Quotes from A. J. Jacobs

Since I was relatively new to the Bible, I was surprised by the Old Testament God. He's wrathful, but at other times, He's incredibly compassionate. He's not a one-dimensional figure at all.

One of the interesting things to me is that God grows throughout the Old Testament. He evolves, sort of matures, and becomes kinder.

I've never before been so aware of the thousands of little good things, the thousands of things that go right every day.

Its sort of my job to feel good.

I found there were things about religion that I really loved; things like the sense of gratefulness that it brings.

I know that knowledge and intelligence are not the same thing - but they do live in the same neighborhood. I know once again, firsthand, the joy of learning.

My goal? To test out every diet and exercise regimen on planet earth and figure out which work best. I sweated, I cooked, I learned to pole dance. In the end, I lost weight, lowered my cholesterol and doubled my energy level. I feel better than I ever have.

I thought religion would eventually wither away and we'd all be worshiping at the altar of science.

Probably 90 percent of our life decisions are powered by the twin engines of inertia and laziness.

The best we can do, to paraphrase Pollan, is to eat whole foods, mostly plants, and not too much.

I know that you should always say yes to adventures or you'll lead a very dull life.

It's a different way of looking at the world. Your life isn't about rights. It's about responsibilities."--Mr Bill Berkowitz

Paintings! They're like TV, but they don't move.

The Bible talks a lot about thankfulness, and I'm more thankful than I ever was. I try to concentrate on the hundreds of things that go right in a day, instead of the three or four that go wrong.

I love to live things, so I wanted to immerse myself and get into the mindset - and sandals - of my forefathers.

I was very good at sitting. But I just read so much research about how horrible sitting is for you. It's like, it's really bad. It's like Paula-Deen-glazed-bacon-doughnut bad. So I now move around as much as possible.

I was what they call 'skinny fat' - a body that resembled a python after swallowing a goat.

Giulia Melucci has written a wonderfully funny and moving book. It's like Eat, Pray, Love, with recipes.

I love it when the Bible gives Emily Post-like tips that are both wise and easy to follow.

There's a beauty to forgiveness, especially forgiveness that goes beyond rationality. Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great & powerful one

The key to making healthy decisions is to respect your future self. Honor him or her. Treat him or her like you would treat a friend or a loved one. A Stanford study showed that those who saw a photo of their future self made smarter financial decisions.

I pledged to become the world's greatest expert in a field I knew nothing about.

There's a very passionate pro-chewing movement on the Internet called Chewdiasm. They say that we should be chewing 50 to 100 times per mouthful, which is insane. I tried that. It takes like a day and a half to eat a sandwich. But their basic idea is right. If you chew, you'll eat slower and you will get more nutrients.

Taking the Bible too literally is a mistake. It should be read as a guidebook of wisdom and insight.