Filtering is a superpower. The people you don’t hang around. The opportunities you don’t accept. The distractions you don’t allow. The relationships you don’t have. The news you don’t read. The content you don’t consume. The calls you don’t return. The emails you don’t answer. Saying no turns filtering into action.
Author: Shane Parrish | Source: Farnam Street | Subject: Personal Improvement
It is hardly possible to overrate the value […] of placing human beings in contact with other persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. […] Such communication has always been […] one of the primary sources of progress.
Author: John Stuart Mill | Subjects: Communication, Education | Scholarship, Life & Society, Thought | Inquiry
I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
Author: Hermann Hesse | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge, Personal Improvement, Wisdom
It is experience which shapes a language; and it is language which controls an experience.
Author: James Baldwin | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Insight, Language, Life & Society
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.
Author: Randy Pausch | Subjects: Insight, Personal Improvement
Wisdom is knowing what to do next, skill is knowing how to do it, and virtue is doing it.
Author: David Starr Jordan | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Insight, Personal Improvement, Wisdom
The quality of an individual self is determined by his qualities: they are his capital, to invest well or foolishly.
Author: Amelie Rorty | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
When a society has changed so that individuals acquire their rights by virtue of their powers, rather than having their powers defined by their rights, the concept of person has been transformed to a concept of self.
Author: Amelie Rorty | Subjects: Concepts, Freedom | Liberty, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Power
To know what sort of character a person is, is to know what sort of life is best suited to bring out his potentialities and functions […] Not all characters are suited to the same sorts of lives: there is no ideal type for them all […] If one tries to force the life of a bargainer on the character of a philosopher, one is … [ Read more ]
Author: Amelie Rorty | Subjects: Character, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
Common sense works fine for the universe we’re used to, for time scales of decades, for a space between a tenth of a millimeter and a few thousand kilometers, and for speeds much less than the speed of light. Once we leave those domains of human experience, there’s no reason to expect the laws of nature to continue to obey our expectations, since our expectations … [ Read more ]
Author: Carl Sagan | Subjects: Concepts, Math & Science, Senses
The squalid cash interpretation put on the word “success” is our national disease.
Author: William James | Subjects: Life & Society, Material Possessions
It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.
Author: Roy Disney | Subjects: Concepts, Ethics | Integrity | Morality, Personal Improvement
People tend to judge a man by his goals, by what he’s trying to do, and not necessarily by what he accomplishes or by how well he succeeds. […] If people are convinced you are trying to meet problems and that you are aware of their problems and are trying to do something about them, they don’t hold you responsible for 100 per cent success. … [ Read more ]
Author: George Gallup | Subjects: Action | Accomplishment, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
If we do not remember our heroes, we will produce no heroes. If we do not record their sacrifices, their sacrifices would have been in vain. […] the greatest strength we have as people is our common memories of the past and our common hopes for the future. […] For without those memories, the next generation will not have the fighting spirit to carry on. … [ Read more ]
Author: George Yeo | Subjects: History, Life & Society, Sociology | Anthropology
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
Author: Stephen Hawking | Subjects: Concepts, Education | Scholarship, Intelligence | Knowledge
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Author: Rick Warren | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.
Author: Anaïs Nin | Subjects: Perception | Observation, Psychology | Behavior
The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily.
Author: Plato | Subjects: Happiness, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
[Thrasymachus argues] in Plato’s Republic that justice is the advantage of the stronger and that injustice “if it is on a large enough scale, is stronger, freer, and more masterly than justice.”
Authors: Bret Stephens, Thrasymachus | Subjects: Concepts, Freedom | Liberty, Good & Evil, Life & Society
By seeing the seed of failure in every success, we remain humble. By seeing the seed of success in every failure we remain hopeful.
Author: Mel Ziegler | Subjects: Personal Improvement, Success / Failure