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Ask HN: What is your favorite motto?
You need mottos. There's nothing like a good motto to keep you directed toward your goals [1]. What’s your best motto? Thank you!
[1] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/changepower/201508/9-reasons-you-need-personal-motto https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/changepower/201508/9...
- maverickJ 6y agoInteresting question. I believe that mottos can change the fortune of both institutions and people. A motto when internalised can be very powerful. It becomes something you do;Something you are. Some of my favourite are: Sapere aude and Acta non verba. An excerpt from a blog https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/mottos-ideals-and-success https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/mottos-ideals-and-su... " In 1662, The Royal Society, which was formed in 1660, was given a royal charter by Charles II. Its motto is Nillius in Verba which means take nobody’s word for it in English. This motto was intentionally chosen; At this time in the west, the objective of most educational institutions objectives was to pass on knowledge from ancient Greece. But here we had the Royal Society, at that time, choose a motto which means that evidence is the cornerstone of its existence. Evidence requires repeatable experiments in science. This was not the norm in the mid 17th century."
- MrXOR 6y ago"Amicus Plato, amicus Aristoteles, magis amica veritas" (my greatest friend is truth) [0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton
- TheAlchemist 6y agoTrust the process Anything worthwhile takes time and persistence - you need to think long term and trust your decisions, even if in the short term you don't see the results. As any NBA fan knows, this is the de facto motto of Philadelphia 76ers - a team that was in a very bad spot some years ago and hired a general manager with a long term vision. They went through the "process" of rebuilding - based on rational, long term decisions - which is not what sport franchises usually want to do. In 3 painful years, they went from a mediocre team with no future to a team build to compete for the championship for the next decade. Here is the resignation letter from Sam Hinkie (the said general manager) - https://www.espn.com/pdf/2016/0406/nba_hinkie_redact.pdf https://www.espn.com/pdf/2016/0406/nba_hinkie_redact.pdf - he left at the moment when the foundations for the future were in place. It's pure gold - it feels like reading Warren Buffett letters. PS. Here is a funny video of one of the best Phili (and NBA) players who calls himslef the Process -> https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/915208453760614402 https://twitter.com/SBNation/status/915208453760614402. PS2. Here is short excerpt from Sam Hinkie letter - you really should read it: To begin, let’s stand on the shoulders of Charlie Munger, a giant to me. He is a man that’s been thinking about thinking longer than I’ve been alive. Let’s start with him and his approach. His two-part technique is: 1. First, what are the factors that really govern the interests involved, rationally considered? 2. Second, what are the subconscious influences where the brain at a subconscious level is automatically doing these things—which by and large are useful, but which often malfunctions? To do this requires you to divorce process from outcome. You can be right for the wrong reasons. In our business, you’re often lionized for it. You can be wrong for the right reasons. This may well prove to be Joel Embiid. There is signal everywhere that Joel is unique, from the practice gyms in Lawrence, Kansas to Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania to Doha, Qatar where he does something awe inspiring far too regularly. We remain hopeful (and optimistic) about his long-term playing career, but we don’t yet know exactly how it will turn out. The decision to draft Joel third, though, still looks to me to be the correct one in hindsight given the underlying reasoning. But to call something that could be wrong (“failed draft pick”) right (“good decision”) makes all of our heads hurt, mine included.
- acheron 6y ago“Until you stalk and overrun, you can’t devour anyone.” https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/11/20 https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1990/11/20
- verdverm 6y agoToo much attachment, the Dali Llama's answer to everything
- mcv 6y ago"Better one handful with tranquillity than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind." (Ecclesiastes 4:6) This is the NIV version. The Dutch version I'm more familiar with would translate more like: "Better one handful of rest, than both fists full of labour and chasing after the wind."
- exolymph 6y agoThere are always tradeoffs.
- Jugurtha 6y agoAd augusta per angusta. Ars longa, vita brevis. We had a dictionary, Petit Larousse 1989, and I used to read it a lot, learning new words and their origins. It was the equivalent of a Wikipedia rabbit hole. There was a pink section in the middle that contained many latin phrases. I loved reading those as a child and they stayed with me.
- DoreenMichele 6y agohttps://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/per_angusta_ad_augusta https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/per_angusta_ad_augusta https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_longa,_vita_brevis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_longa,_vita_brevis
- knownastron 6y ago“If you’re not willing to go too far, you’ll never go far enough.”
- andrzeej 6y agoDo it right, first fucking time.
- superhuzza 6y agoKind of surprising to hear this on a website that largely talks about software. Has any software ever been "right" the first time? I'm not sure.
- RandoHolmes 6y agoThe idea is to endeavor to be right, rather than purposefully cutting corners.
- arethuza 6y agoPersonally, I'd go with: "Make it work, make it right, make it fast"
- fsflover 6y agoOr: "Do it, do it well, do it better".
- arethuza 6y agoI've always thought of it as "it's easier to make a working thing fast that it is to make a fast thing work" - which I'm sure I picked up somewhere....
- JohnDeHope 6y agoThe pattern here, if not the content, reminds me of "I do, we do, you do".
- mrweasel 6y agoPeople don't appreciates how hard it is to do things right in your first attempt.
- jbrooksuk 6y agoIf you don’t ask, you don’t get.
- sunstone 6y agoIt's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.
- loxias 6y ago"Per aspera ad astra"
- wwarner 6y agosame
- sneak 6y agoSi vis pacem, para bellum. I like it because it has wide applicability outside of literal violence; all of life is a struggle, and the more prepared for that one is, the easier life can be made.
- giantg2 6y agoThat more generalized version could be that of the Boy Scouts - "Be Prepared".
- 082349872349872 6y ago... also popular in the socialist version of scouting across the iron curtain. In russian it became "Всегда готов!" Young Pioneers à la Norman Rockwell: https://yablor.ru/blogs/valeriy-barikin-pionerskiy-pin-ap/6152865 https://yablor.ru/blogs/valeriy-barikin-pionerskiy-pin-ap/61... (if you prefer video format to surrounded-by-ads, they're all visible in the title roll for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpMndf0RPgQ&t=40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpMndf0RPgQ&t=40 Line printed Vyssotsky samizdat hiding under Pravda @ 52:04. I see "Abba" and "Boney M" clearly on the camp counselor's tapes in the subsequent shot, but can't read the groups on the other tape.) Bonus track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP_lVuPRIaY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP_lVuPRIaY (Analogue Dance Music may not be the most precise genre, but it is, by definition, 100% DRM free.)
- trabant00 6y agoGuess this is not very popular with the contemporary hippy crowd. Personally I do find that it applies to everything really.
- ilovetux 6y agoHe who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
- DoreenMichele 6y agoMake love, not war. as a rule of thumb for social stuff. When I was raising my kids, I went by the rule of thumb "All is fair in love and war -- and this is love." to justify making up our own rules for games (like "youngest goes first") and generally making life more pleasant, and to hell with what other people thought we should be doing as a family.
- Dannymetconan 6y ago"Sure it'll be grand" Because to be fair it normally will be so no point stressing about it.
- superhuzza 6y ago"This too shall pass." Sure, it's kind of cheesy. But it has so many meanings. The bad and sad times will eventually pass, so take it in stride. The good times will pass too, so enjoy them while they're here. You won't always be the person you are now, and neither will others. It seems to give some additional perspective when applied to any situation.
- philsnow 6y agoAlong the same lines, memento mori, emphasizing not only that this will pass, but reminding you to consider that in the context of your own teleological end (whatever you consider that to be)
- blaser-waffle 6y agoSic transit gloria mundi -- "thus passes the glory of the world"
- errantspark 6y ago"You must beware of shadows." page 109 of The Little Schemer
- aninuth01 6y agoA few personal favorites: Nil Magnum Nisi Bonum - from Life of Pi by Yann Martel Translates roughly to No Greatness Without Goodness Ars longa, vita brevis - Art is long, life is short “He who is afraid to ask is ashamed of learning.” — Danish proverb "Fortune favors the prepared mind." -Pasteur “Champions behave like Champions before they are Champions” - Bill Walsh
- D-Coder 6y ago"Perfection is usually expensive and frequently impossible. Settle for excellence."
- isabelc 6y ago"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." (Howard Thurman)
- philliproso 6y agoLife is about the decisions you make when you give up your freedom.
- uncanny 6y agoIf it is too hard you’re doing it wrong.
- japhyr 6y agoWhen I was in my 20s I lived on a bicycle for a year, going around the lower 48 and Canada, and then up to Alaska. I lived for two weeks in Joshua Tree with a guy named Tom, who slept in a cave the whole time. One morning we were sorting our gear and a piece of paper fell out of his wallet. As I handed it back to him, I read the three lines on it: Work hard. Be strong. Don't complain. I asked him about it, and he said that was advice his grandfather had given him. He wrote those lines down and carried them with him to remind him of what his grandather had told him. Those words have echoed in my mind for decades now. They're not absolutes; there are times to let go of work, to let yourself not have to be strong, and times to stand up and complain and protest loudly. But the spirit of that advice has certainly been a guiding force in my life.
- lnsru 6y agoThat’s exactly the principles my grandfather thought me. But I tend to discuss, if it is still valid today.
- jriot 6y agoHow are those principles not valid today?
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y agoIt's hard to imagine this advice being given to a young woman during the grandfather's time, or even today. It comes from a time when there was a tremendous amount of hard work that needed to be done and existential wars to be fought. These burdens were placed upon the men of the society while the women were tasked with the more social and emotional work of actually keeping our families glued together and raising the next generation. This advice would have been good advice then, but today gender roles are much less rigid, and a well-rounded human understands how to balance hard work and purposeful relaxation, how to be strong and persevere and when to lean on others and be vulnerable, and knows the right time to speak up and voice one's grievances. The grandfather's advice is one formula for a certain type of masculine stoic life, but if you were to follow it too rigidly, you'd miss out a lot of the emotional richness that modern life has to offer.
- retox 6y ago"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood" - Daniel Burnham Or the more complete quote; "Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency. Remember that our sons and our grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon beauty."
- pantelisk 6y ago"You can only change yourself" (internet pop wisdom) “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- kamaal 6y agoThese days, people would settle for RSU or Stock Options.
- kamyarg 6y ago+ free snacks and massages in the office
- leephillips 6y agoThat’s one of my favorite aphorims, and usually attributed that way—but he never said it. It is a manufactured quote paraphrasing a passage from one of his books.
- psyc 6y agoNot sure I have a favorite motto, but my favorite amalgamation of mottos is Tohuvabohu by KMFDM.
- extremelearning 6y agoKind heart. Kind thoughts. Kind words. Kind actions.
- tmaly 6y agoeveryone is fighting their own battle
- leoh 6y ago“If you can piss while you walk, why not shit while you run?” —Aesop
- harrydehal 6y agoFestina lente. Or Latin for "make haste slowly." Augustus deplored rashness in a military commander and one of his favorite phrases was such that "that activities should be performed with a proper balance of urgency and diligence." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festina_lente https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festina_lente
- playingchanges 6y ago‘If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. ’ - Kierkegaard More quote than motto but something that has guided me through the years
- qznc 6y agoSounds horrible to see potential squandered again and again.
- randrus 6y agoPay attention.
- cac1 6y agoFew worthwhile efforts are successful on the first attempt.
- juangacovas 6y agoPájaro viejo no entra en jaula (Spanish for "Senior bird doesn't enter cages")
- tdfx 6y ago"Life passes most people by while they're making grand plans for it."
- stakkur 6y agoI don't have a single favorite motto, but here's what I'm striving to live like, described in two minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4
- austincheney 6y agoDon't mess with Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Mess_with_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Mess_with_Texas
- l0b0 6y ago"A witty saying proves nothing." -- Voltaire The world is far more complex than any human could possibly fathom, and reducing complex subjects to witticisms usually works against those subjects, whether intentional or not.
- plibither8 6y agoHah. I love this one!
- gitgud 6y agoFirst I've heard of an anti-motto
- contingencies 6y agoHere's another: It is unbecoming for young men to utter maxims. - Aristotle
- m463 6y agoThat is extremely astute.
- derwiki 6y agoIt was perfect as a senior quote in my yearbook!
- blueatlas 6y agoA relatively new favorite that seems to fit the times: "Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain, pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate." -- Idles, Danny Nedelko
- dang 6y agoThings have always been getting worse.
- Biba89 6y ago"Life is meaningless." - Kapil Gupta
- themistoklik 6y agoNEVER DON'T GIVE UP! focus on what matters y'know..
- remarkEon 6y agoDon’t forget nothing. Have your musket clean as a whistle, hatchet scoured, sixty rounds powder and ball, and be ready to march at a minute’s warning.
- royletron 6y agoAt a Christmas lunch in 1996 - I was 12 - My nan told me and my sister. "Some bugger will always have a faster car, a flashier house, a glitzier watch - but you were the only kids that ever had me for a nana". I've used variations on the same theme throughout most of my life!
- polyvisual 6y agoSome people like mottos that are steeped in historical depth or psychological meaning. I'm much more simple... mine is from the 2015 film, Cinderella: "Have courage and be kind". Means all sorts of things... have the courage to; stand by your decisions, own up when you made the wrong decision, follow a path, take a different path, be yourself, be something else, put others first, etc. etc. And there's nothing wrong with being kind.
- bdibs 6y agoPitter patter.
- nikivi 6y agoLife can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again. - Steve Jobs And in similar vain: Are you moving one step in 20 directions or 20 steps in one direction? I collect a few of my favorite mottos/quotes here: https://nikitavoloboev.xyz/likes/#quotes https://nikitavoloboev.xyz/likes/#quotes Most of these mottos and quotes are just pretty versions of my more generalized and practical rules I wrote for myself: https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing/rules https://wiki.nikitavoloboev.xyz/focusing/rules
- BatteryMountain 6y agoThank you for this. Regarding your last link: I have something similar scattered all over text files in multiple drives and very rarely see them. Yours is organized, in one place and easy to see your intentions if you need to. Maybe everyone should look at your list once in a while. Just reading them has a very strong emotional effect for me. Bookmarked! Thank you
- varrock 6y agoYou have a great website. I was especially curious about your minimalism section and how you list all of your possessions. May I ask; do you truly not own any bedding? I'm similar to you such that I find extreme value in being able to pack up my things and go somewhere else with relative ease.
- nikivi 6y agoI do own bedding, just didn't think to mention it. Same for chair or a table. It mostly lists things I would take with me if I were to move to a new place.
- paulolc 6y ago"Are you moving one step in 20 directions or 20 steps in one direction?" So what if I'm moving one step in 20 directions but I'm enjoying each one of them? Isn't preferrable to enjoy the journey and never reaching nowhere rather than reaching your destination whatever it takes on each step? :D
- rswail 6y ago"Design depends largely on constraints." - Charles Eames
- iheartblocks 6y ago"If you don't have time to do it right, make sure you have time to do it again" --My great-great grandfather
- scoutt 6y agoI love it! Thank you.
- baby 6y agoWow. This is what I needed right now.
- snarfy 6y agoIt's very much in the spirit of my coworker's complaint about the agile 'process' we followed. "We never have enough time to do it right, but we always have enough time to do it twice"
- webmaven 6y ago> It's very much in the spirit of my coworker's complaint about the agile 'process' we followed. > "We never have enough time to do it right, but we always have enough time to do it twice" Which is a totally valid tradeoff if "doing it right" will take three times as long. Or, if after "doing it right", you're still going to have to do it over because you anticipated the wrong problems.
- chrismatheson 6y ago"Buy cheap, Buy twice" I think seems related :)
- jdmcnugent 6y agoSimilar: “cry once, buy once”
- klausjensen 6y agoWhat would you do if you were not afraid? From Dr. Spencer Johnson's book, “Who Moved My Cheese?” Often what is holding us back from doing something is fear. The fear might be important, but asking yourself what you would do if fear was not involved has helped me a lot over the years.
- nicbou 6y agoGiven my interest in motorcycles, I'd probably be six feet under
- ZetaH 6y agoThis gave me the cold chill. I think I will print it and put it on the wall.
- Item_Boring 6y agoOn a similar note, when anxious I ask myself, “What am I afraid of right now?”. It helps me to take more control over my anxiety.
- gitgud 6y ago"I am not a visionary. I'm an engineer. I'm happy with the people who are wandering around looking at the stars but I am looking at the ground and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in." - Linus Torvalds (TED Talk 2016)
- IAmNotAFix 6y agoLinus Torvalds: > I am not a visionary. I'm an engineer. I'm happy with the people who are wandering around looking at the stars but I am looking at the ground and I want to fix the pothole before I fall in. Apollo 11 engineers: > ok boomer.
- war1025 6y agoFunny thing about this is that the time of the Apollo program, Boomers were the young punks.
- gadders 6y ago"aut inveniam viam aut faciam" "I will find a way or make one" Reputedly said by Hannibal when proposing taking his army (and elephants) across the alps.
- arethuza 6y agoHe presumably didn't say it in Latin though ;-)
- 082349872349872 6y agowhich is why we know 𐤌𐤄𐤓𐤁𐤏𐤋's famous line as Vincere scis victoria uti nescis. ==== https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharbal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maharbal discusses the merits of this statement at the time. I find it in keeping with his branch of service, as a cavalry commander. (Weinberg's line about 30[1] was an echo of Lasalle's. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Weinberg#"Don't_trust_anyone_over_30 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Weinberg#"Don't_trust_any..." https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Charles_Louis_de_Lasalle#Retour_en_France https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Charles_Louis_de_Lasal... ) Q. How did Napoleon's HQ decide which branch to assign butterbars fresh from the academy? A. Oral exam. Ask each candidate the same question: what is 2+2? If he answers "4": artillery If he yells out "3!" upon hearing just "2 plus...": cavalry If he counts on his fingers under the table: infantry If he asks "what would you like it to be?": logistics [1] some friends came back from watching The Who and reported that when Daltrey sang "I hope I die before I get old" the guy next to them yelled "too late!" ==== Incidentally, the aut ... aut ... construction reminds me of https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-howtowrite.ps https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-howtowrite.ps page 3, only in one temporal dimension, sans parentheses, rather than two physical.
- gadders 6y agoHe may well have never said it at all :-)
- arethuza 6y agoYeah - similar to the "they make a solitude and call it peace" speech: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgacus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgacus As an aside: Agricola's army is supposed to have camped on the hill where my house is!
- ai_ja_nai 6y agoWe must know. And we will know. - Hilbert
- algoholix 6y agoThere's also a great recording of the address this quote is from (in German): http://math.sfsu.edu/smith/Documents/HilbertRadio/HilbertRadio.mp3 http://math.sfsu.edu/smith/Documents/HilbertRadio/HilbertRad...
- rriepe 6y agoAmor fati. Love your fate.
- arunbahl 6y ago“Focus on your high-order bit.” -Kim Cameron
- botwriter 6y agoAll I ask for in life is an unfair advantage!
- BjoernKW 6y ago"The years don't come without the days."
- Kednicma 6y ago"Everybody lies." ~ Gregory House "Talk is cheap; show me the code." ~ Linus Torvalds "To understand a program you must become both the machine and the program." ~ Alan Perlis
- niccl 6y agoA decision is either easy, or it doesn't matter
- falcor84 6y agoI'm surprised by this one. What about things like marriage or a career change?
- lethologica 6y agoI kind of take the quote to mean “if it isn’t a hell yes! Then it’s a no” sort of a thing. If I don’t say “hell yes!” To the prospect of marrying my girlfriend, then perhaps proposing to her now is the right move.
- rocqua 6y agoIf you are doubting whether to get married, then apparently, both options are roughly equal. Hence the difference between either decision is small, not in outcome but in expected 'desirability'. Hence the decision 'doesn't matter much' insofar as there are no real wrong choices, just a slightly more right one.
- falcor84 6y ago> ... apparently, both options are roughly equal. But that's the thing, they aren't really roughly equal in any meaningful way. I think Anscombe's quartet [0] is a good illustration of the issue, only in this case there are very many dimensions involved, with huge uncertainty in each, leading to vastly different risk profiles for the different alternatives. > ... no real wrong choices ... This is a matter of philosophy of course, but more objectively, there are many many people actively regretting their choices. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet
- rocqua 6y ago> This is a matter of philosophy of course, but more objectively, there are many many people actively regretting their choices. I think this is a part of the power of the quote. It essentially says, don't judge your decisions with hindsight. And remember that having made the other choice could equally well have turned out bad as far as you knew back then.
- twistedcheeslet 6y ago"The only way to be wisely selfish is to care for others." -Sam Harris
- onion2k 6y ago"Why do it right when you can do it twice?" I use it sarcastically when people want to hack things together so I don't think it counts as a motto.
- checkyoursudo 6y agoI sometimes use: Why do today what can be put off until tomorrow?
- falcor84 6y agoI remember I really liked this one as a kid, and of course its corollary "don't put off until tomorrow what can be put off until the day after". And I still use this as part of my prioritisation - if something is not at all time sensitive, either act on it now, or let it go. Snoozing this stuff doesn't really help; if it's valuable it'll come back to your mind on its own.
- ISO-morphism 6y agoWhat is today but yesterday's tomorrow? - Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants
- webmaven 6y ago> "Why do it right when you can do it twice?" Elsewhere in this discussion I observed that it is a good tradeoff if "doing it right" takes three times as long, or if after doing it right you're still going to have to do it over because you anticipated the wrong problems.
- nowhacker 6y agoThe will is decisive.
- hooby 6y agoIt's just life. Don't take it so seriously.
- arethuza 6y ago"keep the heid" i.e. Stay calm My mother always said this to me before exams at school.
- jtokoph 6y agoEarly is on-time. On-time is late.
- mlang23 6y ago“It is passion that makes man live; wisdom makes one only last.” -― Nicolas Chamfort
- drenvuk 6y agoIf at first it doesn't work, force it.
- indentit 6y agoI used to like, "if at first you don't succeed, don't tell anyone you tried!"
- alkonaut 6y agoWeeks of coding can save hours of planning
- mehrdadn 6y agoRelated: A couple of months in the laboratory can frequently save a couple of hours in the library. -Frank Westheimer
- matfil 6y agoThis can be taken to extremes. Some years ago, a popular historical novelist told me something along the lines of "I often talk to people who say 'I'm writing a historical novel', at which point I'm wondering whether this could be a potential competitor, '...but I'm still doing the research', at which point I realize that there's not a lot to worry about." Looking into background and what others have done is valuable, but it's pretty easy to let it prevent you from ever taking action yourself. It's a tricky balance, though...
- bobosha 6y agoI have heard this before as : "Days of doing can save months of thinking"
- latentdeepspace 6y agoI live life by the following words: "If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room"
- sergiosgc 6y agoI disagree so much with this popular motto that I have difficulty putting it into words. It reeks of egoism. Please, please replace it with: "If you are the smartest person in the room, teach until you no longer are."
- kittko 6y agoThank you so much for rephrasing that terrible original motto, it always has bothered me as well.
- scoutt 6y agoIt's nice but one cannot always teach people to be smarter. You can distribute knowledge, but that's a different thing.
- narag 6y agoIt reeks of egoism. Or sarcasm.
- doctor_eval 6y agoFunny, I always took it to mean that you’re in a room by yourself.
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoNah. Teaching doesn't make people smarter. Challenging yourself does. There's a fundamental divide between those that think the best of us are only here to help the less fortunate. And those that think, the best of us should be out there expanding the frontiers. Especially since the 'less fortunate' sometimes can be that way by laziness.
- sergiosgc 6y ago
- bhu1st 6y agoPlay iterated games. - Naval All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
- steve_b 6y agoBrute force is rarely the answer.
- falcor84 6y ago"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." And also: "Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks." Lazarus Long, from Heinlein's "Time Enough for Love"
- me_me_me 6y ago> Specialization is for insects This is literally why we are talking over internet and not using smoke signals.
- ImaCake 6y agoThat's the joke! The quote is meant to be absurd. I've seen this quote generate some interesting discussion before. People seem divided into two camps over whether to take it seriously or as absurdist humour.
- me_me_me 6y agohehe, You never know these days. There was a term for it, when something is so absurd you can never be certain if its a parody or serious i.e. flat earth society.
- sonofgod 6y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe%27s_law "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is utterly impossible to parody a Creationist in such a way that someone won't mistake for the genuine article." -- Nathan Poe
- mortivore 6y agoI'd be very interested to see your source on how this is supposed to be a joke.
- the-dude 6y agoA dirty mind is a joy forever. My dad. I miss you.
- highhedgehog 6y agoNon-native english speaker here, can you elaborate? I can only find a sexual meaning to it...
- howenterprisey 6y agoI am a native speaker and I can't really see a non-sexual meaning. Which is fine, it's a thought-provoking motto.
- highhedgehog 6y agoAh, ok :D
- avh02 6y ago"be the change you want to see in the world" - misattributed to Ghandi (can't remember if completely or heavily paraphrased). It reminds me that there's usually nothing wrong with being an example as well as taking initiative. Be kind, do good. Plus I share Ghandi's birthday.
- giu 6y agoI always loved Frank Herbert's quote about fear in Dune: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” In fact, this quote resonates with me so much that I've been using it as my desktop background for the past 8 years. It also has been my experience with fears in the past years, especially with those fears that come with decisions that you have to make for yourself: Once you face those fears and permit them to pass over you (e.g. by being mindful about the emotions), you give yourself the possibility to learn and grow, and a lot of times you will find yourself in situations which you could not have imagined in the first place.
- jmercouris 6y agoIf that quote resonates with you, then you've never felt true fear.
- swyx 6y agolmao leave it to HN to gatekeep fear
- phatfish 6y agoI don't remember the context in Dune. But I read it to be about irrational fear of something that is not life threatening. Obviously "overcoming your fear" by putting your life in danger in a situation where you are almost certain to be killed or injured is probably not an idea most people can seriously claim to live by.
- bartvk 6y agoThat's a bit of a shallow dismissal (see HN guidelines). You'd do everyone a favor if you'd explain what your experiences were.
- giu 6y agoCould you explain what you mean? English is not my native language, so there's a possibility for me to learn how to rephrase it; maybe resonates with me is not the right word :) I'd appreciate it!
- nkoren 6y ago"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." -- George Bernard Shaw
- kleer001 6y agoI would add that all atrocities depend on unreasonable people. Reasonable people keep the world running smoothly.
- nkoren 6y agoIt cuts both ways. You're not wrong, and yet atrocities frequently depend on people following orders, which is something that only an unreasonable person won't do. Basically, for good or ill, history pivots around the unreasonable people. The reasonable ones might be bystanders or accomplices, but in either case, going with the flow is simply the reasonable thing to do.
- kleer001 6y agoYes, exactly. I just dislike the value judgment about what unreasonable people do. In addition a society/culture made up of solely unreasonable people would quickly fall apart. While a society/culture of entirely reasonable people, if they had an excellent rule of law, would thrive.
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- pixelbreaker 6y ago"expectation is the road to disappointment" can't remember where it's from.
- smoqadam 6y agoKeep your expectations low boy, and you'll never be disappointed. Kratos - God Of War
- highhedgehog 6y ago"Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur" "Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound"
- aidenn0 6y agoSemper ubi, sub ubi.
- throw_away 6y agoThey can kill you, but the legalities of eating you are quite a bit dicier.
- francescopnpn 6y agoMemento mori. Unus sed leo.
- justsomeuser 6y agoShips in the harbour are safe, but that’s not what ships were made for
- rexelhoff 6y agoBite off more than you can chew, and chew like buggery.
- chrisco255 6y agoA ship at dock is safe but that is not what ships are for.
- csbartus 6y agoBeauty is worth living and dying for it.
- sorenvrist 6y ago"It will be alright in the end - if it's not alright, it's not the end"
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- skmurphy 6y agoLive Free or Die State Motto of New Hampshire Eleftheria i thanatos Freedom or Death Motto of State of Greece
- lonelyasacloud 6y agoImagine.
- lb1lf 6y ago"Real laziness is doing it properly the first time." -Instructor at a field bus training course I did sometime around 2000.
- angusiasty 6y agoLove this one :D
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- keane 6y agovitam impendere vero — Rousseau quoting Juvenal, “stake your life on truth”
- alberto_ol 6y ago"In the long run we are all dead," John Maynard Keynes
- Zealotux 6y ago"What you do at 8PM matters [...] what you do at that time will determine what you'll be in 10 years."[1], back then I was playing video games at 8PM, or watching Netflix, probably until 2-3 in the morning, I sold my gaming computer and replaced that time with learning new things, working on my side projects, reading, or sleeping. Every time I feel like getting some cheap dopamine shot I simply remember that quote, and immediately get motivated to do something better for myself. [1]https://youtu.be/uVqoU2FzBiA?t=255 https://youtu.be/uVqoU2FzBiA?t=255
- scoutt 6y ago"...perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away..." - Antoine de Saint Exupéry Also "Perfect is the enemy of good" - Voltaire Not a life motto, but I also like: “Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick. Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick.” - Bruce Lee
- abhiyerra 6y agoSome off the top of my head: “Oh my soul don’t aspire for immortal life but exhaust the limits of the possible” -Pindar “Man is nothing without the gods.” -Odyssey “Why ask my age Diomedes, very like leaves upon this earth are generations of men. The old the wind cast to the ground, the young the greening forest bears as the spring comes in. So mortals pass one generation flowers as another dies.” -Illiad “That which you see as righteousness and unrighteousness, beyond this cause and effect, beyond what has been and what is to be—-tell me That.” -Upanishads “Get up and fight.” -Bhagavad Gita “To every man on this earth death comes soon or late, what better way to die than to face fearful odds for the ashes of our fathers and the temple of our gods.” -Horatius “My lord my rock, prepares my fingers for battle and my hands for war.” - Psalm 144:1
- anonyfox 6y agoYou are what you consistently do.
- edem 6y agoJust because you can, doesn't mean you should.
- poxwole 6y agoPraxis Tendatum Docebit!- C.F. Gauss Translation: "Practice will teach those who try" "We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time." T.S. Eliot "What one fool can understand, another can." R.P. Feynman
- pwdisswordfish4 6y ago“By searching, you can always find someone who made a well-sounding statement that confirms your point of view--and, on every topic, it is possible to find another dead thinker who said the exact opposite.” — Nassim Taleb
- kqr 6y agoRelated to this, I've always loved how the article on Epistemic Learned Helplessness[1] on SSC turns "well, you can prove anything with arguments!" from a joke to something to seriously consider. [1]: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/03/repost-epistemic-learned-helplessness/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/03/repost-epistemic-learn...
- ps0161 6y agoIf you find yourself in deep shit keep moving forward.
- bkovacev 6y ago"No problems, just work" - Seth Feroce
- unlivingthing 6y agoWhat is measured, improves!
- alltakendamned 6y agoI've heard the variation "What receives attention, grows". Not all attention yields positive results though, focusing on e.g. anxious feelings might increase the relative importance of those feelings.
- ankit_it09 6y agoThese are the three mottos which I like the most. - If you want to succeed increase the failure rate. - When you stop learning, you stop growing. - Don't Stop, Don't give up Keep Trying.
- tonyvince7 6y ago2 + 2 = 4
- etothepii 6y agoNever hide from objective data
- Xelbair 6y agounironically "Git Gud". It boils down to stop complaining and better yourself, stop being mad - don't get angry - and just work to surpass the problem/wall. The only thing you can reliably change is yourself.
- gitgud 6y agoI like this one ;)
- Mojah 6y ago"Geeks don't have interests, they have passions." I live by this.
- LittlePeter 6y agoWhat do you mean you live by this? Do you mean you make a conscious choice to have passion instead of an interest? I don't think one can choose a passion. It's something you either have or don't.
- steev 6y agoWork harder. Never give up. Nothing to it but to do it (Ronnie Coleman) The journey is the reward (I think this is Steve Jobs) What can I do to move myself towards my goals right now? These are things I usually say to myself throughout the day.
- b3kart 6y agoSorry, I strongly dislike both "Work harder" and "Never give up". How hard is hard enough? When you're burnt out? Or even harder still? And why _never_ give up? What if you're "not giving up" pursuing a wrong thing? If you "give up" and start pursuing the right thing, why is this bad? What is "giving up" anyway. Not sure if trivializing these questions is necessarily productive.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- MrMontyBurns 6y agoSomething along the lines of Face the world with an open heart and good things will happen / life will pay you back. Asking someone to play cards on the train or simply gifting someone a smile can give you a positive feeling for the day. People usually mirror how you approach them, I believe being kind will make your life so much easier because others will respond with kindness (at least in the moment). This one encouraged me to speak to strangers as I'm rather introverted and I've been carrying the idea in my heart for quite some time now.
- meddlepal 6y agoNothing matters; keep moving forward. Or as the movie Collateral framed it: > Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.
- dvcrn 6y ago“Motivation follows action” Waiting for motivation to take an action often means you’ll wait forever.
- seqizz 6y agoFirst 3 would be: - You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do. (David Foster Wallace / Infinite Jest) - 90% of everything is crap (Sturgeon’s Law) - If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time. (Shimon Peres)
- sbmthakur 6y agoRigorous application of Sturgeon's law to all my information sources gave me a lot of peace of mind. Before that, I was always anxious about missing something important and my reading and learning list just kept piling up. After trimming things down, I am able to organize better and with proper prioritization, I can get more things done.
- alisson 6y ago- The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least. - When you try to replicate someone's life, you don't live yours.
- Errancer 6y ago1. what does not kill me makes me stronger 2. Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. 3. What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, and ever rarer, thing that might be worth saying. What we’re plagued by these days isn’t any blocking of communication, but pointless statements.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- i2shar 6y agoWhen was the last time you really pushed yourself? Another one: (I forget who this is about, but someone famous, apparently on their death bed said this): What a wonderful life I have had. If only I had realized it earlier!
- joddystreet 6y ago- How you do anything, is how you do everything. - Fall 7 times, stand up 8
- mrweasel 6y agoI should find better mottos/quotes to adopt, but my favorites are, in no particular order: * I don't practice what I preach because I'm not the kind of person I'm preaching to. - J. R. "Bob" Dobbs * The road to hell is paved with good intentions * You can hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills the fastest. - My dad.
- capdiz 6y agoProverbs 27:17 - "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another."
- SimeVidas 6y agoBeing healthy is underrated.
- tarre 6y agoDon Quixote: "To attain to eminence in letters costs a man time, watching, hunger, nakedness, headaches, indigestions, and other things of the sort."
- gquiniou 6y ago“They did not know it was impossible so they did it” ― Mark Twain
- muditmudit 6y agoInstead of "live within your means", "live within your needs".
- CamperBob2 6y agoThe impossible costs a little more
- quickthrower2 6y agoHe who dares wins Rodney!
- ramoz 6y agoDont structure for the sake of structure. Structure to enable. Release the guardrails in execution. In military ops in the mission field... these were some of the most surreal human experiences where the structure that trained us was no longer in place when we were executing. It's not a about dress-right-dress in execution... we were already enabled for what we needed to do & trust was instilled.
- kitd 6y ago"We choose to go to the moon and do these other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard" - JFK "If you want to succeed, increase your failure rate" - Thomas J Watson "Dead fish go with the flow" - Andy Hunt "Be hard to beat, but easy to like" - Me :)
- Loq 6y agoEverybody lies about two things: money and sex! I can't recall who said this to me as a teenager, but at the time it felt wrong! I had not yet much experience with either. Navigating the adult world changed that, but I didn't grow beyond a vague feeling of the need for caution in delicate human matters. It was only when I learned about crypography, security and distributed systems, that I understood the value, and indeed necessity, of having attacker models. I realised that the social world, too, has benign and adversarial parts (and many shades inbetween): for example you can trust your mathematics teachers nearly 100% when they talk about mathematics, but you should probably be prepared for being taken advantage off in financial transactions, whence the aphorism.
- x0xMaximus 6y agoIf not now, then when?
- angusiasty 6y ago"Smile it confuses people." - chaotic neutral motto ;)
- Loq 6y agoAlmost everything I know about the world, I learned through consuming mass media. One of the things I learned from the mass media is that the mass media cannot be trusted.
- PopeDotNinja 6y agoYou gotta be in it to win it.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- m0nty 6y agoShepard's Prayer.
- sheinsheish 6y agohttps://linguaholic.com/topic/1987-famous-greek-quotations/ https://linguaholic.com/topic/1987-famous-greek-quotations/ «Πάν μέτρον άριστον» Everything in moderation. Can’t say I manage to get by following it.
- GurnBlandston 6y agoA more modern extension: Everything in moderation, especially moderation.
- webmaven 6y ago> A more modern extension: Everything in moderation, especially moderation. Yeah, too much moderation causes an excess deficiency, that's really bad.
- mdtancsa 6y agoI think a lot about this quote as of late No one is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart: for his purity, by definition, is unassailable. James Baldwin We seem to be in a period of history with many pure hearts
- wittjeff 6y ago"Whenever the word 'they' enters your consciousness, ask yourself, 'what is the distribution?'" -- my psychology professor Overgeneralization about groups of people is one of the most pernicious natural biases.
- jamessun 6y agoYou don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
- teabee89 6y ago"You can't always get what you want" -- The Rolling Stones
- cm2187 6y agoMy favourite moto is very hard to translate from French. It’s a quote from Chateaubriand. “Il faut etre econome de son mepris tant les necessiteux sont nombreux”. Clumsy translation that misses the elegance of the formulation: “one must use disdain sparingly given how numerous are the needy”. Also eternal truths passed on to me by my various managers: “The more you climb in the hierarchy, the more you realise it is the same idiots at every level” “The optimal number of people in an organisation is 3. As soon as you add one more you lose efficiency. So passed 100,000...” “Assumptions are the mother of all fuckups”
- newswasboring 6y ago1. Make a plan, stick to the plan -- my colleague at my first internship 2. Mr. Winston, everyone knows what is in room 101--1984, orwell These are the two I can remember right now. Was remined of the second one because it was referenced in cory doctorow's new book.
- brightball 6y ago“Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.” - Lewis Grizzard
- 082349872349872 6y agoThose with insufficient pack instinct to stay in harness get new scenery (of their own, not the musher's choice) even without being lead dog: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24141469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24141469 "MYOB"
- indentit 6y ago"if I can't fix it, it ain't broke" - I first came across this in a DOS game called God of Thunder.
- kilroy123 6y ago“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.” ―Stephen Covey
- natmaka 6y agoCharacter is destiny. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you choose, what you think and what you do is who you become. ― Heraclitus
- qubex 6y agoGod is in the rain
- RickJWagner 6y ago"Be prepared." It's a double whammy. From the Boy Scouts, and also Japeth the Goat.
- notyourday 6y ago"code wins arguments"
- hoseja 6y ago"This, too, shall pass."
- luigibosco 6y agoi have a variation on this i like based on george harrison, "all things must pass" including my car passing yours.
- sidcool 6y agoSpaceX and Tesla driving principles.
- muse900 6y ago“Time is money friend” - greedy goblin in world of Warcraft No but seriously that’s a precious advice. Don’t waste your time, our time in this earth is limited, better make the most of it!
- indentit 6y agoDo unto others as you would have them do unto you [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule
- danielx 6y agoA goal without a plan is just a wish.
- MrXOR 6y agoA goal is a dream with a deadline.
- OzzyB 6y ago"I'll be happy to sell you my business for a $100k, and half for $1million" -- My Old Man The gist is that if he sold half the buyer would get him as a partner and that would be more valuable. xD
- jmkd 6y agoBe yourself. It's easier and you won't get found out.
- DavidPeiffer 6y ago"It'll never be easier than right now" People just want to be done with a task or not deal with it now. * If you're already in a section of code and familiar with it, clean up a bit of technical debt. Even just write a couple comments. If you're not feeling patient enough to deal with it, add a #TODO comment with a couple brainstorms on how to deal with it so that next time it's easier to deal with. I cleaned up an admittedly small (~1,000 LOC) but messy Excel macro codebase this way. Much of it was generated by the Macro Recorder, which makes anyone who has developed in VBA wince at the thought. While I never did refactor large sections as were needed because of other priorities, fixing things when they broke was far easier with intuitive variable names, nice function/sub names, and comments outlining generally what's happening or why this odd looking loop exists. * If you disassemble something and there's rust, deal with the rust. The rust will make more headaches later and you're right there. It'll truly never be easier to sand it down and treat it. * If you think you might need something for a project, just grab it. I was replacing brakes on my car recently and needed to remove a screw that was tight enough a normal screw driver was stripping it. I bought a $2 converter to let me throw a phillips head onto a wrench, a $15 set of Phillips drivers with socket backings, and a $99 impact driver. I broke the $2 solution, but the $15 solution worked great. I took the $99 solution back and saved myself ~25 minutes if the $99 solution was neeeded but not purchased. * If your car engine with 120k miles on it is already disassembled to fix an issue and you can afford it, it might be worth doing the 125k maintenance items a bit early.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- basedtho 6y agolive and let live
- pieperz 6y agoWorked Like Socks on a Rooster
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- RhysU 6y agoC'mon, we're all dying here.
- diqwndwqiond 6y agoThis is my favorite one: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
- chris_st 6y agoGood judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.
- t0mislav 6y ago"The dogs bark, but the caravan goes on." Also when I think I have problems in life, this helps a lot: "Things could be (much) worse." (I think it is from Stoicism)
- ltr_ 6y agoIT Related : "Morty relax, it's just a bunch of ones and zeros out there, you're gonna be fiiiiiine"- Rick Sanchez in Dota 2
- tugberkk 6y agoIf you can endure, endure. Stop complaining. - Marcus Aurelius
- sebastianconcpt 6y ago1. Love is the only truth, everything else is illusion 2. Ubi vera amicitia est, ibi idem velle, et idem nolle. Which roughly would be: A genuine friendship is found in same likes and same dislikes.
- lefstathiou 6y agoInscribed on the inside of my wedding band: Ηθος Ανθρωπος Δαιμων (ethos anthropos daimon) which means "Character is destiny", to remind myself that my character (and the values I choose to live by) will drive my destiny.
- teekert 6y agoIf you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you will learn the things you never knew you never knew. - From the Pocahontas song. I reminds me that I don't even know what I don't know. There is a complete unknown out there of which I can't even guess at its existence. It's a humbling thought, makes you reserve judgement.
- Xc43 6y agoThe motto of the billionaire french family/dynasty Mulliez: Everyone in everything (Tous dans tout).
- ImaCake 6y agoI don't think I have a motto, and I don't particularly want a single one. Instead I rely on a broad set of ideas and rules which guide my decisions. Here is one quote that guides my thinking about science and philosophy: “Nell did not imagine that Constable Moore wanted to get into a detailed discussion of recent events, so she changed the subject. "I think I have finally worked out what you were trying to tell me, years ago, about being intelligent," she said. The Constable brightened all at once. "Pleased to hear it." “The Vickys have an elaborate code of morals and conduct. It grew out of the moral squalor of an earlier generation, just as the original Victorians were preceded by the Georgians and the Regency. The old guard believe in that code because they came to it the hard way. They raise their children to believe in that code– but their children believe it for entirely different reasons." They believe it," the Constable said, "because they have been indoctrinated to believe it." Yes. Some of them never challenge it– they grow up to be smallminded people, who can tell you what they believe but not why they believe it. Others become disillusioned by the hypocrisy of the society and rebel– as did Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw." Which path do you intend to take, Nell?" said the Constable, sounding very interested. "Conformity or rebellion?" “Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded– they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.” - Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age
- trabant00 6y ago> "Conformity or rebellion?" > “Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded– they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.” This is very interesting as I've been thinking a lot lately on the subject. What Nell chose is really the third way which is in no way better (or worse) than the other two. I don't know how to call it, but it's basically independent open minded. Let me explain why, from >40 years of being that way. Not because I'm complex minded or anything like that, that's just my personality. Rebel on one issue, trust the tradition on the other, change my mind on past choices, choose the middle ground and upset both sides, and any other variation you can think of. To keep it as short as possible I will have to simplify: you really only have 3 choices: lead, follow or get out of the way. For lead and follow you need other people and people only get together if they have a common way of thinking. So those options are only available for people who are (or appear to be) conformists or rebels. So what's left for individualists? Just to get out of the way and achieve pretty much oly what 1 person can achieve - not much. You can also fake going with one side or the other for a time being, but you can't form life long relationships (which are also required for important stuff) so it won't last long. And this society aspect is just one example. Another quick simple one is you tend to keep reinventing wheels. So yeah, being independent open minded is just as simple minded as the other options. In reality none of them are simple, they are just personality types each with pros and cons. Each can overcome some situations and fail in others just as likely. No mental model inside of one persons head can keep up with reality (even reduced to only society interactions). Any attempt to classify one model as being superior is just trying to feel good about one self and superior to others, and that IS simple-minded.
- heresie-dabord 6y ago"Competence means keeping your head in a crisis, sticking with a task even when it seems hopeless, and improvising good solutions to tough problems when every second counts. It encompasses ingenuity, determination and being prepared for anything." Chris Hadfield -- Canadian astronaut "A person becomes a person through other people." -- philosophy of Ubuntu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_philosophy)
- kyriakos 6y ago"With great power comes great responsibility" Spiderman's Uncle :)
- julienfr112 6y agoIn theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice ...
- unnouinceput 6y ago"A sucker is born every minute" - Nixon during his famous China visit.
- webmaven 6y ago> "A sucker is born every minute" - Nixon during his famous China visit. Huh. I'd always heard that attributed to P. T. Barnum.
- unnouinceput 6y agoYes, I've read that too. And probably Nixon was quoting him as well. But this summarize Nixon's mind, especially since he did this during the official talk with Chinese officials. It unfroze American-Chinese diplomatic relations, which led to current situation where China is America's manufacturer for almost everything.
- svieira 6y agoThe best way to prepare for death is to spend every day of life as though it were your last. — St. Philip Neri
- svieira 6y agoAnd also: We do not fix our affections on borrowed goods, because we know that they must soon be returned to the owner. All the goods of this earth are lent to us. — St. Alphonsus Liguori
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- loughnane 6y agoIdeas that keep coming back to me: A ship in a harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for. It is what we read [and watch and listen to] when we don’t have to that determines what we’ll be when we can’t help it. The quality of our thoughts determines the quality of our life. It is not enough to say you work hard, so does the devil work hard
- svieira 6y ago"There is the great lesson of 'Beauty and the Beast,' that a thing must be loved before it is lovable." Gilbert K. Chesterton
- LittlePeter 6y ago“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Dick, I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
- Jedd 6y ago'How hard can it be?'
- cauliflower99 6y agoClean your room. ;)
- swills 6y agoLately I've been a big fan of: "Nobody exists on purpose. Nobody belongs anywhere. Everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV"
- seriocomic 6y agoNot one, but a couple I utter everyday (to my kids): 1. "You get what you get and you don't get upset" 2. "Don't worry about that which you cannot control" The last is the deepest one which I struggle the most with: "When you’re 20, you care what everyone thinks, when you’re 40 you stop caring what everyone thinks, when you’re 60, you realize no one was ever thinking about you in the first place!" - attributed to Churchill, but looks unlikely as he also said "It’s a good thing for an uneducated man to read a book of quotations." - https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/mar/08/viral-image/no-winston-churchill-didnt-say-quote-about-age/ https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/mar/08/viral-imag...
- natmaka 6y agoDid you read the 'Enchiridion' (Epictetus)?
- seriocomic 6y agoThanks for pointing to that - I don't think I remember that specific reference, but there may have been some commentary to or about it when I was reading 'Meditations' (Marcus Aurelius) or one of the books on Stoicism where I picked it up from.
- LanceH 6y agoI live somewhere where "pen" == "pin" in pronunciation, so it's, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."
- xdavidliu 6y agofirst thing I thought of when I read this: 'Git-R-Done' by Larry the cable guy https://youtu.be/4TU-li1BqZ4?t=15 https://youtu.be/4TU-li1BqZ4?t=15
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- baby 6y agoA ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what it was built for.
- justusthane 6y agoI’ve co-opted Nike’s motto, and say it to myself in my head when I’m trying to get something done and am stumbling over anxiety, distraction, procrastination, perfectionism, etc. Just do it. May be trite, but it can be helpful for me.
- CamperBob2 6y agoI like Lance Armstrong's words along those lines: "People ask me what I'm on. What am I on? What am I on? I'm on my goddamn BIKE, that's what I'm on. I'm on my bike 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. That's all it takes. That, and the drugs." Maybe I'm misremembering his exact phrasing, but if it works, it works...
- manjana 6y agoI'm not sure of the exact definition of a motto, but I'll give it a try: 1. The Devil is in the details. 2. You never hit rock bottom, it can always get worse. Someone is always worse off than you, truly, so stop pitying yourself. Self-pity is a mean downward spiral - most people don't realize it's potential to cause havoc. 3. Nothing's ever so bad, it's good for nothing.
- letientai299 6y ago"Read the f* manual!" Seriously, a lot of questions anwer themselves after I read the related manual. Ever since I got that as a reply on my StackOverflow question, it becomes my motto.
- stared 6y agoSome say: learn as long as you live. I say the converse: you live as long as you learn.
- alex_hitchins 6y ago“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.” Marcus Tullius Cicero
- RegBarclay 6y agoThere are two kinds of people who never amount to much: those who cannot do what they are told, and those who can do nothing else.
- cube00 6y agoDon't quit before the miracle happens.
- pjmorris 6y ago'Mercy triumphs over judgement.' (James 2:13, NIV) Also: 'Esse quam videri'. "To be, rather than to seem" 'If the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.' 'In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.' 'If' by Rudyard Kipling was a compass of mine for a long time, practically every line is a motto.
- tchock23 6y ago‘He who angers you, conquers you.’
- wadkar 6y agoNot exactly motto or phrase, but just a word to remind myself that This too shall pass. In its original form: Anicca (impermanence)
- ehosca 6y agoAmor Fati
- nepthar 6y agoThe unexamined life is not worth living - Socrates
- bigie35 6y agoI sort of cycle through and meditate on the below quotes a few times a week. "Humanity has no forgotten how infinitesimal, how impermanent and how ignorant it actually is. Ptolemy has been ridiculed for conceiving the earth to be the center of the universe, yet modern civilization is apparently founded upon the hypothesis that the planet Earth is the most permanent and important of all the heavenly spheres. Ignorant of the cause of life, ignorant of the purpose of life, ignorant of what lies beyond death, we devote the precious span of our earthly years to the futile effort of establishing ourselves as an enduring power in a realm of un enduring things." - anon “It is not necessary for a man to be actively bad in order to make a failure in life; simple inaction will accomplish it. Nature has everywhere written her protest against idleness; everything which ceases to struggle toward an ideal, the constant effort to get higher and further, which develops manhood and character.” ― James Terry White "How we spend our days is how we spend our lives" “Concentrate every minute like a Roman— like a man— on doing what's in front of you with precise and genuine seriousness, tenderly, willingly, with justice. And on freeing yourself from all other distractions." - Marcus Aurelius Discipline = freedom
- runbsd 6y agoThis guy Jocko Willink talks about discipline = freedom, I think he wrote a book or two (retired NAVY seal).
- badalsurana 6y agoThe guy above you just said "discipline loses to interest every time"
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- derwiki 6y agoWhen the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
- nonsapreiche 6y agoThere Is More Than One Way To Do It
- BrandoElFollito 6y ago"Always be nice twice" This has been my motto for about 20 or 30 years now and helped me enormously (I think this is from an Irving book). The idea behind is that you should give yourself and the other party a chance after a failed first impression. People have bad days, a tough meeting before, personal problems, ... I met a few wonderful people and one very close friend after a horrible initial meeting. If I just told myself that they are assholes and I am an angel we would have missed a lot. I rather thought "they may be great and I may not have been great". One word of caution: some people will take this for weakness.
- uptown 6y ago"The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you." - Lost in Translation
- rtheunissen 6y agoFitter, happier, more productive.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- nurkhz 6y agobad decision make great stories.
- brittpart_ 6y agoStart before you're ready
- scythe 6y ago"Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness." (Wittgenstein) It's easy to get stuck in problem-solving because you think things have to be a certain way. By letting go of the felt-need to think "realistically", you can reach a more complete view of the situation. You can always reclaim your worries later.
- itsAWindowsSys 6y agoThis isn't particularly profound, but when I find myself getting distracted, I say "One thing at a time." to myself to reset my focus on the task at hand. Pretty simple, but it seems to help.
- maroonblazer 6y ago"All happiness depends on courage and work." -Honoré de Balzac
- ramie 6y agoChance favors the prepared mind. - Louis Pasteur
- shaunn 6y agoI have always liked the simple expression "fail to plan, plan to fail". And by extension a modified quote of Eisenhower's: "plans are worthless, but planning is essential."
- vlachen 6y ago"Adapt and overcome." Motto/mantra from my time in the Marine Corps. I think, officially, it was "Improvise, Adapt and Overcome." but rarely was the first word included in my exposure. Related to that mantra's concept was: "Semper Gumby - Always Flexible." Both are useful in acknowledging that 1) Change is constant and 2) To thrive, you must be able to work with that change.
- chad_strategic 6y agoHere is one... Semper Fi, devil dog
- LanceH 6y agoAnother from the Marines, although not quite a full fledged motto, it still sees a fair bit of play in my house: "If you can't be smart, you're going to be strong."
- sys_64738 6y ago"Not my problem"
- butterfi 6y agoIf i had more time, I would have made it shorter
- B4CKlash 6y ago“Be who you are and say what you feel, because in the end those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter.” ~Dr. Seuss
- olau 6y agoHelp people (including yourself) become the best version of themselves.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- subhro 6y agoBe the change you want to see in the world. — Mahatma Gandhi
- voisin 6y agoYou are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
- GurnBlandston 6y agoAnything worth doing is worth overdoing!
- endori97 6y ago"What I cannot create, I do not understand" -Richard Feynman “Chi cerca dove non deve, trovarà qualcosa che non gli piace.” [“He who looks where he shouldn’t, will find something he will not like”.] [Sicilian proverb] "Sew in wind, reap the whirlwind" Hosea 6
- jordiburgos 6y ago"If you can pay it with money, it's cheap". It means that if you can use money istead of family, health, sanity, etc... it is going to be easier for you. It comes from the Valencia expression "Si es paga amb diners, barato!"
- 7357 6y agoThose who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. Benjamin F. Of course it depends on what one sees as essential
- spdustin 6y ago"It's kind of fun to do the impossible" — Walter Elias Disney "Sometimes, you can either be right, or you can be happy." — My mother (though probably some other people, too)
- whammywon 6y ago"If you're going through Hell, keep going." I _think_ it was Winston Churchill who said it. But I like that it can apply to all kinds of situations. A stressful time a work? Hard times in personal relationships? Feeling depressed? The quote applies to any difficult situation I've ever found myself in.
- webmaven 6y ago> "If you're going through Hell, keep going." > I _think_ it was Winston Churchill who said it. Contrast with: "If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."
- cmenge 6y ago"What I cannot create, I do not understand" ― Richard Feynman Very humbling.
- leephillips 6y agoPeople say I don't take criticism well, but I say, what the hell do they know? -- Groucho Marx
- leephillips 6y agoIt is best to act with confidence no matter how little right you have to it. -- Lillian Hellman
- leephillips 6y agoI always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific. -- Andy Rooney
- leephillips 6y agoDealing with failure is easy: Work hard to improve. Success is also easy to handle: You've solved the wrong problem. Work hard to improve. -- Alan Perlis
- leephillips 6y agoAll creativity is an extended form of a joke. Most creativity is a transition from one context into another where things are more surprising. -- Alan Kay
- leephillips 6y ago[Pacifism] is only possible to people who have money and guns between themselves and reality. -- George Orwell
- leephillips 6y agoA genius is the one most like himself. -- Thelonious Monk
- leephillips 6y agoA small error at the beginning of something is a great one at the end. -- Thomas Aquinas
- leephillips 6y agoI must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. -- John Adams
- leephillips 6y agoDear Lord, give me chastity and self-restraint ... but not yet, O Lord, not yet! -- Saint Augustine
- leephillips 6y agoTry and live your life so that you never end up inspiring a warning label. -- knodi123’s Dad http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8541004 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8541004
- jhelphenstine 6y agoVeritatem Dilex ("I delight in the truth") Truth _is_. I strive to find more accurate forms to know it by.
- war1025 6y ago"People work jobs they hate to buy shit they don't need." -- Tyler Durden (Fight Club) That had a lot of influence over me when I heard it in High School. Something about it really clicked for me, and set me on a path to enjoying life for what it is instead of always chasing after money and possessions.
- leephillips 6y agoDon’t be afraid to go in your library and read every book. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- leephillips 6y agoPraise makes me humble but when I am abused, I know I have touched the stars. -- Oscar Wilde
- runbsd 6y ago"slow is smooth, smooth is fast" - not sure where the origin is, perhaps military, but some of my friends/coworkers have laughed when I said this before. To me, personally, it has always turned out to be true. When you're working on something, don't rush it, take the time to do it right. This typically saves time in the long run because you tend to avoid rework.
- notacoward 6y agoThis one has really been growing on me too. Right up there with the good old serenity prayer ("God grant me the strength...") and "a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor" and "once you've got a task to do, it's better to do it than live with the fear of it" for me.
- SaltyBackendGuy 6y agoDefinitely heard this a ton in the US Army. Specifically around reloading your weapon.
- insomniacity 6y agoI think it applies to individual and team movement too?
- SaltyBackendGuy 6y agoYup definitely. Reloading was just top of mind. There's another part to it also. "Too slow is dead"
- m463 6y agoI used to race motorcycles, and there were plenty of instances of "you have to go slow to go fast". For example two linked turns and a straight. If you went fast through the first one, you might have to go slow through the second one and the speed onto the straight would be slow. But if you slowed way down for the first turn and then accelerated from there through the second turn, your speed entering the straight would be much greater and then speed over distance would lower your lap time.
- leephillips 6y agoI’m part of the disease. -- John Drake, in the Dangerman epsode “The Man on the Beach”
- nextweek2 6y agoFamily motto is: Good times, bad times, all times change.
- markvdb 6y ago"Sabulum in apparatu" makes me smile. "Sand in the machine!" suddenly sounds less contrary and anarchist in Latin :-)
- JoeAltmaier 6y agoA young man of my acquaintance has on the headset of his bicycle "There's only one way to get home". Something his father told him during a long bike ride once, when he was in despair of ever finishing.
- m463 6y agoone time my roommate called me from ... very far away... He said "come get me, I've biked too far". and I drove for like an hour or more to bfe and got him.
- rodolphoarruda 6y agoIt "...never gets easier, you just go faster." -- Greg Lemond About the refusal to be at ease in your comfort zone. If it's easy for you now, you better push harder before the competition catches-up.
- m463 6y agoI recall those land speed guys who ride a bicycle behind a pickup breaking the wind on the salt flats. Basically eliminated air drag... and ran right into rolling friction.
- johnflan 6y agoI've always been partial to "Do your duty, come what may" not that applied it. I believe the quote is attributed to the Knights Templar
- fredcy 6y agoDon't believe everything you think.
- gschrader 6y agoI like this one, similar to another one I like. Don't connect the dots that aren't there.
- erjjones 6y ago"When normal sense makes good sense, seek no other sense."
- koonsolo 6y ago"Life if for those who dare" - my grandma ;) (Originally in Dutch: "Het leven is aan de durvers")
- PoachedSausage 6y agoNice. There is also: "Who Dares Wins" The motto of UK elite special forces regiments of the Special Air Service.
- natmaka 6y agoWherever something is wrong, something is too big. -- L. Kohr My goal in life is to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am. Most people are not rational, they are TRIBAL: "my gang yay, your gang boo!" It really is that simple. The rest is cosmetics. -- War Nerd All things come into being by conflict of opposites. ― Heraclitus More often than not what's new isn't good, and what good isn't new. Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. -- Edward Abbey
- koonsolo 6y agoWhat a colleague always told be before I asked him a question: "Remember, there are no stupid questions, only stupid people" :D.
- sbmthakur 6y agoThere's no easy way out. There's no shortcut home. - Rocky Balboa
- dorkwood 6y agoFollow your curiosity. Don't listen to people who say you're spreading yourself too thin. In time, you'll find you've out-paced your detractors, because while they were forcing themselves to focus and be disciplined, you were working on things that interested you, and discipline loses to interest every time.
- truculent 6y agoTHE ONLYES POWER IS NO POWER ~ Riddley Walker
- badalsurana 6y agoEasy is boring.
- drew55555 6y agoAn honest man has nothing to fear. Not sure who said it but it's definitely one I try to live by.
- cuspycode 6y ago"Measure twice, cut once."
- benji-york 6y agoThis reminds me of one of my favorites: "The best measurement is the one you don't have to make." E.g., if you want two boards of the same length, cut one and then use it to mark the other, avoiding a — potentially inaccurate — measurement.
- masukomi 6y ago"Keep Moving Forward" - Meet The Robinsons
- conception 6y agoEverything in moderation; even moderation.
- ppur 6y agoThree is two, two is one, one is none.
- cheeew 6y agoFrom Patrick Collison's advice page (https://patrickcollison.com/advice https://patrickcollison.com/advice): "More broadly, nobody is going to teach you to think for yourself. A large fraction of what people around you believe is mistaken. Internalize this and practice coming up with your own worldview. The correlation between it and those around you shouldn't be too strong unless you think you were especially lucky in your initial conditions."
- diggernet 6y agoI like to live by: "Why own it if you are afraid to take it apart?" Tempered a bit by: "Don't take it apart if you can't put it back together."
- armandososa 6y agoI don't remember where I got this, but this has been my working philosophy for the past couple years: > Make it work, then make it better.
- muffinman26 6y agoThe short poem "I will not die an unlived life" by Dawna Markova has had a profound impact on me. I don't think about it often, only when I am making big decisions, but it has convinced me to take some of the biggest and most rewarding steps outside of my comfort zone, including living in Germany for 6 months.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- fictorial 6y agoDone is better than perfect. This from a self-diagnosed perfectionist.
- FeloniousHam 6y agoNothing ever works. Everything is fixable.
- dionidium 6y agoA corny phrase that's had an outsized effect on me is, "Esteemable people do esteemable things." Do you imagine yourself to be the kind of person who does x, y, and z? Or are you actually the kind of person who does?
- enobrev 6y agoJanky shit will always come back to haunt you.
- who-and-whom 6y agoEen schip op het strand is een baken in zee. [A ship on the beach is a lighthouse to the sea.] - the Dutch proverb Frederick Brooks uses to kick off Chapter One of "The Mythical Man-month". Why, yes, as a matter of fact I AM in IT security. Why do you ask? :)
- discaler 6y agoHe conquers who conquers himself!
- matfil 6y agoIf a job's worth doing, it's worth doing yourself.
- 1nikoalvin1 6y agomy mates will burn me on this one but "if it doesn't spark joy, get rid of it" - marie condo. i blame my wife for getting me hooked on organizing our whole house. but it applies to real life situations too. for example, last year i was contemplating quitting my job. i asked myself if it sparked joy and with that i quit the next day. lol
- 3minus1 6y agoThis is a fun thread. Here are some I thought of: "envy is ignorance...imitation is suicide" --Emerson. For me it's about embracing your own weirdness "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self" --Hemingway. Similar to above. "regression to the mean" - The idea that any outcome that is especially good or bad is more likely an outlier than a predictor of future outcomes. "what you see is all there is" - people always have a kind of tunnel-vision and will always need reminders to be aware of anything "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" - a non-theist's mantra "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" - such a bold declaration of human value from the 1700s "These are the times that try men's souls" - an eloquent way of framing an age "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind" - pacifism is not a great strategy, but this statement is inspiring. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" - idealogical fervor and often leads to the best and worst in humanity "measure twice, cut once" -- an actual motto "Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" --Tyson. Defeating opponents is satisfying. "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." "change is the only constant" - for when things change
- jdmcnugent 6y agoMottos (or just quotes) I remember from medical training: “There is no problem that can’t be made worse with surgery” - a cautionary phrase to counter “a chance to cut is a chance to cure” “Never be the first or the last to do something” - in regards to the countless new widgets, fads, techniques etc that are all the rage at the time “50% of of our current understanding is wrong, but we don’t know which 50%” “A smart man learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from the mistakes of others”
- leejoramo 6y ago“Think”
- rotifer 6y ago"The Future Begins Tomorrow", motto of Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems [1], from the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/spookytreasures/7162735516/in/photostream/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/spookytreasures/7162735516/in/...
- coder4life 6y agoHalf of life is just showing up
- cosmic_quanta 6y ago"If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you always got". I can't remember who said that
- bobblywobbles 6y agoAnd we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. - Romans 8:28 In this verse I have grown in confidence that by desiring to become a good person, God is going to help me in all aspects of my life, ALL of them. Not just finances, or my career, or health, EVERYTHING. It is very powerful [essential] to have this belief; it carries me through life and will until the end.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoNot "by desiring to become a good person", though - instead, "those who love God", which isn't exactly the same thing.
- oldspleen 6y agoYou can't fly with the eagles if you sleep with the pigeons. This quote resonated with me very well
- __jf__ 6y agoEnvy is ignorance, imitation is fear. Fear is the mind-killer. - Ralph Waldo Herbert
- contingencies 6y agoIf you like these, try my fortune descendant at https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup https://github.com/globalcitizen/taoup
- fargle 6y ago"stultus quaestionum peteret, stultus respondeo impetro" Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers.
- sunstone 6y agoNo battle plan survives contact with the enemy.
- Def_Os 6y agoEverything in moderation.
- nicholasjohnson 6y agoBe quick but don’t hurry. -John Wooden If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? -John Wooden
- dorianmariefr 6y agonever a dull day
- rramadass 6y agoI love Aphorisms/Quotes/Mottos/Sayings/Passages and have a collection of books in that vein. The reason i like this format is the high S/N ratio; the pithiness really challenges your mind and forces it to consider different interpretations under different contexts which leads to wisdom. As an example, the sayings of "Wolf Larsen" from "The Sea Wolf" by Jack London have had a profound influence on my thinking. Here is a passage; Do you know, I sometimes catch myself wishing that I, too, were blind to the facts of life and only knew its fancies and illusions. They’re wrong, all wrong, of course, and contrary to reason; but in the face of them my reason tells me, wrong and most wrong, that to dream and live illusions gives greater delight. And after all, delight is the wage for living. Without delight, living is a worthless act. To labour at living and be unpaid is worse than to be dead. He who delights the most lives the most, and your dreams and unrealities are less disturbing to you and more gratifying than are my facts to me.” He shook his head slowly, pondering. “I often doubt, I often doubt, the worthwhileness of reason. Dreams must be more substantial and satisfying. Emotional delight is more filling and lasting than intellectual delight; and, besides, you pay for your moments of intellectual delight by having the blues. Emotional delight is followed by no more than jaded senses which speedily recuperate. I envy you, I envy you.” He stopped abruptly, and then on his lips formed one of his strange quizzical smiles, as he added: “It’s from my brain I envy you, take notice, and not from my heart. My reason dictates it. The envy is an intellectual product. I am like a sober man looking upon drunken men, and, greatly weary, wishing he, too, were drunk.” “Or like a wise man looking upon fools and wishing he, too, were a fool,” I laughed. “Quite so,” he said. “You are a blessed, bankrupt pair of fools. You have no facts in your pocketbook.” “Yet we spend as freely as you,” was Maud Brewster’s contribution. “More freely, because it costs you nothing.” “And because we draw upon eternity,” she retorted. “Whether you do or think you do, it’s the same thing. You spend what you haven’t got, and in return you get greater value from spending what you haven’t got than I get from spending what I have got, and what I have sweated to get.
- luigibosco 6y agoturn on, tune in, drop all from all.
- reluctantsheep 6y ago"You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great."
- erjjones 6y ago"Inch is a sinch, yard is hard"
- bobbydreamer 6y agoI am smart and i am ready to do leg work. Alot of it. What i am and what i am gonna do has nothing to do with what i was Do what you made for Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. - Learning by Anne rice after reading Franz Kafka work.
- ShaniceWilliams 6y agoYou aint your mistakes
- slipwalker 6y agoche sera, sera and I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
- nomadic_09 6y agoI've always liked "Mens sana in corpore sano" and it's even better that they have almost the literal same saying Arabic (which I speak) that goes "العقل السليم في الجسم السليم" Since Uni, I haven't changed this motto.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- NicBuihner 6y agoThis one's always been a favorite. Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- jcubic 6y agoNot sure where it came from or who said that: "Now Go Create"
- caviv 6y ago"Never give up, Never surrender !" although taken from a comedy movie Galaxy Quest, I find it very much carrying me on !
- lukapeharda 6y agoSometimes You Eat the Bear, and Sometimes the Bear Eats You. - several authors credited