Fight for those you have lost, and for those you don’t want to lose.
—Unknown
Thus the freer the judgement of a man is in regard to a definite issue, with so much greater necessity will the substance of this judgement be determined.
—Friedrich Engels (1820–95) German Socialist Political Philosopher
There’s no such thing as a human who doesn’t commit sin. It’s not like the world is divided into sinners and the innocent. There are only people who can and who cannot atone for their sins.
—Unknown
In any war there are always more of the enemy than you think, and there are always allies you never knew you had.
—John M. Ford (1957–2006) American Novelist, Writer, Poet
Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
You are not ready to count your enemy’s losses until you have learned to count your own. And remember that some enemies will never have learned to count.
—John M. Ford (1957–2006) American Novelist, Writer, Poet
The best part about math is that, if you have the right answer and someone disagrees with you, it really is because they’re stupid.
—Unknown
Morality is objective within a given frame of reference.
—Unknown
How many legs does a dog have, if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
My father said whoever tells the longest story is always the liar. The truth isn’t that complicated.
—Bill Joy (b.1954) American Computer Engineer, Investor
The fact that we can become accustomed to anything, however disgusting at first, makes it necessary to examine carefully everything we have become accustomed to.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
We are but dreams, and dreams possess no life by their own right.
—Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American Science Fiction Writer
Money makes the world go round. Love just barely keeps it from blowing up.
—Unknown
People want to think there is some huge conspiracy run by evil geniuses. The reality is actually much more horrifying. The people running the show aren’t evil geniuses. They are just as stupid as the rest of us.
—Unknown
Make changes based on your strongest opportunities, not your most convenient ones.
—Unknown
Political or military commentators, like astrologers, can survive almost any mistake, because their more devoted followers do not look to them for an appraisal of the facts but for the stimulation of nationalistic loyalties.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
Lack of communication leads to 90% of all problems.
—Tonbo
He didn’t reject the idea so much as not react to it and watch as it floated away.
—David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American Novelist, Essayist
Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that they are not even superficial.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
I’ve met these people, the ones from the glossy magazines. I’ve walked among them. I have seen, firsthand, their callow, empty lives. I have watched them from the shadows when they thought themselves alone. And I can tell you this: I’m afraid there is not one of them who would swap lives with you at gunpoint.
—Neil Gaiman (b.1960) British Writer
When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space which I fill and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant and which know me not, I am frightened and am astonished at being here rather than there; for there is no reason why here rather than there, why now rather than then… The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
My experience tells me that in this complicated world the simplest explanation is usually dead wrong. But I’ve noticed that the simplest explanation usually sounds right and is far more convincing than any complicated explanation could hope to be.
—Scott Adams (b.1957) American Cartoonist
Determined efforts are better than a miracle.
—Tonbo
Things only get weirder the longer they go on.
—Tonbo
Any person who claims to have deep feeling for other human beings should think a long, long time before he votes to have other men kept behind bars – caged. I am not Saying there shouldn’t be prisons, but there shouldn’t be bars. Behind bars, a man never reforms. He will never forget. He never will get completely over the memory of the bars.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
Those who take delight in their own might are merely pretenders to power. The true warrior of fate needs no adoration or fear, no tricks or overwhelming effort; he need not be stronger or smarter or innately more capable than everyone else; he need not even admit it to himself. All he needs to do is to stand there, at that moment when all hope is dead, and look upon the abyss without flinching.
—Unknown
So often when one level of delusion goes away, another one more subtle comes in its place.
—Buddhist Teaching
Perfection is our goal, excellence will be tolerated.
—Unknown
I feel more like I do now than I did a while ago.
—Unknown
Leave a Reply