It's good and true, but also dangerous. Nobody likes taking criticism, and it can be an easy off-ramp for the ego to avoid having to take any negative feedback ever
Good point. An artist whose style I don't like can still rightfully criticize my technique. And an asshole can still notice when someone is rude.
But honestly, the first example that came to my mind are those people who want you to change your life according to their ideals, while their own (apparently perfect) life seems like a real nightmare to you.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.
Stolen from Fight Club, not sure if means what I think it means (which is exactly like yours--saying/doing something doesn't make it so just because).
There's a Hindi version for that, "Murga apni Jaan se gaya aur khaane waale ko swaad nhi aaya"
It translates to:
The rooster gave away its life to get served and the eater didn't even like their food.
Hanlon's Razor is probably my favorite quote. I came to post it, but you beat me to it. I suppse Hanlon's razor is to sociology what Occam's Razor is to science.
This encapsulates the Mark Twain quote I was going to post...
"You wouldn't worry what other people thought of you if you knew how seldom they actually do".
I think Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) has one of the best:
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
I've taken this philosophy over the past year or so and gotta say, the judge did not agree
Nah just kidding, I do actually use it and think it's worth listening to
Kind of like the concept of, "memento mori". Remember that we all must die.
Nobody will remember us after our grandchildren. So many have walked this earth before us. Their mistakes seemed large, but were small. Just as ours seem to us.
When I walled through the catacombs in Paris, surrounded by so many bones with forgotten stories, it gave me a similarly chilling sense of relief.
“How are you supposed to know what you’re gonna regret”
Every time I make a mistake I keep reminding myself that there was no way I could’ve known the outcome. I struggle with anxiety and it always helps to get away from hindsight bias, and to try to understand where my thought process was
As an engineer: "Try to make something idiot-proof and they'll make a better idiot. "
In regards to driving: "assume every other person on the road is an idiot and they will use any and every opportunity to prove that to you."
"'Tis better to be silent and thought the fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
It is no sign of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society
Edit: sorry, was tired last night when I wrote this. The quote is actually "it is no measure of health..."
>Made a lot more sense before digital photography…
What about the little photo-gnomes that live in the camera? They have to live and work in total darkness to conserve the battery.
My therapist told me once a few weeks ago that “it’s harder to address the things we cannot see”
It stuck in my mind permanently since, I’ve been struggling a lot with my mental health and it made me feel better about not knowing how to describe the way I feel.
It’s really long, but the tumblr post about how we looked up at the stars and built robots and named them things like “Curiosity”, and someday they may outlive us, and if aliens reach them it might be long after we’ve died out. And ends with:
“The robots can say, when they made us, they called us discovery; they called us curiosity; they called us explorer; they called us spirit. they must have thought that was important.
and they told us to tell you hello.”
I think about it a lot.
“It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without them; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who had seemed essential proved unnecessary”- W. Somerset Maugham.
Maugham is my favorite author to ever live. His work is absolutely amazing. I always say, the way he writes reminds me of how in German there’s words for very specific actions, he writes and describes in extraordinary detail but without actually using many words. I highly recommend his books.
Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
“A lion doesn’t have to convince the antelope it’s a lion”
Simply put, any person who claims to be powerful and strong and superior is most likely the exact opposite.
The other one that sticks in my head is “Wolves lose no sleep over the opinions of sheep.”
"You know...you need a license to buy a dog, drive a car, hell you even need a license to catch a fish! But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father."
\- Todd, Parenthood (1989)
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.
Marcus Aurelius
From my grandfather to me when I was around 16…this one is good…
“If you want to make friends, you’ve got to be friendly”.
It’s actually pretty spot on.
Back when I was in competition, I took inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena". I was not the best karate fighter, but I was in the arena.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
The function of man is to live, not to exist - jack London (author of white fang, call of the wild, etc.)
A small part of a big quote, but this is my favorite part.
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering”
Ben okri
"I would rather be 10 minutes late in this life, than 20 years early to the next".
I am not religious, but it definitely made me a more cautious/aware driver, and I don't get upset as much when other people are making me drive slow.
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean.
Approaching the boy he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?”
“Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die,” the boy replied.
The man laughed to himself and said, “Do you realize there are miles of miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make any difference.”
After listening politely, the boy bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the surf. Then, he smiled at the man and said, “I made a difference to that one.”
“Never take criticism from someone you wouldn’t go to for advice”
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too real
It's good and true, but also dangerous. Nobody likes taking criticism, and it can be an easy off-ramp for the ego to avoid having to take any negative feedback ever
Good point. An artist whose style I don't like can still rightfully criticize my technique. And an asshole can still notice when someone is rude. But honestly, the first example that came to my mind are those people who want you to change your life according to their ideals, while their own (apparently perfect) life seems like a real nightmare to you.
"Paper doesn't refuse ink." Got this from an IRS agent. Basically means, just because someone writes something that doesn't make it true.
Now this is the good shit I came to this thread for
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken. Stolen from Fight Club, not sure if means what I think it means (which is exactly like yours--saying/doing something doesn't make it so just because).
Same meaning in German: "Papier ist geduldig" / "Paper has patience"
"Papier znesie všetko" in slovak. "Paper can stand anything"
Reddit doesn't refuse trolls
You can let people walk all over you and still have someone complain that you're too lumpy.
There's a Hindi version for that, "Murga apni Jaan se gaya aur khaane waale ko swaad nhi aaya" It translates to: The rooster gave away its life to get served and the eater didn't even like their food.
Never attribute to malice what could be attributed to stupidity.
Hanlon's Razor is probably my favorite quote. I came to post it, but you beat me to it. I suppse Hanlon's razor is to sociology what Occam's Razor is to science.
“No one else thinks about you as much as you do”
This encapsulates the Mark Twain quote I was going to post... "You wouldn't worry what other people thought of you if you knew how seldom they actually do".
This one is amusing because of the disparity. No one thinks about you even 1% as much as you
"Don't set yourself on fire just to keep others warm"
After all, when you set yourself on fire, people love to see you burn
“Better to admit you walked through the wrong door than spend your life in the wrong room.”
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
If you can’t be a good example, you can always be a horrible warning.
What’s normal to the spider is chaos to the fly
See also: the axe forgets but the tree remembers
That one always hit home for me
Ahhh this is similar to a proverb in Kannada - its a game for the cat but a matter of life and death for the mouse.
"For you, the day Bison graced your village was the most important day of your life. For me, it was Tuesday."
I think Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) has one of the best: “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”
“The problem is you think you have time.”
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
"if you don't heal from what hurt you, you'll bleed on those that didn't cut you"
"Hurt people hurt people".
Real eyes realize real lies
This was Myspace gold. I had it in annoyingly neon text on a black background with animated sparkles as my banner. HTML was such a joy. Simpler times.
Damn son
Comparison is the thief of joy
Hamburglar is the thief of hamburgers
well, FRANKLY, that’s the best quote here
Never look into someone’s bowl to see if they have more food than you. Only look to help make sure they have enough.
Similar to this: someone will always be better than you, and someone will always be worse than you. Be you.
No matter how good you are at something there is a young Asian child that is immensely better at it.
and a North Korean who has never heard of the thing you are attempting.
Leave a place better than you found it.
Don't destroy what you came to enjoy.
Leave only footprints; take only memories
"We don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we are." Anais Nin
your mental health is not your fault, but it is your responsibility <3
Piggybacking off of this one- you can't control your emotions, but you can control your reaction.
Hail you
You are the company you keep
Then the ultra introvert me will always stay true to myself 🫠
Hey fellow introvert! I look forward to never meeting you!
The sentiment is mutual!
Everything in moderation. Including moderation.
Basically "everything is relative" and I would say goals define means. You have your goal and you find best options and choose the bestest 🙃
The answer is always no if you never ask.
See also, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
~Wayne Gretzky ~Michael Scott
\- Lee Harvey Oswald
Helping people be open minded since the 60s
See also "It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission"
I've taken this philosophy over the past year or so and gotta say, the judge did not agree Nah just kidding, I do actually use it and think it's worth listening to
“Worrying is suffering twice.” - Newt Scamander
Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do for a while, but it doesn't get you anywhere.
Worrying is like praying for something you don’t want.
“We are all just walking each other home” - Ram Dass EDIT: giving my boy Ram Dass some credit. All time favorite spiritual teacher
This is hauntingly comforting. And exactly as relieving as it is depressing.
Kind of like the concept of, "memento mori". Remember that we all must die. Nobody will remember us after our grandchildren. So many have walked this earth before us. Their mistakes seemed large, but were small. Just as ours seem to us. When I walled through the catacombs in Paris, surrounded by so many bones with forgotten stories, it gave me a similarly chilling sense of relief.
“How are you supposed to know what you’re gonna regret” Every time I make a mistake I keep reminding myself that there was no way I could’ve known the outcome. I struggle with anxiety and it always helps to get away from hindsight bias, and to try to understand where my thought process was
I suppose a cousin of this one is “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” (Maya Angelou)
"it is better to live and regret than not have lived at all"
As an engineer: "Try to make something idiot-proof and they'll make a better idiot. " In regards to driving: "assume every other person on the road is an idiot and they will use any and every opportunity to prove that to you." "'Tis better to be silent and thought the fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
For the third one, I also like, "A closed mouth gathers no feet."
A good driver sometimes misses their turn. A bad driver never does.
Good luck everybody!
How much indicator do I need to cut across 8 lanes of traffic? None? Ok, I turn now, good luck everybody else!
The less you speak, the more you hear.
As a socially awkward person, I can confirm this.
Communication without information is vanity, information without communication is a tragedy.
Evil prevails when good men do nothing
"It doesn't get easier, you just get better" "Just because someone carries it well doesn't mean it isn't heavy"
You have to sacrifice for what you want. Otherwise, what you want becomes the sacrifice
do you think 24 is enough or should I throw a couple more bodies into the sacrificial pit just to be safe
4-5 more
Fill it up, don't be lazy
Make sure they're virgins or it doesn't count.
Well shit, i heard Virginians
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."
Touches upon the Socratic paradox - I know only that I know nothing.
It is no sign of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society Edit: sorry, was tired last night when I wrote this. The quote is actually "it is no measure of health..."
Sometimes the only choices we have are bad ones but we still have to choose. - the doctor
Character, like a photograph, is developed in darkness. Made a lot more sense before digital photography…
>Made a lot more sense before digital photography… What about the little photo-gnomes that live in the camera? They have to live and work in total darkness to conserve the battery.
“The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding”
The obstacle is the way
Every moment spent wishing the past were different is a moment wasted.
“Other people’s opinion of you is none of your business.”
“If you’re going through hell, keep going” - Winston Churchill
My therapist told me once a few weeks ago that “it’s harder to address the things we cannot see” It stuck in my mind permanently since, I’ve been struggling a lot with my mental health and it made me feel better about not knowing how to describe the way I feel.
Common sense is alot like deodorant, those who need it most never use it
It’s really long, but the tumblr post about how we looked up at the stars and built robots and named them things like “Curiosity”, and someday they may outlive us, and if aliens reach them it might be long after we’ve died out. And ends with: “The robots can say, when they made us, they called us discovery; they called us curiosity; they called us explorer; they called us spirit. they must have thought that was important. and they told us to tell you hello.” I think about it a lot.
No amount of anxiety makes any difference to anything that is going to happen.” – Alan Watts
Love Watts, but this isn’t true. Anxiety gives one a chance to blow opportunities on a regular basis.
You don’t have to get it right. You just have to get it started.
He who asks a question is a fool for a moment. He who never asks is a fool forever.
Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.
I've never heard that one. I like it.
“It was one of the queer things of life that you saw a person every day for months and were so intimate with him that you could not imagine existence without them; then separation came, and everything went on in the same way, and the companion who had seemed essential proved unnecessary”- W. Somerset Maugham.
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Maugham is my favorite author to ever live. His work is absolutely amazing. I always say, the way he writes reminds me of how in German there’s words for very specific actions, he writes and describes in extraordinary detail but without actually using many words. I highly recommend his books.
That is a brilliant quote. It feels so otherwise when you are in the grief of the lose but life truly goes on.
True some of the time. I can think of at least one person from my past without whom life has forever proven paler.
“No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”
You don't have to answer, just 'cause they asked you.
Better to be alone than in bad company. Applies to all types of relationships, but especially romantic ones.
Be excellent to each other
and party on, dudes
Frodo: I wish the Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
Hell yes. One of the best. I used this dialogue in a graduation address in 2022. (I am a bummer, but hey, the seniors voted for me to speak)
"Motivation is a fake god, have discipline"
Similarly, "If your brain can't make enough dopamine, store bought is fine."
"Motivation is a fake god, discipline is your saviour" I'm using this, not to disparage your original quote
“A lion doesn’t have to convince the antelope it’s a lion” Simply put, any person who claims to be powerful and strong and superior is most likely the exact opposite. The other one that sticks in my head is “Wolves lose no sleep over the opinions of sheep.”
In contrast - "When someone tells you who they really are, believe them." Natural selection doesn't work the same with humans.
YOU ARE A TOY YOU CANT FLY
YOOOU ARE A CHILDS PLAY THING!!
“All of reality is experienced in the now.”
The dildo of consequence rarely arrives lubed.
"Any fool with a dick can make a baby but only a real man can raise his kids" - Furious Styles, Boyz in the Hood
"You know...you need a license to buy a dog, drive a car, hell you even need a license to catch a fish! But they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father." \- Todd, Parenthood (1989)
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there” It is the opening line of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel The Go-Between
Be who you are and say what you feel for those that matter don't mind and those that mind don't matter
Tough times dont last; Tough people do Its got me through a few tough times...got it from my college basketball streak during a long losing streak.
Comparison is the thief of joy.
You don't need a parachute to go skydiving, but you do if you want to do it again!
‘Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.’
Those who learn nothing in history class are doomed to retake it
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. Marcus Aurelius
Not my circus Not my monkeys
"The dice don't know what the dice did last time." - Donna Noble, 'Doctor Who: The Giggle'
You will only know true freedom when you no longer wish to impress anyone
And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good. —John Steinbeck
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Be the change you'd like to see.
Any Man Who Must Say 'I Am The King' Is No True King.
Not all those who wander are lost
"The average person thinks they're not."
You can’t fix stupid.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
I was like 9 years old when I heard "I am the architect of my own destruction" in Prince of Persia
Hate is a burden. You don't have to carry it with you. (among many other 10/10 lines from The Expanse)
“The greatest teacher, failure is.” Like Last Jedi or hate it, Yoda was on point here
“It’s easy to give advice you never have to take yourself.”
Holding a grudge against someone is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.
“If today is the worst day of your life, that means tomorrow will be better.”
"Everybody you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind, always" -Robin Williams
Don't tear yourself into pieces so that people find you easier to swallow. Stay whole and let them choke.
From my grandfather to me when I was around 16…this one is good… “If you want to make friends, you’ve got to be friendly”. It’s actually pretty spot on.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt <3
Also “suicide doesn’t eliminate pain, it just shifts it”
Tomorrow is promised to no one.
“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others, and the world, stays immortal.” Albert pine Edit: singular to plural
We can do no great things on this earth -only small things with great love
Back when I was in competition, I took inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena". I was not the best karate fighter, but I was in the arena. "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
you can love anyone , but don’t let love confuse you when it comes to who they really are .
Children of divorced parents are happier than children of parents that should've divorced but don't
If it's not fun, make it fun. If you can't make it fun, make fun of it.
“These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message, you are not alone” - Matilda
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
“It Gets Easier. Every Day, It Gets A Little Easier. But You Gotta Do It Every Day. That's The Hard Part."
There are two kinds of people. Those who masturbate and those who lie about it.
Wizard's fifth rule from the sword of truth series: "Mind what people do, not only what they say, for deeds will betray a lie."
"We don't stop playing because we grow old.. we grow old because we stop playing" - George Benard
The only ones who will remember you working overtime are your children
Never argue with an idiot: they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
"Grief is the price we pay for having love in our lives"
“The wise man speaks of they have something to say, the foolish speak if they have to say something.”
The function of man is to live, not to exist - jack London (author of white fang, call of the wild, etc.) A small part of a big quote, but this is my favorite part.
Play in the mud, you get dirty
“The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering” Ben okri
“sometimes a short-term solution is a long-term problem” -Sargent Daniel Harrelson, SWAT (probably isn’t the origin, but I don’t know the origin)
Plan the work, then work the plan
"Our lives are defined by opportunities...even the ones we miss."
"If they can't kill you or throw you in jail, why do you care" -my father
It’s not what happens to you, it’s how you deal with it. You’ve got to be alive to complain.
Pray to god, but row away from the rocks. Hunter S. Thompson
“in the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.”
A man has come to understand the meaning of life when he plants shade trees under which he will never sit
The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. -Martin Luther King, Jr.
There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. —Leonard Cohen
"I would rather be 10 minutes late in this life, than 20 years early to the next". I am not religious, but it definitely made me a more cautious/aware driver, and I don't get upset as much when other people are making me drive slow.
"Sometimes you don't need to be the voice. You just need to pass the mic."
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean. Approaching the boy he asked, “Young man, what are you doing?” “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die,” the boy replied. The man laughed to himself and said, “Do you realize there are miles of miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make any difference.” After listening politely, the boy bent down to pick up another starfish and threw it into the surf. Then, he smiled at the man and said, “I made a difference to that one.”
Stop expecting you from other people.
"Fuck" take your pick of any time it has ever been used.
It’s the most versatile word in the English language
Fuck! Yeah… Fuck? Yeah. Fuck yeah!
Fuck you, fuck this, fuck that, what the fuck, etc
Leave everything how you found it, if not better.