2099 Quotations Found

To judge a man merely by success is an abhorrent wrong; and if the people at large habitually so judge men, if they grow to condone wickedness because the wicked man triumphs, they show their inability to understand that in the last analysis free institutions rest upon the character of citizenship, and that by such admiration of evil they prove themselves unfit for liberty.

Author: Theodore Roosevelt | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Ethics | Integrity | Morality, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior

Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target […] which others cannot even see.

Author: Arthur Schopenhauer | Subjects: Ability | Skill, Concepts, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior

We have increasingly shifted our definitions of success from the immaterial to the material, from the interior to the exterior, from the private to the public. And in that shift, we have incurred a peculiar and perilous blindness to the moral and humanistic dimensions of success — to how being a good human being and a good member of a community, of a society, of … [ Read more ]

Author: Maria Popova | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Material Possessions, Personal Improvement, Success / Failure

There are three things that won’t come back: the word spoken, the arrow launched, and the opportunity missed.

Author: Chinese Proverb | Subject: Personal Improvement

Truths are illusions which we have forgotten are illusions — they are metaphors that have become worn out and have been drained of sensuous force, coins which have lost their embossing and are now considered as metal and no longer as coins.

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge

No one can build you the bridge on which you, and only you, must cross the river of life. There may be countless trails and bridges and demigods who would gladly carry you across; but only at the price of pawning and forgoing yourself. There is one path in the world that none can walk but you. Where does it lead? Don’t ask, walk!

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche | Subject: Personal Improvement

For every two people who offered a rational and informed reason for why they were supporting Biden or Trump, there was another–almost always a Trump supporter–who offered an explanation divorced from reality. You could call this persistent style of untethered reasoning “unlogic.” Unlogic is not ignorance or stupidity; it is reason distorted by suspicion and misinformation, an Orwellian state of mind that arranges itself around … [ Read more ]

Author: Charlotte Alter | Source: Time | Subjects: Concepts, Intelligence | Knowledge, Politics & Public Policy, Thought | Inquiry

Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.

Author: Friedrich Nietzsche | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Perception | Observation, Thought | Inquiry

Sometimes the greatest thing to come out of all your hard work isn’t what you get for it, but what you become for it.

Author: Steve Maraboli | Subject: Personal Improvement

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Author: Robert Green Ingersoll | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior, Tolerance

I would much rather live a life full of “oh wells” than a life full of “what ifs.”

Author: Unknown | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.

Author: Pablo Picasso | Subjects: Concepts, Life & Society, Meaning, Personal Improvement

Reformers are apt to forget, in their reasoning, that the world is not made up entirely of the wicked and the hungry, there are persons hungry for the food of the mind, the wants of which are as imperious as those of the body […] Reformers are apt to forget too, that the social chain is indomitable; that link by link it acts together, you … [ Read more ]

Author: Maria Mitchell | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy

Our lives take on meaning to the degree that our love and our actions are the same.

Author: Bob Harris | Subjects: Concepts, Meaning

It takes courage, of course, to step out of the fray, as it takes courage to do anything that’s necessary, whether tending to a loved one on her deathbed or turning away from that sugarcoated doughnut.

Author: Pico Iyer | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Personal Improvement

It’s only by taking myself away from clutter and distraction that I can begin to hear something out of earshot and recall that listening is much more invigorating than giving voice to all the thoughts and prejudices that anyway keep me company twenty-four hours a day. And it’s only by going nowhere — by sitting still or letting my mind relax — that I find … [ Read more ]

Author: Pico Iyer | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Productivity & Time Management, Thought | Inquiry

Not many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury; nowadays it’s often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize. Stillness is not just an indulgence for those with enough resources — it’s a necessity for anyone who wishes to gather less visible resources. Going nowhere […] is not about austerity so … [ Read more ]

Author: Pico Iyer | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subjects: Concepts, Information, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Senses

One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him.

Author: Thomas Schelling | Subjects: Concepts, Intelligence | Knowledge, Life & Society, Miscellaneous, Perception | Observation

The disease of modern character is specialization. The specialist system fails from a personal point of view because a person who can do only one thing can do virtually nothing for himself.

Author: Wendell Berry | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Life & Society, Personal Improvement

Human intelligence is incredibly useful but it doesn’t safeguard you against having false beliefs, because that’s not what intelligence is for. Intelligence is associated with coming up with more convincing bullshit and with being a better liar, but not associated with a better ability to recognize one’s own bias. Unfortunately, intelligence has very little influence on your ability to rationally evaluate your own beliefs, or … [ Read more ]

Author: Diana Fleischman | Source: Nautilus | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement