Quotation Collection

It is fine to be ignorant of a great many things; nobody has time to understand more than a few things deeply. But in those numerous topics on which we are not experts, we are nevertheless tempted to construct a coherent-seeming but illusory image of reality, and believe it with undue certainty. We are far too sure of ourselves when we have not earned it. Overcertainty is an anchor, undue inertia, dragging feet, when we should really be leaves on the winds of evidence. Xan

• faith
• ignorance
• confidence
• science

If we expected self-reliance of family groups, if we expected hardiness and resilience and initiative on the part of individuals, and if we rewarded initiative instead of dependence on government, we would not only ameliorate many of the family-related social problems we see at present, but we would also reduce our vulnerability to terrorism. People who are hardy, resilient, and self reliant are a lot harder to terrorize. Bernard Levin

• self reliance

The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score. Bill Copeland

• goals

It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better. John Ruskin

• value
• business

By the democratic principles we espouse, government cannot have a right that citizens do not grant it. There are certain things that a person has no right to do. A person has no right to murder or rape another. Therefore, people cannot grant government authority to murder and rape. Similarly, no person has the right to forcibly take the property of one person in order to give it to another. Therefore, people cannot grant government authority to do the same thing. If I forcibly took property from one person, for any reason, most people would condemn it as theft, an immoral act. Theft or any other immoral act does not become moral because it is done by government acting on behalf of a consensus or majority vote just as murder or rape does not become a moral act simply because of a consensus or majority vote. Walter E. Williams

• government
• justice
• rights

I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. Thomas Jefferson

• tyranny

You will never escape the will of the mob. About the best anyone has ever figured out to do is herd them into voting booths. Barry Shein

• politics

The most important factor in the training of good mental habits consists in acquiring the attitude of suspended conclusion, and in mastering the various methods of searching for new materials to corroborate or to refute the first suggestions that occur. John Dewey

• thought
• education
• science

You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here... I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn't frighten me. Richard Feynman

• doubt

The natural progress of things is for government to gain ground and for liberty to yield. Thomas Jefferson

• government
• liberty

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. Thomas Jefferson

• tyranny

Capitalism is relatively new in human history. Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering, and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man. Walter E. Williams

• capitalism

The way to succeed is to identify your strengths and weaknesses, then seek goals that fit those strengths and weaknesses using tactics and strategies that take advantage of your strengths and sidestep your weaknesses. John T. Reed

• success

This is the source.

Pursuit of money, fame, and status generally does not produce a bumper crop of friends and friendly relatives in old age. Indeed, those goals are selfish and selfishness is not a way to make friends. Furthermore, money, fame, and status tend to attract false friends which may get in the way of your acquiring real ones. John T. Reed

• friends
• family
• fame

This is the source.

One of the things you should consider when you hear discouragement is whether the discouragers have accomplished that which they are trying to discourage you from trying. John T. Reed

• criticism

Probably the most common change that people who want to succeed need to make is getting rid of the incorrect career choice they made when they were naive, ignorant high school and college age kids. John T. Reed

• occupation
• job

This is the source.

The only way to go through your life without pissing anyone off is to do great harm to your own freedom and to never get to what's best for you. John T. Reed

• anger
• tact
• manners

This is the source.

You should change your goals whenever you get significant new information about yourself or your goal that changes the fundamental reason that you chose the goal to begin with. John T. Reed

• goals
• persistence

This is the source.

The point is that there are times when new information warrants a goal change. The other point is that you cannot change your goals to easier goals every time the going gets tough because it got tough. Persistence is one of the most important qualities necessary for success. But persistence only applies to pursuit of the right goal for you. John T. Reed

• goals
• persistence

This is the source.

In small organizations, your true abilities regarding producing or selling the organization's product or service tend to be most important. In large organizations, your bureaucrat/office-politics skills are paramount because there is little individual responsibility for results within the organization. It's too hard to tell who gets credit or blame, so office politics wins out. John T. Reed

• job

This is the source.