Top 80 A.J. Jacobs Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I’m addicted to self-improvement. The thing is, there’s so damn much about myself to improve.”

— A.J. Jacobs

2. “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.J. Jacobs

3. “My reading list grows exponentially. Every time I read a book, it’ll mention three other books I feel I have to read. It’s like a particularly relentless series of pop-up ads.”

— A.J. Jacobs

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4. “Unconditional love is an illogical notion, but such a great and powerful one.”

— A.J. Jacobs

5. “I’d recommend learning to accept rejection. Become friends with rejection. Be nice to rejection, because it’s a huge part of being a writer, no matter where you are in your career.”

— A.J. Jacobs

6. “If my former self and my current self met for coffee, they’d get along OK, but they’d both probably walk out of the Starbucks shaking their heads and saying to themselves, “That guy is kinda delusional.””

— A.J. Jacobs

7. “Jealousy is a useless, time-wasting emotion that’s eating me alive.”

— A.J. Jacobs

8. “I thought religion would eventually wither away and we’d all be worshiping at the altar of science.”

— A.J. Jacobs

9. “I’m still agnostic. But in the words of Elton Richards, I’m now a reverant agnostic. Which isn’t an oxymoron, I swear. I now believe that whether or not there’s a God, there is such a thing as sacredness. Life is sacred. The Sabbath can be a sacred day. Prayer can be a sacred ritual. There is something transcendent, beyond the everyday. It’s possible that humans created this sacredness ourselves, but that doesn’t take away from its power or importance.”

— A.J. Jacobs

10. “I know that you should always say yes to adventures or you’ll lead a very dull life.”

— A.J. Jacobs

11. “Sometimes miracles occur only when you jump in.”

— A.J. Jacobs

12. “In trying to avoid one sin I’ve committed another.”

— A.J. Jacobs

13. “I’m not a fan of ‘write what you know.’ If you don’t know, find out. I knew nothing about the Bible before I started writing ‘The Year of Living Biblically.’ That was kind of the point – to learn.”

— A.J. Jacobs

14. “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.”

— A.J. Jacobs

15. “I have little shame, no dignity – all in the name of a better cause.”

— A.J. Jacobs

16. “As grandma said, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”

— A.J. Jacobs

17. “I’ve started to look at life differently. When you’re thanking God for every little you – every meal, every time you wake up, every time you take a sip of water – you can’t help but be more thankful for life itself, for the unlikely and miraculous fact that you exist at all.”

— A.J. Jacobs

18. “A loud noise will get your fight-or-flight response going. This, over the years, can cause real cardiovascular damage.”

— A.J. Jacobs

19. “The Bible improved my ethical IQ. I started to act like a good person. I tried not to gossip, and lie, and covet, and just by pretending I was a good person, I think I actually became a little bit better of a person. I’m not Gandhi or Angelina Jolie, but it was a baby step.”

— A.J. Jacobs

20. “I tried the paleo diet, which is the caveman diet – lots of meat. And I tried the calorie restriction diet: The idea is that if you eat very, very little – if you’re on the verge of starvation, you will live a very long time, whether or not you want to, of course.”

— A.J. Jacobs

21. “I am officially Jewish, but I’m Jewish in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.”

— A.J. Jacobs

22. “This is what the Sabbath should feel like. A pause. Not just a minor pause, but a major pause. Not just lowering the volume, but a muting. As the famous rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, the Sabbath is a sanctuary in time.”

— A.J. Jacobs

23. “It’s hard to be in a bad mood when you’re walking around looking like you’re about to play the semifinals at Wimbledon.”

— A.J. Jacobs

24. “Scrabble – The game is available in Braille. That’s a nice fact. This makes me feel better about humanity for some reason. I can’t really explain why.”

— A.J. Jacobs

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

— A.J. Jacobs

26. “I’m all for cafeteria religion. I think there’s nothing wrong with cafeterias – I’ve had some great meals at cafeterias. I’ve also had some horrible meals, so it’s important to pick the right things. Take a heaping helping of compassion and mercy, and leave the intolerance on the table.”

— A.J. Jacobs

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

— A.J. Jacobs

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

— A.J. Jacobs

29. “After a while, if you’re committed, you start to believe in the things in which you’re praying. It’s just cognitive dissonance. You can’t live a completely religious life and not start to have it sink in.”

— A.J. Jacobs

30. “More people die on a per mile basis from drunk walking than from drunk driving.”

— A.J. Jacobs

31. “I don’t believe that prayers actually change God’s mind – if there is a God – but I liked praying for people in need. It was like moral weightlifting. I tend to be self-obsessed, and it was nice to get out of my brain once in a while.”

— A.J. Jacobs

32. “Very few people changed the world by sitting on their couch.”

— A.J. Jacobs

33. “Med students panic their first year when they learn all the diseases. It’s not until the second year that they learn the cures.”

— A.J. Jacobs

34. “I thought religion would make me live with my head in the clouds, but as often as not, it grounds me in this world.”

— A.J. Jacobs

35. “I was what they call ‘skinny fat’ – a body that resembled a python after swallowing a goat.”

— A.J. Jacobs

36. “It comes back to the old question: How can the Bible be so wise in some places and so barbaric in others? And why should we put any faith in a book that includes such brutality?”

— A.J. Jacobs

37. “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.”

— A.J. Jacobs

38. “I find placebos uplifting and exhilarating. It means that taking action – no matter what the action is – might help you feel better.”

— A.J. Jacobs

39. “Mrs. Bush answers: “I think you ought to treat your spouse like you treat your friends. You clean your house for your friends, you make sure they’re taken care of. A spouse often comes second. So treat your spouse like the friends. Don’t just go halfway. If each spouse goes seventy-five percent of the way, it’s a perfect match.”

— A.J. Jacobs

40. “I always thought the name of Utah’s major newspaper was some sort of weird misspelling of the word “desert.” But no, Deseret is the “land of the honeybee,” according to the Book of Mormon. I guess I should have figured they would have caught a typo in the masthead after 154 years.”

— A.J. Jacobs

41. “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.”

— A.J. Jacobs

42. “Ezekiel and his fellow prophets have become my heroes. They were fearless. They literalized metaphors. They turned their lives into protest pieces. They proved that, in the name of truth, sometimes you can’t be afraid to take a left turn from polite society and look absurd.”

— A.J. Jacobs

43. “I know that history is simultaneously a bloody mess and a collection of feats so inspiring and amazing they make you proud to share the same DNA structure with the rest of humanity. I know you’d better focus on the good stuff or you’re screwed.”

— A.J. Jacobs

44. “Its sort of my job to feel good.”

— A.J. Jacobs

45. “A 2002 Oxford study showed counting sheep actually delays the onset of sleep. It’s just too dull to stop us from worrying about jobs and spouses.”

— A.J. Jacobs

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

— A.J. Jacobs

47. “Behavior shapes beliefs.”

— A.J. Jacobs

48. “Pain is annoying and unnecessary, like getting an e-mail in all caps. It’s like a six-year-old who alerts you every fifteen seconds that he wants Hungry Hungry Hippos for his birthday. Yes, I understand. Message received.”

— A.J. Jacobs

49. “I’ve rarely said the word “Lord,” unless it’s followed by “of the Rings.”

— A.J. Jacobs

50. “The Bible is right: A deluge of images does encourage idolatry. Look at the cults of personality in America today. Look at Hollywood. Look at Washington. I’d like to see the next presidential race be run according to Second Commandment principles. No commercials. A radio-only debate. We need an ugly president. I know we’re missing out on some potential Abe Lincolns because they’d look gawky and gangly on TV.”

— A.J. Jacobs