Quotation Collection

The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that man may become robots. Erich Fromm

• slavery

I'm not entitled to have an opinion unless I can state the arguments against my position better than the people who are in opposition. I think that I am qualified to speak only when I've reached that state. Charlie Munger

• argument

Thinking that what's good for you is good for the wider civilization, and rationalizing foolish or evil conduct, based on your subconscious tendency to serve yourself, is a terrible way to think. Charlie Munger

• greed
• honor
• fairness

If you don't allow for self-serving bias in the conduct of others, you are, again, a fool. Charlie Munger

• greed

Avoid working directly under somebody you don't admire and don't want to be like. Charlie Munger

• job

Intense interest in any subject is indispensable if you're really going to excel in it. Charlie Munger

• focus
• enthusiasm

Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee. Epictetus

• passion

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. Epictetus

• desire
• gratitude

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. Epictetus

• desire
• wealth
• contentment

Of what use is a philosopher who never offends anybody? Diogenes

• philosophy

Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives. Charlie Munger

• greed
• desire

Fixable but unfixed bad performance is bad character and tends to create more of itself, causing more damage to the excuse giver with each tolerated instance. Charlie Munger

• excuses
• discipline
• character

Everybody engaged in complex work needs colleagues. Just the discipline of having to put your thoughts in order with somebody else is a very useful thing. Charlie Munger

• teamwork
• associates

The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason. Blaise Pascal

• reason
• intellect

Self-preservation and self-development are common aspirations among all people. And if everyone enjoyed the unrestricted use of his faculties and the free disposition of the fruits of his labor, social progress would be ceaseless, uninterrupted, and unfailing. But there is also another tendency that is common among people. When they can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others. This is no rash accusation. Nor does it come from a gloomy and uncharitable spirit. The annals of history bear witness to the truth of it: the incessant wars, mass migrations, religious persecutions, universal slavery, dishonesty in commerce, and monopolies. This fatal desire has its origin in the very nature of man - in that primitive, universal, and insuppressible instinct that impels him to satisfy his desires with the least possible pain. Frederic Bastiat

• greed

Officially the purpose of schools is to teach kids. In fact their primary purpose is to keep kids locked up in one place for a big chunk of the day so adults can get things done. Paul Graham

• education

This is the source.

You only get one life. You might as well spend it working on something great. Paul Graham

• purpose

This is the source.

Integrity is not complicated. If it seems to be, you probably do not belong on our team. David Sokol

• integrity

Keep thy hook always baited, for a fish lurks even in the most unlikely swim. Ovid

• opportunity

Training yourself to think unthinkable thoughts has advantages beyond the thoughts themselves. It's like stretching. When you stretch before running, you put your body into positions much more extreme than any it will assume during the run. If you can think things so outside the box that they'd make people's hair stand on end, you'll have no trouble with the small trips outside the box that people call innovative. Paul Graham

• creativity
• thought
• innovation

This is the source.

If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it. You don't need to say that it's heretical. And if it isn't false, it shouldn't be suppressed. So when you see statements being attacked as x-ist or y-ic (substitute your current values of x and y), whether in 1630 or 2030, that's a sure sign that something is wrong. When you hear such labels being used, ask why. Paul Graham

• truth
• free speech

This is the source.

Someone graduating from college thinks, and is told, that he needs to get a job, as if the important thing were becoming a member of an institution. A more direct way to put it would be: you need to start doing something people want. You don't need to join a company to do that. All a company is is a group of people working together to do something people want. It's doing something people want that matters, not joining the group. Paul Graham

• work
• service
• job

This is the source.

Good design resembles nature. Paul Graham

• beauty

This is the source.

What is to give light must endure burning. Viktor Frankl

• pain
• sacrifice

There are few things worse than close supervision by someone who doesn't understand what you're doing. Paul Graham

• management

The truth is the kindest thing we can give folks in the end. Harriet Beecher Stowe

• truth

We sometimes meet an original gentleman, who, if manners had not existed, would have invented them. Ralph Waldo Emerson

• manners

I like a man who grins when he fights. Sir Winston Churchill

• fun

Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfills the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things. Sir Winston Churchill

• leadership
• criticism
• management

We are like violins. We can be used for doorstops, or we can make music. Barbara Sher

• purpose
• creativity

To be governed is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so. To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be place(d) under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harassed, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored. Pierre Proudhon

• government

A mixed economy is a mixture of freedom and controls — with no principles, rules, or theories to define either. Since the introduction of controls necessitates and leads to further controls, it is an unstable, explosive mixture which, ultimately, has to repeal the controls or collapse into dictatorship. A mixed economy has no principles to define its policies, its goals, its laws — no principles to limit the power of its government. The only principle of a mixed economy — which, necessarily, has to remain unnamed and unacknowledged — is that no one’s interests are safe, everyone’s interests are on a public auction block, and anything goes for anyone who can get away with it. Such a system — or, more precisely, anti-system - breaks up a country into an ever-growing number of enemy camps, into economic groups fighting one another for self preservation in an indeterminate mixture of defense and offense, as the nature of such a jungle demands. Ayn Rand

• free enterprise
• economics
• freedom

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. Mark Twain

• thought

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. Bertrand Russell

• doubt