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Quotes
"Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting." ~ John Green
Motivational Mantras
‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’ ‘That is the only time a man can be brave’, his father told him ~ George R.R. Martin
The moment you accept total responsibility for EVERYTHING in your life is the day you claim the power to change ANYTHING in your life ~ Hal Elrod
Good judgment comes from experience which comes from bad judgement ~ Mark Twain?
Often wrong never in doubt ~ Chamath Palipayta
You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club ~ John London
Be the change that you wish to see in the world. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. ~ Bernard M. Baruch
In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. ~ Robert Frost
Have you ever noticed how ‘What the hell’ is always the right decision to make? ~ Terry Johnson, Insignificance
My greatest award(moment) is what I’m about to do. ~ Kanye West
We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers. ~ Carl Sagan
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. ~ Ayn Rand
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. ~ Thomas A. Edison
Don't feel sorry for yourself. Only assholes do that. ~ Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
The biggest risk is not taking any risk... In a world that is changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks ~ Mark Zuckerberg
You, enlightened, self-sufficient, self-governed, endowed with gifts above your fellows, the world expects you to produce as well as to consume, to add to and not to subtract from its store of good, to build up and not tear down, to ennoble and not degrade. It commands you to take your place and to fight your fight in the name of honor and of chivalry, against the powers of organized evil and of commercialized vice, against the poverty, disease, and death which follow fast in the wake of sin and ignorance, against all the innumerable forces which are working to destroy the image of God in man, and unleash the passions of the beast. There comes to you from many quarters, from many voices, the call of your kind. It is the human cry of spirits in bondage, of souls in despair, of lives debased and doomed. It is the call of man to his brother … such is your vocation; follow the voice that calls you in the name of God and of man. The time is short, the opportunity is great; therefore, crowd the hours with the best that is in you ~ Hibben’s address to Yale graduates 1913
Philosophy
Happiness / Meaning
He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. ~ Socrates
Set your heart on doing good. Do it over and over again and you will be filled with joy. ~ Buddha
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. ~ Albert Camus
Missing a train doesn’t matter if you didn’t want to get on the train ~ Black Swans
He who has a why to live can bear any how ~ Nietchze
We thought we were saving time, instead we revved up the treadmill of life to 10x it’s former speed and made our days more anxious and agitated. ~ Sapiens
Life has no intrinsic worth, it is kept in motion by mere desire and illusion ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
I don’t want to be happy, I just want to change the world ~ Aaron Swartz
I didn’t understand that you can never get enough of something you don’t really need. ~ Ava
You have been taught to devalue any honorable behavior that comes from obligation, convention, or expectation because it didn’t come from “you. What you really want, the book says, is not to desire things but to be desired. ~ Summary of Sadly Porn
Find full reward Of doing right in right! Let right deeds be Thy motive, not the fruit which comes from them. And live in action! Labour! Make thine acts Thy piety, casting all self aside,
Abandoning desires which shake the mind-- Finds in his soul full comfort for his soul, He hath attained the Yog--that man is such! In sorrows not dejected, and in joys Not overjoyed; dwelling outside the stress Of passion, fear, and anger;
If one Ponders on objects of the sense, there springs Attraction; from attraction grows desire, Desire flames to fierce passion, passion breeds Recklessness; then the memory--all betrayed-- Lets noble purpose go, and saps the mind, Till purpose, mind, and man are all undone. ~ BHAGAVAD Gita
Morality
Morality is mere instinct in humans and emotions are the mechanism design in a species. ~ Algorithms to Live By
For there is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so ~ Halmet by Hamlet
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. ~ Martin Luther King Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways the point is to change it ~ Karl Marx
Truth
The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of ~ Pascal
In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, all things. ~ Rene Descartes Principles of Philosophy(1644)
One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. ~ Bertrand Russel
Because sometimes the truth isn’t good enough, sometimes people deserve more ~ the ending scene from the dark knight
A man’s worth is determined by how much truth he can bear ~ Nietzche
Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it. ~ André Gide
Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof ~ John Kenneth Galbraith, Professor of Economics, Harvard University
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion… Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them…he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form. ~ John Staurt Mill
If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything. ~ Mark Twain
I strive for truth not consistency. ~ Gandhi
Don’t take every word I say and interpret it as the closest cliche in your culture ~ Superintelligence by Nick bostrom.
Pain plus reflection equals progress ~ ray dalio
Identity
When making important decisions, may the real question be not what am I getting here, but rather, what am I becoming here. ~ Anon
You don’t have be good to do something. The process of doing it is the process of becoming better not being good ~ BoBurnam
Don’t be a follower, be a student. ~ Anon
Every action is a vote for the type of person you want to become The goal isn’t to read a book, it’s to become an avid learner and reader. ~ James Clear
Until we see what we are we can’t see what we should be ~ Millionaire Fastlane
I am not who you think I am; I am not who I think I am; I am who I think you think I am. ~ Thomas Cooley
After all, we are nothing more or less than what we choose to reveal. ~ Frank Underwood House of Cards
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. ~ Socrates
Talent is a pursued interest. Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do. ~ Bob Ross
very few people have achieved significant things without peer validation, but we have the freedom to choose our peers ~ Black Swans
To have more you simply have to become more; don’t wish it were easier, wish you were better. ~ Anon
Our judgments betray our expectations, and our expectations betray our experience. What we project about the future reveals a lot - about the world we live in, and about our past. ~ Algorithms to Live By
We all make choices but in the end our choices make us ~ Bioshock
Artists don’t want power they want influence. Power is compelling people to do things, influence is inspiring people to do things ~ Brian Chesky Airbnb
Professional/Social
Professional
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise, seek what they sought. ~ Nanzan Daishi, quoted by Matsuo Basho.
The most important role models are dreams: they come from within ourselves. To dream of anything less than what you conceive to be perfection, is to draw on less than the full power of the part of yourself that dreams. ~ Elizer Yudowsky
Precise measurements aren’t more accurate, but can measure smaller changes ~ A Coursera Man
Computers are useless. They only give you answers. ~ Pablo Picasso
Always work harder on yourself than you do on your job. If you work hard on your job, you’ll make a living; if you work hard on yourself you’ll make a fortune ~ Anon
The problem with communication is the illusion that it occured ~ George Bernard Shaw
The kernel, the soul - let us go further and say the substance, the bulk, the actual and valuable material of all human utterances - is plagiarism. It takes a thousand men to invent the telegraph, or a steam engine, or a phonograph, or the telephone or any other important thing - and the last man gets the credit and we forget the others. With this in mind, it almost behooves us to expose ourselves to as much knowledge and inspiration we can find from any source to synthesize it and, ironically, make it our own. ~ Mark Twain
We have met the enemy and he is us ~ earth day comic
Instead of asking what you could do, you ought to have been asking what needs to be done. ~ Steven Brust, The Paths of the Dead
So I think there are really compelling reasons to think that the “optimal strategy” to follow is one that probably fails — but if it doesn’t fail, it’s great. ~ SBF before the crash of FTX
Leadership
Delegate to people who have instrinsic motivation for what you want them to do ~ Sam Altman
For any complex question, there is an answer that is simple, clear, and wrong. ~ Paul Krugman masterclass quoting someone else
Live in the future and build what seems interesting. Strange as it sounds, that’s the real recipe. ~ How to Get Startup Ideas by Paul Graham
If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately ~ General Mattis
There are no organizations without institutional habits. There are only places where they are deliberately designed, and places where they are created without forethought. ~ Power of Habit
Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her. ~ Anon
Don't waste a good disaster ~ Anon
Social
I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you. ~ Anon
humans are walking, talking status meters, constantly judging our worth and social standing by comparing ourselves with others today and with our own prior selves ~ Johnathan Rauch
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity ~ Hanlon’s razor
I suppose in the end, the whole of life becomes an act of letting go, but what always hurts the most is not taking a moment to say goodbye. ~ Life of Pi
If you are like most people, which you probably are, you probably think you arent like most people. ~ Stumbling on Happiness
If you can live your life without an audience, you should do it ~ Bo Burnham
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing ~ Elie Wiesel
Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another What! You too? I thought that no one but myself ~ C.S. Lewis,The Four Loves
There’s an intensification with silence, where you don’t have to present yourself as interesting or funny, and there’s a lot of freedom or joy in that. ~ Anon or Ava?
People So Important They Get Their Own Section
NAVAL
Don’t do things that you know are morally wrong. Not because someone is watching, but because you are. Self-esteem is just the reputation that you have with yourself. You’ll always know.
Play long-term games with long-term people.
All returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.
Avoid competition through authenticity
Work with people with high intelligence, high energy, and high integrity
People are oddly consistent, you want irrationally ethical
Action bias: either lead, follow, or get out of the way
Arm yourself with specific knowledge, accountability, and leverage
There is no skill called business, learn psychology, economics, computers, game theory
Reading is faster than listening, doing is faster than watching
Read what you love until you love to read
Means of knowledge is abundant, desire to learn is scarce.
Leverage is force multiplier for judgement.
Wisdom is judgment on a personal level and knowing long term actions.
Investing requires broad base judgement. Study philosophy and make better decisions.
Be patient with results and impatient with actions.
Avoid people who gained success quickly they are just giving you winning lottery numbers
When you finally are rich, you will realize it wasnt what you wanted in the first place
A calm mind a fit body and a house full of love, these things can't be bought they must be earned
Inspiration is perishable. Seize motivation
Jordan Peterson
The future is where you go to die
The ideal shames us all
The soul of the individual eternally hungers for the heroism of genuine being, and willingness to take on that responsibility is identical to the decision to live a meaningful life.
The line dividing good and evil cuts thorough. the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? ~ Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Life sucks then you die ~ Chapter 4 rules of life
When you have something to say silence is a lie ~ Chapter 4 rules of life
Definitions (Do it really be like that though?)
Sometimes quantity has a quality all it’s own ~ Anon
I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources ~ C.E.M. Joad
Boredom is the feeling of time passing ~ Anon
Wisdom is being aware of existential risks and the long term consequence of its actions ~ Nick Bostrom from Superintelligence
The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes. ~ Infinite Games
You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams. ~ Dr. Seuss
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference. ~ Elie Wiesel
It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea which hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It’s the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of a morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is. ~ E.B White
Insanity
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity. ~ Edgar Allan Poe
Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. ~ Rob Siltanen
Pain is the foundation for growth but when it is all the same you need a psychologist ~ Dr Frost.
Wisdom begins in wonder ~ Socrates
Misc
Cameras make me feel safe, she said. We’re in control of the machines for now. ~ Chinese Owner Hou Xiameng from Nangongshi where she runs a data labeling factory
Do you know who was also called a liar? Jesus ~ Anon
When does the path we walk on lock around our feet? When does the road become a river with only one destination? ~ Sherlock S4 E1
Computers are useless. They only give you answers. ~ Pablo Picasso
Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no'. - Betterridge Law of Headlines