cannot be held responsible if you write a book report or research paper using our site and don’t get a good grade.”.