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Charles Darwin: Ignorance
“Ignorance more often begets confidence than knowledge.” — Charles Darwin.
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Richard Feynman: To know something
“I have the advantage of having found out how hard it is to get to really know something. How careful you have to be about checking your experiments. How easy it is to make mistakes and fool yourself. I know what it means to know something.” — Richard Feynman.
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Fisher Ames: Volcano
“A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way.” —Fisher Ames.
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Capital mistake
“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.“― Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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Jerry Colonna: Drama of being human
“The drama of being human is great and complicated. The pathless path is pockmarked with pain and suffering. But seen from the vantage point that all steps are purposeful, all of it seems worthwhile – a glorious, life-giving retort to those who would question our worthiness and lovability.” —Jerry Colonna.
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Alexandra Adornetto: Built-in entertainment system
“Imagination makes us aware of limitless possibilities. How many of us haven’t pondered the concept of infinity or imagined the possibility of time travel? In one of her poems, Emily Bronte likens imagination to a constant companion, but I prefer to think of it as a built-in entertainment system.” —Alexandra Adornetto.
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Nick Hornby: Worry about what kids listen to
“People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos, we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands – literally thousands – of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss.” —Nick Hornby.
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Peter Ustinov: Prison of our mind
“Once we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our mind, our one duty is to furnish it well.” —Peter Ustinov.
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Margrethe II of Denmark: Convenience or conviction
“We are being challenged by Islam these years. There are some things for which one should display no tolerance. And when we are tolerant, we must know whether it is because of convenience or conviction.” –Margrethe II of Denmark.
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Charles Evans Hughes: Privilege to be free
“When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.” —Charles Evans Hughes.
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Dwight D Eisenhower: Muslim genius
“Civilization owes to the Islamic world some of its most important tools and achievements…the Muslim genius has added much to the culture of all peoples.” —Dwight D Eisenhower.
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Eden Ahbez: Lovers and Haters
“Some white people hate black people, and some white people love black people, some black people hate white people, and some black people love white people. So you see it’s not an issue of black and white, it’s an issue of Lovers and Haters.” —Eden Ahbez.
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Arnold Toynbee: Civilizations in decline
“Civilizations in decline are consistently characterised by a tendency towards standardization and uniformity.” —Arnold Toynbee.
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Vladimir Nabokov: Brief crack of light
“The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness.” — Vladimir Nabokov.
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Sarah Michelle Gellar: James Bond
“I don’t understand why James Bond has to be a man all the time. When Pierce Brosnan retires, why not one of us?” —-Sarah Michelle Gellar
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Amy Goodman: Where the silence is
“Go to where the silence is and say something.” —-Amy Goodman.
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Samuel Beckett: Kept our appointment
“We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment. How many people can boast as much?” —Samuel Beckett.
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Dwight D Eisenhower: Integrity
“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.” —Dwight D Eisenhower.
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Dwight D Eisenhower: People you don’t like
“Never spend a moment thinking about people you don’t like.” —Dwight D Eisenhower.
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Dwight D Eisenhower: Middle of the road
“People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the…
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Dwight D Eisenhower: Good teacher
“A good teacher is one who can understand those who are not very good at explaining, and explain to those who are not very good at understanding.” —Dwight D Eisenhower.
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Frederick Chopin: Heart and soul of man
“Bach is an astronomer, discovering the marvelous stars, Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the heart and soul of man.” — Frederick Chopin.
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Tiny Tim: I’d love to see Christ come back
“I’d love to see Christ come back to crush the spirit of hate and make men put down their guns. I’d also like just one more hit single.” —Tiny Tim.
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Simon Sinek: Achieve almost anything
“A small team, committed to a cause bigger than themselves, can achieve absolutely anything.” —Simon Sinek.
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Anne Lamott: Joy
“Joy is the best makeup.” -Anne Lamott.
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William Booth: So incorrigibly lazy
“There are men so incorrigibly lazy that no inducement that you can offer will tempt them to work, so eaten up by vice that virtue is abhorrent to them, and so inveterably dishonest that theft is to them a master passion.” —William Booth.
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Benjamin Franklin: All born ignorant
“We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid. “ —Benjamin Franklin.
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Charlie Munger: Worldly business
“In a world where you sometimes have to amputate a limb to stay alive, you can’t expect that every business can stay exactly as it is.” ––Charlie Munger.
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Warren Buffett: Close down whole plants
“Yeah, some are doing that, where you give up hours. But a lot of operations don’t lend themselves to that very well, either. So…in other cases, you basically have to close down whole plants. That’s just the nature of it. You really can’t operate every plant at 50 percent and have it work as effectively…
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Charlie Munger: Shared-hardship model
“Some of our businesses have a shared-hardship model, where they don’t layoff, at least not yet. And the businesses with that model tend to be very strongly placed economically. So I guess it shows that Benjamin Franklin was right, when he said, ‘It’s hard for an empty sack to stand upright.’ So we’re all over…
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Warren Buffett: Creative destruction
“If the business changes in a material way, you’d better change your business model. Or somebody else will. And then you’ll even have more changes facing you…. Capitalism is creative destruction. And sometimes, you’re on the short end of that.” –Warren Buffett.
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Sam Harris: No more ridiculous
“Imagine a world in which generations of human beings come to believe that certain films were made by God or that specific software was coded by him. Imagine a future in which millions of our descendants murder each other over rival interpretations of Star Wars or Windows 98. Could anything — anything — be more…
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Tom Lehrer: Sewer
“Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.” —Tom Lehrer.
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Patricia Arquette: Strains
“Neither of us entered marriage thinking it wouldn’t be a strain. Life has strains in it, and he’s the person I want to strain with.” —Patricia Arquette.
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Melvin Calvin: Barren and negative
“For each of us who appear to have had a successful experiment there are many to whom their own experiments seem barren and negative.” —Melvin Calvin.
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Billie Holiday: Something to eat and a little love
“You’ve got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body’s sermon on how to behave.” —Billie Holiday.
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Gabriela Mistral: The child cannot wait
“Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.” —Gabriela Mistral.
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Nicolas de Chamfort: Conscience
“Conscience is a dog that does not stop us from passing but that we cannot prevent from barking.” —Nicolas de Chamfort.
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Michele Bachmann: Holy Spirit
“The Holy Spirit is our comforter, our teacher. Thats why, in prayer, we can ask the Lord to open up Scripture and make it come alive to us, to open our understanding. He left his Spirit with us until we join him in Heaven.” —Michele Bachmann.
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Gloria Macapagal Arroyo: Power of one
“The power of one, if fearless and focused, is formidable, but the power of many working together is better.” —Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
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Margaret Oliphant: Next thing to indispensable
“To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society.” —Margaret Oliphant.
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Simon Sinek: Confidence and courage
“So much of starting a business or affecting change is the confidence and courage to simply try.” —Simon Sinek.
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Marlon Brando: More sensitive you are
“The more sensitive you are, the more certain you are to be brutalized, develop scabs, never evolve. Never allow yourself to feel anything, because you always feel to much.” —Marlon Brando.
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Edward Everett Hale: Three kinds of trouble
“Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds — all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.” —Edward Everett Hale.
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Serge Gainsbourg: Ugliness
“Ugliness is in a way superior to beauty because it lasts.” —Serge Gainsbourg.
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Brené Brown: Criticism of my work
“If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked, I’m not interested in your criticism of my work.” — Brené Brown.
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Yuval Noah Harari: Questions you cannot answer
“Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question.” —Yuval Noah Harari.
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Charlie Munger: What’s good about your situation
“I think it’s hugely a mistake to think only about your probable misfortunes. You should also think about what’s good about your situation.” ––Charlie Munger
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Leo Tolstoy: Now!
“There is only one time that is important – Now! It is the most important time because it is the only time when we have any power.” — Leo Tolstoy, What Men Live By and Other Tales.
