Like a man with diarrhea in a sandpaper factory, sometimes all alternatives are less than ideal.

There’s no difference between being a gracious loser and being resilient. They’re the same thing.

Loneliness is the tax we have to pay to atone for a certain complexity of mind.

Addiction is just dedication spelled wrong.

Friendly fire isn’t.

Of all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these — “It might have been.”

Code implementation? That comes at the very end. Usually done by one person.

Don’t solve tomorrow’s problems because you don’t know what they are.

Through action, a man becomes a hero.
Through death, a hero becomes a legend.
Through time, a legend becomes a myth.
Through hearing a myth, a man takes action.

I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life – to put to rout all that was not life – and not – when I had come to die, discover that I had not lived.

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.

Be careful who you start dating. A lot of people ain’t looking for love, they’re looking for help.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our happiness.

The human brain prefers things that are comfortable over things that are good.

In an age of abundance, the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake leads to addiction.

I wish I knew no astronomy when stars appear.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with the song still in them.

Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.

I learned that geeks think they are rational beings, while they are completely influenced by buzz, marketing, and their emotions. Even more so than the average person, because they believe they are less susceptible to it than normies, so they have a blind spot.

Eat the fish, spit the bones.

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

Not destroying the means of error correction is the heart of morality.

The only real test of intelligence is if you get what you want out of life.

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal.

Entrepreneur’s mind. Athlete’s body. Artist’s soul.

If at first you don’t succeed, reduce your expectations until you’re a success.

There are few things as nauseating as pure obedience.

I hate who steals my solitude without, in exchange, offering me true company.

Mystery is the best invitation.

An ideology of extreme personal freedom can be dangerous because it encourages people to leave homes, jobs, cities, and marriages in search of personal and professional fulfillment, thereby breaking the relationships that were probably their best hope for such fulfillment.

The body should be treated rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind.

An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.

A sick society must think much about politics, as a sick man must think much about his digestion; to ignore the subject may be fatal cowardice for one as for the other.

But if either comes to regard it as the natural food of the mind – if either forgets that we think of such things only in order to be able to think of something else – then what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease.

Men are playing Elden Ring; women are playing Mario Kart 3.

Nature uses only the longest threads to weave her patterns, so that each piece of her fabric reveals the organization of the entire tapestry.

Also, as I said before, just because a subject happens to have some mundane practical use does not mean that we have to make that use the focus of our teaching and learning. It may be true that you have to be able to read in order to fill out forms at the DMV, but that’s not why we teach children to read. We teach them to read for the higher purpose of allowing them access to beautiful and meaningful ideas. Not only would it be cruel to teach reading in such a way — to force third graders to fill out purchase orders and tax forms — it wouldn’t work! We learn things because they interest us now, not because they might be useful later. But this is exactly what we are asking children to do with math.

Conflation of politeness, niceness, and kindness:

1. Politeness is how you communicate.
2. Niceness is not making people feel bad.
3. Kindness is making other people’s lives better.

All three are good ideals to strive for, but all three are also contextual. They also conflict with each other. The best constructive criticism is polite and kind but not nice. Social white lies are polite and nice but not kind. Certain speech patterns are kind and nice but not very polite.

Assholery is like a scalpel. It has its uses, but you should be as precise as possible and then put it away.

Arguing with idiots is like playing chess with a pigeon. You’ll beat the pigeon every time but that won’t stop it from shitting all over the board and strutting around like it won anyways.

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.

The Programmer’s Credo: we do these things not because they are easy, but because we thought they were going to be easy.

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

Plato never intended us to live in his cave. It’s making us sick!

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.

The arrow doesn’t seek the target. The target draws the arrow.

Been meaning to do that for two years; ten minute job. Awesome!

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

You are separated from your goals by a number of actions. Not years.

Conservative early; liberal late.
Create structure so you can have freedom.
Create your weather so you can blow in the wind.
Map your direction so you can swerve in the lanes.
Clean up so you can get dirty.
Choreograph then dance.
Learn to read and write before you start making up words.
Check if the pool has water in it before you dive in.
Learn to sail before you fly.
Initiations before inaugurations.
Earn your Saturdays.
Creativity needs borders.

The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart - and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us it oscillates with the years ... I have come to understand the truth of all the religions on the world. They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person. And since that time I have come to understand the falsehood of all the revolutions of history: they destroy only those carriers of evil contemporary with them (and also fail, out of haste, to discriminate the carriers of good as well). And they take to themselves as their heritage the actual evil itself, magnified still more.

People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.

If someone is going down the wrong road, he doesn't need motivation to speed him up. What he needs is education to turn him around.

No one is coming. It's up to us.

What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man. There is nothing progressive about being pig-headed and refusing to admit a mistake. And I think if you look at the present state of the world it's pretty plain that humanity has been making some big mistake. We're on the wrong road. And if that is so we must go back. Going back is the quickest way on.

Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.

When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment; I told them they didn't understand life.

We've bought into the idea that education is about training and "success", defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.

Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby.

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

God doesn't want something from us. He simply wants us.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.

You must be the change you wish to see in the world.

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail.

We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.

Try a thing you haven't done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily.

Just the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.

If the lessons of history teach us anything it is that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I'm beginning to believe it.

Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else's can shorten it.

The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking.

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

I'd rather live with a good question than a bad answer.

We learn something every day, and lots of times it's that what we learned the day before was wrong.

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it.

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.

Eighty percent of success is showing up.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.

If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.

There is a great difference between worry and concern. A worried person sees a problem, and a concerned person solves a problem.

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

I hear: I forget
I see: I remember
I do: I understand

Discipline is just choosing between what you want now and what you want most.

The very best thing you can do for the whole world is to make the most of yourself.

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.

The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.

Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.

Honest criticism is hard to take, particularly from a relative, a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger.

Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.

The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular.

Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

A conclusion is the place where you got tired thinking.

A seed, in order to grow, must be dropped in dirt, covered in darkness, and struggle to reach the light.

Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.

The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action.

Try not. Just do or do not.

Every time you see them happy you remember how sad they're going to be and it breaks your heart. Because what's the point in them being happy now if they're going to be sad later? The answer is, of course, because they're going to be sad later.

The night is darkest just before the dawn. And I promise you, the dawn is coming.

If con is the opposite of pro, does that mean that congress is the opposite of progress?

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.

The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in places no one has ever been before.

I believe in Christ like I believe in the sun - not because I can see it but by it I can see everything else.

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which... you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization - these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.

Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding a deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only love can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Before you go and criticize the younger generation, just remember who raised them.

No man [or woman], however brilliant or well-informed, can... safely... dismiss... the wisdom of [lessons learned] in the laboratory of history. A youth boiling with hormones will wonder why he should not give full freedom to his sexual desires; [but] if he is unchecked by custom, morals, or laws, he may ruin his life before he... understand[s] that sex is a river of fire that must be banked and cooled by a hundred restraints if it is not to consume in chaos both the individual and the group.

That which is wrong under one circumstance, may be, and often is, right under another. God said, 'Thou shalt not kill'; at another time He said, 'Thou shalt utterly destroy.' This is the principle on which the government of heaven is conducted-by revelation adapted to the circumstances in which the children of the kingdom are placed. Whatever God requires is right, no matter what it is, although we may not see the reason thereof till long after the events transpire.

The standard of truth has been erected: no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.

You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.

Tell me sufficiently why a thing should be done, and I will move heaven and earth to do it.

Work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt, and dance like no one's watching.

With increased vision can come increased motivation.

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

There are many qualities you will want to look for in a friend or a serious date to say nothing of a spouse and eternal companion but surely among the very first and most basic of those qualities will be those of care and sensitivity toward others, a minimum of self-centeredness that allows compassion and courtesy to be evident… There are lots of limitations in all of us that we hope our sweethearts will overlook. I suppose no one is as handsome or as beautiful as he or she wishes, or as brilliant in school or as witty in speech or as wealthy as we would like, but in a world of varied talents and fortunes that we can’t always command, I think that makes even more attractive the qualities we can command such qualities as thoughtfulness, patience, a kind word, and true delight in the accomplishment of another. These cost us nothing, and they can mean everything to the one who receives them.

I am under no illusion that [eternal life] can be achieved by our own efforts alone without His very substantial and constant help. We know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do. And we do not need to achieve some minimum level of capacity or goodness before God will helpdivine aid can be ours every hour of every day, no matter where we are in the path of obedience. But I know that beyond desiring His help, we must exert ourselves, repent, and choose God for Him to be able to act in our lives consistent with justice and moral agency. My plea is simply to take responsibility and go to work so that there is something for God to help us with.

We engage in the election the same as in any other principle; you are to vote for good men, and if you do not do this it is a sin; to vote for wicked men, it would be sin. Choose the good and refuse the evil. Men of false principles have preyed upon us like wolves upon helpless lambs. Damn the rod of tyranny; curse it. Let every man use his liberties according to the constitution. Dont fear man or devil; electioneer with all people, male and female, and exhort them to do the thing that is right. We want a President of the U.S., not a Party president, but a President of the whole people; for a Party president disfranchises the opposite party. Have a President who will maintain every man in his rights.

But it is not being an apostle or even the President of the Church that saves and exalts a man. It is instead the receipt of the Holy Priesthood, conformity to the ordinances of the house of the Lord, and keeping the commandments of God. It is not position or place in the Church that guarantees an eternal reward but rather walking in obedience to the commandments and living by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God.

My biggest regret: waiting for the right moment for everything to be perfect to take action, instead of just taking actions and making moments right.