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Joseph Conrad: Capable of every wickedness
“A belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” —Joseph Conrad.
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Ann Patchett: Suspended
“There are a few times in life when you leap up and the past that you’d been standing on falls away behind you, and the future you mean to land on is not yet in place, and for a moment you’re suspended knowing nothing and no one, not even yourself.” —Ann Patchett.
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Morgan Housel: Stop moving the goalpost
“The hardest financial skill is getting the goalpost to stop moving. But it’s one of the most important. If expectations rise with results there is no logic in striving for more because you’ll feel the same after putting in extra effort. It gets dangerous when the taste of having more—more money, more power, more prestige—increases…
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William Hazlitt: Words
“Words are the only things that last forever; they are more durable than the eternal hills.” —William Hazlitt.
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Henry Link: We generate fears
“We generate fears while we sit. We overcome them by action.” —Henry Link.
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Adam Karr: Obsessions
“Try to think about your obsessions. You never want to compete with somebody who’s obsessed. Kobe Bryant. He would say, ‘What’s your 4:00 AM?’ He’s at the gym at 4:00 AM shooting baskets. Are you at the gym at 4:00 AM? Because if you’re not, you’re competing against that guy who is. He took up…
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Louisa May Alcott: When the victory is won
“If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth’s sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.” —Louisa May Alcott.
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James Dyson: Quantum leap
“There is no such thing as a quantum leap. There is only dogged persistence — and in the end, you make it look like a quantum leap.” –James Dyson.
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Rita Mae Brown: Average of deviance
“Normal is the average of deviance.” —Rita Mae Brown.
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Vincent Van Gogh: Give me reality
“Fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm fearsome, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. They leave that wisdom to those to whom it appeals. When the storm comes—when night falls—what’s worse: the danger or the fear of danger? Give me reality, the danger itself.” –Vincent Van…
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Jimi Hendrix: Love and power
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.” —Jimi Hendrix.
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Kahlil Gibran: Worth more
“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the greatest intention.” ―Kahlil Gibran.
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William Cowper: Some vast wilderness
“Oh to have a lodge in some vast wilderness. Where rumors of oppression and deceit, of unsuccessful and successful wars may never reach me anymore.” —William Cowper.
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Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar: Trinity
“Liberty, equality, and fraternity are not to be treated as separate items in a trinity. They form a union of trinity in the sense that to divorce one from the other is to defeat the very purpose of democracy.” —Dr. B R Ambedkar.
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Charlie Munger: What we don’t do
“Yeah. I think our chief contribution to the businesses we acquire is what we don’t do.” —Charlie Munger.
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Lewis Thomas: When assembled in masses
“We haven’t yet learned how to stay human when assembled in masses.” —Lewis Thomas.
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Warren Buffett: What is good for the business
“A lot of the things that people waste time doing in business, they don’t have to do with us. I mean, there’s an awful lot of time spent in some businesses just preparing for committee meetings, and directors meetings, and all kinds of things like that, show-and-tell stuff. And none of that’s needed with us.…
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David Ogilvy: Admit your mistakes
“It is important to admit your mistakes, and to do so before you are charged with them. Many clients are surrounded by buck-passers who make a fine art of blaming the agency for their own failures. I seize the earliest opportunity to assume the blame.” –David Ogilvy.
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John Hall: Means of grace
“Kind words, kind looks, kind acts, and warm hand-shakes—these are means of grace when men in trouble are fighting their unseen battles.” —John Hall.
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George Eliot: Individual suffering and joy
“My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy.” —George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans).
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Dennis Hong: Kindness is free
“Kindness is free.” —Dennis Hong.
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Voltaire: Good patriot
“It is lamentable that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind.” –Voltaire.
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James Jeffrey Roche: Big fish alone escape from thee!
“The net of law is spread so wide, No sinner from its sweep may hide. Its meshes are so fine and strong, They take in every child of wrong. O wondrous web of mystery! Big fish alone escape from thee!” –James Jeffrey Roche.
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Jack Kerouac: Practice kindness
“Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.” ―Jack Kerouac.
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Hunter S Thompson: Drive like a bastard
“Every now and then, when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in, the only cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas … with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether.” –Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in…
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Margaret Atwood: Sign up
“Does feminist mean large unpleasant person who’ll shout at you or someone who believes women are human beings? To me it’s the latter, so I sign up.” –Margaret Atwood.
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Paul Graham: Discover new things
“A good writer doesn’t just think, and then write down what he thought, as a sort of transcript. A good writer will almost always discover new things in the process of writing.” –Paul Graham.
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Bela Karolyi: Not the housewives!
“You have to have competent people evaluating the athlete, not the housewives!” –Bela Karolyi.
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Bela Karolyi: Call their name
“What is the cruelest thing you can do to someone who is trying to concentrate? Call their name.” –Bela Karolyi.
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Sir Peter Medawar: Gobbledegook
“The USA is so enormous, and so numerous are its schools, colleges and religious seminaries, many devoted to special religious beliefs ranging from the unorthodox to the dotty, that we can hardly wonder at its yielding a more bounteous harvest of gobbledegook than the rest of the world put together.” –Sir Peter Medawar.
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David May: Good program architecture
“With good program architecture debugging is a breeze, because bugs will be where they should be.” –David May.
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Marianne Moore: Imaginary gardens
“Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads.” —Marianne Moore.
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Warren Buffett: Businesses do not meet expectations
“Businesses do not meet expectations quarter after quarter and year after year. It just isn’t in the nature of running businesses. And, in our view, people that predict precisely what the future will be are either kidding investors, or they’re kidding themselves, or they’re kidding both. Charlie and I have been around the culture, sometimes…
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P J O’Rourke: Source of troubles
“No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power.” —P.J. O’Rourke.
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Charlie Munger: Unreasonable expectation
“The history of much of which we don’t like in modern corporate capitalism comes from an unreasonable expectation, communicated from headquarters, that earnings have to go up with no volatility and great regularity.” —Charlie Munger.
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R Sharath Jois: Seva
“In this life, there are three paths we can take to obtain moksha, or liberation. One is through self-realization, which includes doing yoga, studying philosophy, and applying that to your life. This requires a lot of studying, and after many years of practice you may be liberated. The second path is through devotion to your…
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Agatha Christie: Curious thought
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” —Agatha Christie.
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Auguste Rodin: Patience
“Patience is also a form of action.” —Auguste Rodin.
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John Mackey: Engage with the market
“If you just want to have your ideals, you can have them, but you may not have a business. So you have to engage with the market. You can try to influence the market, you can try to educate the market, but at the end of the day, they vote every day with their pocketbooks…
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Leonardo DiCaprio: Brothers
“Brothers don’t necessarily have to say anything to each other — they can sit in a room and be together and just be completely comfortable with each other.” —Leonardo DiCaprio.
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Sir Henry Royce: Strive for perfection
“Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists and make it better. When it does not exist, design it.” —Sir Henry Royce.
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John Holt: Learning
“Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.” — John Holt.
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Alan Turing: Short distance ahead
“We can only see a short distance ahead. But we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” — Alan Turing.
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Peter Weiss: Neither side is glorious
“Once and for all / the idea of glorious victories / won by the glorious army / must be wiped out / Neither side is glorious / On either side they’re just frightened men messing their pants / and they all want the same thing / Not to lie under the earth / but to…
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi: Truth and love
“When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it, always.” —Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
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Bob Gray: Safety guards removed
“Writing in C or C++ is like running a chain saw with all the safety guards removed.” —Bob Gray.
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Seth Klarman: Value
“This discussion would not be complete without noting that while we remain value investors to the core at Baupost, our definition of value is not the one often taught in business schools. The academic view of investing divides the equity universe into ‘value stocks’ and ‘growth stocks.’ Value stocks are then defined as the low-multiple…
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Rohit Bal: Fashion designer
“There is a big difference between being a fashion designer and someone who makes clothes just to sell them.” —Rohit Bal.
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Quincy Jones: A problem just stresses me out
“Well, listen, anger doesn’t get anything done, so you have to find out: How do you make it work? That’s why I was always maniacal about transforming every problem into a puzzle which I can solve. I can solve a puzzle—a problem just stresses me out.” —Quincy Jones.
