Quotes – Page 2

“It poisoned the German people by spreading among all classes the spirit of speculation”

Thanks to @tuurdemeester, a quote from an analysis of the Weimar inflationary depression:

The inflation retarded the crisis for some time, but this broke out later, throwing millions out of employment. At first inflation stimulated production because of the divergence between the internal and external values of the mark, but later it exercised an increasingly disadvantageous influence, disorganizing and limiting production. It annihilated thrift; it made reform of the national budget impossible for years; it obstructed the solution of the Reparations question; it destroyed incalculable moral and intellectual values. It provoked a serious revolution in social classes, a few people accumulating wealth and forming a class of usurpers of national poverty, whilst millions of individuals were thrown into poverty. It was a distressing preoccupation and constant torment of innumerable families; it poisoned the German people by spreading among all classes the spirit of speculation and by diverting them from proper and regular work, and it was the cause of incessant political and moral disturbance. It is indeed easy enough to understand why the record of the sad years 1919-23 always weighs like a nightmare on the German people.

Random inspiring and interesting quotes: “Hate hides behind the most righteous faces.”

Hate hides behind the most righteous faces. – Alice in Hellboy

I’m a fan of the Hellboy franchise and the new Hellboy (2019) was better than I expected. Sometimes an injection of new faces is a great thing, and the new squad (of Hellboy, Alice, and Daimio) has real potential.

Yeshua said, Know what is in front of your face and what is hidden from you will be disclosed. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. – the Gospel of Thomas

Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. – Borges

Borges fire.

When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. . . . Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts. – John Wooden

From this amazing research paper on John Wooden’s coaching style and why it’s so effective. Information, information, information.

Aristocrats and criminals have a lot in common. They’re both selfish, get bored easily, and have access to wads of cash they didn’t have to work honestly to get. The topper — neither have any interest in bourgeois rules or morality. – from the movie Legend

Another thoroughly enjoyable movie. Tom Hardy is great. Two Tom Hardy’s is greater.

There will never be enough comedy. Comedy is at a premium always. – Phyllis Diller

We are alone, absolutely alone on this chance planet; and amid all the forms of life that surround us, not one, excepting the dog, has made an alliance with us. – Maurice Maeterlinck

Recent inspiring quotes: “A wise man seeks the truth for he knows it will always find him.” – Sergey Nazarov

It’s not the will to win that matters—everyone has that. It’s the will to prepare to win that matters. — legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant

Process and habits >> goals. You need both, but you focus on the former.

“Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down,” declares the Lord. – Obadiah 1:4

The power of these words. It’s no wonder they’ve outlasted empires.

Charisma is the ability to project confidence and love at the same time. – Naval

Naval the Twitter mensch.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and 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 us.”

How appropriate in 2020.

All you’d be doing is ending his torment. You cannot punish him more than he punishes himself – Frenchie

I am seen. From the Amazon series, The Boys, recommended viewing for adults.

A wise man seeks the truth for he knows it will always find him. – Sergey Nazarov

Sergey founded Chainlink. Maybe he’s quoting someone, but I can’t find another source.

… there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision … and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory … The first kind of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second to the foxes … – Isaiah Berlin

In these times, I desperately wish to be a hedgehog.

You’re not scared yet are you?
Not yet, but when I am, I shall master the fear.

From the show His Dark Materials, a more family friendly show.

“The works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity”

Thanks to Tanay (@tanayj) for sharing the anecdote below. Because of it, I’ve begun to read Art & Fear (Amazon). The book is inspirational and reads like a softer version of “The War of Art” (which I thoroughly enjoyed and wrote about here).

The ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
— From “Art and Fear”

It also reminds me of this quote:

“Quantity is a quality all its own.”

The source?

Joseph Stalin.

The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

This sentence, the first in the Dao De Jing, is just so…I just like it so much. Lol. So here are five different translations of that one sentence:

The Dao that can be spoken is not the eternal Dao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name.

The Dao that can be understood cannot be the primal, or cosmic, Dao, just as an idea that can be expressed in words cannot be the infinite idea.

There are ways but the Way is uncharted. There are names but not nature in words.

The way that becomes a way is not the Immortal Way; the name that becomes a name is not the Immortal Name

The divine law may be spoken of, but it is not the common law. Things may be named, but names are not the things.

Five different translations, five different flavors.

And here’s the original Mandarin:

道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。