2019 Quotes Flashcards
Card #1
Truth, when not sought after, rarely comes to light. – Oliver Wendell Holmes (REL)
A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence. (REL) – David Hume
All religons have been made by men. (REL) – Napoleon Bonaparte
The great tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. (REL) –Thomas Henry Huxley
Look TWICE before you leap – Chalotte Bronte
If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed. (REL) – Adolf Hitler
A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. – Max Planck
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. – Theodore Roosevelt
_People do not want to believe facts. They would rather have the romance and the lies that make them happy. People end up believing what they need to believe. ___Ref: CR_“An honest liar” The great Randi. –[MN: They do not care if it is fantasy.]
“Billions of people believe in God. You can’t touch that!”
_[MN: “Life isn’t a fairy tale.”__The Rookie]_
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. – Joseph Addison
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning. – Albert Einstein
Man is an animal that makes bargains: no other animal does this - no dog exchanges bones with another. – Adam Smith
There are two kinds of worries – those you can do something about and those you can’t. Don’t spend any time on the latter. – Duke Ellington
You should not decide until you have heard what both have to say. – Aristophanes
The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his own way. – Josh Billings
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. (REL) – VoltaireClearly, whether or not someone believes what the are reporting says nothing about the accuracy of the information. (REL) – Sapiens book
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. (REL) – Voltaire
“If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people” (REL) – House
Neither love, nor hate without end. Confide in your present friends as if they will be your future enemies. – Baltasar Gracian (Don’t trust others with secrets)
Always do what you are afraid to do. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies. – Alexis de Tocqueville
Schizophrenia beats being alone – A sign I saw online
Card #2: A million quotes amplified
“The root of suffering is attachment.” – attributed to Buddha
If we become too attached to something, we set ourselves up to be crushed should we ever lose it, and even if we neever lose it, the fear of losing it can be devastating.
“Wise venturing is the most commendable part of human prudence.” – George Savile
We have to take reasonable risks to live well. We must not demand absolute certainty before making decisions. We must beware of excessively judging our decisions by outcome alone.
“You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.” – Charles Buxton
If we want to be assured of a successful, happier future, we have to develop ourselves now and work toward important goals now, rather than depending on our doing so at some point down the road.
“If you wish to live, you must first attend your own funeral.” – Katherine Mansfield
We would do well to remind ourselves frequently that we are mortal and that our time is quite limited. It is to help us to prioritize well and not be bothered excessively by little things. We should care much less about living a long life and much more about living life well. To a large degree, how long we live is out of our control, How well we live is much more controllable.
“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sustained effort and persistence are much more important than is commonly recognized. With enough determination, enough time, and enough effort, we can accomplish much.
“What I believe is a process rather than a finality.” – Emman Goldman
How strongly we believe or disbelieve something should be closely related to the evidence for or against the thing. Accordingly, we should only let ourselves believe that something is very likely true if we have considerable evidence that it is true. And we should be far from positive about something we have only moderate evidence for. OUR BELIEFS SHOULD BE CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED AS WE GET NEW EVIDENCE.
“A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials.” – Seneca
Failing at something now or in the past does not mean we will fail at it forever.
When anything is upsetting us, we must remember that there is a lesson to be learned, even if the result is simply our coming to better terms with a certain unpleasant truth about the world.
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” –Theodore Roosevelt
With emotional intelligence, we can more easily get others to help us accomplish our goals. Demonstrate to other people that we like them. I mean actually like them by focusing on their best and most likable qualities and on what we can learn from them.
Mastering our emotions must be a top priority for us. Without mastery of emotions, we cannot master emotional intelligence.
Card #3: Quotes amplified
“Something can be both true and untrue at the same time.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
The world is less black and white than most of us see it. We must remember, a statement can be both true and untrue: true in certain circumstances and untrue in others. Rules have times they apply and times they do not. Taken to an extreme, nearly every rule is wrong.
We must not pass on good rules because they have exceptions to them, but we must work to learn the important exceptions. Remember, the wind extinguishes candles and fans fires.
“The human brain has the wonderful power of enabling man to find reasons for continuing to believe whatever it is that he wants to believe.” –Voltaire
“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” – Seneca
Continuous personal growth is an important part of living well, and if we are able to embrace it we will be amazed to find how much we can grow over time.
“Faultless to a fault” – Robert Browning
Attempting to be too perfect in unimportant areas can harm our performance in important areas. Furthermore, insisting on perfection can stop us from trying at all when we believe our actions won’t result in something perfect.
“Is there anyone so wise as to learn by the experience of others?”– Voltaire
We learn the most from our own mistakes, but it is of the utmost importance that we be able to learn from the mistakes that others make.
“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.” –Rene Descartes
For example “patience is a virtue”: but we may not understand that patience is not a virtue when it allows us to simply wait for something great to occur when we need to work to make it happen!
{MN: Strike while the iron is hot!”]
We must recognize that we and others will make endless errors even if earnestly seeking the truth. We must accept that we will make many errors. We must also pardon these errors. We should use rationalization to allow ourselves to move on and not be bothered endlessly by mistakes we made in the past.
[MN: After I lied to Skip to get him off my back on inherent defects, it haunted me badly. So badly I almost called him to explain.
After I lied to get him off my back, he said he was really disappointed in me. I need to realize nobody is perfect, and I should not let regrets from my past bother me as I move on.]
“Because a human being is so malleable, whatever one cultivates is what one becomes.” – Lao Tzu
If we focus on something, practice it and keep trying to improve it, we almost always can–often much more than we imagined we could when we began the process. [MN: Golf, Vocabulary, Wisdom.]
“With self-descipline most anything is possible” – Theodore Roosevelt
We must work to appreciate the benefits of being disciplined and not giving in to the tempting distractions around us.
If we are moving in the right direction, breakthroughs will eventually come.
“People leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation. Like they expect them to “KEEP” growing by the roadside with the force of inertia .” – William James [my paraphrasing]
Relationships take work. We cannot show our love, our appreciation, and how much we care at one point and believe this continues indefinitely without further demonstration. Good relationships can become easier, but we should never believe that they will become effortless.
“He who does not trust enough will not be trusted.” – Lao Tzu
Excessive distrust of others lowers our quality of life. If we show our distrust of someone to them, we can bring out their bad side. If we show them some trust, at least for matters of smaller importance, we can cause them to become better as they try to live up to our expectations of them.
Card #4: Quotes amplified
“The laws of circumstance are abolished by new circumstances.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
Just because something has never happened before does not mean that it cannot happen. [MN: For example my wanting a large window of time to arrive at the airport very early. “Anything can happen’.” Sinkhole, accident, flat tire]
“There is a way to do it better–find it.” – Thomas Edison
Better tools and methods can result in nonlinear improvements, potentially bringing tremendously more output for relatively little input. [MN: Such as a better golf swing that makes my short irons go straight. YEAH!]
“A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.” – Arthur Schopenhauer
A good strategy is removing unproductive activities so that we can focus more on the important ones.
“Rise above the little things.” – John Burroughs
If we allow little things, a long checkout line; a restaurant out of a menu item; etc. to bother us, our moods will constantly be taking a turn for the worse, as life is completely packed with potential small annoyances and irritations..
“Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though it were his own.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” – Ben Franklin
Many negative situations are easier to prevent than to overcome. [MN: “You can use an eraser on the drawing board or a sledge hammer at the construction site.” – Frank Lloyd Wright]
“Gain should never be regarded highly which leadeth to loss.” – The Mahabharata
We must recognize that it is not worth fighting every battle that we could win. [MN: Like winning an argument with my wife.]
We must be aware of pyrrhic victories–victories whose gains are not worth it because they come at too high of a cost.
{MN: “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy.” – Dr. Phil]
“Pride, the never failing vice of fools.” – Alexander PopeThere are times when we should be nearly certain we are right, but we have to be careful about adopting such a position without enough consideration to determine that this truly makes sense. We must do as Baltasar Cracian advised and “Never do something out of stubborness, only out of attentive reflections.”
Card #5: Quotes amplified
“It is a bad plan that admits of no modification” – Publilius Syrus
We must create plans to reach our goals. Without plans, we only have dreams. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” We must plan intelligently. We must understand that our plans should not depend on everything going according to plan. We must have contingency plans. We must be flexible enough to not let overly strict adherence to our plan interfere with reaching our goal.
[MN: Sometimes we have to move the goal post to give us the greatest degree of happiness.]
“Patience is the companion of wisdom.” – Saint Augustine
We cannot just wait for great things to happen; we have to make them happen.“Judge each day not by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” – Often attributed to Bob Marley
Good people are not good in every way and will make mistakes. They can and will hurt us at times.
[MN: Instead of losing your head and destroying a relationship (friend or lover) we must consider are they worth it OVERALL. All things considered.
I remember Marlo Thomas saying the best strategy to keep a marriage together is that “You don’t both go crazy at the same time!”]
“The aim of an argument should not be victory, but progress.” – Joseph Joubert
Although it can be difficult accepting parts of arguments we mostly oppose can lead us to much greater understanding.
“To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” – Plutarch
We should focus on finding better ways to do things and complain less about the way they are done now.
“If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it. – Epictetus
When we are criticized accurately, even if it is done poorly or meanly, we should not miss the opportunity to learn from it and improve.
We should make it easier for others to correct their own faults by criticizing them in kinder more effective ways.
Card #6: Quotes amplified
Start p. 87. Pascal
“Only a fool thinks they can solve the world’s problems.” – Fargo
“Religion is a self induced phobia.”
“Facebook is ego surfing”
Law of ignorance. “Perception always trumps the facts of reality.”
