Author: LINUS FERNANDES
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Linus Torvalds: Theory and practice
“Theory and practice sometimes clash. And when that happens, theory loses. Every single time.” —Linus Torvalds.
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George Eliot: Realm of silence
“I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.” —George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans).
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Anne Lamont: Good marriages and friendships
“A good marriage is one in which each spouse secretly thinks he or she got the better deal, and this is true also of our friendships.” —Anne Lamont.
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Daniel Kahneman: Gambles
“A person who has not made peace with his losses is likely to accept gambles that would be unacceptable to him otherwise.” —Daniel Kahneman.
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Warren Buffett: Weather vane
“You really should not make decisions in securities based on what other people think. If you’re doing that, you should think about doing something else. A public opinion poll will not get you rich on Wall Street. So you really want to stick with businesses that you feel you can somehow evaluate yourself. Charlie and…
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Rumi: Ego
“The ego is a ladder that we climb and from which we all fall in the end. The higher the ego climbs, the more devastating will be the fall. In its foolishness the inflated ego claims equality with God. Die to yourself and live through Him if you are seeking Unity. Aiming to reign with…
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Rumi: Hollow drum of words
“Those who conquer their ego before death become mentors of the angels and protectors of the poor. They have glimpsed Spirit and know how to live. Shams, what road you took departing by which secret way did you return? Was it the same the souls take each night leaving behind a town of empty cages?…
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Rumi: When one is alone with God
“There is a loneliness more precious than life there is a freedom more precious than the world. Infinitely more precious than life and the world is that moment when one is alone with God.” —Rumi.
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Rumi: What are you looking for, my friend?
“What are you looking for, my friend, completely absorbed in the affairs of this world? Unless you strive for Spirit your bread will remain unbaked and your destiny unfulfilled. Do not waste your life decorating your gravestone. Instead dig a grave and bury your ego, surrender to Him so His breath may replenish your being.”…
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Voltaire: Just hard, sadly wise
“He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise.” —-Voltaire.
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Michael Jordan: Fundamental rise
“Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” — Michael Jordan.
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Rumi: Rain no one saw
“Of the rain at night no one is aware for every soul is asleep. Yet the freshness of the rose garden in the morning is evidence of the rain that no one saw.” —Rumi.
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Rumi: Egyptian bread
“My poetry is as Egyptian bread left overnight it becomes hard and stale, eat it while it is fresh. My poetry is as fish on dry land quivering for a moment yet before long it becomes cold and lifeless. If you eat it, imagining it is fresh what you eat my friend is only your…
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Rumi: Two intellects
“There are two intellects! One is acquired from teachers and books, from repetition and sciences, granting a sense of superiority yet the effort to sustain it becomes a great burden. It ends just as the water supply coming from outside a house stops once the source has dried up. The other intellect is God’s gift.…
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Rumi: Hidden behind his words
“Man is hidden behind his words his tongue is a curtain over the door of his soul. When a gust of wind lifts the curtain the secret of the interior is exposed, you can see if there is gold or snakes pearls or scorpions hidden inside. Thoughtless speech spills easily out of man while the…
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Rumi: World not to be trusted
“Do not be fooled, my friend, this world is not to be trusted. It will intoxicate you with its sweet drink and suddenly desert you and wrap its arms around another lover.” —Rumi.
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Rumi: Body, a guesthouse
“This body is a guesthouse each morning someone new arrives. Welcome them all for they may be messengers from the invisible. Do not feel burdened by them or they may go back to non-existence. Each time a thought enters your heart treat it as an honored guest, your worth is shown by the thoughts you…
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Rumi: Five senses
“The five senses are linked together for all five have grown from the same root, when one is strengthened, the rest are enhanced. Seeing enhances speech, communication increases vision, and sight stimulates and awakens every sense to spiritual perception. If one sense breaks free from its bonds having a glimpse of the invisible it makes…
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Rumi: Reality of worlds beyond scent and color
“If one were to tell an unborn child that outside the womb there is a glorious world with green fields and lush gardens high mountains and vast seas, with a sky lit by the sun and the moon, the unborn would not believe such absurdity. Still in the dark womb how could he imagine the…
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Rumi: Ego-dog at his own door
“The intellect is luminous and seeks justice so why does the dark ego prevail over it? Because the ego is at home in the body while the intellect is only a visitor, the ego-dog at his own door is like a lion.” —Rumi.
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Hafez of Shiraz: Love’s sorrow
“Love’s sorrow is no more than just one story and yet, amazingly, it is never the same from whoever I hear it.” —Hafez of Shiraz.
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Chinua Achebe: Mask dancing
“The world is like a Mask dancing. If you want to see it well, you do not stand in one place.” —Chinua Achebe.
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Soichiro Honda: Get people better than you are
“If you hire only those people you understand, the company will never get people better than you are. Always remember that you often find outstanding people among those you don’t particularly like.” —Soichiro Honda, industrialist.
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John Sullivan Dwight: Rest
“SWEET is the pleasure Itself cannot spoil! Is not true leisure One with true toil? Thou that wouldst taste it, Still do thy best; Use it, not waste it— Else ’tis no rest. Wouldst behold beauty Near thee? all round? Only hath duty Such a sight found. Rest is not quitting The busy career; Rest…
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Will Rogers: Judgment day alibi
When the Judgment Day comes civilization will have an alibi, “I never took a human life, I only sold the fellow the gun to take it with. -Will Rogers, humorist (4 Nov 1879-1935)
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Lois McMaster Bujold: Take the action
“His mother had often said, When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. She had emphasized the corollary of this axiom even more vehemently: when you desired a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.” —Lois McMaster Bujold.
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Brenda Ueland: Hold your audience
“You have to hold your audience in writing to the very end — much more than in talking, when people have to be polite and listen to you.” —Brenda Ueland.
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Ursula K Le Guin: Love
“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.” —Ursula K. Le Guin.
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Lewis Munford: Man of courage
“A man of courage never needs weapons, but he may need bail.” —Lewis Munford.
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Nida Fazli: Grand mosque
“A child upon seeing a grand mosque exclaimed, / God, just one of you and such a big house!” —Nida Fazli.
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Ray Kurzweil: Invention
“An invention has to make sense in the world in which it is finished, not the world in which it is started.” —Ray Kurzweil.
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Gore Vidal: Generations
“Once a country is habituated to liars, it takes generations to bring the truth back.” —Gore Vidal.
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Henri Frederic Amiel: Make use of suffering
“You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering.” —Henri Frederic Amiel.
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T S Eliot: Half the harm
“Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don’t mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.” —T S Eliot.
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Bruce Springsteen: Blind faith
“Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.” —Bruce Springsteen.
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Lord Chesterfield: Wrongs and contempt
“Wrongs are often forgiven, but contempt never is. Our pride remembers it forever.” —-Lord Chesterfield.
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Will Durrant: History
“History as usually written is quite different from history as usually lived. The historian records the exceptional because it is interesting.” —Will Durant.
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Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach: Vain
“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.” —Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach.
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H L Mencken: Moral standards
“Whenever ‘A’ attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon ‘B’, ‘A’ is most likely a scoundrel.” —H.L. Mencken.
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Bertrand Russell: Cars and humans
“No man treats a motorcar as foolishly as he treats another human being. When the car will not go, he does not attribute its annoying behavior to sin; he does not say, ‘You are a wicked motorcar, and I shall not give you any more petrol until you go.’ He attempts to find out what…
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Robert A Heinlein: Spoiled child
“Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.”—Robert A. Heinlein. —Robert A. Heinlein.
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Georg Christoph Lichtenberg: Torch of truth
“It is almost impossible to carry the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard.” —Georg Christoph Lichtenberg.
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Czeslaw Milosz: Pistol shot
“In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.” — -Czeslaw Milosz.
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Thomas Paine: Accountability
“A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” —Thomas Paine.
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Lorraine Hansberry: Exceptionally lonely
“The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.” —-Lorraine Hansberry.
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Sigmund Freud: Matters, big and small
“In small matters trust the mind, in large ones the heart.” —-Sigmund Freud.
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Christopher Morley: Pretend a parade
“Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you’re not really interested in order to get where you’re going.” -Christopher Morley.
