Author: LINUS FERNANDES
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Neil deGrasse Tyson: Training in empathy
“Humans aren’t as good as we should be in our capacity to empathise with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth. So maybe part of our formal education should be training in empathy.” —Neil deGrasse Tyson.
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Sarah Kendzior: Ideologues
“When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live.” —Sarah Kendzior.
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Chinese Proverb: Be not afraid
“Be not afraid of growing slowly; be afraid only of standing still.” —Chinese Proverb.
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Marcus Aurelius: Ask yourself
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticise?” —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.
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Winston Churchill: Bucket handle
“For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.” —Winston Churchill.
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Cleon: Fixed bad laws
“We should realize that a city is better off with bad laws, so long as they remain fixed, then with good laws that are constantly being altered, that the lack of learning combined with sound common sense is more helpful than the kind of cleverness that gets out of hand, and that as a general rule, states…
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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: What business is it of yours?
“If I love you, what business is it of yours?” —Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
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Pedro Domingos: AI breakthroughs
“These days there are so many claims of AI breakthroughs that a real one would risk going unnoticed.” —Pedro Domingos.
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Ensign Flandry: What more dare we ask for?
“We’re mortal — which is to say, we’re ignorant, stupid, and sinful — but those are only handicaps. Our pride is that nevertheless, now and then, we do our best. A few times we succeed. What more dare we ask for?” —Ensign Flandry.
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Adam Smith: Bargains
“Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this — no dog exchanges bones with another.” —Adam Smith.
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Terry Pratchett: Psychic equivalent
“It is well known that *things* from undesirable universes are always seeking an entrance into this one, which is the psychic equivalent of handy for the buses and closer to the shops.” —Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic.
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Willard Scott: Weather
“Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever seems to do anything about it.” —Willard Scott.
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Jiddu Krishnamurti: Freedom
“Freedom is entirely different from revolt. There is no such thing as doing right or wrong when there is freedom. You are free and from that centre you act. And hence there is no fear… a mind that has no fear is capable of great love.” —Jiddu Krishnamurti.
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Dorothy Parker: Quicksilver
“Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it, and it darts away.” —Dorothy Parker.
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Jonathan Walpole: Biggest issue
“The biggest issue you’ll face in security, and in life, is your own stupidity.” —Jonathan Walpole.
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B R Myers: ‘Dumb’ animals
“Life cannot be classified in terms of a simple neurological ladder, with human beings at the top; it is more accurate to talk of different forms of intelligence, each with its strengths and weaknesses. This point was well demonstrated in the minutes before last December’s tsunami [2004], when tourists grabbed their digital cameras and ran…
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Vikram Sarabhai: Music
“He who can listen to the music in the midst of noise can achieve great things.” —Vikram Sarabhai.
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Ogden Nash: Kempt
“I dreamt that my hair was kempt. Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.” —Ogden Nash.
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Edgar Guest: I’d rather see a sermon
“I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I’d rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way.” —Edgar Guest.
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Milan Kundera: Dogs
“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring – it was peace.” —Milan Kundera.
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Ovid: Opportunity
“Opportunity is ever worth expecting; let our hood be ever hanging ready. The fish will be in the pool where you least imagine it to be.” —Ovid.
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Gulzar: Walk across the line
“Dreams heed no borders, the eyes need no visas. With eyes shut I walk across the line in time. All the time.” —Gulzar.
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F Scott Fitzgerald: Test of a first-rate intelligence
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald.
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Bruce Schneier: History has taught us
“History has taught us: never underestimate the amount of money, time, and effort someone will expend to thwart a security system. It’s always better to assume the worst. Assume your adversaries are better than they are. Assume science and technology will soon be able to do things they cannot yet. Give yourself a margin for…
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Kehlog Albran: I have seen the future
“I have seen the future and it is just like the present, only longer.” —Kehlog Albran, The Profit.
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Walter Scott: High though his titles
“High though his titles, proud his name, / Boundless his wealth as wish can claim; / Despite those titles, power, and pelf, / The wretch, concentred all in self, / Living, shall forfeit fair renown, / And, doubly dying, shall go down / To the vile dust from whence he sprung, / Unwept, unhonour’d, and…
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Emilio Estevez: What will endure
“Film is an illusion, fame is ephemeral, faith and family are what will endure.” —Emilio Estevez.
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Thomas Alva Edison: Infinite intelligence
“I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us—everything that exists—proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision.” —Thomas A Edison.
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George Bernard Shaw: Support of Paul
“A govt that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” —George Bernard Shaw.
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Edith Hamilton: World of thought
“It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought — that is to be educated.” —Edith Hamilton.
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Polish proverb: Greatest love
“The greatest love is a mother’s, then a dog’s, then a sweetheart’s.” —Polish proverb.
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Robert Green Ingersoll: The hands that help
“The hands that help are better far / Than lips that pray. / Love is the ever gleaming star / That leads the way, / That shines, not on vague worlds of bliss, / But on a paradise in this.” —Robert Green Ingersoll.
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Chuck Jones: Anyone can say ‘no’
“Anyone can say ‘no’. It is the first word a child learns and often the first word he speaks. It is a cheap word because it requires no explanation, and many men and women have acquired a reputation for intelligence who know only this word and have used it in place of thought on every occasion.” —Chuck Jones (Warner Bros.…
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Ralph Waldo Emerson: We all quote
“By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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John Abraham: Our friend in the US
“Our friend in the US is changing things on a daily basis – on an hourly basis with us – you know, like they say, having the US as an adversary is dangerous, but having the US as a friend is fatal.” —John Abraham.
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Corwin: Matter of discretion
“Steady movement is more important than speed, much of the time. So long as there is a regular progression of stimuli to get your mental hooks into, there is room for lateral movement. Once this begins, its rate is a matter of discretion. “ —Corwin, Prince of Amber.
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Sara Teasdale: Youth
“When I can look Life in the eyes, / Grown calm and very coldly wise, / Life will have given me the truth, / And taken in exchange — my youth.” —Sara Teasdale.
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William Shakespeare: Wise father
“It is a wise father that knows his own child. “ —William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.
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Bill Maher: Cable TV sex channels
“The cable TV sex channels don’t expand our horizons, don’t make us better people, and don’t come in clearly enough.” —Bill Maher.
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Erwin Tomash: Everything takes longer
“Everything takes longer, costs more, and is less useful.” —Erwin Tomash.
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Loni Anderson: Young people
“Young people think that nothing bad will ever happen to them.” —Loni Anderson.
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Sir Peter Medawar: Treatment
“If a person (a) is poorly, (b) receives treatment intended to make him better, and (c) gets better, then no power of reasoning known to medical science can convince him that it may not have been the treatment that restored his health.” —Sir Peter Medawar, The Art of the Soluble.
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George D Prentice: Profundity
“Many a writer seems to think he is never profound except when he can’t understand his own meaning.” —George D. Prentice.
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Thomas Jefferson: Uniformity
“Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.” —Thomas Jefferson.
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Albert Einstein: Peace
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.” —Albert Einstein.
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Phyllis Dorothy James: What a child doesn’t receive
“What a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later give.” —P.D. James (Phyllis Dorothy James).
