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
We don’t have thoughts, we are thoughts. Thoughts are not responsible for the machinery that happens to think them.
—Unknown
So often when one level of delusion goes away, another one more subtle comes in its place.
—Buddhist Teaching
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
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
Even if I had an objective proof that you don’t find it unpleasant when you stick your hand in a fire, I still think you’d pull your hand out at the first opportunity.
—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
If you’re capable of understanding the world, you have a moral obligation to become rational.
—Charlie Munger (b.1924) American Investor, Philanthropist
Adultery always begins with the adulterer(s) claiming to themselves and to others that the relationship is “harmless” because it hasn’t crossed a certain line. The line where it becomes wrong is the line where you start having to rationalize like that.
—Unknown
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.
—Philip K. Dick (1928–82) American Novelist, Essayist, Short Story Writer
Lying to yourself about specific actions is easier than re-defining the bounds of your imagined identity… When I see once-ethical men devolve into moral grey, they still identify as upstanding.
—Ben Casnocha (b.1988) American Entrepreneur
The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
I know of no law of logic demanding that every event have a cause.
—Unknown
Destiny always has been something that you tear open with your own hands.
—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
Things only get weirder the longer they go on.
—Tonbo
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
Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
You know you’ve achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
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
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
Some people know better, and they still make the mistake. That’s when ignorance becomes stupidity.
—Unknown
In both poker and life, you can’t read people any better than they can read themselves. You can, if you’re good, very accurately determine if they think their hand is good, or if they think they know the answer to your legal question. But you can’t be sure if reality differs from their perception.
—Unknown
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
Faith is Hope given too much credit.
—Unknown
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
Truth is not always popular, but it is always right.
—Anonymous
Fight for those you have lost, and for those you don’t want to lose.
—Unknown
Determined efforts are better than a miracle.
—Tonbo
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