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Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
Steve Jobs, 1955-2011 -
souffrance
La souffrance soulage la culpabilité, aussi la douleur qui apporte la vie dans le monde est-elle inconsciemment doublement enviable pour l’homme.
Joan Riviere et Melanie Kein, L’amour et la haine, Payot, 2001, Paris, Traduit de l’anglais par Annette Stronck, Titre Original : Love, Hate and Reparation, P.58.
Posted on July 23, 2010 via A4rizm
Source: a4rizm
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It is impossible to study patterned data without some theory, however primitive. The advantage of a robust and popular theory is that it is well tried against previous evidence and offers a quick route to sophisticated observation and insight. The main disadvantage is that, by prioritizing some patterns, it obscures others.
John Benjamins -
Only collect life. Always collect. Impressions, knowledge, what I have read, what I have seen, everything. And don’t ask what for and why. Whether it will become a book, or memoirs, or nothing, whether it will stick in my memory or spoil like a bad photographic plate. Don’t ask, just collect.
Victor Klemperer (German Diarist), Leben sammeln, nicht fragen wieso und warum -
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Robert Anson Heinlein -
If unselfish love does not extend over the whole of mankind, if it is confined within one group— a given family, tribe, nation, race, religious denomination, political party, trade union, caste, social class or any part of humanity— such in-group altruism tends to generate an out-group antagonism. And the more intense and exclusive the in-group solidarity of its member, the more unavoidable are the clashes between the group and the rest of humanity. Herein lies the tragedy of tribal altruism not extended over the whole of mankind. An exclusive love of ones own group makes its members indifferent or even aggressive towards other groups and outsiders.
The Ways and Power of Love, Pg. 459 by Pitirim A. Sorokin (Sociologist) -
Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.
Henrik Tikkanen
Autodidact: n. A self-taught person.
[From Greek autodidaktos, auto: self + didaktos: taught; see didactic.]
