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
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
Philosophy is the art of asking the wrong questions.
—Unknown
We take almost all of the decisive steps in our lives as a result of slight inner adjustments of which we are barely conscious.
—Unknown
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
We don’t have thoughts, we are thoughts. Thoughts are not responsible for the machinery that happens to think them.
—Unknown
Nothing is more truly horrifying than the limits of human behavior.
—Tonbo
If you’re capable of understanding the world, you have a moral obligation to become rational.
—Charlie Munger (b.1924) American Investor, Philanthropist
Laws do inhibit some citizens from breaking them, and laws do specify punishments for crimes, but laws do not prevent anybody from doing anything.
—Unknown
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
Rule of thumb: Be skeptical of things you learned before you could read. E.g., religion.
—Ben Casnocha (b.1988) American Entrepreneur
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
Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that they are not even superficial.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
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
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
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
Faith is Hope given too much credit.
—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
If you do not wish a thing heard, do not say it.
—John M. Ford (1957–2006) American Novelist, Writer, Poet
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
We were supremely lucky to be born into this precise moment in history. It is with an ever-cresting crescendo of wonder and enthusiasm that I commend you to the great adventure and the great adventure to you.
—Unknown
I know of no law of logic demanding that every event have a cause.
—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
So often when one level of delusion goes away, another one more subtle comes in its place.
—Buddhist Teaching
Things only get weirder the longer they go on.
—Tonbo
Truth is not always popular, but it is always right.
—Anonymous
Morality is objective within a given frame of reference.
—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
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
Fight for those you have lost, and for those you don’t want to lose.
—Unknown
Destiny always has been something that you tear open with your own hands.
—Unknown
We are but dreams, and dreams possess no life by their own right.
—Gene Wolfe (1931–2019) American Science Fiction 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
Make changes based on your strongest opportunities, not your most convenient ones.
—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
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
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
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
Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
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
Perfection is our goal, excellence will be tolerated.
—Unknown
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
It takes 50 years for your parents to mature enough that they see you as an independent person.
—Unknown
Some people know better, and they still make the mistake. That’s when ignorance becomes stupidity.
—Unknown
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
A wizard may have subtle ways of telling the truth, and may keep the truth to himself, but if he says a thing the thing is as he says. For that is his mastery.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
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
You are only as strong as your weakest delusion.
—Unknown