I like to think I change a little bit each day. if not every single moment. the only thing that stays true is that the time is now. and that's what drives me
Favorite Quotes---
Beauty, not a quality, as is supposed, but an effect- that intense and pure elevation of soul - edgar allan poe
He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty - Lao Tzu
Don't waste yourself in rejection, nor bark against the bad, but chant the beauty of the good. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
- Henry David Thoreau
A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle.
-Benjamin Franklin
"The predicament of man is that he has been 'thrown' into a world with which he must come to terms."
"There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide, whether or not the world has three dimensions or the mind nine or twelve categories comes afterward, you can ponder this or analyze that till the cows come home, but the real question is whether all your ponderings and analyses will convince you that life is worth living. The rest is just detail."- Brian Greene
"When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions."- Steve Jobs
"All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. And man shall be that to overman: a laughingstock or painful embarrassment. You have made your way from worm to man, and much in you is still worm" -Nietzsche
"You can't force knowledge into a dumbass any more than you can force sight into a blind man."- Plato
"I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another"- Thomas Jefferson (debated)
"the stupider one is, the closer one is to reality. The stupider one is, the clearer one is. Stupidity is breif and artless, while intelligence wriggles and hides itself"- Dostoevsky
"1000 days cannot prove you right but 1 day can prove you wrong"- Nassim Nicholas Taleb (NNT)
"It is often said that 'is wise he who can see things coming,' perhaps the wise one is the one who knows that he cannot see things far away" -NNT
"If I expect to expect something at some date in the future, then I already expect that something at present."- NNT
"Once in a while you encounter members of the human species with so much intellectual superiority that they can change their minds effortlessly." -NNT
"there are two kinds of secrets; the ones we keep from others and the ones we hide from ourselves."- Frank Warren (postsecret)
"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience deceptive, judgment difficult." - Hippocrates
"The observation of the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments, or to admire a man's happiness that may yet, in course of time, suffer change. **For the uncertain future has yet to come, with all variety of future; and him only to whom the divinity has [guaranteed] continued happiness until the end we may call happy.**"- Solon's Warning
“If men were angels, no Government would be necessary”
-James Madison (Federalist Papers)
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who shall watch the watchers themselves?)- Roman Warning
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots- Marcus Garvey
"Unfortunately, however, he [Garvey] has not as yet violated any federal law whereby he could be proceeded against on the grounds of being an undesirable alien, from the point of view of deportation."- J. Edgar Hoover
"The world is like a ride in an amusement park and when you choose to go on it you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and around and around and it has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud. And it's fun - for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question; is this real? Or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, and they say, "Hey, don't worry, don't be afraid, ever, because... this is just a ride." -Bill Hicks
Sleep, in short, makes us the people we wanna be. All you have to do is close your eyes. - David K. Randall
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself”- Federalist, no. 51
"Living was a field of grain blowing in the wind on the side of a hill. Living was a hawk in the sky. Living was an earthen jar of water in the dust of the threshing with the grain flailed out and the chaff blowing. Living was a horse between your legs and a carbine under one leg and a hill and a valley and a stream with trees along it and the far side of the valley and the hills beyond.” - Ernest Hemingway
Everything is shown up by being exposed to the light, and whatever is exposed to the light itself becomes light"- St. Paul
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." -F. Scott Fitzagerald
"John Galt is Prometheus who changed his mind. After centuries of being torn by vultures in payment for having brought to men the fire of the gods, he broke his chains—and he withdrew his fire—until the day when men withdraw their vultures." -Ayn Rand (J.G.)
“When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.” -Marcus Aurelius
"When I get new information I change my position, what, sir, do you do with new information?"- John Maynard Keynes
“One has to kill a few of one’s natural selves to let the rest grow — a very painful slaughter of innocents.” – Henry Sidwick.
"We are now spending close to a trillion dollars a year, that's a thousand billion, on our military establishment, this is not the defense appropriation that it published- that's simply the annual appropriation on the department of defense, it doesn't include the money spent on nuclear weapons- that's in the department of energy, it doesn't include the money spent on veterans affairs, that's the department of veteran affairs, it doesn't include foreign military aid, that's in the state department, it doesn't include the actual defense of the country, that's the department of homeland security... it all adds up to an unbelievable amount"- Chalmers Johnson
"Things that can't go on forever, don't"- Herbert Stein
Maybe I know somewhere deep in
my soul that love never lasts.
And we've got to find other ways
to make it alone or keep a straight face.
And I've always lived like this
keeping a comfortable, distance.
And up until now I swore to myself
that I'm content with loneliness,
'cause none of it was ever worth the risk. But you are the only exception-
Hayley Williams
There’s no hope, and there’s not going to be too many more Christmases without hope. … There’s not going to be too many more days without hope. Because if there’s hopelessness, there’s revolution and there’s change. If there’s change, somebody is going to end up on the bottom. And that doesn’t have to happen. It doesn’t have to be about we on bottom, you on top all the time. It can be just spread.- tupac
Your are what your deep, driving desire is
As your desire is, so is your will
As your will is, so is your deed
As your deed is, so is your destiny
-Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5
we are not human beings on a spiritual journey, we are spiritual beings on a human journey
Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.-Mark Twain
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”- Mother Teresa
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." Albert Einstein
"nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing." -Oscar Wilde
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." -James Dean
"The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then." Thomas Carlyle
“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.” - Marvin J. Ashton
When your determination changes, everything will begin to move in the direction you desire. The moment you resolve to be victorious, every nerve and fiber in your being will immediately orient itself toward your success. On the other hand, if you think, “This is never going to work out,” then at that instant every cell in your being will be deflated and give up the fight.
"Fire feeds on obstacles" Marcus Aurelius
"My son, I am very disappointed in you, I never hear anything wrong said about you. You have proven yourselfincapable of generating envy." Nicolas Ghosn (great grandfather of NNT)
"This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is risky, that it is a bad thing- and that eliminating randomness is done by eliminating randomness" Nassim Nicholas Taleb
"It seemed that in the midst of murders and civil wars, our republic became stronger [and] its citizens infused with virtues.... A little bit of agitation gives resources to souls and what makes the species prosper isn't peace, but freedom." Maciavelli
Festina Lente - latin expression, "make haste slowly"
wu-wei, "passive achievement," -Lao Tzu
"My idea of the modern stoic age is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into information, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking." -NNT
"provide for the worst; the best can take care of itself." -Yiddish Proverb
'agen autem non movet nisi ex intentione finis' latin for "An agent does not move except out of intention for an end
(hint: NNT, an obvious inspiration of mine if you have spent any time reading these quotes, debates the accuracy of this expression; point raised- can you rationally prefer inaction to action?)
"Stay hungry, stay foolish." -Steve Jobs
