2098 Quotations Found

The first rule in science is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

Author: Richard Feynman | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subject: Math & Science

It is easier to keep adding exceptions and justifications to a belief than to admit that a challenger has a better explanation.

Author: Zeynep Tufekci | Subject: Psychology | Behavior

Understanding is love’s other name.

Author: Thich Nhat Hanh | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Love

Of all the worn, smudged, dog-eared words in our vocabulary, “love” is surely the grubbiest, smelliest, slimiest. Bawled from a million pulpits, lasciviously crooned through hundreds of millions of loudspeakers, it has become an outrage to good taste and decent feeling, an obscenity which one hesitates to pronounce. And yet it has to be pronounced; for, after all, Love is the last word.

Author: Aldous Huxley | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Love

Knowledge is acquired when we succeed in fitting a new experience into the system of concepts based upon our old experiences. Understanding comes when we liberate ourselves from the old and so make possible a direct, unmediated contact with the new, the mystery, moment by moment, of our existence.

Author: Aldous Huxley | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement

Because the units of knowledge are concepts, and concepts can be conveyed and transmitted in words and symbols, knowledge itself can be passed between persons. Understanding, on the other hand, is intimate and subjective, not a conceptual container but an aura of immediacy cast upon an experience — which means it cannot be transmitted and transacted like knowledge.

Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

To understand anything — another person’s experience of reality, another fundamental law of physics — is to restructure our existing knowledge, shifting and broadening our prior frames of reference to accommodate a new awareness. And yet we have a habit of confusing our knowledge — which is always limited and incomplete: a model of the cathedral of reality, built from primary-colored blocks of fact — … [ Read more ]

Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement

The self is never to be found, but must be created, not the happy accident of passivity, but the product of a thousand actions, large and small, conscious or unconscious, performed not “away from it all,” but in the face of “it all,” for better or for worse, in work and leisure rather than in free time. […] The self is a style of being, … [ Read more ]

Author: Robert Penn Warren | Subject: Personal Improvement

Fairness cannot be defined by capitalism, which measures the value of the earth, its creatures, and humanity by how their production benefits those in power. Christians take God’s metric into account. What does God value, and then value most? Love will always be the answer. What could the earth, its humans, and all of creation look like with a lot more love and a lot … [ Read more ]

Author: Vahisha Hasan | Source: Vox | Subjects: Concepts, Life & Society, Love, Power, Religion

As long as we are motivated by materialism and our understanding of the world is clouded by ignorance, fairness will remain elusive.

Author: Shivani Parikh | Source: Vox | Subjects: Consumerism, Economics | Economy, Life & Society, Material Possessions, Personal Improvement

Many people in our society see justice as receiving what you have earned. The truth is that we all need more goodness than we have earned. We all need second chances, the room to make mistakes and cause damage without losing the opportunity to grow and fulfill our dreams. At the same time, justice requires that a price be paid. […] This may require extra … [ Read more ]

Author: Alexia Salvatierra | Source: Vox | Subjects: Concepts, Ethics | Integrity | Morality, Life & Society, Responsibility

Human beings have two core impulses. First, the impulse to be selfish, to conquer. But we also have, in my belief, an equally powerful impulse to appreciate, support, and nurture one another. Which impulse wins out depends on what we’re fighting for.

Author: Greg Epstein | Source: Vox | Subjects: Insight, Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior

In the very act of giving I experience my strength, my wealth, my power. […] Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.

Author: Erich Fromm | Subjects: Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior

The law may upset reason but reason may never upset the law.

Author: James Clavell | Subject: Law | Legal

If we’re ever gonna see a rainbow, we have to stand a little rain.

Author: Nitty Gritty Dirt Band | Subjects: Attitude, Concepts, Life & Society, Pain & Suffering, Psychology | Behavior

Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Family & Friends, Life & Society

Forgiveness doesn’t come with a debt.

Author: Mary Chapin Carpenter | Subjects: Concepts, Life & Society, Pain & Suffering, Personal Improvement

Control is an illusion. It’s seductive because it gives a feeling of power. Something to hold on to. So it becomes addictive.

Authors: Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal | Subjects: Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior

On life’s journey, we pass guideposts every day. Mostly we don’t notice. Tragedy is the author of hope. Crisis brings us face to face with our soul.

Authors: Lee G. Bolman, Terrence E. Deal | Subject: Life & Society

For in revery you cannot rise above your achievements nor fall lower than your failures.

Author: Kahlil Gibran | Subjects: Insight, Life & Society