The British media is sinking down, as the American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator.
John OliverRead
I have occasionally - if ever I do interviews that are difficult or nerve-wracking - I take my wife's dog tags and have them in my pocket because it's a very quick way to realize that what I'm doing is not that important. It's not really worth getting stressed about because it's not, you know, war.
Interpretation
Perspective can help reduce stress about trivial matters.
In this quote, John Oliver highlights how he uses a personal memento, his wife's dog tags, to put his stressful situations into perspective. By comparing these lesser stresses to the gravity of war, he reminds himself that what seems significant in the moment often pales in comparison to more serious issues, thus promoting a healthier approach to stress.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a workshop on stress management.
The British media is sinking down, as the American news media has lowered the bar for all of humanity. British news media is definitely trying to stoop down to that level. Everyone is stooping to the lowest common denominator.
There's never any time I think I'm a real journalist, because I don't have any of the qualifications or the intentions for that.
Australia turns out to be a sensational place, albeit one of the most comfortably racist places I've ever been in. They've really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.
I watch one news channel until my soul can't take it anymore. It's the background of my life.
My first 'Daily Show' piece was pretending I had this terrible immigrant journey, so I went to talk to an immigration lawyer who would help out people, and I ran into him in Penn Station about three months after I'd gotten the green card. I said, 'I got my green card yesterday.' And he hugged me because he understood that level of relief.
Southern people are bigger-hearted and kinder than I had any right to expect.
I could say that all my books were conceived by the time I was twenty, although they were not to be written for another thirty or forty years. But perhaps this is true of most writers—the emotional storage is done very early on.
So my idea of neurotic is spending too much time trying to correct a wrong. When I feel that I'm doing that, then I snap out of it.
Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct.
Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, "Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you."
I should like to use another word: 'audience' or 'reader' or 'listener' seems inadequate. I suggest the old word 'witness,' which includes the act of seeing and knowing by personal experience, as well as the act of giving evidence.
There's nothing you can do to see — it is a gift.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.